Chillin´in Chilly Chillán

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My last morning in Santiago, I woke early and decided to walk down to the bus terminal with my friends from Quebec who were headed to Pucon that morning. My reason for going was so I would get myself out of the city and finally heading in the right direction, which is south. I am sure my friends thought I would probably stay longer in Santiago, but I noticed a promotion to go to Chillan for 2.000 pesos, so I jumped on this opportunity and bought a ticket for lunch hour which means that I was leaving Santiago! As a little side note here, we walked to the bus station during the morning rush hour and now I recognize the problems with the number of people who take the subway now as they were waiting on the road outside the station waiting to get into it. I can only imagine what it would have been like down below in the station waiting for the subway or even on the subway.

Of course, since this was the day I was leaving Santiago, the sun decided to come out however, this did not cause me to change my mind. After five hours on the bus, I arrived in Chillan in the early evening and found a nice and comfortable room right away. I went to Chillan to see about going to the ski hills outside of it, however, this proved to be a very expensive task outside of high season. The town gave me a chance to relax and kind of reflect on what has been going on in the past month and what I should be doing until my friend arrives. Then some sort of panic hit, realizing everywhere I wanted to go and having to be in Buenos Aires to meet a friend on the 3rd of August. I know the date still seems so far away, but there is lots of stuff that I want to get done before that, such as taking the three-night boat ride (www.navimag.cl) from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales which only leaves on Mondays... that is what got me... it only leaves on Mondays! This was Friday and I figure that I would have to take it the next Monday (10 days from when I thought of this) to be able to travel at a nice pace through Patagonia and Argentina.

Besides pondering on life while visiting Chillan, I did venture through the city some but the whole time, there was rain and/or hail which made it quite unpleasent and cold. I had a really good vegetarian meal at the Arco Iris Restaurant here... I was pleasently suprised by how good the buffet meal was and how attentive the service was. The waitress would come up to me every few minutes and asked me if I had tried a certain dish, and after saying no, she would bring me over some. Luxury buffet I must say, considering she was getting the food for me most of the time... I didn't even have to get out of my seat!

Next on my list of stops, Pucon!

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Photos

Not what I was expecting in Chillán
Across from the bus terminal was this hostel... didn't really meet Canadian standards though.

Bust of Arturo Prat
A war hero that jumped onto a Peruvian ship and tried to sink it with his sword.

Canadian Airlines?
Quite an old sign considering Canadian Airlines is mentioned and they haven't existed since the merger with Air Canada in 2000.