Jason Harley's Corner of the Web

We arrived safe in Santiago - a sprawling mass of city in a valley surrounded by the snow capped Andes. We flew in to the Chilean Capital over the Andes which meant a steep decent in the plane but a stunning first view, followed by a welcome second view of our luggage at the airport.

Our 3 nights in the capital of Chile were spent at the Hostal Rio Amazonas a freindly place, so friendly infact, we helped out with the power cut and leaking roof during the first night storm

It feels very much like a Spanish City with the hussle and bussle that would be expected. The people are happy, despite some obvious poverty, and eager to talk in broken english - good luck we´re eager to talk back in broken spanish! In a competition they would win, but my Spansih is improving by the dia (day).

Everything is very cheap with most things 1/4 of the price of the UK, while this is great the temptation has been to drink 4 times as much Cristal Beer with the universal effect. A 3 course lunch yesterday cost 1.85 pounds each

We have spent most our time here sight seeing. The Cerro is a 70m cone shaped mountain in the middle of the city that giving some impressive views over toward the Andes. We also climbed to the top of the Virgin Mary (I think every South American city has a hill especially built for these statues) in Parque Metropolitano CLICK THE TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THEIR WEBSITE FOR VIDEO EXPERIENCE.

Tonight we move south on an overnight train to Temuco (12 hours), which is the gateway to the Chilean Lake District, we plan to get a bus to Puerto Montt (5 hours) in the morning, and set up base for a few days of exploring.

Santiago to Puerto Montt ?25th April 2004

Our luck with electricity continued on the night train to Temuco, as 20 minutes into the journey on the engine had an electrical failure. We got to Temuco 1 ?hours late arriving at 9am, we were offered a free return journey ?no good to us. On the train we met a nice Chilean man called ´Francisco?who offered us a lift from the train station to the bus terminal (5km).

The bus from Temuco to Puerto Montt took 6 hours (5 pounds) and we eventually found a room in the Hostal Pacifico near the centre of the town.

Puerto Montt ?26th April 2004 to 28th April 2004

A great base for exploring the local area but Puerto Montt is a basic seaside resort ?a little bit like Rhyll without the Kiss Me Quick hats. We spent the first day planning, washing clothes and catching up with e-mails. We booked 2 tours with a lovely woman Emma?one to the Volcanoes and the other to the island of Chiloe.

Empanadas

Chilean fast food is excellent and one highlight is the Empanada. Costing about 40p each it’s a pastry envelope filled with steak, egg, raisons, olives and onions. They come in several verities ?one is a potato cake filled with meat, the other is a heavy bread folded over containing pork scratching. Not the healthiest of options but filling and delicious.

Area around Puerto Montt

If you want to imagine this place then take the best of the countryside in Wales, add in our Lake District, several volcanoes and a few wild llamas. Now imagine everything 100 years ago when the land was worked by hand and introduce a touch of Jurassic Park. It is truly and amazing place with the views across lakes and traveling for miles without seeing another person.

Volcano trip

Our first stop was Lago (Lake) Llanquihue ?the 3rd largest in South America at 186 km round. We visited the Puyehue National Park to see the waterfalls and had lunch on the banks of a lake surrounded by volcanoes. We stopped in Puerto Varas, with its Casino, it stands out as the rich Chileans Holiday play ground.

Chiloe ?28th April 2004 to 30th April 2004

For our second trip we had decided to visit this beautiful island an hour away from Puerto Montt. We joined the official tour but had arranged that we would make our own way back as we wanted to stay on the island and do some exploring.

We met Hugo and his sisters, who were on holiday from the North of Chile and with a Spanish / English dialect we learnt a lot about Chile and the local area.

Seaweed is farmed on the beaches next to pink flamingoes and the sleepy fishing villages with houses on stilts and steep hills are quite stunning.

We left the main tour and got a hostal ( Quelcun ?6 pound a night) in Castro before making it to Achao on the Island of Quinchao for a few hours.

Chiloe National Park

The idea of staying on Chiloe was to visit the national park and get to the Pacific Ocean. Our ´guide?was Eamon and we visited Chonchi, Lago Huillinco and Cucao. Lunch was freshly caught Salmon before we walked through the Park to the beach.

Chiloe (Chile) to Bariloche (Argentina) ?30th April 2004

The bus from Castro back to Puerto Montt (4 hours) then another bus to Bariloche (6 hours). We have now left Chile and have arrived in Argentina.