Until about 11 am I was occupied with sorting out my Temuco travel plans, as reported earlier, but with the central hotel booked and the other cancelled, I went to Reception to ask about local walks and about the timings for the Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) dinner ( Read more... )

I spent the morning pootling online. When Beto hadn't turned up by 11.30 I started to get a bit nervous, and after about ten minutes of dithering I decided to ask my housemate, who was in the kitchen, if he had a car and if he would be willing to drive me to the terminal in the absence of Beto. He did, and was, and we then had a really good ( Read more... )

I was curious to see the centre of Neuquén, and the only thing the LP mentioned was the art gallery in the centre, which is located in the long park that runs east-west through the centre. The website said it opened at 9.30, so I set off after breakfast to arrive around then. From what I saw, central Neuquén doesn't have a lot of character, though ( Read more... )

Apart from the wine and the transport connections, the main attraction in Neuquén for a tourist is paleontology. There have been some remarkable finds in the region, of extraordinary dinosaurs that are unknown elsewhere. These finds are on display in two museums: the Ernesto Bachmann Museum, which is in Villa El Chocón, to the southwest of the city ( Read more... )

Over a week behind now. Disgraceful! Here in Santiago, my disappointment over the lack of view has melted away in the face of their magnificent laundry service. The sign in the room says that laundry handed in before 1 pm will be returned by 8 pm. I am critically low on clean T-shirts, so when I left at 9 this morning I made a point of mentioning ( Read more... )

My flight from Temuco was extremely smooth, and I was at the B&B just after 2 pm. I'm in the annex, which means I have air-conditioning and a private bathroom, but unlike the first time I was in the annex, I don´t have a view. I have windows which open onto a shaded courtyard, and the courtyard has little tables and they have a view, but I have to ( Read more... )

Or a metawe, in Mapudungun. I went to the local museum this morning, and the shop had jugs that were much more portable than those in San Martín de los Andes. I am pretty confident of getting my new friend home safely :

( Read more... )

I am now safely arrived in Temuco, in Chile. Temuco doesn't seem *attractive* architecturally, but it has parks, and visible hills in three directions out of four, and broad, well-maintained pavements, and pedestrian crossing signs on every corner in the centre, and so gets 5 out of 5 as a manageable place to visit. I'm in a super-central modern ( Read more... )

I think I mentioned this in a post from Puerto Varas. About that time, anyway. The problem was that paused podcasts were turning themselves on and running through an entire playlist while the thing was stowed away in my pocket, thus running down the battery, and also making me miss out on those episodes since the podcast app automatically deletes ( Read more... )

I actually saw the day in, as I was at Noche Buena dinner at a nearby restaurant. As midnight approached we were all given a glass of bubbly (and I was thinking, "Wouldn't this be more appropriate at the *beginning* of the event?"), but then the clock turned and everyone was using it to toast everyone else within reach and wishing them Feliz ( Read more... )