12/26-New Digs

Today we moved out of our luxury accommodation to a cabaña more in the style we are used to. Before we moved, I finally got a photo of the bird that keeps flying into the windows. 

Looks a bit like a robin. 

Multiple times a day it flies at the windows (there’s two it seems to like). It’ll usually do it twice in a row, then it flies off. I was thinking maybe it is mating season, and it sees it’s reflection, thinking it’s another bird, and must attack. Or…maybe it just really wants to come inside???

Anyway, we loaded up the bikes, and left them on the back deck. We couldn’t check into the next cabaña until 2:30. We walked down to the town center to get some lunch. We’d heard about a cantina that had good food. On the way, the “mall” was finally open. We went in to check it out. 

The park along the Rio Cochrane next to the mall. 



Giant Christmas tree with a sax-playing Santa. There were small booths with crafts and stuff. Mostly, it was pretty quiet. 

Big quilt on the wall depicting scenes of Cochrane. 

These roses outside the building were so fragrant and beautiful!


We made our way to the cantina. 

It was kind of cafeteria style food where you chose an entre, a side, and salad, then either pan or sopapilla. I had arroz con pollo y zanahorias y tomate por la ensalada. Y sopapilla, mi favorita tipo de pan. Sopapilla is fried bread. I realized if you put maple icing on it, it would be exactly like a maple bar! We took our food over to the plaza, and found a bench in the shade. It’s over 80 degrees here today! 

After lunch, the big supermercado not being open today either, we went to the smaller one nearby. They actually had a pretty good selection of food. Even more of a whole grain pan. Oh, a word about the pan here in Chile. It’s pretty much all the same (ever since Puerto Montt). Round discs about the size of a good size hamburger bun, but flatter, and more firm. They are best when they are warm. You slice it, and put whatever you want on it. Last night, I made some garlic toast out of one. And, while I’m on the subject of food, one of our favorite snacks is Mantecol. 
It’s kind of like the inside of a Butterfinger bar, but doesn’t stick to your teeth so much. It’s not chocolate, so it doesn’t melt in the heat. We’ve eaten countless of these bars. Supposedly we can get them in Argentina too. I hope so!

Back to shopping. I got a backpack full of food, partly for here, and some resupply for when we leave. We walked back to the cabaña where the bikes were. We walked past the unusual building I posted a photo of in the previous blog. We found out it’s going to be a museum. It’s not finished yet. I realized it’s in the shape of a mate cup. There was another one nearby. It is smaller. 

It was closed up. 

This a sign showing the progress of the new one. 

Back to our bikes, we rode to our new digs. It is just 1.5kms from the other one. The view is better. 

We are a little bit out of town. 

The first thing I noticed when we walked in was the Frida Kahlo pillows on the couch. 

Frida!!!

The kitchen. 

Living room. 

My room. Back to having two beds which is so nice. And something unusual…carpet! They must have gotten a good deal on green paint, but it’s festive! It has everything we need, and even a little better in some ways than the fancy place (for example, it has hooks on the walls to hang stuff).

Tomorrow, Markus and I may ride the short distance to Lago Cochrane. It’s not supposed to be quite as warm. Hoy es mucho calor! The wind is currently doing it’s usual thing. Seems to become quite strong in the mid to late afternoons.