Hotel Paso Nevado Chillan

... with us but on the weekends she visits one of her other 3 children that live in Parral. She has a house build just a few minutes’ walk from Jaun’s backdoor. The house is small but very spacious. I have never seen anything like Chilean this homes. You think you are walking into a hut and the next thing you know the room just grows; like walking through the wardrobe to Narnia. With a mega watt smile Jaun shows me his father ...

Day 14 - 18 hours in Chillan Tur-Bus seems to be a good outfit and we have had no problems with getting anywhere as yet. So after checking out of the great place that had been home for 2 days it was down to the bus station for 9am and our bus south. Today was the test run the new flasks and the hope of saving money by not having to buy coffee all day? Our journey would take about 7 hours mainly down the Pan-American Highway with occasional ...

... Santiago to stay with Ana's friends, this is in the heart of the Maule Valley which is the best Chilean wine area. Tomorrow I'm going it alone for a few days and traveling much further south to Pucon, the adventure capital of Chile, I plan (if the weather is good enough) to climb up the Volcano Villarrica (2850m), it´s a 6 hour climb to the top and should be quite exciting i think! Let see how i manage all by myself......

... until we got to the slopes, paid our $100 dollars for the daily lift pass, spent $40 on a hamburger lunch in The Man´s one and only restaurant on the mountain, and then hiked half way home with ski boots on and skis over my sholder because I couldn´t get a lift back. Rough with the smooth, I guess. Skiing bit (non-skiers/boarders may want to stop reading if you haven´t already, though I would like to think it offers a little something for everybody) Like ...

... swearing and shouting. It took a while to realise but thats why it was so pleasant. Outside the Andes emerged through the haze, and closer at hand, dusty black grapes hung from rusty vines. The Mediterrean scenery slowly turned more temperate as we haeded south and, when they were out of view, the only clue to the existence of the nearby Andes were the numerous flat, wide and dry ...

... of the day, with bread and a side salad, costs about US$3, which is the same as an average loaf of sliced bread here. Even more surprising then, is the lack of variety on offer in restaurants - in one place a salad consisted of a line of sliced tomato, a line of boiled corn, and a line of boiled peas (boo!). Salads don´t seem to get much more exciting than that. Coffee means Nescafe - black, or Nescafe latte from a machine if you go somewhere ...

... laughed and made friends with people I would never meet in normal life -wanted to buy a hammock and live in a dream world -wondered how men´s brain works (why the lack of emails and texts Pups) -had lots of time to think and read books -worked hard in the newspaper (kylla nain on, en vain lomaile taalla!) -taken lots of pictures -been happy to be able to experience all this -spent hours, days on buses travelling from one place to another, looking ...

... que es una minoría de gente la que tiene armas en su casa; en Finlandia las armas son para cazar, no para defenderse. La gente no duerme con las armas al lado de su cama como en Estados Unidos. De hecho, casi no hay en el mercado negro, aunque también es cierto que es fácil obtener un permiso para la tenencia de armas, sobre todo si tienes licencia para cazar o eres miembro de un club de armas. Hoy, muchos años después y a miles de kilómetros de ...

... again! Today a photo of me appeared in the newspaper and the local radio station wants to interview me - my 15 minutes of fame in Chillán. Let´s see if people stare at me less. The Chileans are a bit like Finns - they just stare without a smile, without saying a word. I feel like at home again! My mobile phone number is +56978726668 - feel free to give me a ring or text but note the time difference!

... we could not believe the season wasn't open. Just walking through the village required us trudging through literally knee deep snow. If th conditions were like this in Aus it would probably be the best season ever recorded. We spent some time playing in the snow and shaking trees so we got covered in snow... and then we found the thermal bath. Our book said these baths cost about $20US to go in but since the season hadn't opened there wasn't really anyone around ...