Hitchhikers

Puerto Montt, Chile

Puerto Montt isn't much of a tourist town. Its wikipedia page doesn't even have a "tourism" section. There are some cool sites nearby, but no public transportation to reach them. So I rented a car.

The first oddity I went in search of was El Muelle De Las Almas - The Dock of Souls. It's an art installation buried on the island of Chiloé pretty far away from everything.

There's a little shack you need to find that sells $3 tickets and then you hike 45 minutes to this dock to nowhere sitting on top of a cliff.

There were actually a ton of people doing the hike - almost exclusively Chileans - and the line for selfies at dock was I guess what you'd expect of a 21st century line for selfies. It was huge. But I dug it anyway.

On my way out I picked up my first hitchhiker. He approached me in the parking lot. He was a 20-year-old student from Santiago and he was just going down the road to Chiloé National Park.

On my way off the island I picked up two punk rock girls - Carolina and Anabela. They were both students at a music school in a city near Santiago that they claimed was full of junkies. They wanted to start a band in the vein of Bikini Kill. Carolina was wearing a Black Flag shirt and liked 80s American hardcore. She was really into Oh Bondage Up Yours when it came on the car stereo.

Carolina and Anabela were homeless and sleeping in a tent until school started up again. I bought them fish at a little restaurant in a small town near the bridge to the mainland. It was the best meal I'd had in Chile. Chile is not really known for its food.

Hitchhiking by the way is very popular and safe in Chile and Argentina. Lilith whom I had met in Punta Arenas was going to hitchhike to Ushuaia. And apparently every college student in Chile hitchhikes around the country as a rite of passage.

The other local relic I wanted to find was a 3,000-year-old Alerce tree in Parque Alerce Andino. On my way into the park I picked up three teenage boys and a teenage girl. They served as translators for me when we encountered a burning tire barricade.

Turns out the workers at the park had barricaded the entrance near the "Millenial Tree" to protest the dangerous road that was in need of maintenance. There was a tipped over truck off to the side of the road near the barricade, which is I'm guessing what spurred the action.

I thought that was pretty badass. The worker said the park was still open they just weren't letting people in this entrance. So I wasn't able to reach the 3,000-year-old tree. But I drove around to a different entrance and was able to hike out to a 2,000-year-old tree!

On my way back to town I picked up two older ladies. I couldn't understand a goddamn word they said, but the lady in front kept talking to me the entire time expecting me to get it. She said something about her abuelo and Fox. I can't even guess.

Renting a car for two days ended up being a lot more expensive than I had anticipated - $125 + gas. So I guess I can't really recommend it. But if you do end up in the middle of Chile with a rental car, might as well pick up some hitchhikers.