Blogs from Biobío, Chile, South America

Los Angeles is more or less in the middle of Chile. Climate heading into Autumn is moderate and vey comfortable, the population approximately 160,000. A car trip of the external, showed public hospital, two German colleges, three cemeteries, military base, industrial area, resturant strip, company houses, government housing, airport, University, wood mills, shopping centers (Lider, similar to Walmart and Jumbo). In the centro, I walked past the Police station, many retail outlets, malls, banks, government agencies and a big plaza area, where people gather and enjoy timeout from the CBD. It's easy to navigate as City is in grid formation. People and structurs are compressed together, rich and poor. Social code is evident. Only a few blocks appart. Two interesting sounding towns also visited were Saltos del Laja (beautiful waterfall) and Mulchen where timber (blue gums ... read more

Il est 3h34 quand Marisol est réveillée par un bruit sourd. Les rideaux qui tremblent et les vases qui se brisent ne laissent aucune place au doute, elle court chercher les enfants et se met à l'abri. Ce jour-là, la ville de Concepción connaîtra un des séismes les plus importants jamais enregistrés avec une amplitude de 8,8 sur l'échelle de Richter et un épicentre à seulement 6 kilomètres des côtes. Six ans plus tard, les conséquences de ce terrible évènemenent se lisent encore sur les visages des Chiliens et sur les plaques commémoratives qui rendent hommage aux 525 victimes. Terremoto - tremblement de terre - un mot qui ferait encore tressaillir le plus vaillant d'entre eux. Alors quelqu'un peut-il m'expliquer quel genre de siphonné irait baptiser sa boisson nationale en l'honneur d'une catastrophe qui a affecté ... read more

So here I sit in Antuco in a hostel that has 15 rooms, a bar and a restaurant. And guess what? I have it all to myself. There is nobody, not even the owner, here. The guy just signed me in, I paid my $32 for two night, showed me my room and left. The town is dead as well. But let’s start where I left of in Conception….. After my last entry I spend one more day in Conception and Sebastian took me out of the town to the coast to show me around. It wasn't a long bus trip and it only took about an hour. The town (the name I can’t remember) was built by the Spanish around 1680 and was an important harbor. Even the pirate Sir Francis Drake showed up one ... read more

Wednesday 11th December (Odyssey Day 33) We departed Pucon this morning, heading northward again. The plan is a couple of one night camps before reaching Santiago for the weekend. We made a stop today at a small waterfall just after lunch. Well, actually not really all that small. The Salto del Laja waterfall was quite beautiful although put me in mind a bit of a really poorly built dam, as the water fell over a fairly smooth and flat rock wall that almost looked man made. A few of the guys went swimming while the girls opted for just cooling their feet on the edge, though Emma also dunked her head in. It soon a little too hot though and we gathered together to get on our way. Our camp today was just a few kilometres ... read more

After 48 hrs of sitting in airports and on airplanes Luke and I were stoked to see Joe at the airport with our home for three months a small Suzuki Van. We were skeptical that the three of us and all of our gear would fit in the van comfortably but after loading up our gear we were surprised at the roominess of our van. Our original plan was to head to the coast for a couple days to surf and relax but after 48 hrs of traveling we were itching to get into the mountains and onto some rock so we decided to head to Reserva Nacional del Rio Cipreses to climb at Cordon Granito. We arrived at the park late that night and the gates were already closed, we found a side road and ... read more