Temuco and Melipeuco

After Santiago we took a LOOONG overnight but to Temuco, the capital of Region IX of Chile. I found the city quite uninspiring except for the eucalyptus trees in the small concervation area of the city. Here is one of the wonderful smelling cones that fall from the Australian trees. The forest smelt incredible and was full of cute little lizards that Amelie seems to be gifted at spotting.
Here I am on the balcony of our overpriced motel with my hair blowing in the wind... hehe. Thiis the first of many a self portrait to come...
Temuco has apparently changed a lot since both mine and Amelie´s guide books were written since more than half the restaurants and hostels mentioned are no longer there. We spent an exhausting hour and a half treking around town with our heavy packs looking for nonexistant lodging.
Our laundry drying at sunset.

The following we took a ¨1.5 hour¨bus ride (turned out to 3.5) to Melipeuco, the closest town to Conguillio National park where we planned on hiking and swimming. The bus gradually took us farther and farther into the middle of nowhere. We had no idea how small a town we going to. We also had no idea that there was no bus to take the 20 km to the park. It turned out that people either drive their own car or take a taxi which cost 40,000 pesos round trip (about $100 CDN!!). We seriously considered walking, but then it would be another 18 Km or so to actually get anywher inside the park. We then tried to convince some kids to rent us their bikes for the day, but we had no takers....
The Llaima volcano, in the centre of Conguillio Park is the backdrop of the town. We wandered around for the afternoon in awe of the tranquility and grandiosity of the place.

Of course all the dogs came out at night to party and the roosters started cockadoodledoing long before sunrise...
We saw lots of birdies wandering around with the dogs. Chickens, Ducks...even Turkeys.!