We were crossing our fingers that the weather would be better and that we'd be able to stay in Pucon for another day to climb the volcano but it wasn't better so we headed off to Valdivia. On the way we stopped at a lake made of lava (no longer running of course) and saw a town that was destroyed when the lava river ran straight through it and i...

Valdivia was a bit of a surprise for us. We came to Valdivia with the expectation of another beautiful, mountainous town with snow capped mountains looming high behind as a backdrop to another wonderful city. Well, we were sorely mistaken. While Valdivia has some nice things about it...the town itself was not very impressive. It is in the lake d...

We left Pucon this morning and caught a JAC bus to Valdivia which took about 2.5 hours.  Typical it had stopped raining by the time we left! The JAC buses are great - really comfy and professional.  They give you a receipt for your bag when they stow it too.  It cost us about 2 pounds each for today's journey. We reached Valdivia ...

We left Pucón later than planned, which meant we only had enough time to see the lakes briefly and take pictures of them.  He was hard knowing what to say to Julie, so I didn't say much.  I don't think it would have made much difference anyway.   The lakes themselves were pretty stunning and I was able to grab a couple of good pic...

Read in Lonely Planet and Frommers that Valdivia is one of the most charming places in Chile, so I had quite high expectations. Coming from south is probably not the best way, because coming into the town was not a nice experience. The area before and just after the bus terminal is quite ugly. Valdivia had a devastating earthquake back in 1960, ...

Valdivia, ca. 12 Stunden Busfahrt suedlich von Santiago ist eine "Deutsche" Stadt. Ende des 19. Jahrdunderts haben sich auf Initiative der chilenischen Regierung eine grosser Zahl Deutscher ImmigrantInnen hier angesiedelt. Auch die Landschaft sieht aus wie in Bayern oder Oesterreich und die ImmigrantInnen bauten sich Haeuser wie zu Hause. Die St...

...well maybe one or two of the houses by the river or the flowering magnolia bushes might have the edge on me, but for a city described by the lonely planet guide as Chile's prettiest city, it's a bit lacking on the twee stuff for me. The journey here was a little bit of a trial. I thought I had booked a hostel on line, but when I went to check...

I reluctantly was drug out of Pucon. Anyone visiting Chile should go there. It is very nice. And the volcano alarms are tested everyday for the enjoyment of all! We did not ascend the volcano due to rain and high winds...oh well. Did not look easy. Instead we had good coffee at an Arabian resturaunt. We is Eunice and a nice Irish girl. The after...

Took a six hour bus ride to Chile today. Now six hours in a bus seems like a blink of an eye. Most of our time is spent on busses and our last bus was close approaching 20 hours. Most of the Chile - Argentina border is mountains and mountains it was. Really quite amazing. Stopped at two different border crossings, got searched, had to change cur...

Itīs 10am. The soft rain smoothes out the surface of the river. A bit of a breeze against my back. Grey sky. Could be the Thames, except that itīs wider and the large 2m-long sea-lions basking on the concrete blocks behind the fishing stalls would be a bit out of place in Caversham. Welcome to Rio Valdivia! The scull glides through the dark blue...