VALDIVIA

Arrived here after a long day of bus journeys from Bariloche in Argentina via Osorno and were really pleased that we made the effort. We could tell instantly that the town had a good feel to it and looked forward to exploring the next day. It was also lovely that we seemed to be off the `beaten tourist track` for a change.
A great place to visit is the fish market where you can watch the sea lions and cormorants waiting to get the cast offs from the fishmongers as they prepare their stalls in the morning.... a bit smelly but a great spectacle. The museum too is well worth a visit and sets the scene nicely giving a good insight into the formation of Valdivia. The highlight, however, has to be the Kunstmann Brewery about 5 kms out of town ...... the beer here is truly outstanding and the meal we had was excellent (deer steak and spatzle for me, Pork medallions for Emma)..... whats more is that they have decent size glasses (by which I mean 1 litre glasses). After sampling all the varieties of beer that they had to offer, Emma and I stumbled our way back to our room and slept soundly until the next day

PUCON

We picked up our car from Avis in Valdivia and headed up into the lake district of Chile to enjoy the spectacular scenery. Taking our time we headed to Pucon via Panguapilli and Lican Ray. On a whim we took a left turn just outside Pucon and we arrived at the lake front where we rented an 8 person log cabin, right on the lakeside of Lago Villarica, complete with jacuzzi and view of a smoking, snow capped volcano. The place was fantastic and we could quite happily imagine living there. Spent 7 very relaxing days using this as our base but never venturing too far as we simply enjoyed drinking a bottle of wine on the veranda watching the sun go down. It even came complete with a cat ......... what more could we ask for. Also a great place to celebrate Tony`s birthday.

We did venture out to `Thermas geometricas` 17kms up an extremly bumpy track through the hills near the town of Conaripe. Worth knackering the car for as we saw some great views (passing farmers using oxen to pull their carts) and then spent 5 hours sitting in amazing volcanic heated thermal baths that were beautifully created - using grey slate and wooden platforms to great effect. Even after all that time soaking - didnt get too prune like due to the high mineral content of the water.

SANTIAGO

From Pucon we drove to Temuco where we dropped the car off before catching a bus upto Santiago. We had heard several reports from people telling us that Santiago is not a place to linger but we found the place to be lovely..... just the right mix of history, facilities, views and modernity together with very Parisianesque boulevards and street performers. Our impression of the place was enhanced by the fact that on our second night we crowded into the main plaza (Plaza de Armas)and sat in the bandstand drinking wine and watching a free, open air Placido Domingo concert ..... this is what long holidays are about ... all the unexpected extras. Santiagio itself has some great museums, the most notable of which is the pre'colombian museum ... spent hours here just staring at the craftsmanship and beauty of the artefacts. Also tried a traditional Chilean drink called mote con husillo - simply a fruit juice drink with corn at the bottom and quite frighteningly on first seeing it.. a dried peach that floats to the top! There are also several great vantage points in Santiago where you can admire the cities stunning position at the foot of the Andes .... we were blessed with clear, smog free days which, we were told was unusual for the time of year.

SANTIAGO (again)

Flight back to Santiago on the 20th March and we arrived at 8.00pm. We then had one of those dilemmas since our flight to La Paz left at 7am the next morning. Do we go into the city or do we have our first airport overnighters...we chose the latter and found a quiet spot up on level 2!