Getting Some Exercise

I have a sedentary job. I always have. It got worse during the pandemic because I felt that the proof of my productivity on the job was to respond to Teams messages immediately. I felt tethered to my computer.

For a few months in 2024 and early 2025, that changed. When I was teaching English in person, I jumped and danced and walked backwards and forwards and pretended to be a server at a restaurant or cashier at the grocery store. I once got so animated in class trying to help my students understand a concept that I fell on my ass. In class. In front of my students.

But I am back to being tied to the computer. So getting exercise after hours of teaching and being “on” mentally, though “off” physically, takes conscious effort. At home I usually walk or hike and do yoga. So I tried to do both here in Chile.

Yoga: My venture into attending a yoga class in Puerto Varas went amazingly well. Except for getting completely lost on the way there. Fortunately, the Uber driver spoke English, and he was a very good sport. The yoga studio is hidden at the end of a gravel road, but after several wrong turns, he got me right to the doorstep. Honestly, it was only a 25-minute walk from my apartment, but I didn’t know that then. After class, since there is daylight here until almost 10:00 pm, I walked home.

As for the class, it was all in Spanish. But fortunately “Vuelve al centro, y otro lado” (return to center, and other side) is pretty easy to figure out. And I had made an effort before my trip to learn the words for body parts. I thought: I tell my own students to learn the vocabulary in case of getting sick or injured, so I should take my own medicine (pun intended). The vocabulary for body parts was a big assist at the yoga class!

La Costanera: The road along the lakefront of Puerto Varas has a name, but it is always referred to as La Costanera, the waterfront. “The restaurant is on the Costanera.” “You mean the new store on the Costanera?” “Your apartment is near the Costanera.”

The walk along the Costanera, especially on a sunny day, is wonderful. And on sunny days, the beach is filled with Chileans. The first day I tried to walk on the beach, though, I learned quickly that black volcanic sand, full sun, and bare feet do not mix! I almost burned the skin off the bottom of my feet! But usually I walked on the paved boardwalk. It is a 25-minute walk to El Centro, and on weekends they sometimes close off part of the road to car traffic so that pedestrians get the full width of the road. There are joggers and bike riders, but mostly people like me, just enjoying the walk into town, the view of the volcano, and the lovely weather. On my last week in Puerto Varas, I tried to commit to going to the Costanera every evening to sit on the ledge the separates the boardwalk and beach, legs dangling, and just enjoy.

Views along the Costanera, including the sculpture of Licarayén, the Mapuche woman who sacrificed her life to calm the volcano, according to local lore.

Alerce Andino National Park: Thankfully, there are many national parks in this region, preserving this combination of rivers, lakes, waterfalls, volcanos, and rainforest. I set my sights on Alerce Andino for a guided hike. The weather threatened not to cooperate but in the end was perfect. (Have I mentioned that I have the opposite effect of those who say “I brought the bad weather with me.” I have amazing luck with weather. And now I’ve just jinxed it.)

Our guide was very good at pointing out flora and fauna, especially plants used for their medicinal qualities by the indigenous people, the Mapuche. But the highlight of a trip to this park is the Alerce tree. Old-growth Alerce are rare now because they were (well, are, but not allowed to be cut now) valued for their resistance to fire and water. They grow extremely slowly (1 cm per year), so a reasonably tall Alerce is thousands of years old. This national park features a 5,000-year-old tree, showcased with a platform to walk around and admire it.

The tree is impressive. But the guide had clearly been trained to compare it to the Sequoias of California. Being a Californian who has seen both the Sequoias and the Coastal Redwoods, I noticed some differences: The Alerce is a very dense, hard wood, whereas both varieties of Redwood in California are quite soft; and the resistance to fire differs between the species, but I won’t profess to understand exactly. I shared with our guide photos and videos of Coastal Redwoods from this past summer, and he was suitably amazed.

Every shade of green in this lush rainforest, plus waterfalls and the 5,000-year-old Alerce tree.

Hotsprings: These probably don’t belong in the category of “exercise,” but I’ll put them here as an homage to treating my body right!

Given the volcanic activity in this region, it is no surprise that there are mineral baths heated by the earth. The Termas del Sol is about 2 hours from Puerto Varas, but that includes a ferry crossing and long stretches of narrow gravel roads. Some travel sites suggest that tourists can drive themselves. I cannot imagine it, even for Chileans!! So I booked a guided trip, notable for a couple things:

First: I’ve learned a lot about Celsius! Nested in the lush rainforest, each outdoor pool posts its temperature, obviously in Celsius. But the posted temperatures are not to be trusted!! I tried going from 38 to 39 and almost boiled myself alive – because it was NOT 39! Employees regularly come by to take the temperature of the pools, and one confirmed that the “39” pool was really over 41. That’s 106 to us Fahrenheit idiots.

Second: The tour company said my only tour option was Spanish-only. I said I was good with that! In fact, I was thinking of it as a “final exam.” Alas, it was not to be. The guide was bilingual, and there was another American on the tour, and a very full tour bus, so the guide put us two Americans in the front seat, next to him (very tight quarters), so we had lively conversations with the guide, but all in English. I think both of us Americans were disappointed, but we also enjoyed the conversation. And so it is.

A foggy day in Cochamó, a village near the hotsprings. There are many fishing villages along this part of the Lake District. And a huge industry in Chile is salmon farms. We saw many as we drove through this region.

As I write this, I am sitting in the only hotel in a remote Andean village, on my way to Argentina. I will cross over today, and I’ve just learned that I purportedly received some white receipt-looking paper at the Santiago airport at passport control, which I undoubtedly tossed weeks ago. The US State Department website says you cannot leave the country without it and must get a replacement, but my guide on this “Cruce Andino” trip (Andean Crossing) said it won’t be a problem. My passport is stamped, and loss of this mysterious paper is a common occurrence. Let’s hope so!

View of and from my hotel in Peulla, amidst the Andes. Plus a walk in the woods.

I will try to post a final reflection of these amazing weeks. But it might not happen until after my return home. I hope to be enjoying San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina for the final days of my journey.

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