Talca

Just spent almost a week relaxing in Talca, about 4hrs south of Santiago, in the wine region of Maule. Found this cute hostal in the middle of vineyards...with a pool, what a treat!!!

Got there late last Friday and wanted to just take easy for a day or two, but got talked into doing a hike the next day. As much as sitting by the pool sounded fun, I wanted to explore and exercise a little, so I was up at 6am off to the bus station. After a 2 hr ride, I got to the Vilches National Park. By luck, this girl I had met in the hostal in Valparaiso ended up on this same bus and we ended up doing the trek together (there was no one else around, so I was glad to have a companion!). The trek was relatively easy, 2hr30mn each way through the forest, crossing small rivers, and climbing up the mountain. The path ends at this mirador overlooking the whole valley, really breathtaking. There was a huge waterfall in the distance that you just wanted to run to and jump in (it´s so hot here, 30´s celcius!) but that meant another 3hr hike. No time. Had to make it back for the last bus at 5pm. The bus system here is quite interesting...you can flag the bus down from anywhere and get off wherever you want... which makes the whole ride slightly inefficient...listen to me, with my gringo attitude...just saying that it´s weird to me that people will stand 10m apart (and i´m not exaggerating!!!) and the bus will stop twice, instead of the people walking towards each other. It´s like a milk run. You´re constantly stopping to let someone off or on. I think it´s cool to have door to door service, don´t get me wrong....but why people won´t walk 10m or at worst 50m to consolidate the stops...don´t know.

On Sunday and Monday, I took it easy, lounging by the pool. There were some fun people at the hostal, so I enjoyed just hanging out. On Monday, a group of us did motivate to go wine tasting...well, not that hard to motivate...we visited 2 vineyards nearby, Hugo Casanova and Colinia (the syster vineyard to Kendall Jackson). The first one was a family-run type vineyard where everything is done by hand, from the picking to putting labels on the bottles. The second was more massive and industrualized. Both had generous tastings, so the end of the day consisted of more lounging by the pool. The carmenere wine, only produced here in Chile, is quite good, full bodied, almost a little thick, and very potent, 14degrees. But actually cabernet sauvignon has the highest production in Chile.

The next day, I went for a little train ride from Talca to Constitucion on the coast. The train is this old OLD train (2 wagons) that goes along the Maule river from village to village, dropping kids off to school, bringing supplies to the various villagers, and taking tourists on this lovely ride through the valley. The landscape felt like Breakback Mountain, with pine trees taking over the hills and falling into the rocky river bed- such a contrast with the vineyards on the west side. The ride took about 3hrs but it flew by...such beautiful scenery. Plus it felt like going back in time. The conductor had to blow the horn (old school steam-like train sound) at every crossing. And the villages were more like tiny regroupment of houses for the sheperds and the treemen (the whole economy on this side of the coast is wood), all stuck in the time, ie: 50yrs ago, or dare I even say 100yrs ago!

In Constitucion, I ended up finding a german tourist to split a cab to go to Putu, these amazing sand dunes along the coast. You felt like in the Sahara...not sure how they ended up there...quite spectacular. In the afternoon, I grabbed lunch in the mercado (mussle soup...last time though! as there was a bug in my soup, yuk!) and walked over to the beach to see the rock formations. Took the bus back to Talca...2hrs...again one of those stop and go rides.

After another day of rest at the hostal & a 4hr bike ride to the hills nearby, I took off to go explore the 7 Tazas waterfall, but unfortunately the bus route is not open yet...season starts next week...so i took the 1hr bus back to town...oh well. More pool and tanning for me!! hehe.

Tonight, off to Puerto Montt on the night bus...will transfer to Puerto Varas right away, as it´s the more cozy village to stay at...on the lake. Only there for one night to organize a hike over New Year´s....figured i might as well be in the mountains and star gazing than anywhere close to a city with all the crazy parties. For Xmas week though, I´ll be on the island of Chiloe...won´t be as hot...actually more like Irish landscape & climate... but will be exciting.