19 April – Santiago

After a lovely stay in Bariloche we headed for Pucon. We were supposed to camp but 6 of us decided to upgrade and ended up renting a house, for want of a better description. Pucon was a lovely town on the edge of a lake and very much the in holiday place for wealthier Chileans. There were 2 other major attractions a volcano 14 Kms away. Volcano Villarica was a snow covered conical mountain issuing forth smoke which was a wonderful site against the bluse sky. At night time we could see the red glow from the lava. Some of the group climbed to the top complete with ice picks and crampons. We of course declined the offer!!!. The other attraction was a series of thermal spas. We visited one of the natural ones without slides and swimming pools etc. It was a lovely experience – the water was not sulphury or acrid in any way but really pleasant. Some of the 6 of us in the house were on cook duty so we invited the rest of the group around for dinner!. It was a lovely evening with lasagne and then a chocolate fudge cake made by Annie.

After leaving Pucon we travelled 785 km to Santiago and the threatened en-route bush camp turned into a hostel stay! So it is now two weeks since we camped!!!!.

We are now in relative luxury for 3 nights in Santiago. We find it a lovely and peaceful city with lots of interesting buildings and many churches and the Andes as a backdrop (when the smog lifts). We have 2 days to enjoy this before the onset of cook-team shopping and back on the truck for some camping as we head back into Argentina and wine tasting in Mendoza. After that we head to La Paz and will write again then.