Talca, Chile

Renee and I have now spent 3 days at a great Hostel located on an acreage near Talca. There are goats, rabbits, ducks and chickens running around the 10 hectare plot, with a large swimming pool to boot. The view of the Andes in the distance is terrific. This area of Chile is one of the best places in the world to grow pretty much anything whether it’s cherries, apples, kiwi, pineapples, plums, wheat…everything. They get 9 months of heat and sunshine, followed by 3 months of rain, and lucky for us they are in the middle of the 9 good months.

Nothing too crazy happened the first day as we teased the goats with handfuls of grass {Renee wouldn’t let me post unless I clarified that she did not have any part in the goat teasing…}, and just lazed around the pool. We made a trip into town to eat some traditional Chilean food for lunch. Believe it or not, the number 1 seller in Chile by a landslide is Hot Dogs!!! If you took every McDonalds, A and W, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Subway in Canada and converted them ALL into fast food Hot Dog restaurants…that’s what Chile is like.

The way they are served is usually 1 foot long with a layer of diced tomatoes, a healthy dose of guacamole and then ½ cup, yes I said ½ cup of full fat mayonnaise! I love sauces and condiments, but have to admit it’s a bit much so I end up scraping most of the Mayo off…then it is delicious.

Today we embarked on a 1 hour bus ride towards the Andes to go on a medium length hike in the foothills. Long story short, we didn’t get to do the hike as our bus blew a tire {Blew is an understatement – Exploded is more like it}. It sounded like we ran over a stick of TNT. We continued down the road by foot, however by the time we made it to the trail head it was too late in the day to start the hike, so we caught a bus back to Talca. The drive back to town was incredibly scenic along bright green glacier rivers and lush orchids.

Tomorrow we are off to Pucon.


COLIN


*Camera not downloading today so we swiped these 2 pics off the net ;)