Night-time at the Hotel was exceptionally quiet,
bearing in mind its central location, but we both woke at around 5am and then
dozed off until re-awakened by the gentle sounds of the Alarm. We enjoyed an excellent buffet breakfast,
seated in the domed glass conservatory; it was a little cool to be outside.
Our driver arrived on time to take us to the
airport. The road outside the hotel was
very busy, but once we had negotiated the traffic lights, the journey to the
airport took about 30 minutes and we were well on time for dropping off our
bags. Quickly through security and just
time for a hot chocolate before we were called for boarding.
The view of the Andes was exhilarating, prompting
some more photography from Alison's phone, the camera being in the overhead
locker.
As we neared Temuco we could see large fields of
what we assumed was yellow rape.
We checked in at the Hertz desk and were pleased
to be given a Hyundai Elantra, which was
an 5-door automatic with a generous boot. The Hertz rep took his assistant with
him to show us the white car so that he could learn some more English, but the
assistant spoke not a word! Luckily,
there are rather a lot of chips and scratches, so they are unlikely to notice a
few more!
It was a little strange to be driving a left hand
drive car and Alison kept complaining that the car was nearly in the
pothole-gutter!
We had a slight disagreement with the driving
directions, which seemed to suggest driving 37km along the Ruta 5 when in fact
we drove only about 4km before turning off onto the 199 towards Villerica. This may be because there is a new airport
South of Temuco.
We stopped briefly at the side of the lake in
Villerica and then proceeded on to Pucon, where we found our charming
chalet-style hotel exactly in accordance with our directions.
Unfortunately, it is not the right season for the wood-fired hot tub!
We have an excellent lake-view room and are
looking forward to some sunrise pictures in the morning.
A quick unload of the car and then down into
Pucon to look around. The Villerica
volcano was beautifully snow-capped, but also cloud-capped, but
nevertheless very picturesque. As we had not been given any local area maps
(either by Trails of Chile or Hertz) we found a small shop and bought a
"Trekking Map" of Chiloe and Patagonia coast to coast, which covers exactly the area we
will be driving over the next few days, except that the road numbers seem to
have changed!
We decided to go with the Audley-recommended
"Trawen" restaurant for our evening
meal and an excellent choice it was!
Once again we shared a Maichin salad as a starter: roast pumpkin, ham, parmesan and mushrooms
with salad leaves; each half portion seemed like a full one. For mains, Alison had a Mariocos rissotto:
octopus, squid and prawn, while Pete managed Racupillau: trout with shrimp,
artichokes and rice. After the main
course the rain came pouring down so we were forced to consider a dessert.
Pete managed a very large chocolate fondant and
Alison was content with a d-i-y- Americano: double expresso, jug of hot water
and a glass of sparkling water.
The rain cleared, but the temperature had dropped
to around 9 degrees and we succeeded in finding where we had parked the car in
a side-street. We drove back with the
setting sun painting some wonderful colours on the mountains and found the
120-degree left turn into the hotel drive without any problems.
Back to write the blog, only to find that the
Netbook won't connect to the WiFi, so this is being written in word pad for
later upload. Tomorrow we drive over the
1210 m Mamuil Malal pass into Argentina, so are expecting to stop rather a lot
for the photography. Its now "tomorrow" and the WiFi is working again! Sunrise pictures follow on tomorrow's blog!
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