Adventures of Trent & Jane

  I sit here writing this by candlelight as tChile has a complete power outage.  We were lucky enough to find a hostel, run by 3 wonderful ladies who had a matrimonial room available for cash.  We were trying to figure out what was happening as all the gas stations had major lineups, luckily we gassed up in a small town with no line.  Then we noticed no street light, most businesses without light and lineups at the supermarcados.   Going back 2 days we left, Chillán and headed up the mountain to check out the volcano, last hike was the day before, and hot springs, we did not go in as they where 35 degrees.  We road a chairlift at a ski resort and was surprised to see sand, ash dunes at the top of the mountain.  Watched many Chillains mountain biking! On the way up we got caught in the ascension of Chillan bike race, 3 days, ending with the 75 km climb up the mountain.  Some of the cyclist where using interesting means to finish the race, holdi...

 We made it to the wine valleys. A little jiggery-pokery to get the car but that is another story. Sufficed to say we are on the road (and have been for 4 days, sorry). The driving isn’t too bad and the highways are really very good. For the most part twinned and well paved. Even the signage is pretty good, light years from Panama!  First stop is Casablanca, not the Moroccan one, it is a smaller valley a little west and north of Santiago not too far inland. We found a nice little hotel in the valley with a winery 400 meters up the road. The El Refugio is quite nice, we were in the Vinilla room. There is a pool, a nice dining room and I very nice yard to wander in. Very comfortable. The room came with breakfast and we decided to take dinner there. All very large and delicious. I am getting ahead of myself. Before dinner we walked up the road to Bodega Re. Very cool winery, and quite busy. We decided not to do a tour, we have done many, and went for a tasting only. We ended up t...

 Last stop!  A great sunny day, went to the market and found myself a Gorgeous alpaca shall  Then onwards to the land of volcanoes where we seen Osorno ( with a ski resort part way down)   Calbuco (which last erupted in 2016). Puntiagudo (a tough climb).   We went to see the Petrohue cascades (waterfalls) but as they are now dry a lot of rock was showing.   Off for a short stop in Peurto Varas a very popular beach town on The edge of lake Llanquihue (the largest lake in Chile. 

  Had a great day, slightly overcast and the sun came out in the afternoon! This is unusual as they only have 50 days with good weather.   I convinced Trent to go kayaking and had a great time on Los Palos, very similar to mountain lakes at home.  The big difference was some of the trees.    Look closely this is actually a catus.   The port is very small but was able to find Calfate Sours, a very powerful sipper.  Trent thought he order Calfate beer for himself but received a sour same as me.  

 Onward we sail, Chile is calling. There was a presentation about our next port, Puerto Arenas. There are a few interesting things here but it is not a big city or a large port of call. Mostly research ships outfitting for Antarctic expeditions, so we are not expecting much. We are just going to go ashore and wing it. This is our last dock landing until San Antonio (not the one in Texas). Once we get to the end of the dock you meet the usual group of tour hawkers and people selling stuff but this time it feels a little different. There is no pressure from anyone and generally if you don’t engage with them they don’t bother you, a little different than most places we have been. Jane and I have decided we want to see specific things, the Nao Victoria, the Museo, the cemetery and the market. Short discussion and we have a car for $20 an hour! The Nao Victoria is furthest so we head there first. The Nao Victoria is the ship that Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the world (this one is a...