Kayaking to the Marble Cathedrals

We spent yesterday driving from Chile Chico to Puerto Rio Tranquilo in order to go kayaking to the Marble Cathedrals close to that little village.

Rio Tranquilo is a small village that really only exists as a stopover for tourists to see the Marble Cathedrals. We picked a friendly-looking restaurant for dinner last night and struck up a conversation with a couple from Belorussia. We spent a very entertaining and interesting evening with Yuri and Marina, talking about everything from tourist tips to politics and sport. We learnt that Belorussia only recently started offering 5-day visas for Schengen-citizens, so we added Minsk to our future travel plans :-)

Then, today, finally the Marble Cathedrals. We spent a lot of energy getting here, so we were both anxious to have a good experience visiting them. And we were not disappointed! The Marble Cathedrals are natural rock formations in the lake that have been washed out from the bottom by the water and waves. The stone formations are made out of marble with beautiful colours shining through. We hired a guide (Lucas) who took us in kayaks and off we went. It was really a great experience - both the kayaking, which was great fun and exercise, and the sight of the marble in the water was truly unique.

The tour was over at about 10:30 am (you go early so that the water is less disturbed by the wind), and we then tried to catch a bus to Coyhaique, our last stop before we go on a ferry and airplane up north back to Santiago.

The bus journey turned out to be quite an ordeal: first the bus at 11:30 arrived nearly full - only 2 out of the 10 or so waiting passengers could join. Another us at 4pm was full as well, so the next bus: only at 5pm. So we spent the entire day sitting and reading in a restaurant and cafe, waiting for the bus. When we finally left, the bus drove for about 30 minutes and then broke down. We waited for more than an hour for the mechanic to arrive when we finally decided to try our luck hitchhiking. From then on, our fortunes improved: we quickly found a ride on a minibus taking tourists from Coyhaique to the Marble Cathedrals. The passengers (all Chilean and Argentinian) were a fun crowd and asked us lots of questions about home - sports, politics and the obligatory questions about Nazism. (Chile, of course, has its own dark past to deal with (military junta government) and they were naturally interested to learn how Germany manages to cope with its dark past.)

Finally, at 11:30pm, after about 13 hours of waiting for or or travelling on a bus, we arrived at our little cabana in Coyhaique and fell into bed. :-)Read more