Hotel Libertador Bernardo O`Higgins Chillan

... By now we should have been in about 175 accidents and killed at least 26 kids, 17 cyclists, 15 old ladies, 10 dogs and 8 chickens. However somehow by the GRACE OF GOD (I pray every time I get in the car with Raul) we have left this town without a scratch. It is funny they always want me to sit in the front seat because it is a place of honor, however, seeing my life flash before my eyes on a daily basis in an honor I could do without ...

... here was not what we had anticipated! Anyway this journey went on abit but we did eventually arrive in the paradise town of Chillan. Not really sure what we expected we were just pleased to get off this bus. Chillan is sort of ok it doesn't really offend and is a perfectly good place to break a journey up. But where do you sleep? The trusty guidebook pointed us in a rough direction and off we went we needed cheap very cheap but sadly it ...

... to some other guests that evening, men who are staying in town to help build the Football (soccer) Stadium in preparation for Chile hosting the Women`s World Cup in a month. The other men were working for foresty logging plantations for the region´s paper industry. The workplace health and safety measures in Chile mustn´t be very good, because half of them were on crutches!

... c) we were about to go up a very big mountain with no idea where we would sleep or if indeed there were any hostels etc where we were going and finally d) I badly needed to go to the toilet. For those who´ve suffered my earlier postings, you´ll know that I am not well disposed to asking bus drivers to stop purely for my convenience and consequently the next hour was like a sort of inverted Chinese water torture, whereby the lack of dripping water caused the ...

... of people walking about 10km down the roadside, bringing traffic to a crawl, going to a shrine at the top of a hill. I was surprised that most of the people were quite young - it seemed a very sociable thing to do - you grab a picnic lunch and some friends and make a day of it. There was one guy actually bearing a 2m cross, but it was made of bamboo so I suspect he didn´t really wan´t to know what the burden was really like over that sort of distance.

Pro: small town people are super friendly Con: buses are so infrequent, we had to hitchhike Our hostess at the guesthouse treated us like family. People seem to make extra efforts to be very helpful. We met a local family who used to live in Hayward. For awhile, we felt like we were back in the states speaking in English with people who are familiar with our area. Took a day trip ...

... kiitti, lainasin sulta pari lumikuvaa esitelmaan) ja mun ystavallinen direktori oli selvasti ilmottanut, etten syo lihaa. Elikka toivat mulle ison kanapaistin. No joo, ei ollut ainakaan verta tirskuva sisafilepihvi mita muut soivat... Elikka mun Chilepuhelin on toiminnassa viela 27. joulukuuta asti (Paljon Onnea Vaan mummulle silloin), siihen asti saa soitella ja tekstailla ja sitten otan taas suomipuhelimen kayttoon. Simon tuo myos oman puhelimensa.

... I share the house with a Chilean-Ecuadorian couple. Lovely Marilyn is doing her PhD in engineering and came to Chile as finding work in corrupted Ecuador is not that probable. Juan, his partner is actually Mapuche, not Chilean - one of the rare cases that can read and got a higher education. Two of his siblings stayed to work in the countryside. July, my Ecuadorian housemate is doing a placement at the university ...

... took me to the bus station from the airport and in those 20 minutes the journey took he explained to me the facts behind the September 11th demonstrations, the conditions under dictatorship (you were either left or pro-US), the relationship between Argentina and Chile and problems of Chile´s education system. Gosh they talk fast! He was absolutely lovely and kind-hearted and even offered to organise a mobile phone for me to ...

... dinner with some traditional chillean cuisine and had the pleasure of practically babysittting the 3 year old girl who seemed facinated by us. She was adorable but when it came bed time and she was still awake and playfully jumping on top of us and laughing, i knew i would never have kids. I also can't help but think that the fact she would steal our stuff to make us cahse her and the fact that my sunnies went mysteriously missing might have something in common.