Blogs from Pichilemu, O Higgins, Chile, South America

The next chapter of our journey starts in Pucon right in the heart of Southern Chile. It's a very touristic town at the lake Villarica and close to a Vulcano, also called Villarica! The view is really impressive and also staying in tourist trap has its benefits, as there are European style supermarkets, nice restaurants and English speaking people. A visit to the famous Huerquehue National Park was also dedicated to our motto "mucho, mucho nieve"! This time though we didn't get stuck with the car on the way up. We aslo did a guided tour to some vulcano caves which was hm...yeah when you grew up in Austria you have seen more breathtaking caves, but the fact the they were vulcanic still made it worth it. All in all we had some quite relaxed days ... read more

Isla Negra - Aus Faszination an Neruda besuchen wir auch sein "Sommerhaus" an der "Schwarzen Insel" (die genau genommen gar keine Insel ist). Ein beliebtes Ziel für Tagesausflüge, sieht es doch recht selten 3 Europeas 3 Nächte lang am Strand campen. Wir kamen bereits nach Dämmerung an und entschieden uns kurzerhand, unser seit Langem mitgeschlepptes Zelt am Strand aufzustellen. Gott sei Dank kamen die Wellen, die das Erdbeben am Sonntag, dessen Epizentrum in Temuco lag, verursachte, nicht zu uns heran. Sonst wären wir nun etwas näher an Rapa Nui.... Am Abend gingen wir in die einzige Dorfkneipe, wo wir das Nationalgetränk Pisco Sour in allen erdenklichen Varianten probierten (nur, um die in die Knochen kriechende Kälte zu vertreiben, versteht sich!) und trafen dort auf die Dorfjugend! Carmenluz Zickendraht (ja, so heißt das Mädel wirklich!) und ihre ... read more

So yet another week has flown by down here in Chile. I am still very much enjoying the weather, the sun always shines here. I have continued to make new friends and check out the city. With a four hour language class every morning and a 3 hour MBA class 3 evenings a week, I am very glad I chose to drop my other MBA class. This last week was pretty exhausting, but I really learned a lot! My Spanish is improving quickly, I am getting around just fine now with the language. I absolutely love my Negotiations class through the MBA program. My professor is from South Africa and seems very knowledgeable and is quite entertaining, making our 3 hour classes go by quickly. I also enjoy the fact that for the exchange students this ... read more

I got up early on Wednesday because I wanted to run before we left but I didn´t have time :( Christina´s host dad picked me up and took us to the bus station. We left for San Fernando at 10:40am from Concepcion. We knew we could take a bus from San Fernando or Rancagua to Pichilemu but that´s about all we knew. It took about 5 hours to get to San Fernando by bus. We hoped the bus would drop us off at a terminal but no such luck. We were literally dropped off by the side of the road. They told us that the bus station wasn´t too far and they told us where to walk so off we went. It was SO very HOT outside and walking was not fun. We were all over ... read more

Pichilemu is another of those surfing meccas. Ever heard of Punta De Lobos? No nor me, but anyway after 4 hours on the bus we were there. It was like a ghost town, with tumble weed and everything. Pilchilemu is kind of like a Chilean Barry Island. It has a huge beach, with dubious cleanliness and certainly will never win a blue flag award. It is a small town with penny arcades and fruit machines, straight out of the 1970s. It has about 30 empanda shops and chips shops that sell bags of chips in about 20 different sizes depending on how much you want to spend. There are lots of ramshackled run down holiday properties. We had booked into a surf hostel. It was right on the beach and newly built and every room had ... read more