A downtown shopping mall like the Guggenheim museum.
A statue of a Mapuche Indian istead of a Spanish general!Sorry, no picture of the wonderful hotel!
Sunday, Nov. 14
We leave Santiago for the southern city of Temuco. We are on the lower level of the bus so we can have the semi-cama seats, which have a rest for your legs. What we do not realize is that we do not get fed on this bus. It takes six hours, from 10 a.m. until 4 pm. Luckily, as usual, I have my brightly coloured Peruvian bag with water and food within. We manage on crackers and fruit. We are sometimes on a prisoner’s diet.
The Andes are to our east and we see snow-capped mountains that all look like volcanoes. We travel through wine country. I knit - I’m working on my socks so I can leave Cathy’s in Canada when we go “down-under” again. I watch some movies which have both Spanish sub-titles and Spanish voice dubbing. They don’t always use the same words! Peter mostly reads his Kindle. I think we both snooze a little as we were up quite early.
The bus depot in Temuco turns out to be only a couple of blocks from the Holiday Inn Express. We are not downtown, but we are in luxurious digs. I could get used to this even if the bank account couldn’t.
There is no restaurant in the hotel, but they have a small tienda where they have pre-cooked meals, on real plates, that they will microwave for you. Once we are settled, we go down and order the lasagne dinner with wine - for you know who - and cervesa for his nibs. We sit in the café area, that they use for the breakfast, to eat our dinner and then take the remains of our drinks to our rooms. Ours is a deluxe room with a lovely corner window. It will be easy to sleep tonight in the king-sized bed under a beautifully-comfortable duvet.
Monday, Nov. 15.
We notice what appears to be a store behind the hotel and local buses coming regularly to a stop. After the fabulous spread which will do for breakfast and for lunch, we strike out to see the town. We have a photocopied map of the downtown area. Our hotel isn’t even on it, but the main road that passes in front is there.
When we get around the block, we see that it is some kind of medical clinic in the building that at one time was a super mercado. The bus is the #7 and, yes, it goes to el centro. Instead of paying $8 to get downtown, we pay about $1.50 - in the hundreds of Chilean pesos.
Our main task is to go to the Sky airlines office to book our flight from Santiago to Arica next week. Easy. Just follow the map, speak Spanglish, pay the money, and it is all done. Now we walk to the downtown bus depot from which buses go to Pucon at least every half hour. We get a ticket to take us there tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. It is only a two-hour trip, so we decide we will sleep in for a change.
We venture through the Mercado Central, always a must in any Latin American city. Lots of meat stores, craft stalls, and eateries. It is such fun. It is lucky I have no room in the suitcases or I would have ten pounds of woollen yarn. It is all so unique and the colours are wonderful. We wander many side streets towards an area where the night clerk said there are lots of restaurants. We are in the university area. Many of the restaurants are closed until evening. We have a little food in the backpack, so we sit in a tiny park area and have a snack and a drink of water.
We wander back to the area where we got the bus into town and Peter tries to communicate with a #7 driver about getting back. The driver is not helpful, so we decide to await the next bus. Within five minutes, another comes along and I clamber on and ask about the stop we want. Yes, he goes there. The little bus is quite full, so I stand while the bus starts on its way and Peter pays. Before we get to the next stop a lady, about the age of our kids, gets up to give me - the old lady - a seat. I graciously accept. I don’t feel as old as I am, but if someone is going to be so nice as to give me a seat, that’s fine. We have not had this courtesy since Bolivia.
I’m glad we do not have too much time in Temuco. We did not take a taxi to the top of the hill where there is a Mapuche statue etc., but that is the only tourist interest in town. The place is one of the fastest growing cities in Chile, but, at the moment, it has little of interest.
Once we get back to the hotel, we decide to walk a while and see if we can find a restaurant. There is one only 10 minutes away that is called Pura Carne. Sounds like beef! We look at the menu and decide to return for dinner. This turns out to be a good move as we both have a nice meal.
We have booked the Holiday Inn on our way back north, so we are not sad about leaving! In the morning we are off to Pucon and the Volcan Villarrica. It is so much fun anticipating and having no idea what to expect!
We leave Santiago for the southern city of Temuco. We are on the lower level of the bus so we can have the semi-cama seats, which have a rest for your legs. What we do not realize is that we do not get fed on this bus. It takes six hours, from 10 a.m. until 4 pm. Luckily, as usual, I have my brightly coloured Peruvian bag with water and food within. We manage on crackers and fruit. We are sometimes on a prisoner’s diet.
The Andes are to our east and we see snow-capped mountains that all look like volcanoes. We travel through wine country. I knit - I’m working on my socks so I can leave Cathy’s in Canada when we go “down-under” again. I watch some movies which have both Spanish sub-titles and Spanish voice dubbing. They don’t always use the same words! Peter mostly reads his Kindle. I think we both snooze a little as we were up quite early.
The bus depot in Temuco turns out to be only a couple of blocks from the Holiday Inn Express. We are not downtown, but we are in luxurious digs. I could get used to this even if the bank account couldn’t.
There is no restaurant in the hotel, but they have a small tienda where they have pre-cooked meals, on real plates, that they will microwave for you. Once we are settled, we go down and order the lasagne dinner with wine - for you know who - and cervesa for his nibs. We sit in the café area, that they use for the breakfast, to eat our dinner and then take the remains of our drinks to our rooms. Ours is a deluxe room with a lovely corner window. It will be easy to sleep tonight in the king-sized bed under a beautifully-comfortable duvet.
Monday, Nov. 15.
We notice what appears to be a store behind the hotel and local buses coming regularly to a stop. After the fabulous spread which will do for breakfast and for lunch, we strike out to see the town. We have a photocopied map of the downtown area. Our hotel isn’t even on it, but the main road that passes in front is there.
When we get around the block, we see that it is some kind of medical clinic in the building that at one time was a super mercado. The bus is the #7 and, yes, it goes to el centro. Instead of paying $8 to get downtown, we pay about $1.50 - in the hundreds of Chilean pesos.
Our main task is to go to the Sky airlines office to book our flight from Santiago to Arica next week. Easy. Just follow the map, speak Spanglish, pay the money, and it is all done. Now we walk to the downtown bus depot from which buses go to Pucon at least every half hour. We get a ticket to take us there tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. It is only a two-hour trip, so we decide we will sleep in for a change.
We venture through the Mercado Central, always a must in any Latin American city. Lots of meat stores, craft stalls, and eateries. It is such fun. It is lucky I have no room in the suitcases or I would have ten pounds of woollen yarn. It is all so unique and the colours are wonderful. We wander many side streets towards an area where the night clerk said there are lots of restaurants. We are in the university area. Many of the restaurants are closed until evening. We have a little food in the backpack, so we sit in a tiny park area and have a snack and a drink of water.
We wander back to the area where we got the bus into town and Peter tries to communicate with a #7 driver about getting back. The driver is not helpful, so we decide to await the next bus. Within five minutes, another comes along and I clamber on and ask about the stop we want. Yes, he goes there. The little bus is quite full, so I stand while the bus starts on its way and Peter pays. Before we get to the next stop a lady, about the age of our kids, gets up to give me - the old lady - a seat. I graciously accept. I don’t feel as old as I am, but if someone is going to be so nice as to give me a seat, that’s fine. We have not had this courtesy since Bolivia.
I’m glad we do not have too much time in Temuco. We did not take a taxi to the top of the hill where there is a Mapuche statue etc., but that is the only tourist interest in town. The place is one of the fastest growing cities in Chile, but, at the moment, it has little of interest.
Once we get back to the hotel, we decide to walk a while and see if we can find a restaurant. There is one only 10 minutes away that is called Pura Carne. Sounds like beef! We look at the menu and decide to return for dinner. This turns out to be a good move as we both have a nice meal.
We have booked the Holiday Inn on our way back north, so we are not sad about leaving! In the morning we are off to Pucon and the Volcan Villarrica. It is so much fun anticipating and having no idea what to expect!
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