Fiesta De Cumpleaños

While we were at Chíllán, September 11, Richard suffered his actual birthday with Susan, Henry, Joni, Martin and Caco. So by the time we got back to Pucón, the shock of turning sixty had passed and he was ready to start celebrating the entry into his seventh decade. A subset of twenty-five local friends had been invited to the Hotel Antumalal for an evening of food and good cheer in the Araucaria paneled dining room of the hotel.

After watching the sunset over Lake Villarica by the roaring fire in the hotel lounge during cocktails and appetizers, Richard ushered his friends into the dining room for a welcoming toast. The bar was open for the evening and Chef Juan Columbo had prepared a huge serving of his signature seafood paella for the guests. Once everyone filled their plates and found a seat at the common table, the conversations flowed on a current of fine drinks and good food.

Chef Juan Columbo

Anthony Riggs

and Paulina Fredes

Claudio Gibian

Angela Gibian

Monica Leeds

Robert Leeds

Evelyn and

Dr. Joe Jarosinski

Sergio Ayala

and Paulina Pinto

Paulina Fredes and

Carolina Farfan Cortes

(somehow missed a

photo of David Owen)

Bobbee Rudd

Ben May

Dennis Vinere

and Cyndi Sidore

Deanna Sverdlov

and Cristian Levy

Henry with

Suzy Wortman

Javier and Cesar

Ayala

Heidi Hillis and Joni and Martin Plaehn look on while Richard thanks his friends, old and new.

Make a Big Wish!

Sergio Ayala and Paulina Pinto led a rousing rendition of "Cumpleaños Feliz."

Cumpleaños Feliz,
Te deseamos a ti,
Qué los cumplas en tu día,
Qué los complas feliz.

Susan and Richard looking at the many gifts which included books, wine, including a jereboam in a wooden box decorated with a map of Chile, tasty delicacies, kayak trips, framed photos and an beautiful alpaca poncho.

Finally, we retired to the bar for a nightcap or a fine brandy from the hotel's collection.

Ian Garcia

Macarena Ayala

Joni Plaehn

Sergio Ayala

Henry was ready for bed.

Los Nevados De Chíllán

A severe late-season storm over the weekend had deposited as much as a foot of fresh powder over Volcán Chíllán's double summit, but now it was Thursday and the winter sun to the north had had three clear days to beat down on the south facing slopes.

Utah skiers love fresh powder and we wondered what would be left for us. Of course, in the Southern Hemisphere, south facing slopes are protected from the sun in the same way north-facing slopes are protected in the Northern Hemisphere. Three days after a storm in Utah there wouldn't be much untracked left for sincere powder hounds like us, but we needn't have worried. In Chile, the slopes aren't as congested as they are at home, especially during the week. And until the sun begins to soften the overnight frost, most skiers like us stick to the groomed corduroy, so there really hadn't been that many people exploring the vast slopes above treeline.

After a big breakfast, each day started on the modern detachable quad chairlift that took us from in front of our hotel up to the main day lodge and the ski school at the upper thermal springs.

Henry and Caco would immediately go their own way, looking for rollers, ridges and terrain features to video each other jumping over. Caco rode his snowboard while Henry skied his twintips and they both tried to catch big air.

This is Joni at the lodge where we would get our lunch of grilled beef brochettes with spicy fresh salsas, french bread and cold beer.

Above the plaza, three old and slow double chairs and three tired old poma lifts serve the top of the mountain.

Sunscreen was essential under the clear blue skies.

We passed active steam vents on the volcano slopes across from the chairlift. Volcán Chíllán is one of Chile's most active volcanos, with the newer of the two summits created between 1906 and 1937. For a pyrotechnical review follow this link.

We pass over a few glades of trees on the way up, but most of the skiing is above treeline.

At the top of the lift you can see the two summits of Volcán Chíllán (3122m). The one the left is Viejo and the one on the right is Nuevo. Snow doesn't stick very long on Nuevo whose black cone is warmed by thermal activity.

Here's Joni making some nice turns in the leftovers from the last storm.

And this is Susan. We just followed the sun through the day and found plenty to ski as each aspect was revealed to us.

Here we are posing in front of the resort map.

(Click the image to see a bigger version.)

This is the view from the top looking south to Cerro Negro(2285m), on the right, with the Volcán Antuco in the distance on the left.

Volcán Antuco (2985m)

Saturday afternoon we headed with our guests down to Pucón. Along the way we stopped for a look at the Malleco Viaduct crossing the gorge of the Rio Malleco. This bridge effectively united northern and southern Chile for much of the early twentieth century. Constructed in 1890, it was for a time the highest of its kind in the world and is mentioned in the Pablo Neruda poem, Trains*. The bridge was declared a Chilean National Monument in 1990.

(*see our post of August 21)

A Meeting In The Middle

Chile is among the most geographically diverse countries in the world, encompassing regions of lakes and volcanoes, island archipelagos, snowcapped Andean peaks and glaciers, barren desert, ancient temperate rain forests and endless beaches. Chile is 2700 miles long but only 250 miles wide at its widest point. Its average width is only 110 miles inland from the southwest coast of South America. Yet at 292,257 sq. miles, Chile is about the size of California, Oregon and half of Washington State combined. If you laid Chile out over the United States, it would stretch from Maine to California.

Up to now, we have confined our visit to just three of Chile's 15 regions:

IX: Region De La Araucania - around Pucón and Temuco

XIV: Region De Los Rios - around Valdivia

X: Region De Los Lagos - around Puerto Montt and Chiloe

Now it was our plan to venture north into Region VIII, the Region Del Bío Bío. Two friends from Utah, Martin and Joni Plaehn had arrived in Santiago and were travelling south to meet us halfway at the town of Chíllán. We planned to drive up together to the ski center at Volcán Chíllán east of the town. In addition, Henry had invited a friend from Pucón, Tomas Schmeisser, to take time off from school and join us for a few days on the slopes.

It's a four hour drive up the Pan American Highway to Chíllán. Along the way we stopped to stretch our legs at the Salto Del Laja , near where Route 5 crosses the Rio Laja.

Laja Falls

About 1:00PM we arrived in Chíllán, the birthplace of Chile's founding father and its first Supreme Director after independence, Bernardo O'Higgins . Just about every town of any size in Chile has a street named "O'Higgins" after this general, who in 1817, with the help of Jose de San Martin, wrested the independent Chilean state from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence.

On the way into Chíllán is a park dedicated to its famous son at the site of his home there. All that is left today is the entry gate and a low wall, the casa itself long gone.

Near the gate is a large plaza with a lifesize stone mosaic diorama displaying the iconic view of O'Higgins astride his rearing horse.

We arrived at the Santa Teresa bus station in plenty of time to meet the bus from Santiago with Martin and Joni Plaehn. They had actually boarded and found their reserved seats on the scheduled Chíllán-bound train that morning, when it was unexpectedly cancelled. We heard the tale how they had to drag their skis and luggage from the train station many blocks to the bus depot, buy new tickets and find the correct bus. Fortunately a couple of Chileans from the train had to make the same trek and spoke enough English to help them make the connection.

We introduced the Plaehns to Tomas and our driver, loaded their gear into the van, and took a quick tour around town.

One unusual attraction we wanted to see was the school donated to Chíllán by Mexico after the 1939 earthquake. We had heard it contains some splendid murals painted by Mexican painters David Alfaro Siquieros and Xavier Guerrero , both communists, and Guerrero for two years an assistant to Diego Garcia.

Unfortunately, the murals were being restored for the Bicentennial Celebration next year, and we could only see the ceiling at the entryway, part of which is shown above.

Next we visited Chíllán's unusual cathedral, built to replace the one destroyed in the 1939 earthquake.

The new cathedral was built to withstand the next earthquake. At the moment of our visit, the sun shone directly through the glass arches to bask the altar in a dazzling glow of light.

As the winter afternoon shadows grew longer, we left the town of Chíllán behind and made our way east up the highway toward Nevados de Volcán Chíllán and our hotel at the ski area's hot springs, Hotel Termas de Chíllán, a very nice place to relax after a long journey.