Plaza Talca

... Today we were on our own armed only with enthusiasm and wit. Luckily Sebastian knows a little English (and I do mean a little) and my Spanish comprehension has improved.

We move on the Plaza de Armas, which is in the center of the city; I find out that every city in Chile has the same plaza (with the same name) they were set up by the Spanish as the central point of traffic. The path through the Plaza leads to one of the city’ ...

... ways, with intentions to meet again.... I expected sunny beach town, and got grey skies, deserted streets and a post holiday blues... this was the last weekend before chilians returned to school after thier summer holidays and the depression and back to school attitude was totally tangible! i arrived at the hostel i was staying at, which was a converted old boat on a rock point, literally no one was there, and ...

Tuesday 3rd February - Day 21 - At Sea Last night we had our fifth time change in five days - we are now 10 hours behind GMT. As the body clocks are continuing to adjust to the time changes, we were both awake early so I decided to head off to the gym and attend one of the classes whilst Nick got himself organised. On reaching the gym just before 7am, and expecting to have to wait for a few minutes ...

... out on their long boat to collect some provisions from us - they did not want to risk taking the virus back to the island. The evenings entertainment was once again a compilation of artists - Milt Abel, the comedian and Sean O'Shea the impressionist. This was followed later in the evening by a film "Married life" starring Pierce Brosnan - not one that is going to win any awards but it made a break from the usual routine.

... throat, and flames no longer shot out of my nose when I exhaled. Next up was the town of Vicuna, where we found nothing much more than a central Plaza and a market. Nik and Jasimma had already seen the town on a previous tour, and as such, were even less enthralled than I was. They commented that it was boring the first time, and even worse the second time. Lunch was at a solar restaurant - nothing overly high-tech as you might expect, but rather simple ...

Last week week we spent 2 days in Vine Del Mar. We stayed right on the side of the mountain over looking the ocean. Our place was quite small and only for preparing small meals or snacks. We spent the first day at the beach. The water was freezing and i barely put a toe in. After a while Noah got used to the huge waves and was comfortable enough to jump the waves as they broke on the shoreline. Sienna didnīt put so much as a baby toe in the water ...

... wir noch einen toll aussehenden Donut (entpuppt sich als halb so lecker wie er aussieht) und um 9.30 Uhr sitzen wir im Bus nach Talca. Die Landschaft veraendert sich immer mehr. Ab und zu koennte man fast meinen man waere am Niederrhein. Gegen 14.00 Uhr kommen wir in Talca an und finden Unterkunft in dem wirklich netten Hostel "Los Castaņos". Wir gehen Mittagessen, denn wir habe einen Baerenhunger und immerhin ist es schon 17.00 Uhr. Wir versuchen dann ein Touristeninfobuero zu ...

... as having over 100 hectares of vines, where they produce lots of wines, mostly reds, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot etc. After our tour, which was completly in Spanish ( we did not understand everything, but manged to get the jist of what she was saying!) , we had tastings of two reds, one merlot and one Colombie. They were both good, but we prefered the Colombie, so we decided to buy a bottle of that to drink later on. The grounds of the property, as well as the rooms were stunning ...

... in getting through. When we did the hostel told us that they had gone to a different bus station to pick us up! We admitted defeat and got a taxi after waiting for 45minutes. The hostel was right out in the countryside miles from the town but was in a very beautiful location overlooking the valley and mountains. What really topped off the annoyance factor is that all these delays meant that Carolyn was not able ...

... very early to take the 7:00am bus from Talca to Vilches, a small alpine village. From here we entered the Vilches National Park and did a half day hike. The snow was powdery and Cameron and I had a great time following other peopleīs snow footprints up to Eagleīs Point vista. (We had a map handdrawn by the Ranger but it was useless). The view was so rewarding. We could see up to a waterfall, a falcon even cruised past, and to the west we could see the ...