Faces from Chile and Argentina.

Buenos Aires.

After a relatively short flight we arrived in Buenos Aires, a huge metropolis with 14 million people with surroundings and 48 administrative districts. Some showing the influence from immigrants as Palermo, Pompeya, Lugano. According to Wikipedia almost every Europeen country have immigrants in Buenos Aires.
Big cities are not my favourite, but BA had some places with a certain atmosphere.

We visited an old part of the town, and one thing was very obvious, the Argentinins are not afraid of using strong colours.

Since tango is a bg thing there were people offering to take pictures of me in tango poses with a properly dressed woman, and of course I did just that.

Other landmarks in Buenos Aires is a memorial over Evita Peron and

-a steel tulip, and-

• a spectacular bridge

 

Victoria Island.

Victoria Island is in a lake in the Lake District with an Indian name: Nahuel Huapi. The island is a National Park and the public can only visit a small part. The rest is only open to the forest rangers.

The island was owned by a noblewoman from Buenos Aires, and she wanted it as a hunting area. So she introduced new animals and trees. But my guess is that the travel from Buenos Aires was long and time-consuming, so I am not sure  how much hunting had taken place.

We went around the middle part of the island, and here are some pictures.

Some trees were definitely planted.

We had a picnick-lunch on the beach, but we were not alone.{e

Campanorio.

Not far from Bariloche is the rather small mountain of Campanorio. but National Geographic has listed it as one of the best view point in the world. And the view was great 360 degrees. Both mountains and lakes were clearly visible.

I was able to take a picture I like, great nature and a good-looking girl.

 

Bariloche.

The name , Bariloche, comes from an India name that means people behind the mountain. That also told me that the connection to Chile has been important. That can be illustrated by the travelling time before roads and cars was 3 days to a Chilian port and 30 days to a port at the Atlantic ocean.

The town is a tourist center both at summer and winter. Skiing in winter and trekking and mountaineering in the summer. A special thing was the large amount of chocolate shops, to me it seemed that every third shop sold chocolate.

The town is on a hillside facing a lake. This is across the city square with the Andes i the background.

Around the city square were some of the oldest buildings in town for the adminstration, police, church etc.

Some locals were dressed in traditional costumes on the city square.

Dalcahue-Chiloe island.

The suffix hue means place of, so Dalchue means The place of Dalca, and a dalcas is a type of canoe.

It was a charming little town and we stopped there for lunch. Our guide had planned that we should see the church, but the local guide had decided to take a day off, but we saw the outside of the church.

Local markets are important for these towns and were normally very well organized, and the market in Dalcahue was no exception.

Dalcahue is located on the east coast of Chiloe island and is basically a fishing community. But a sideeffect from that is a great view of the Andes.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and that was not very remarkable. But at the next table sat this girl, so I took some pictures of her.

The mermaid was also present in Dalcahue.

The town of Castro.

Castro is a town on the east coast of the island of Chiloe. It is an old town founded in 1567. We walked through the city center around a park where the church dominated. It is a UNESCO’s list of cultural heritage.

The city has been destroyed sseveral times by earthquakes and tsunamis.

Many of the town people were clearly of Indian origin.

People in Ancud.

We took the ferry from the mainland to the island of Chiloè, a rather big island with several towns and salmon production.

We stopped at the town of Ancud. It has ruins after a Spanish fort and a nice little museum, but I found taking pictures of people to be more interesting. In a park I found two handicraft people producing souvenirs. First a wood-carver.

Then a woman making small pendants.

We also visited the local market where the main merchanice was vegetables, fish and shellfish and some handicrafts. In the middle sat an old lady selling vegetables.

A group of women was cleaning a booth, so I guess they would move in with a shop afterwards. A lot of laughter made the work easier, it seemed like, but they did not mind to take a break for me to take a picture of them.

Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas.

A relatively short flight southwards brought us to the city of Puerto Montt in the Lake District. On the seats in front of me was a mother and her baby. The baby was a few months old and was very interested in me. But mom was the most important person.

Our hotel was in Puerto Varas where also our guide Ingrid lived. We did not spend much time in these towns, they were starting points for excursions. But the sunrise from my hotel window was great.

Both Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas were situated at lakes and these pictures are from Puerto Montt.

Santiago de Chile

After 24 hours “on the road” we arrived in Santiago, the capital of Chile. We took a guided tour around the city and made a stop at a park at the cathedral. It was, as many cathedrals large and very decorated.

 

 

It was a Sunday so there were lot of people in the park, from beggars to a religious meeting where they talked about Senor Jesus, from artists to police. I was intrigued by an artist drawing a portrait.

 

 

We then visited the museum of pre-columbian art, sculptures, pottery and textiles and I was really surprised and very impressed of the quality and artistery. Just see these examples. And they are all originals, no copies or reconstructions!