Chilean Artisans

 

Wool, clay, wood, metal, stone, and horse hair, all materials that are readily available in Chile, and hence they are the basis for most of traditional Chilean artisan products.  Late last year, while the presidential campaign was absorbing most of the airtime in Santiago’s public media, a world class group of artisans, sponsored by the Universidad Católica, exhibited their best products in Bustamante Park near Plaza Italia in the center of Santiago, Chile.  Most exhibitors in this two-week event were Chilean, but there were also artisans from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico.

I had seen the advertisements for this show, so I stopped by to take a look one day as I was walking back home from a meeting in the center of town.  I have grown somewhat skeptical of artisan shows, because I find that plastic and other foreign materials “made in china” are taking over the “artisan” world, plus, we really don’t need any more “stuff”; we have plenty stored away that we don’t even look at now.  But as soon as I entered the spacious exhibition, a deep, comforting feeling of déjà vu set in; I was taken back 45 years to my first travels through Chile as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  The scene that greeted me reminded of the  weekend trips I made in the late ‘60s with my friends Chuck, Neal, and Jane:  by bus to buy hand knitted sweaters in La Ligua, a small dusty town north of Santiago, to Pomaire, out the road west of Santiago to buy pottery, and longer trips to the colorful Chillan and Temuco markets to buy other types of pottery and Mapuche rugs and ponchos, to Valdivia to buy miniature wood carved ox carts from a guy named Rivas, and to Pucón to buy wooden platters, bowls, and boxes.  These memories resurfaced because the exhibit I was seeing bore testimony to the fact that over the years, these classic artisan products have prevailed over wave after wave of mass produced alternative “handicraft” products, and in fact today are being produced of extremely high quality at very reasonable prices; reasonable, but not dirt cheap like before, suggesting that maybe an artisan in Chile can now make a living with her work.

So what were the best offers in this exhibit?                                                                

Chaica blankets

To begin with, the woven products were exceptional.  The Mapuche, indigenous inhabitants of the Araucanía Region of central-south Chile, have for decades produced colorful blankets, rugs, and ponchos.  For visitors to Chile, these goods are often the artisan product most sought after, and a trip to the central market in Temuco was a must. 

Chaica blankets

Other colorful weavings, now mostly wool, but also some alpaca (the relative of  the llama and the Vicuña), have long been made in villages in Chiloé Province, on both the Grand Island of Chiloé (Ancúd, for example) and the mainland (Chaicas for one) through which the new Carretera Austral passes on its way to Chilean Patagonia.  Maria Iris villarroel, a weaver from Chaicas, revealed to me how they get the vivid colors of green, grey, orange, and yellow in their blankets:  for the green, they soak the wool in water with heartwood from the canelo tree; for grey, they soak the stems of the nalca plant with the wool; the orange color is produced by the juice left after making chicha (cider made from grapes); and the yellow from onion skin soaked in water with the wool.  A very different style of weavings is produced by the Aymará in the far north desert region, in places like Colchane in the Tarapacá Region.

They aren’t exactly woven, but Chilean artisans have produced embroidered art, one of the most well-known being the embroidered wall hangings, about the size of a small window, that depict in the naïve mode, stories or real life scenes, produced in Isla Negra (one of Pablo Neruda’s home towns on the Central Chilean coast).  

While these Isla Negra embroiderers were producing their works to earn a living during the hard times of the dictatorship, they often inserted more or less blatant political messages in the designs protesting the state of affairs at that time.  The art is prospering in Chile still because of groups of women such as those in Ninhue and Copiulemu in the Bío Bío region.  

A trip to Pomaire was, and still is, a common one-day excursion for residents of Santiago, but mostly for tourists, both Chilean and foreign.  I remember Pomaire in the late 1960’s as a very quaint, lovely, hospitable but sleepy town, with dusty dirt streets (muddy in the winter) lined with small shops were potters worked in the back and sold their goods in the front.   
 

This is the home of the famous three-legged pig, made from dark brown clay.  Popular then, were the plates, cups, mugs, and individual pailas, small bowls used to bake pastel de choclo, pastel de papas, and chupe de locos.  These very practical and inexpensive items are still made today and were in the exhibition. Today they are just as popular, but Pomaire has suffered the fate of so many previously popular artisan centers overrun by tourists and invaded by cheap, trashy souvenirs that have nothing to do with the place itself.

Delfina Alguilera

Quinchamalí pottery

Besides pottery from Pomaire, there are now very attractive ceramic offerings now from Vichuquén in the Maule region of Central Chile, and Gorbea and Padre las Casas in the south.  Of course the traditional black with white Quinchamalí pottery is still being made in that town near Chillan, and is still very popular.  Diaguita designs from that earlier civilization, adorn pottery made in the 4^th region of Chile, in what is called the Norte Chico, or small north.   A most interesting potter in the exhibit was Delfina Alguilera, an aged producer of very rustic style of pots.  She lives outside of Cauquenes, a mostly agriculture town in a very rural and quite poor area, where due to the rich clay soil in the area, large brick making operations produce building materials that match, in color, Delfina’s pottery.  She told me she wouldn’t miss participating in the exhibit since it is her only “outing” each year.

Villarrica wood bowls

Boat builder from Quemchi

Pucón wooden flowers

The ox cart carvings we bought in Valdivia in the late 1960s from Rivas, a fantastic carver rendered quite unreliable by his love of the grape, were carved from raulí wood, a beautiful tree common to the mixed hardwood Valdivian forest in the Lakes district of southern Chile.  This same wood is the main raw material for most of the sleek bowls exhibited from Villarrica.  The unique but widely appreciated wooden flowers sold in Pucón, are not necessarily made from raulí wood.  Instead of ox cart carvings, the exhibit featured the wood working craft of miniature tall ship building.

And of course you can still buy cute items made from crin, or horse tail hair. Some are actually useful, like the Christmas tree ornaments, coasters for glasses, and book marks, and they are great gifts to take to distant friends and family because they weigh almost nothing and take up no space.  Stone mortar and pestle sets, modeled after the ones used by early inhabitants to mash grain, garlic, dried hot peppers, and anything else that required grinding into powder, make a great gift, if you don’t have to transport it very far, since it is bulky and heavy, of course.

If you have travelled south of Santiago on the Pan-American Highway, you most certainly have noticed the handmade brooms sold along the road near Rengo, and the two kilometers of stores selling mimbre (woven strips of willow wood) furniture in Chimborongo. 

 

And baskets, baskets, and more baskets.

Copper jewelry, trinkets, and costly artefacts get more and more interesting as time goes on.

 

 

The leather and metalwork that goes into all the equipment a Chilean horseman needs for himself and his horse are still available, but indeed scarcer as rural Chile and the domain of the huaso give way to urban habits…and Audis.

 

 

 

Ah yes, I almost forgot to mention, in the context of traditional Chilean artisan products, the old favorites of the empanada, the pisco sour, the longaniza from Chillán (hopefully from los Pincheira; the sausage-making Pincheiras, not the outlaws),  and a big glass of cool mote con huesillo. 
  The fine folks that make these on a daily basis are also true artisans in my book.  I salute them all.





Posted on February 5, 2014, in Santiago, Chile

Carretera Austral Day Six....Cochrane to Chile Chico and Argentine Border

Breakfast on Day six again at the Military Hotel, and we were off on the last stretch of our trip in Chile, for today we were to drive along the south side of Lago General Carrera, and cross over into Argentina at the border town of Chile Chico to begin our long drive north through the Argentine Patagonia.  Lago General Carrera is a bi-national lake, 60% in Chile and 40% in Argentina where it is called Lago Buenos Aires. 

  It eventually empties into the Pacific Ocean at Caleta Tortel via RÍo Baker.  The road we wanted to take turned off the Carretera Austral just north of Puerto Bertrand.

Near Beltrand

Lago General Carrera

  The trip along the lake to Chile Chico is an easy, but a bit dangerous, drive.  Loose gravel with steep drop-offs can be treacherous, but as long as everyone drives with caution it is one of the loveliest drives in Chile.  And Chile Chico is a nice border town, with restaurants and stores for the traveler.  Ferries travel across the lake regularly to and from Puerto Ibañez, connecting Chile Chico and travelers with a more expeditious route to Coyhaique.  We had our last meal in Chile at the Restaurant Turismo de Chile Chico : crispy but moist broiled salmon, and lukewarm beer.

 
 
 

Ferry from Chile Chico to Pto. Ibañez

For the next three days we drove north through Argentina, stopping for the night in Perito Moreno, San Carlos de Bariloche and San MartÍn de Los Andes, before crossing back into Chile through the Mamuil Malal pass at the foot of magnificent Volcan LanÍn, then through Pucón, Villarrica, and eventually back onto the Pan-American highway and home in Santiago.  An account of this part of our trip trough Argentina deserves a separate literary effort, left to another day.

We had accomplished our objective of driving from one end of the Carretera Austral to the other; five thousand kilometers through the most beautiful natural areas in the world.  Along the way each bend in the road revealed a place, a side road, a trail, a river, a lake, and wonderfully happy people that beg you to stay for days if not weeks, and they especially expect you to enjoy their wonderful land.  Our trip was one focused on the pure satisfaction of driving this road as few people have done; certainly most have not traveled the entire length from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins.  Instead of what we did, most visitors choose just a section of the Carretera and spend more time exploring the surroundings.  And frankly, that is the way to really appreciate this part of Chile, so now that we have satisfied our crude macro-desire, we are already planning longer but more precise visits to more limited areas on the Carretera.

One interesting route is Puerto Montt, Chaitén, Futaleufú, and back through Argentina to Chile at Puyehue, then Osorno.  This route is great as long as you traverse the Puerto Montt to Chaitén route by land, including the three barcaza crossings. Another is what most people do; fly to Balmaceda to visit Coyhaique and surroundings, Puerto Aysén, and Laguna San Rafael.  But the trip I want to make, and suggest to others, before it becomes too popular, is an extension of this by adding on a visit to Villa O’Higgins for a few days to enjoy that very special place nestled in the Andes right next to Campos de Hielo Sur and Lago O’Higgins.

As I am finishing up this rambling account, the Santiago newspapers are filled with news and opinions on the World Court’s recent determination regarding the Peru-Chile border almost five thousand kilometers north of Villa O’Higgins.  Chileans seem distraught over the possibility that Peru, with their legal challenge, might have accomplished wresting some of Chile’s maritime economic exclusive control over a portion of the Pacific Ocean 80 kilometers off the coast of Arica.  Probably there are important geopolitical issues at stake, so I am not suggesting Chileans should not be concerned; maybe they should even be more upset at the outcome.  What I am wondering, though, is how attentive  the Chilean authorities are to the vast terrestrial and maritime riches along the entire length of the Carretera Austral we just visited, as well as further south to and beyond Punta Arenas.  Is there serious strategic thinking being forged to guide development of the areas along the entire Argentine-Chilean border that runs the length of the country, but especially in the southern Patagonia region we just visited?  Is the next “surprise” of challenged or even lost patrimony going to be in the south due to a lack of serious national presence, protection, and development in the border area?

On one of our last nights on the Carretera Austral, we happened to be staying in the same hotel as the mayor of Villa O’Higgins.  We had seen the new housing developments in Villa O’Higgins, and other effects of the opening up of the Carretera, and I, for one, thought that the mayor would be excited about the prospects for his town and the area now that the Carretera is finally being finished.  However, to my surprise he divulged very deep-felt anxiety, and disappointment, with the Santiago-centric Chilean national authorities, who, to paraphrase, “…have never paid nearly enough attention to the challenges of developing and defending the incredible natural resources held in trust in the south of Chile, not the present ones, not the prior ones, nor any before them ”.

Maybe now a new government, helped along by the impact of the Peru-Chile border issue, will figure out how to provide the incentives necessary for serious investments in the distant regions of Chile, especially the “deep Patagonian south”.  The Carretera Austral, a mammoth undertaking to be sure, is just the first step in a process whereby Chileans begin to take full advantage of their rich natural endowment.  My hope is that they follow through with careful development of the entire area through which we travelled on the Carretera Austral, by committing to a model of development that encourages increased economic activity while preserving the vast protected areas of the national parks, reserves, wild rivers and lakes which can attract lucrative tourism and sustain in the long run any human settlements.

In the meantime, good readers, my suggestion is that if you ever wanted to travel the Carretera Austral in Chile, you should do it NOW!

 

Carretera Austral Day Five....Villa O'Higgins to Caleta Tortel to Cochrane

Day five started early for us, since we had to reach the RÍo Bravo landing, three hours away, to take the morning barcaza back across to Puerto Yungay, and on to Caleta Tortel where we planned to have lunch. 

Caleta Tortel is a small unique village perched on the shore of the RÍo Baker delta, between the Campo de Hielo Norte and Campo de Hielo Sur.  Originally, and to a lesser degree today, the main activity in Tortel was capturing the huge Ciprés de Las Guaitecas logs harvested from the forests up-river and floated down to the sea, to be loaded onto ships that would take the logs south to Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and north to Puerto Montt. 

Wood sculptures depicting Tortel's traditional logging activity

What is so special about Tortel is that this town of about 500 inhabitants has no roads; transportation from the parking area above the town, and within the town, is entirely via wooden walkways made from the same sturdy, resistant ciprés.

In spite of the fact that rain was threatening by the time we began our trek down to and through Tortel, we walked the entire length and breadth of the town.  We discovered the home of Berta Muñoz who prepared us a very tasty lunch of beef soup and boiled potatoes, with lettuce salad, served at a table in the front room of her modest but welcoming creaky wooden home overlooking the water. 

Berta Munoz

Berta lives in Tortel year around, has a few rooms with a shared bathroom with posted instructions that belie the fragile state of Tortel's hydrologics (“Throw all paper in the basket in the corner” and “showers may not be longer than 8 minutes!”), and offers meals to anyone who happens by.  We were slightly tempted to stay with Berta that night, so we could really explore this fantastically unique town, but as was our habit by now, we pushed on.


Mellizas falls

On our way to Cochrane we stopped to visit the Mellizas falls, requiring negotiating with a local shepard to open the gate for us.  


We spent the night again in Cochrane at Maria’s hotel and enjoyed a steak dinner at Ada’s Café and Restaurant (and some more delicious Santa Carolina Cabernet sauvignon). 

Carretera Austral Day Four....Cochrane to Villa O'Higgins

We were awakened early on Day four, 4:30 to be precise, by a trio of frustrated roosters who, sitting right below our windows but out of reach of the rocks we threw at them, incessantly begged us to rise and shine, so we got another early start.  MarÍa provided us with a wonderful breakfast at the military hotel, and we departed on the southernmost leg of our trip which would be capped off by a triumphant entry later in the afternoon, into Villa O’Higgins, our ultimate destination at the end of the Carretera Austral. 
 
 

The drive from Cochrane to Villa O’Higgins is a relatively easy one, mostly on a new hard packed gravel road, the most recent section of the Carretera Austral to be opened.

  It passes small deep-green lagoons, a series of waterfalls, newly constructed bridges over the Barrancoso River, and spectacular views of RÍo Baker. 

We passed the turnoff to Caleta Tortel, and continued on to Puerto Yungay where we took the barcaza Padre Antonio Ronchi across the Mitchell Fjord to RÍ
o Bravo Landing.   We would visit Caleta Tortel on our way back north the next day after visiting Villa O’Higgins.

Barcaza Padre Ronchi

Lago Cisnes

 

 

Forests of the native hardwoods Lenga and Ñirre line long sections of this road, along which, now that the area is opened up to vehicular traffic, homesteaders are staking out their properties and building cabins and more substantial homes and lodges, including some fantastic places for visitors who want to fish the cold waters of the Bravo and Mayer rivers.

At one point in our travel down this last section of the Carretera, we were entertained by several majestic condors, two of which were sunning themselves on the branches of a dead tree right beside the road.  A bit further down the road you must pass through a forested area where the huemul is apt to be seen.  After seeing the condors, we hoped to also view a huemul, the pair being the iconic figures on the Chilean coat-of-arms, but they were not around the day we went by, one of a very few disappointments on this trip.

After following the beautiful RÍo Bravo for about 50 kilometers, we crossed the Coronel Van Schouwen suspension bridge over the Mayer River and drove into Villa O’Higgins, a new town of about 500 inhabitants, and our destination. Villa O’Higgins sits at the tip of Lago O’Higgins, about a kilometer from the Argentine border.  The lake extends to the east into Argentina, where it is named Lago San MartÍn; it is fed by melting glaciers of Campo de Hielo Sur, a huge permanent ice field surrounded by Bernardo O’Higgins national park to the west and Los Glaciares national park to the east.  Villa O’Higgins is an exciting place, not only because it is at the end of the carretera, but also because from here you can explore into the fjords, lakes, and glaciers of this so far wild and untouched area where only a fortunate few have visited.

Entrance to Villa O'Higgins

There is clearly some official interest in settling more people and commercial activities in Villa O’Higgins, several new housing developments have been established with subsidies from the national government, there are at least two churches, several small hotels, lodges, and cafes and restaurants;  a new high-end hotel named Robinson Crusoe - Deep Patagonia provides very comfortable, and pricey, lodging. 

Robinson Crusoe-Deep Pategonia

We decided to stay here, to get a good night’s sleep to prepare for the long journey back to Santiago starting the next day.  Before dinner we walked along the river bed outside of town to the Paso RÍo Mosco at the Chile/Argentine border, and then drove down the road a bit beyond town to a boat launching site on the lake from which we could get a closer, clearer look at the imposing Mosco glacier.  Given the geopolitical sensitivity of this border town, and the absolute raw beauty of the surroundings, Villa O’Higgins is a destination worth the effort it takes to arrive, and worthy of a stay of several days to enjoy one of the most beautiful, naturally striking areas in Chile. 
 



Villa O'Higgins



New housing

O'Higgins in Central Plaza

 

church

more new housing

Radio station

another church

Dinner at the Lodge was preceded by a round of super double pisco sours, cooled with glacier ice (we were told) enjoyed by the fireplace in the second floor sitting room of the main Lodge.  A fine but  modestly sized plate of tender strips of filet of beef, oven roasted potatoes, and green salad was facilitated by a good amount of Gran Tarapacá Cabernet sauvignon, capped off with the last whimper from our pal Jack Daniels, who abandoned us at this point.  We sat around the fireplace the rest of the evening, entertained by the lodge manager Daniel who described how his share of the very successful Robinson Crusoe seafood processing company was turned into this “Deep Patagonia” hotel and extreme tourism enterprise, which over the next couple of years will establish a world class set of activities for visiting by boat, foot, and horse the lakes, rivers, fjords, glaciers, and forests of this still wild paradise.

We had reached our destination…and we were content, but very tired, so we slept well.