Chillán

I am currently at an internet cafe next to the bus station in Chillán. Chillán was great. I drove down with the group from my hostel on Tuesday afternoon-Daniel (driver and owner of hostel I will work at in Pucón), Tim (Australian snowboarder who works at La Casa Roja in Santiago), Niall (19 year old Brit on gap year travelling around the world), and Steve, Rob and Willf (3 British friends on a 2 week holiday). We squoze into a van with all of our gear and luggage, and arrived at night at an eco-cabin guest lodge in the woods outside of Chillán. We were welcomed by Vicente, who I later learned is the equivalent of the green party candidate in Chillán. Amazing chicken soup for dinner, much wine and revelry, then bedtime in cozy bunks next to a woodstove. Wednesday up bright and early, breakfast with Vicente, then a long drive into the mountains, stopping along the way to rent gear. We weren´t actually on the slopes until later than we had planned, but it was still pretty icy in the morning anyways.


Chillán is probably the best mountain in Chile. It is on a volcano, and you can actually see smoke coming out of multiple natural hotsprings, and you can even sometimes smell some sulfur while riding the chairlift. It has the longest chairlift in South America and the longest run. It has more trees than other mountains in Chile and gets more snow than the mountains close to Santiago because it is farther South. Again, this season hasn´t been great, so they need more snow, but I did get a taste of the famous powder. Unfortunately, the day was really really windy, so some chairs were shut down and a lot of the powder blew away. I can only imagine what the mountain would be like with the 3 feet of powder that Tim described there being on this trip last year.


I skied with Tim and Daniel a bit, then on my own for a while, then accidentally brought the beginner Brits all the way to the top, where they considered riding the chair backwards to avoid having to go down some blacks. Everyone survived, but I went back to skiing alone for much of the afternoon, with brief stints on the blues to be social. At the end of the day, we wanted to check out the hotsprings, but they had closed 5 minutes before we arrived. We went back to our cabins for dinner, more wine, more revelry, some poker, some beer, some dirty jokes (partly prompted by the coincidence that this week is Gay and Lesbian week at Chillán), and eventually bed. We woke up this morning, ready to hit the slopes again, but immediately Vicente and Tim knew that it wasn´t going to happen. Weather was not on our side. It was windy even at the cabins, which meant that higher up on the mountain it would be too windy to open. It was colder and it began to rain/snow, so we made the best of the situation and decided to soak in the hotsprings, then the rest of the folks would head back to Santiago earlier and arrive at a decent hour. 3 of the 4 Brits didn´t want to suffer the pain of exiting the hotsprings in the freezing cold, so they hung out at the bar while Tim, Daniel, Mike, and I braved the elements. Totally worth it. Despite the slight smell of sulfur and the howling winds stinging our faces, the hostprings were amazing. I still hadn´t figured out my plans for after they headed back to Santiago, but I was leaning towards going to Bariloche, Argentina on my own for a few days before going to Pucón on Sunday/Monday. As we were leaving the hotsprings, some Americans came in and one girl shouted,¨Anyone going to Pucón?¨ I ran back and talked to her briefly. Chantelle is a fellow solo female traveler, so I decided I would rather have a companion and go to Pucón now rather than lug all of my stuff to Argentina. I can settle in Pucón, and if I decide to go to Argentina I can bring only what I need. I left her at the hotsprings and gave her my number before heading back to the cabins to pack up my stuff. La Casa Roja folks are on the road back to Santiago, and Chantelle is meeting me here at the bus station in about an hour. We will take a bus to Temuco, a transport hub, probably spend the night there and head to Pucón tomorrow morning. Apparently, Pucón is supposed to get 5 feet of snow in the next few days, so even though the ski area is a lot smaller, there could be some epic days on the volcano. I am glad to have a buddy on this leg of my journey, and I´m sure the protective folks at home are too. I should go buy Chantelle her ticket so I make sure she makes my bus. Not sure when I´ll write next, but all is well!