Blogs from Los Ríos, Chile, South America

Another ‘episode’ in 'our' travel experiences. The collective ‘episodes’ (this being the fifth) describe our journey from our arrival in Buenos Aires (Sth America) from the 1st week of October for an extended tea-bag experience of this huge continent. Like home, the continent is huge. In the few weeks available to us, we can only experience a few locations - a (tea-bag) dunk here, another there, and so on. After a few days in Buenos Aires, we flew to Lima for a 'dunk' into a few selected locations. We then fly to Chile to do some more 'tea-bagging'. We'll eventually make our way back to Argentina and our departure home. We attach a few pics to give a flavour of our journey, and some may 'flow over' past the dialogue. If we do this, you may ... read more

Zaterdag 10 januari, kwart over 6 in de ochtend. Met minibusjes rijden we door het Nationale Park van Villarrica – de ‘welvarende’ buurstad van Pucón waar de Spanjaarden kwamen om goud te zoeken. We gaan de gelijknamige vulkaan Villarrica (2847 meter) beklimmen. Het is de meest actieve vulkaan van Zuid Amerika en heeft 59 waargenomen uitbarstingen gehad, waarvan de laatste in 1992 plaatsvond. Ook nu is de vulkaan actief: er komt een constante sliert rook uit de krater op de top. Gelukkig staat het stoplicht, dat aangeeft wat de condities van de vulkaan zijn, op groen. Op 1400 meter hoogte stappen we uit het busje. Bepakt met helm, waterdichte broek en jas, handschoenen, pikhouweel en rugzak lopen we naar de skilift die ons naar een hoogte van 1800 meter zal brengen. Alleen daar aangekomen blijkt dat ... read more

The ups and downs of traveling. From great places like Pucon to shitholes like Puerto Montt. Well, more to that later. When I got up the day after the volcano climb I can not tell you how much I knew that I have legs; they hurt like hell from the previous day activities. But I was still on a high from the experience. The day was absolutely gorgeous but I decided that it is time to move on. Friends in Santiago told me to go to Valdivia, a town on the coast. I was told that it is a relaxing place with some good places to visit. So I booked my ticket, went back to the hostel and packed my bag. The trip into Valdivia was only about 3 hours and after a short walk to ... read more

20/01 - Temuco - Villarica (85 kms) Por fín salimos de la Ruta 5. A la altura de Freire nos dirigimos hacia el este, camino de Villarica. Ahí es cuando empezamos a sentir el cambio de paisaje, de un verde más intenso. Llevábamos días escuchando el pronóstico de lluvia para ese día y los siguientes y se cumplió a rajatabla. A pesar del verano, en esta zona caen lluvias durante días y mantienen la vegetación verde y frondosa. Paramos a comprar un queso de la zona (de leche de vaca) a 4050 pesos chilenos el kilo, muy rico. Mientras comíamos el queso en un descanso, empezó a llover. De ahí a Villarica nos quedaban todavía 50 kms así que nos pusimos el cortavientos e intentamos no parar hasta Villarica. Por el camino coincidimos de nuevo con ... read more

Hello Friends and Family! We ended our journey in the mountains temporarily, seeking peace and somewhere to rest. We have found the perfect place to do so in the beautiful town of Valdivia! During our time here we have had the great pleasure to meet up with Joe’s Uncle and his wonderful family. Eric Quinn his wife June and their two sons Lucas and Joseph have opened their arms to host us the past few days. It has been wonderful to gather local knowledge about the surrounding area and to experience Chilean culture and cuisine with them. Valdivia is a seaport town that offers a plethora of seafood. We opened our taste buds first to some delicious sushi, and continued throughout the next few days to try some of Chile’s finest seafood. Any hopes of losing ... read more