Villarrica and Park Huerquehue

I have completely lost track of time so I can´t tell you exactly when we arrived in Villarrica, but I think it was about a week ago.... Villarrica sits right on the shore of Lake Villarrica with the Villarrica volcano not far away. The beach was huge and gorgeous and stays shallow far into the lake. In the afternoon it is totally crowded with Chilean tourists. January and February is when the kids are off school and the Lake region of Chile is a popular vacation spot. We spent three days here during one of which we took a day trip to Huerquehue National Park.
Lake Villarrica was super calm in the morning. The town was practially empty in the morning too. I spent a lot of quality alone time on the beach reading, meditating, swimming or just gazing out at the mountains across the lake.
These fungi are in the National Park. The flora and fauna of Chile are amazing with such vibrant colours and character. These little guys are teeny tiny. The lens of my camera is almost touching them.
These adorable lizards were everywhere in the park and of all different colours. This one is exceptionally fat and lazy! That´s why I could get close enough to take a decent photo. Amelie had her heart set on catching one, but alas, they were all too fast and it wasn´t until after I´d taken this guys photo that she realized he would have the perfect one. I think she satisfied herself later by petting a snake we found on the trail.
We spent the day hiking in the park. The trail we chose was quite demanding. Straight uphill one way and straight downhill the other. By the end of the day we were both completely enhausted with burning thighs and calves. Here we are on the beach at Lake Villarrica again. We couldn´t resist the Helados (ice cream) at the Chocoaterie near our Hospedaje....mmmm....delicious!
Soon after this we packed up our stuff and headed to the bus station to catch the bus to Puerto Montt only to find that all the buses were full! We learned the hard way that we need to buy our tickets ahead of time.

We made to Conguillio Park thanks to María Isabel and Hector (aquaintances of our hospedaje owner) who happened to own a fundo de madera (wood farm) bordering on the park. Hector drove us in his crazy red pick up to their cozy little wood cabin where we had chatted and had tea with his wife María Isabel (who teaches English in Temuco) in a mixture of Spanish and English. We were given a tour of the property and wood processing facilities (they make wooden planks for coca cola) accompanied by Roméo the black lab and three giant husky type dogs, all incredibly lovable.
We were then led to the park entrance where Hector bargained for us to get into the park half price! The extremely generous couple then drove us through the park close to the giant Lake Conguillio. They even thanked us for having spent time with them and said that we reminded them of our daughters!
Amelie with the Llaima Volcano at Lake Verde.
The Sierra Nevada mountains behind Lake Conguillio. Absolutely incredible! We found a perfect patch of beach where we swam and hang out for a few hours. The water is so pure and clear. The camera couldn´t quite capture the blue green glow of the water.

I noticecd this tarantula hiding out in the log that our clothes were on...

Araucaria trees.... so neat! They are so tall and friendly and everywhere! They reminded us of Tree-beard and the Ents from Lord of the Rings.

It´s a shame that the park is not more accessible to the general public. Since there is no bus it seems to be available only to the few elite who have their own car and can afford to pay the entrance fee.

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.!

Valparaíso

Yesterday we took the bus from Santiago to the coastal port town of Valparaíso. We were all set to hang out in the sun on the beach and were surprised to find gloomy clouds and a cold sea wind. We froze for half the day in our sandals and tank tops until the sun finally came out around 2pm. Here we had our first taste of the real world of Chile outside of the comfy language school where the professors speak super slowly. I think we did well considering we´d only really been speaking Spanish for 5 days!


The sea! The sun had finally come out. There are pelicans chilling on that old port structure.

This is Diego our new friend and server at color café where they serve about 50 different kinds of tea. He sat and chatted with us in Spanish for a while and put together a plan of sites for us to see during our day. He also promised to email us a Chilean - Spanish dictionnary that he put together. We have learned that in Chile they don´t speak Spanish, they speak Chilean so it´s important for us to the learn their unique vocabulary.
We were at color cafe before the sun came out so here is Amélie freezing in her tank!
The city walls are covering with bright colourful murials.
There are TWO cats cuddling in this pot! The town is full of tons of cats and dogs that roam around. The dogs especially are creepily human like.
Another distinctive charactaristic of Valparaíso is is steep, windy roads and pathways. Some parts of the town are so steep that they have nifty elevators to take you up.


Today we´re back in Santiago for our last day with Señora Solice. We just bought our bus tickets to go south to Temuco.

Santiago Photos

The view from Señora Solice´s appartment in Macul.

Roof tops in Macul. There is so much smog that you can barely see the mountains in the distance. Santiago is nestled in among them and the smog clouds get trapped and are always hovering above.
"Passion and force" - in reference to soccer. A store in Macul.
Macul.

Providencia
Providencia. I haven´t figured out how to rotate the picture... any suggestions...?
My Language school in Providencia
Downtown Santiago

Just one of the many dogs that wander the streets of Macul.

Santiago, Chile

On Sunday morning, after 13 hours of airplanes and airports, Amelie and I found ourselves in Santiago, the capital of Chile. We were greeted by a sea of taxi drivers, family members and hosts, including Señora Solice, the mother a Chilean friend of Amelie´s back in Chicoutimi, who we found holding a sign that read "Ameli CANADA". Señora Solice is genrously feeding us and letting us stay in her little appartment in the residential neigbourhood of Macul. The houses of Macul are all quite small and colourful and the dirt roads are surrounded by large beautifully leafy trees. The area is full of children and stray dogs, all of which seem to fill the streets as soon as night falls. Falling asleep is quite a challenge for those of us unacustomed to the constant cry of barking dogs and yelling kids.

Santiagos newest metro line (only one year old!) is quite close to Señora Solice´s appartment making it easy for us to get around. In comparison to Canada, the houses, streets and buildings seem to be from another era, but the sparkling metro (and it really does sparkle) makes the ones in Montréal and Toronto look like the dark ages! My Spanish teacher told me that in 1975 when the first metro line was built, speakers inside the trains played the subliminal message "el metro es de todos cuidero" (the metro is for us all so take care of it). By the time the second line was built in the 80´s, human rights enforcers banned the message. However, a strong impact had already been made on the collective Santiago conscience, and all four metro lines are still, 30 years later, completely spotless!

Yesterday we began five days of Spanish classes at la Ecela Latin Immersion in the neighbourhood of Providencia. The Spanish school is quite nice and confortable with tons of open windows and a great outdoor patio. The students come from all over the place. Amelie and I seem to be among the few Canadians. There are a whole lot of people from Brazil, Switzerland, and Germany.

I´m already getting used to switching from one language to another, speaking to Amelie in French, to other students in the school in English and then in Spanish to everyone else. Amelie and I are trying to speak together in Spanish as much as possible, which is difficult with our limited vocabulary. Our English/Spanish and French/Spanish dictionarries are always close by. Throughout our months here, not only will we both learn tons of Spanish, my French is bound to improve as is Amelie´s English.

Oh, and Chile is NOT in the same time zone as Toronto and Montréal like I thought. It´s two hours ahead... woops!

Photos to come soon...