Blogs from Chiloé Island, Los Lagos, Chile, South America - page 12

Chiloe, just as all the books will tell you, is really quite different from the rest of Chile in terms of culture, cuisine, topography, etc. If you ever find yourself in the south of Chile, Chiloe is definitely worth a few days...... read more

Nick: Our first view of Villarica was through a veil of rain. We found a spot to sleep and then set to investigating how we were going to discover the delights of Villarica and its surroundings. Our first full day in the area involved firstly scouting the Tourist Office, to no avail as any instructions/advice we were given was lost in the deafening music they had blearing out of the computer. So, we opted for a visit to Pucon, on the opposite shore and at the Volcano's feet. Once there we starting quizzing tour operators for their prices and service. All were pretty similar, except for some difference in prices and we finally chose one company due to a particular extra they provided, but more of that later. We decided to forego an ascent on the ... read more

Un gros hola à tous. Après seulement un peu plus d'une semaine, mes jours au Chili sont comptés. En effet, nous repartons demain pour l'Argentine. San Carlos de Bariloche pour être plus précis. Il parait que ça ressemble à une ville suisse des Alpes, avec les chalets, les chocolateries, la fondue et les Saint-Bernard qui ont un baril dans le cou! Sounds good! Le Chili est souvent laissé de côté par les voyageurs, et j'ai un peu compris pourquoi. Premièrement, c'est de très loin plus coûteux que les autres pays Andins. Mon hamburger-frites-coke à 10$US en est la preuve (oui je l'ai encore sur le coeur...). Les aliments en particulier son aussi chères que chez nous, et même plus parfois. Deuxièmement, ça ressemble vraiment beaucoup à l'Amérique du Nord/Europe et on n'a pas vraiment de dépaysement. ... read more

Today we bit the bullet and ventured out of the comforts of Castro (and our cabana, for that matter). We caught the 2 hour bus to the end of the island. To the southern 'frontier' feeling, thriving port town of Quellon. The journey there gave us a good insight into the lay of the land. A lot, if not all, of the inhabitants of the island live on the east side of the island, due to the more settled weather. We passed ranches, dense forest, seaside towns nestled in secluded coves and many roaming livestock and dogs. Quellon is not all that noteworthy, but it did produce a very pleasant restaurant for us to sample some more local fish. Ed's salmon and Gemma's marluza (or something like that) were delicious. A possible claim to fame that ... read more

Today our mission was to go on, or at least arrange for a future day, a tour to either the National Park on the west coast or somewhere else of interest on the island. However we came across a number of hurdles: a constantly closed tourist office, and a claiming-to-be 'always open' tour operator which was not, with two evil ladies not letting us get or look at a leaflet until the place opened "any time now". Oh and another tour company that is promoted around town - their office is a building site. With no forwarding address. Not being beaten, we tried to arrange to go to the park ourselves - surely it could not be that hard. However, the only bus company - that has one bus a day - never has anyone ... read more