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Published: December 3rd 2015
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After relaxing in San Pedro for 5 days we had organised ourselves well (we thought) and booked two nights accommodation in Santiago followed by three nights in Pucon, a distance south of the capital. When we arrived, we enquired about the buses between Santiago and Pucon and discovered that the distance was a lot more that I had expected and it took 10 hours to get there, meaning that we needed an overnight bus. So we were very lucky when our Santiago hostel allowed us to cancel the second nights accommodation with no penalty to enable us to maximise our time in the lakes district. Our new arrangement still gave us two days in Santiago and we liked what we saw. It doesn’t resemble Quito or Lima in the slightest, the buildings and roads are well kept; traffic follows the rules and it seems safe to cross the road; people seem busy, like they would in a European city and there is as a functional metro system that we used frequently.
Valparaiso is less than 2 hours away from Santiago, on the coast and we sent a day out there sucking up the bohemian vibe and appreciating the colourful constructions
On the water
Checking out the Chilean Navy built on steep hillsides overlooking the vast Pacific. We had hoped to go up and down some of the funiculars there, but we found that every single one was closed on the day we were there. Never got a good explanation, but had to make it up to Nathan with a boat ride in the harbour. We went up close to some navy ships, seals sunbaking on a buoy and a floating dock where a ship was being repaired.
When we got off the bus at Pucon early in the morning we were impressed by the scenery. We had passed a pretty lake on the way in, but most significant was the snowcapped and smoking volcano that could be seen from all over town. We found very little was open at 8 o’clock, but it wasn’t long before we arranged a hire car for the next three days, a Suzuki Alto (called Swift in Australia). Over the next three days we tested the limits of this make’s capability by driving on dirt roads and up the volcano to the snow line, all with its little pizza cutter wheels.
Our accommodation was just perfect. It had great views of
the lake and the volcano and it had a pool. Pools aren’t useful in the Lakes District, except for a very short summer season which fortunately began when we got there. We have been blessed up to this point in our foray into Chile’s south and I hope that it continues.
We then spent two days in a little village on another lake, Frutillar. This place is known for two things, music and Germanness and comes complete with Lutheran churches and strudel. Germans migrated here centuries ago and the houses and menus still look German. There is also a concert hall that seems very out of place in such a small town. But I guess they fill it, otherwise they wouldn’t have built it. Again the town has brilliant views of a snowcapped cone shaped volcano and this time a nice beach too. I tested the water and found it too cold for swimming in, unlike the group of skinny dippers I spotted the night before.
Our stays in Santiago then the lakes district gave us the feel that we were in the most European part of the continent. People look more European (less indigenous blood here), the
Pucon's volcano
Our suzuki did well to get this far up! language is harder to understand, but it sounds more spanish to me, police look like Italian police and are called carabineros, mountain villages exist primarily to service the winter skiing season, the Germanness of Frutillar and the easy access to good bread from bakeries and supermarkets.
We are now in Puerto Montt for one night before we head further south. We didn’t expect much from Puerto Montt, but tonight we were wowed by the size of the burgers served at Salzburg beerhouse. Leanne has a picture and I expect it is on facebook by now.
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Brian & Margaret Rogers
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Green With Envy
I'm either mouldy or turning green with envy. Love your free-wheeling approach and we both continue to enjoy the virtual journey. Keep those words and pictures coming.