The fog lottery of the fjords

Día 19: Smooth roads, tent trouble, and a word on big lakes (84km)

Aug 14, 2023

Chapter 3 Fjordlands (5/6)

Theme: Arsenal pain, the cost of living Komoot GPX (84km)

Día 19

In the fog lottery of the fjords, a clear day to witness each town’s natural beauty proves elusive. Our memories seem biased towards the sun. They make stronger cerebral connections observing radiant vistas.

Those recollections recede yet continue to glow in the recesses of our minds. Like soft embers that need only a brief burst of oxygen to reignite once more.

And yet, there is beauty in cinereous towns too. In Cochamó, it’s dewy and sodden, but crucially, not raining.

On a slow morning jog to test my protesting ankle, I can feel the magic of the place.

The hostal sells stickers of owls and deer mixed with mystical mountain symbolism and tiny trekkers scaling massifs. The food trucks on the lakefront are graffitied with iridescent hummingbirds, incessant wings halted mid-beat. The restaurants, camping sites and gift shops attest to a tourist hot spot, but it still feels off the beaten track.

A garden of Eden kept secret, whether intentional or not.

The prices reflect this. My 7,000 Chilean pesos spent on camping are dwarfed by Jake’s 15,000 for a bed within wooden walls.

But though these figures may read like a monthly energy bill in Islington, £22 is not a bank breaker.

What is concerning for Jake is that his, now slightly lighter, set-up bears a glaring omission; a functional tent. Replacing it will be expensive. Chile is silly expensive.

A neoliberal economy turbocharged by dictator Pinochet’s love-in with Milton Friedman’s Chicago School economics. The result? Chile is the world leading producer of copper, and benefits from exporting minerals, wood, seafood, fruit, wine and lithium. The 2nd ‘freest’ economy in the Americas*.

At the same time, it’s one of the most unequal countries in the world** with the top 1% of earners claiming 26% of the country’s wealth.

Which is, quite frankly, useless information in helping our hero get his tent back.

We Google research determines that Argentina can provide a new one; it’s just a short hop across the cordillera to the tent shop.

The route planner suggests more wobbly gravel to come. After yesterday’s toil, it’s fair to say this is markedly depressing news. We ready ourselves for another jiggly lakeside skirmish.

But Komoot is mercifully not up to date!

A road smoother than a Fat Freddy’s Drop baseline. We speed onwards, fulled by more delicious solpapillas with chili. Jake is slightly concerned about the extent to which I am obsessed with these cute fried doughs. I can’t help it. They’re so goddam tasty.

We’re working towards the late kick off ’title-decider’ between Arsenal and Man City. Admittedly, hopes of a first title in 19 years have been receeding faster than you can say ’Erling Haaland is at best 40% human’.

But there’s still a smidgen of hope.

In the mid-afternoon, its a mad dash to find a good spot to watch it. Unsurprisingly, there’s no likely bars in this national park. We have to settle for streaming it on Jake’s phone, and all the lagging frustration that brings. Doesn’t really matter, game is done and dusted by half-time.

The identity of the lucky charm is not in doubt. Its me. 4 games since I left, 0 wins.

I console myself by knocking back views of El Volcán Osorno and Lago Llanquihue, Chile’s second largest lake, weighing in at 860km2. Which is, for want of a better phrase, fucking massive. It’s one of them where you can’t even see the other side.

For reference, Windermere, the largest natural lake in the UK is just 9.1km2. Or 94x smaller than Llanquihue.

In a time which is clearly so difficult for so many in the UK and around the world, we are absurdly privileged to be able to do this trip.

All in all, the cost of living isn’t troubling us too much here. With transport and accommodation essentially free, I can’t see why anyone would travel any other way.

We gain so much more than we lose with each passing day.

10,000km Arriba en Latinoamérica

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