Chillan

---

Wednesday we caught a bus out of Santiago to Chillan in the hope of getting to Las Trancas to do some hiking. Bus journey great but went downhill when we arrived in Chillan - what a shock that was!! Realised we'd been spoilt up to now as Chillan was the "real" South America! Hadn't managed to book hostel before we left so had fun tasking of trying to find something. The HI one in Las Trancas was still being built & we didn't want to risk another 90 bus journey to discover nowhere to stay when we got there so we decided to brave Chillan & ended up staying in Hostel Canada. Rooms were clean but shower was shared with ants. They even found there way into my hair during the night! Owner was a sweet lady who had a n ugly yapping poodle but also a cute cat. We were able to sit on terrace at night surronded by drying washing & looking down onto overgrown garden. Very noisy first night with yapping poodle & noise from people paying pool just down road. Got up early next day to catch bus to Las Trancas which is stunning place at base of volacano & there were plenty of places to stay - shame we had to go back to Chillan! Anyway - did great walk around volacano & part-way up mountain. Photos on flickr! If we were to do this again would definitely stay in Las Trancas as Chillan pretty awful & no decent places to eat unless you like fast food!

---