Blogs from Villarrica, Araucanía, Chile, South America - page 2

After New Year in Valparaiso we made our way to the Chilean lake district, further south. We stayed in the town of Villarrica at a hostel run by a very abrupt German lady and her husband. After exploring the town and nearby lake we decided that we would hire bikes to go on a ride in the nearby countryside. After looking at the routes suggested by the hostel owners we picked one that was 39km long but not only that it had ´hilly´in the description. I was a little unsure it would be suited to me but Steve said that he could only see a couple of small hills on the map and the rest would be fine .........I should know by now not to trust him!! Needless to say the bike ride was long, tiring, ... read more

Hello, Hope everyone is keeping well. Sorry we haven't been in contact, things have been slightly more hectic than we thought, in a good way. So far we have spent a few days in Sao Paulo, Brazil then moved onto Santiago in Chile. From Santiago we have made our way south through Chile, visiting Valparaiso, Talca, Temuco and National Park of Conguillo and we're now in Villarica in the lake district of Chile. Sao Paulo was just enormous, the city buzzed all through the night, a really exciting feel to it, it is just on a different scale to London! Their equivalent to Hyde park is the most beautiful of mini tropical rainforests! In Santiago we went on a funicular up the mini mountain (hill) in the middle of the city to watch the sunset over ... read more

Nick: Its going to be a long one!! We left Santiago at a reasonable hour, the bike now shod with a new rear. Our first days riding in 4 was a gentle re-introduction to 2-wheel travel with a mere 125 mile (200km) jaunt to Curicó, a small but, apparently, pleasant town. We arrived and soon found that virtually all accommodation was being used by migrant workers employed in the vineyards, so we saddled up again for another 40 miles (60km) to reach Talca: a town supposed to benefit from a big city attitude. We rode through and on our second attempt found lodging in a seemingly pleasant hostel, rode the bike down the drive to park it up and settled down to a restful night of snacks, cointreau and cable TV (Channel AXN is the BEST: ... read more

Monday, 6th of March. It is the first day of school for Chilian children...Uniforms have moved from the shops to the pupils shoulders...It feels like early September...but it is early March, yesterday I was wearing shorts and I forgot to put sunblock on my legs...conclusion sunburns!!!!Yes guys, it is still summer here...but as I was a bit frustrated not having seen snow for a long time (unlike you !)I went two days ago, when I was in Pucón, climbing a volcano (volcan Villarrica 2848m) covered by snow and ice... nice hike-from 1800m and a slide downhill which makes the way down significantly faster than the way up- and of course, nice landscape from the top of the highest summit of the area. It is almost a week I have been in Chile. The lake Region is ... read more

Of all the problems I thought we might encounter along the way, having Christie´s pedal fall off 40kms from the start was not on high on the list of probabilities. Today had started well - Christie didn´t bang her head on the roof, and didn´t say we´re not going anywhere. In fact she was out of bed, and half packed and ready to go before I had roused myself. We got the obligatory photo take outside the hostel, and to a solid farewell from George, and a bit of a yoodle from Beat we were off on our great adventure ... we went down half a block, took a right, the next left and stopped ... we´d made it to our first bakery!!! After stocking up there, we proceeded another 2 blocks to the supermarket to ... read more