A trip to Chile: Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas

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Puerto Varas, motorcyclist, oil on card, 23.5 x 23.7 cm unavailable

Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas

Puerto Montt is a ghastly place: quite filthy, with abominable architecture. It straggles round a bay then crawls over some hills behind. The place reminded me of Brazil in its crappiness but it has colder weather. The shops are full of rubbish and everything is covered in graffiti. Unhealthy young men hover along the sea promenade like so many stray dogs.

The buildings of most interest- the unusual wooden neoclassical cathedral, and the Gothic church above the town- are both inaccessible: the first because it has been boarded up to avoid damage from the ongoing protests (as have almost all the major buildings, giving a wartime atmosphere to the place); the second because it is in the grounds of a private school and, no, the porter does not have a key to allow access. There is also a colourful theatre, but it was closed.

In the town square was a rock band making a brutish noise. I couldn't find anywhere trustworthy to eat so I went to the Macdonalds. Yes, I appreciate that some might find irony in that sentence.  The windows had, of course, been boarded up, so it was like sitting in the hold of a ship. There were a few black people there and I thought that the town had many more black people than I had seen in other places in Chile. 

Later that evening I went to small concert in the art centre which was nicely performed by some hippies, including a pretty singer with a prominent overbite. I wondered how such people could live in Puerto Montt, they seemed so refined with their cellos and mandolins . There were eight people in the band and eight in the audience, including me.

It was dark after the concert and I was worried about getting robbed- like many ports the town has this underlying atmosphere of violence. Besides, protesters, masked and dressed in black, had begun burning stuff in the town square- a filthy smoke drifted about. 

To get around the town you can use shared taxis which you flag down in the street, and I took one back to my bed and breakfast.which was in a slummy area above the town, an area desolate with rubbish strewn here and there and where some stunted trees suffered ceaselessly under a continual wind. My bed and breakfast was run by a couple who were at first solicitous and friendly, then over-solicitous and over friendly, to the point where I began to feel oppressed at breakfast. Anyway, these taxis feel more intimate than buses, and stop where the passengers ask, so you end up sensing this closeness with the others in the car as you hear their voices softly give instructions to the driver and discover where they live. 

Somewhat disturbed by Puerto Montt, I chose to spend the next day in Puerto Varas, a much smaller and considerably more upmarket town on a lake just to the north. I went by bus, as did an evangelical preacher who stood at the front of the bus preaching the entire fifty minute journey.

Well, Puerto Varas is not especially interesting for more than an hour. And all the restaurants there are extortionate. In one of them I ordered an extremely expensive sandwich from a pimpled adolescent with an apathetic manner.  But the lake views in Puerto Varas are pleasant, and I did a good painting and spoke to some Danish people.

I know it sounds weird but I must confess that although I found Puerto Montt vile in many ways and wouldn't recommend it to anyone, it did impact me in a peculiar way akin to affection. I am drawn to shabby awful places, I don't know why. 

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A Trip to Chile: part 1; Temuco and Villarrica

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Chile

My trip was shaped like this:

Florianopolis- Santiago- Temuco - Villarrica - Pucon - Melipeuco - Valdivia - Puerto Montt - Santiago - Florianopolis

Temuco

I flew into Temuco, a somewhat nondescript town, albeit one full of curious characters, most of them seedy. The area around the bus station is especially full of such people and they sell vegetables, bric a brac and probably themselves along its urine stenching streets. I strongly recommend a visit. 

Seedy places in Chile are the only places that I've come across in Latin America where chips are sold as a snack fo you to walk away with. They are sold in a choice of minuscule bags at 700, 800, or 900 Chilean Pesos (900 fits about 15 chips, so for 700 I suppose you receive about five). The chips are oily and flaccid like mysterious body parts. You might not like them. They also sell them in Puerto Montt, which is very seedy too.

There is a very good art shop in Temuco.  

Villarrica

But the first place I did any work in was Villarrica, which isn't seedy at all. There was a heat wave so it was pleasant to work in the woods by the river. This first painting is very good. 

Villarrica, gardens viewed from the river, oil on card, 21.7 x 24.5 cm  - available

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Packing for Araucania

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Medium sized case, carriers

Travelling to Araucania

I`m trying to keep weight and nuisance down. 

 I calculate that I can take 32 card pieces to paint on, in the very unlikely event that all the 32 painting sessions that my four weeks in Chile allows are successful.

 I carry these in 4 carriers. The problem with using oil paints is they need at least three days to dry. That's one reason for not staying anywhere for less than a week-  to allow any pictures the time they need to dry before packing between different painting spots. I have thought about using acrylics but I find them nasty in colour and finish.

As things stand, I`m painting in three places: Villaricca, Pucon and Melipueco, though I  I shall perhaps wander down to Puerto Montt for the last few days in Araucania.

The paints and so on fit into this case, along with various other bits and pieces. It`s tight but it`s just about ok. The larger case is cumbersome. 

My trip isn't until after Christmas, but I like to plan things in advance and do things in a good time, unhurriedly. The Brazilian way of doing everything last minute appalls me.

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