Chillan, Chile
July 17, 2013 – We left Santa Cruz after an amazing 2 days of much needed rest. The drive south to Chillan was interesting and sad. There was still much evidence of earthquake damage. The areas that we traveled through suffered the most damage in the 2010 quake. It is estimated to be up to 30 billion US dollars in damage. As we drove along, the areas became less populated and less “third world” looking.
The drive was much less than we expected…according to my research (and google maps) this was supposed to be one of our longest travel days, but it ended up being only about 3 hours. We were able to travel along a two lane highway south instead of traveling northeast to the “routa 5”. There was really nothing that we wanted to stop and see along the way so we arrived at about 2 pm to our next stop of Chillan. Wow. It was not at all what I expected.
I thought we would arrive late in Chillan and that our hotel would be a small roadside hotel as this was the way it was portrayed in my research….WRONG! It was in the middle of a very busy city street and there was absolutely no where to stop so we could park to check in….so Wayne did a circle around and dropped me off and decided to just circle around so I could check in and find out what the deal was with “parking available and free at a nearby location”. We decided that if we get separated to go to the hotel lobby and just stay there…
Apparently, I booked an express room….much cheaper and less extravagant than the lobby where I presented myself to. Our room was across the street on the 2nd floor of a walk-up building…OK go with the flow. Our host spoke in Spanish only and showed me to our 2 twin-bed room reminiscent of an “I Love Lucy” episode…haha. Again…oh well, go with the flow. I went out to the street, waited, flagged down circling Wayne and showed him to the subterranean parking lot and we schlepped our bags from the car, into an elevator to street level, across the very busy city street and up to the 2nd floor to our room. Today Wayne was tired and experiencing more pain than usual so we decided on a siesta…it was 2 o’clock after all….
We woke up and left our room about 430 ish and decided to walk over to the Mercado de Chillan. It is said to be the largest open air market in Chile and it was awesome!! We spent the next three hours exploring the different sections where gifts, fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, nuts, clothing, fish, meats, leather and wood products were sold. We could have continued on but the vendors were closing down, so we decided it was time to head out. We came back to our room briefly to drop off the treasures that we purchased and then headed back out for dinner.
We were looking for a restaurant, but were unable to find any. Weird…so we went back over to the mercado to the area where food was being sold…Chilean open market fast food….somewhere that at home I would NEVER consider eating at, but it was crowded and we were starving…it was so good. We had Churrasco…which is carne asada on a super tasty homemade bun with mayo, avocado and chopped tomato. We also got an order of papas fritas (french fries). The Churrasco was gone before we got our fries…we waited for them because we watched her slice the potato then fry them up …yum… the best fries I ever ate.
The people that we encountered today seemed more modern, wealthier, upscale, well dressed. We were warned by Mauricio to be careful in Chillan of pickpocketers, but we walked around at night and felt very safe and secure… It was a great experience.
We returned to our room and had a great nights sleep in our twin beds….
Comments
The Stockbridge on July 19, 2013
Share: Love the updates. Great to see that wine barrels can be used to glorify Jesus, in the form of the pictured cross from your last blog entry. Gives me an idea for some Woodford corks that I have stacked up at home. Sort of brings a higher purpose to drinking, you know?
Also, what about barking dogs? Are there less of them as you travel south or are you just getting used to them?
Keep me posted, baby.