Zelma’s Trip

On the Sunday I made a decision to head to one of the places in a hostel guide I had picked up at some point when traveling with Mum and Dad.  Originally I was going to head South to Pucon where there was an opportunity to stay on a ranch, do lots of riding and learn Spanish.  However, I decided that Pucon was a little far to go for the time I had prior to my flight and that heading that far South might make the temperature drop further than I wanted it to.

So, having decided on a place called, “Chez L´Habitant”, on Lago Colbun I called them up to reserve a room and check that they could collect me from the bus station prior to getting a bus down there.  I´m not sure why I felt the need to explain that, perhaps as it´s quite unusual for me to display such forward planning I thought it was interesting or worthy of note.  Although my planning was something of an exception the bus journey was not in that there was another moronic midget with uncontrollable legs sitting behind me.  This one took the form of a small girl.  Again the “responsible adult” with her proved to be anything but.  I sat there wondering if, and when, she would stop and also why guides to Spanish tell you how to say things like, “No I don´t want sugar”, rather than, “if you don´t stop that irritating little brat from kicking the crap out of my back I will”, and then promptly realised why they don´t!

After another irritating bus ride I finally arrived at the bus station in Linares.  I tried to use several phones in the bus station which didn´t seem to like me, sat down and had a cigarette and then wandered about for a bit looking redundant.  It obviously did the trick as someone asked if I was Zelma.  It was the guy from the accommodation and we headed to his car.  He turned out to be really friendly which was fortunate as the drive was around forty minutes or so.  Once out of the town it was a gravel road and a little while along I screeched with glee and asked him to stop as a positively huge tarantula type spider ran across the road.  He did stop but could we find it?  I thought he may think that I had imagined the whole thing but apparently they´re very common in the area so he believed me.

When we got to “Chez L´Habitant” I instantly liked the place.  It was a small family business with mother, father and son with a few rooms, a cabana and a bed and breakfast setup.  Christian´s parents proved to be as we lcoming and friendly as he was and I had a view of the lake from my bedroom window.

After unpacking and getting settled for literally a few minutes there was a voice at the door saying that a, “beautiful lady” was wanted for a video.  My first thought was to give them some comedy one-liner back like, “I think you´re at the wrong door mate”, but then I thought better of it as my comedy genius might get lost in translation.  I was a bit confused and, having asked a couple of questions, rather unconvincingly agreed.  With lots of questions running through my head I went and looked in the bathroom mirror to see what kind of state I was in.  It was at this point that the same voice appeared and asked if I had a bikini!  Actually I think the question involved, “two piece suit for hot tub”, or something rather than bikini.  Now at this point I was seriously wondering what I had gotten myself into.  After all I was very much in an isolated place, with no-one else staying there and a strange man asking me to put something on for a video in the hot tub!  After a couple of questions which didn´t massively dispel my fears I willingly obliged and headed out in my bikini.  When I got towards the hot tub I was pleased to see that both Christian and his mother were there, along with a professional and very non-dodgy looking couple of film guys.  So there I was, sat in a hot tub, sipping Chilean wine, whilst Christian did pieces to camera about why you should visit Colbun lake.  I did draw the line when asked to do my own piece to camera though it has to be said.  So, you never know, one day you might see a very confused looking Zelma in a camo bikini, in a hot tub in Chile drinking red wine.  Or maybe not!

After the hot tub, wine and welcome I headed to bed and had an early night.  Actually it would have been much earlier if I hadn´t managed to get into the most ridiculous book.  When my parents went back they left two books with me.  This was partly so that I could exchange them at a book exchange but largely as they thought they were both crap and didn´t want to carry dead weight home and display it on their bookshelf.  With this knowledge I still picked one of them up and managed to get drawn into it.  I refuse to even mention the title as I don´t want it promoted in any way.  All I will say is that it was a predictable crime type thriller with dubious, unbelievable characters and an irritating principal protagonist.  Wow, now I know why I´ve never been asked to write one of those snippets for the back of someone´s novel!

Algarobbo is about an hour away from Santiago and we left plenty of time for Mum and Dad to get into the airport on time.  Once in the car park the guy from Trekker, where the van was rented from, turned up as expected at the right time and we did the handover.  It was sad to see the van go as we had become quite attached to it.  It had also worked so amazingly well from having everything we wanted in it to driving easily and being economical.  Sadder than seeing the van go, however, was seeing Mum and Dad go.  Part of me felt like I should be going with them and felt very odd at being left behind.

I was though, sob sob, and headed back into Santiago, vanless and parentless.  I decided to treat myself and stayed at a three star hotel.  Although I did later find out that it fell into the top end of my budget as it was in a distinctly dodgy area of the city.  Nothing untowards happened, I was just asked why I had chosen to stay there and was told it wasn´t a very nice area by someone.  Anyway once checked in and showered I headed into the city.  I went to the Plaza de Armas and had a Gin and Tonic prior to buying some earrings and sunglasses from street traders.  At a slightly loose end I thought I would go back to a restaurant I had been to the last time in Santiago.  Somehow, I blame the overly strong measures, it managed to become a late night.  I met up with a fun group of people, one of whom spoke near perfect English, and ended up going to a club and a party in Santiago prior to getting back to my hotel in the wee hours.

On the Saturday I checked out of the hotel I was in as it was only really a one night budget option.  I headed across town and ended up in a residenciale in the Paris Londres area a little way away from where I had been when I first arrived in the country.  The rest of the day was pretty chilled out and involved more pottering around the city centre.  I also tried to figure out what I was going to do, or rather where I was going to go, for the remainder of my time in Chile.  I originally wanted to head to a horse farm in Pucon where you can also study Spanish but decided it was quite a long way to go when I had to be back for my flight and also that going that far South would mean it was colder.  I decided the best thing was to sleep on it, to weigh up my options, and had an early night.

We headed into town in the morning and I put my laundry in.  We also spent a little while looking for a clinic, doctor or dentist.  This was as, about two days after being assaulted in Wanaka, I developed a strange solid lump in my mouth.  Since then it hasn´t gone down and I vary from thinking I have a fractured jaw to not actually thinking about it at all.  It´s something I guess I will get checked out at some point but, as it doesn´t really actually hurt now, it doesn´t feel like a priority to take time out of traveling and pay a lot of money to have someone tell me about it in a language that I don´t understand that they don´t know what it is.  Anyway, we didn´t find anywhere and instead headed to Isla Negra.  Isla Negra was a lovely place with some really nice artisan stalls.  There were also some rather less nice pieces akin to those found in places in Blackpool.  You know the whole sea shells stuck together to look like a penguin with Blackpool written on the bottom in biro type jobbies?  Except in this case obviously they didn´t say Blackpool but Isla Negra.  Along with being a lovely place Isla Negra is famous for being one of the places that Pablo Neruda chose to call home.  Neruda was a Chilean poet who is hugely respected here and there are various museums and the like around the country.  We ate lunch in a place where he used to stay which was lovely with amazing ocean views.

After buying Mum a few Birthday pressies we headed back to Pao Pao in Algarobbo and the llamas, played some bridge, had supper and supped wine.

The following day we collected my laundry and used the free internet in the library.  We decided to head up the coast slightly but the road we had chosen was closed and apparently could be so for some time.  We decided to head to Penulela National Park instead which was a park around a large dammed lake.  That is right rather than damned lake, which is what I was thinking isn´t it?  Not that I´m thinking anything negative about the lake you understand, it´s just that dammed looks a bit strange to me having typed it.  Okay, so we went to the lake place with a dam, oh, I should have just done it like that in the first place.  It was really lovely, although you could hear the motoway noise in parts.  There were fun tracks to drive though and a llama, or other camelid wandering about.  There was also plentiful birdlife as always.

After the darned lake we headed back to Algarobbo where we had a great meal in a lovely restaurant frequented by locals.  Having packed and cleaned the van we sat by the swimming pool (which we had somehow previously managed not to discover) and sipped Gin and Tonics.

We got up, admired the views and headed to the camp entrance where the ranger seemed fine about us having made our own way to the camping area. Having asked about the available walks in the park we decided to opt for one which took you to a waterfall. It was meant to be four hours in total with the waterfall at the end prior to returning. The walk was amazing with a lovely shaded mirador, butterflies, geckos and beautiful palms and mountains. It was pretty much all uphill on the way to the waterfall which was good in that you knew that the whole way back it would be downhill! When we had been walking for a couple of hours we got to a sign which said that the waterfall was 500 metres away. This turned out to be a lie, well it might have been that distance as the crow flies, but when you have to ascend a mountain up curvy paths it feels a lot longer. Slightly hot we arrived at the top and had the most magnificent view. Not only was the waterfall of several small drops stunning, but its surroundings were beautiful. There was luscious grenery, plants and ferns, and a cliff so amazing it looked like it had been carefully sculpted by someone in order to creat exquisite shapes and forms. There was a shaded sitting area by the falls and Mum sat there and contemplated life whilst Dad and I explored slightly further. There was a picnic area further on but not much else and we joined Mum in admiring the view for a while.

After the walk back, which was quicker and rather a lot easier, we headed to Algorobbo. I had read about a place in the guidebook (Fodor) with hot tubs and llamas which trimmed the grass. The place proved slightly more difficult to find than we thought it would but I think a lot of this was down to us being tired and frustrated. When we did find the place it was as described in that it consisted of several lovely cabanas with llamas in the grounds. The hot tub turned out to be a spa bath but we weren´t complaining. After very needed baths following our walk, we went into town where we had a gorgeous seafood supper overlooking the ocean.

We left the campsite and headed to Fray Jorge which we had not been able to access the previous evening. After the obligatory chat to the ranger to give the ridiculous number of details from name to occupation to shoe size, we headed into the park. We stopped at an information centre before heading up to the place where there was a marked walk. The drive in itself was quite something, particularly at the top where there was complete cloud cover. Fray Jorge has a micro climate having continual cloud, thus rather different vegetation and wildlife to other areas in Chile. The walk was amazing and there were some really interesting plants and birds.

After Fray Jorge we headed to La Campana via lunch in a posada. When we finally arrived at the park a random local told us that you could camp in the park, despite the fact that the office was closed. We decided to take a look although were very nearly put off by the quality of the road and the low hanging branches of several trees. I needed the toilet and decided to take the opportunity to check out the driving and camping situation. We decided to carry on and were so glad we did as the campsite was absolutely deserted and stunning wtih views across palm forests into spectacular mountains.

After a relaxing few days in Vicuna we continued our journey South on one of the mountain roads. When I say one of the mountain roads here, the road was more like a track and, at some parts, very worrying with great drops to the sides. It was proper 4 x 4 territory, if only for the necessary ground clearance, and was very slow in terms of covering any distance. Coupled with this, and me thinking I was going to die every few seconds, was the sheer beauty of the place. There was little in terms of places but there was the occasional house or hut and herds of goats. At one point I spotted a snake on the road and got Dad to stop so that we could go and look at it. We didn´t get a great look and I didn´t actually want to look too closely as I thought that Dad might have caught it with the tyre.

It took us a long time to get not very far but the views were definitely worth it. After a long trek we got back to the main road and headed to Fray Jorge National Park. Unfortunately the park was closing so we decided to take the short drive South to Termos de Socos where we had stayed previously. Instead of staying in the hotel we opted for the campsite which had a lovely big pool which we quickly took advantage of.

We left Bathia Inglesia and drove back to Vicuna where we let ourselves into the campsite where we had stayed formerly. We had loved the town in Vicuna and the campsite not only had a lovely pool but beautiful views down over the town of Vicuna and the valley. It was also high enough into the mountains not to be saturated by the clouds which descended into the valley in the mornings. When we got back to Vicuna we set up the tent and then had a swim, before a nice, relaxing evening.

The following day we headed into the town, watched small children in the square and ate ice cream. We went for dinner in a lovely restaurant just off of the main square. The food was exquisite, unfortunately half way through my salmon filet I managed to get a bone stuck in my wind pipe. I managed to politely excuse myself before, rather less politely, coughing my throat raw and half choking to , in the toilets. That´s possibly slightly melodramatic but it was not a comfortable feeling to say the least. If you´ve had something go the wrong way when eating or drinking you can imagine what something being stuck the wrong way feels like. Mum was concerned and followed me to the bathroom and there was also a concerned local who went to get an English speaking friend whilst I was in the toilet. Eventually, with the assistance of bread and water, the bone was dislodged. I was grateful it was at the time it was actually as the next trick was apparently a piece of bread doused in oil….mmmmm! When I had finished choking and returned to the table we got talking to a Canadian couple on the table next to us who were in Venezuela following a rowing tour. After a chat and my recovery I drove us back to the campsite in the mountains.

On the Saturday we drove further into the Elqui valley.  The Elqui valley is one of the vineyard areas of Chile and is responsible for the grapes for the national drink of Pisco aswell as a lot of the grapes for various wines.  The drive was meant to be one of the beautiful drives in Chile and it didn´t disappoint.  The valley had stunning verdant areas at the base with tall mountains climbing up the sides and a winding road imbetween.  We headed to a place a way into the valley, which had a number of slightly uninspiring artisan stores, prior to heading to Pisco Elqui.  Although slightly touristy, Pisco Elqui was a very pretty town and we had lunch in a lovely restaurant with a Secret Garden.  The proprietor was the first person we had met in Chile who spoke fluent English.  After lunch we drove back along the valley to the campsite in Vicuna.  I left Mum and Dad reading and went into town to faff online for a while.  I was slightly surprised, and a touch put out actually, when there were actually other people at the campsite when I got back and not just us!

In the morning Mum and I headed out to the local artisans stalls in the village and then headed to the nearby town to get supplies in the supermarket. We spent the rest of the day back at the cabana relaxing, along with Dad, feeding the birds and reading around the pool. There were a group of comedy sparrows who took bread and then plunged off the wall aswell as some, slightly more timid, seagulls. Next to the pool was a children´s play area with a game where you threw stones into different holes for varying numbers of points which proved amusing with a glass of wine or two in the evening. Having thrown stones into holes we ate dinner and decided that three handed bridge was a slightly more sophisticated way to pass the evening than throwing rocks!

In the morning we went through Taltal and went to the town museum.  The place was very informative and had a good collection of pieces from the time when the town was the Northern port of Chile.  There were also other pieces like skulls and old, Chilean pottery.  I´m always conscious that I sound amazingly dumb when I write about things like this.  I feel like I should be able to tell you the history, dates and things rather than, “it was old and interesting” but I guess that history´s not really my forte, anyway that´s the kind of thing that Google was invented for n´est pas¿  Yay, check the upside down question mark.  It´s actually surprisingly hard to type on foreign keyboards as the keys do straaaange things.  I still haven´t found the at sign so every time I access my email I have to Google “at sign” and then copy and paste it.  Okay, that´s probably sounding slightly stupid as well.  I think I´d better move on before I make myself sound even more ignorant…..  So where was I….oh yes the museum in Taltal, oh no I´d done that bit……  So, after a wander round town I went and used the internet and Mum and Dad headed back to the hosteleria to read and the like.  After I´d checked a few emails (yes using copy and paste functions for at signs!) Dad arrived and said we had to leave.  I wondered if Mum and Dad had managed to drop a Chilean faux pas but it turned out to be far less exciting in that the hotel had double booked.  Well, at least, that was their story.  Mum had asked for another night the previous day and I had also gone with her in the morning and they said it was fine.  It all stank a bit to be fair and marred our, previously very good, opinion of the place.  Mum reckoned that they probably had someone on business who wanted the room for some time who would be repeat business, which we wouldn´t, well definitely not now anyway after that shenanigans, but it was all still a bit mean!

With a slightly sour taste in our mouths we decided we had seen enough of Taltal and headed South to Bathai Inglesia.  A slight disappointment turned in our favour, as it had so many times previously on our trip, and we discovered the most lovely cabana stroke condimimium.  The reason I wrote stroke there by the way was not one of those affected type things, like when people say, “and I quote”, and do that annoying thing with their fingers, but as I have no idea where the slash key is on this keyboard.  Anyway, that´s another digression, I think this needs to be the last entry for now…..so we checked in to the place and lounged by the pool.  We were the only people there and the pool was right next to our place.  In the evening we headed into the nearby town and got takeaway pizza and I bought a couple of very cheap caps, including a sun visor which, it has since transpired, makes me  look rather worryingly like the female version of Eminem.  I just need to practice my “East side” signs and I´ll be the full ticket, or something.  So, anyway, we took the food back, ate the pizza, drank wine and relaxed in our rather nice, pool-side abode!

Where we had camped was relatively close to Baquedano and we continued on the road into the town.  In the town itself there was a small museum which contained a really fascinating collection of antiquities.  I don´t really know how to describe it actually, there were things collected from the old mine houses with row upon rom of bottles, shoes, horse-shoes and the like all covered in a reassuringly thich layer of dust.  Also in the town was the old station, although we struggled to find it for a little while.  The place was amazing with a vast collection of old steam engines and carriages.  It was a photographer´s paradise with light streaming through gaps in old iron enginery.

From Baquedano we headed to Chacabuco, a disused mining town more recently used as a prison.  According to several guides it was a place where you were able to see what an old mining town looked like and see the art drawn on the walls from when the place was later used as a prison.  Unfortunately what none of the guides told us was that it was closed!  So we headed off and Dad found another old mining town on the map.  The old nitrate (saltpetre) town was fascinating with almost a Pompei typw feel to it.  The buildings were crumbling but intact enough to get the feel of the place down to painted decorations inside some of the house´s rooms.

We continued down Route 5 and then left the main road and headed through the mountains.  I keep saying how amazing the scenery and driving throgh Chile is but it really was.  We didn´t really realise how high up we were until we got towards the coast and had the most fantastic vista down both ways out across the Pacific.  The coastal road down to Taltal was fantastic and there was little of the typical Chilean coastal fog so there were spectacular views out to the ocean.

When we arrived at Taltal we headed to a set of Cabanas that I had seen an advert for in the guidebook.  At the office we were, somewhat unconvincingly, told that they were all fully booked until the following year!  So we heeaded further into town, via a rather uninspiring campsite.  In the town itself we found a seafront hosteleria which was very reasonable and in the most fantastic location.  We settled in and then went for dinner in the restaurant.  The seafood was absolutely out of this World and, as always in Chile, the wine was lovely.  We started with aperetifs which, again as always in Chile, were very strong.  If you buy a spirit here it´s not like buying a drink in England where someone carefully measures twenty five millilitres into your glass before drowning it in a mixture.  In Chile they liberally pour whichever spirit into your glass so that it´s around a fifty fifty mix with the mixer.  Thus meaning that the following drink is incredibly strong.  As Mum and Dad had coffee I decided it was a good idea to have a digestif and opted for a rum and coke.  So, nicely full and slightly sozzled Mum and I chatted on the terrace before heading to bed.