Blogs from Araucanía, Chile, South America - page 34

We only really had time to visit one place in Chile besides Santiago, and when you scroll through the lonely planet to decide which tourist saturated place to go next, Pucon definatley was a standout.... After 5 short days in Venezuela at Isla Margarita, living life in the sun and sand, we decided that it was time to crack out the ¨sloppy joes¨ theres some aussie for ya, and head south to colder lands, Chile to be exact. Santiago was great, saw a lot more of it that i did last time, b-dog dragged me to a house of a famous poet whose name escapes me, funnily enough...haha never have been much of a bookworm. Anyway after dinner one night we were taking a stroll to the hostel from the place we ate, with a litre ... read more

Spent Sunday hiking the Parque Nacional Huerquehue (don´t try to pronounce it). Got my first glimpse of wild Monkey Puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana), interspersed with stands of evergreen coigue (Nothofagus dombeyi) and the deciduous lenga (Nothofagus sp.). The lakes were crystal clear and as cold as ice. At one point hiking up the mountain we were trekking through snow, which was unexpected. Halfway down the mountain on the other side to the lakes, we spotted two coipo, a beaver-like animal, but with a long tail instead of a fat, padded one. They were moving grasses and rushes from within the lake to the edge, presumably to build a den. The only other wildlife spotted were a few birds and lizards. Spent the night in a refugio - I had visions of an Australian-style apline hut, i.e. ... read more

Hola! Yes I actually got on the plane and made it to Santiago. Santiago is not for the faint-hearted, and I probably wouldn´t recommend it as a first stop for the amateur traveller. It´s noisy, polluted and ful of both conmen and stray dogs (the dogs are slightly less dangerous). There´s really only so much you can do in Santiago - I was there for four days, and that was enough. Sites visited: (i)Cerro Santa Lucia - a big hill in the centre of town with a rabbit warren of narrow paths and even narrower flights of slippery stone stairs. There are a few good photo opportunities; on a clear day (not often) you can actually see the Andes mountian range, complete with snow year-round. (ii) Mercado Central, or town market - is extremely busy, but ... read more

Nadie protege el medio ambiente en Chile Las irregularidades del caso CELCO están deslegitimando seriamente la institucionalidad ambiental y exponiendo a Chile al descrédito internacional y a las sanciones que estipulan los tratados ambientales y de libre comercio. Por Manuel Gross Osses “Matar, matar, que el mundo se va a acabar” piensan los malformados cerebrales que no son sólo los patanes que apedrean a los cisnes que llegan al lago Villarrica sino que también muchos grandes empresarios cuyo único fin es acrecentar sus utilidades y un gran abanico de autoridades incapaces de legislar, de fiscalizar y ni siquiera capaces de sancionar. El daño ambiental al Santuario de la Naturaleza Carlos Andwanter fué denunciado por los ecologistas en junio de 2004, y luego confirmado por el estudio de la Universidad Austral encargado por la CONAMA. El Informe ... read more

I am now in the little town on Pucon in Chile. The main attraction here is the Villarica Volcano, a perfect cylindrical volcano like Mt Fuji in Japan. For some silly reason, we climbed it yesterday, but it was fantastic! We were supposed to go the day before but got up for the 8am start (almost killed me!) only to get there and be told by our guide that it was too cloudy and dangerous so we had to put the trip off until the next day! Yesterday started off REALLY windy, so our guide didn't decide until 11am we could go. Were supposed to set off walking at 9am, but didn´t set off until 12.30, which meant we had major time constraints. Therefore, we were dragged up at the speed of lightening. Or group had ... read more