Santiago and South

After a two week stay in Santiago, we hired a car for a further two weeks to explore the regions south. As you can probably imagine we have spent A LOT of time in buses over the past 9 months, and decided to splurge a little on a rental car to get off the main highways for a change.

It took two days for us to get into the rhythm of things... the first day of freedom with the car we drove about 2 hours into the hills, only to find a dead-end, and all accommodation closed down for the winter season. Disappointed, we shuffled back out to the highway, only to stay in a town that was really ugly and rather uninteresting (Talca).

The second night we decided to book ahead our accommodation (to avoid the same disappointment as the previous day), which worked fantastic for us until we pulled up outside the most feral looking hostel I have ever seen. We pulled away ready to ignore our reservation, but as it turned out all of the decent hostels in town were booked out. We returned with our heads held low, but thankfully the private rooms out the back were a little happier looking than the dilapidated old facade.

We decided that booking ahead was still the way to go in southern Chile, and the following morning we read about a lovely little town a little further south near Angol. We called them up, told them we would be there in the late afternoon, and drove along on our merry away.

The southern part of Chile is absolutely beautiful, we are constantly in awe of the huge snow capped mountains, green fields and abundance of water. The area around Angol was no different, it was extremely beautiful countryside. We pulled up at our reserved accommodation at about 4pm, only to find it all locked up, and located inside a little commune. The security guard directed us to somebody who spoke English, and we began to troop around the commune looking for the person that had accepted our booking that morning. In the end we couldn't find anybody that could help us, but the security guard gave us a set of keys and said we could stay there anyway. We ended up staying in a huge old empty rundown farm house in the middle of the commune, in countryside that had suddenly changed from absolutely stunning to a little scary! I felt like we could be in the middle of a horror story.

Fortunately we awoke with no dramas the next morning, to find coffee, fresh bread, and finally somebody who was expecting us! After not much delay, we packed up our things and headed off to our next destination, Pucón.

Once again at lunch time we were troubled by the lack of picnic areas in Chile. In Australia they seem to be every couple of hundred meters on scenic roads, but we struggled to find any. We pulled over onto the side of the road to munch on our water cracker and tinned tuna lunch.

Pucón is a pretty little town, with a lot of European influence, settled in between a huge lake and a huge volcano. Since we had already spent a heap of money hiring the car, we decided against paying more to climb the volcano, and settled on visiting some nearby waterfalls. Again, we couldn't believe how much water there is in Chile.

The next few days it rained and poured, so we were caught up indoors. One day we tried to venture out to some thermal springs, but there was too much water on the roads for us to get far. We stayed in Pucón three nights before we gave up on the wet weather, and headed further south to the town of Valdivia.

Valdivia is on the coast, and the best thing about the town was the sea lions lazing around on it's shores. (We didn't make it to the distillery, Valdivia is also known for it's beer in Chile).

One night was enough in Valdivia, and we continued our expedition further south to the island of Chiloé. We took the car on a ferry just south of Puerto Montt to Chacao, and then stopped for the night in a comfortable little guesthouse in Ancud. Two nights were enough in this funny little fisherman's village (which reminded us of the Old Gregg episode from the Mighty Boosh, complete with fishermen pubs and weird fishmen folklore tales).

We visited an old Spanish fort near Ancud, which turned into more of an adventure than we were anticipating. We were planning for it to just be a quick trip, but unfortunately the roads were really muddy and we had to leave the car 8km away from the fort. We decided to walk, but the maps we had were really inaccurate. Eventually we found it hidden down an un-signposted road, but by this stage most of the excitement had worn off, and we were dreading the walk back to the car and the approaching night-fall. Thankfully 3km down the road a big old bus came rumbling along, and we gladly hitched a car back to our stranded car. It ended up being quite a big day, and we're not sure how we would have coped with the cold if we were still walking after sunset. But another good day in Chile.

From Ancud to Castro we explored the north eastern coast of the island, mainly trying to get a look at the old wooden churches the island is best known for, and the sleepy fishing villages. We had a hearty lunch in a place that looked like it doesn't see too many tourists, while an old fisherman talked to us about something or other in rambling, drunken Spanish (we think)...

In Castro (the main hub on the island of Chiloé) we stayed in a gorgeous guesthouse on stilts over the water. The waterways around Castro are lined with these old houses clinging to the banks, making the town quite unique to other Chileno townships. It was pretty miserable weather outside, so we were glad to have somewhere cozy to spend the next few days.

On the first day in Castro we visited another smaller island, that had a few nice wooden churches, particularly one that had intricate painted wooden sculptures. We also chased after an elusive water wheel on the island, but never really found it.

Castro is as far south as we will go in Chile, and today we returned north to the town of Puerto Varas. It is too windy and cold to do much outside, so that is why I spent the afternoon writing this massive blog to keep you all up to date!