First of all, if you are looking for a few travel buddies in January whilst you are in Chile, let me know! We'd love to meet up and explore with fellow travelers...

Does anyone have any good recommendations for breath taking coastal views/cities sound of Santiago en route to Patagonia? Anything else interesting on the way down south that you'd recommend?

I'm looking at the map and then looking at the blogs...

Coronel and Talcahuano look like nice places to stop, right in the middle.

One person wrote one blog entry from Coronel, where she went to a rodeo: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...30000/tpod.html

And unfortunately there are no entries from Talcahuano, what a great opportunity for you to fill in some gaps for us!

I really really enjoyed Pucon in the lakes district of Chile. I highly recommend it if you like to do volcano trekking, whitewater rafting, or mountain biking. It's like thier litte piece of the Swiss Alps. I'm headed back there in December.

I would recommend Puerto Natale and specifically Torres del Paine...mountains, lakes, and glaciers...it's breathtaking and unlike any other place on earth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_del_Paine_National_Park

I spent a few months traveling Latin America in 2007 and Torres del Paine was hands down one of my favorite places.

My husband and I just arrived in Pucon and we will be here from November through April. We don't know anyone here yet and would love to know some good spots to go and meet people. Maybe the local hang out bar?

Try checking, Virtual Tourist, I see there are 5 members living in Pucon, maybe you could talk to them.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/South...uide-Pucon.html