Four Points Los Angeles

So Monte Aguila, Have any of you ever seen a film called U-Turn? It stars Sean Penn and I think a supporting role with Nick Nolte, its quite a cool little flick really. No? well go down to blockbuster and rent it then come back. Done watching it? Ok so now you've seen what Monte Aguila is like. It appears that it could have been a grand town once. The deserted train station ...

We left Puerto Varas at 9am and headed off to Frutillar. This is a highly German influenced town - once again, I tried not to mention World Cups and wars!! It was a nice place though, right on the shores of Llanquihue Lake. We stopped here for cake and coffee (6 of us now, including driver and guide) overlooking the lakeside beach. We did go for a stroll on the beach but decided that the water was far too cold and it was far too early for a ...

Today we drove to Nahuelbuta National Park. Yesterday while walking around Concepcion discussing the local flora, I mentioned the Brazilian Monkey Puzzle tree (remembering the beautiful specimen in the Brazilian Ambassador's residence in Canberra). Ricardo knew the tree I meant and pointed out the Chilean species. The park we visited today was created to preserve the largest forest ...

The following morning our small group headed off for a long day of driving. We broke up the morning with a few stops around lake Llanquihue. The two Germans were very excited when we stopped at Frutillar as the town is very German. There were German looking houses ...

... same time. Robert & I returned to Las Lajas 12 years after our initial visit and were rewarded with some incredible natural beauty. Boardo & I tried to climb Volcan Antuco (11,500 ft). LEFT FOTO: Us on the trail at about 10k feet overlooking the dazzling Laguna Laja. RIGHT FOTO: Us at about 10,500 feet (where we had to turn around due to shifting terrain). LEFT FOTO ...

Whew! I am exhausted upon my return from Concepcion. I had an amazing time, but am glad to be back in Pichilemu and sad that I only have 3 weeks here before leaving again. We worked so hard everyday from 10am to 10 at night. There was a lot of Spanish and little translation, so needless t say, my Spanish has improved, though this certainly added to my exhaustion. Learnign a foreign language on top to everything else I was doing can really take it out of you. Let me ...

Hi there, yes you guessed it I am back in Chile. Not sure if there is a limit to how many time you can cross over but still. Rather than staying in a central hostel in Pucon we decided to stay on the outskirts on a farm. (You know to get away from the stress and strain of city life - ha ha!) We took a few trips into Pucon, it is small but nice. There is lots to do around here, sadly the bad weather prevented us doing them as they were not running the activities ...

Hello to all! So I have been in Concepcion since Saturday, staying with a lovely family who are members of the church my group is currently working with. There are 3 daughters, 21, 25, and 28. the 28 yr is married with a 8 yr old daughter. They all live together in a 3.5 bedroom house. They are so generous. chilean culture is amazing when it comes to hospitality. Another American girl is staying with me at this house and our family works so hard to make us comfortable ...

We finally made it to Chile where we had booked to stay in a hostel on farm, as some of you know I love animals so I was very excited. When we arrived we got showed to our room and then went downstairs to sit in front of a roaring fire, yes you guessed it, it was raining outside! I then got offered a cup of tea which was lovely! We chatted for a bit with the other guest, a Swedish guy, then the three of us hopped onto a bus to the nearby town Pucon. After pottering round Pucon we ...

Arrived on nightbus to Pucon this morning....THE place for young Chileans to party and to see and be seen! The town has the look and feel of an Austrian village. All the buildings made of pine and very upmarket- it was time to get physical again and what a place to do it! Went zip lining up to 130m above the trees- longest line was 1km...very cool ...