The city of Concepción, Chile has been destroyed by a natural disaster. What has been built up afterwards might remind you on New York or Legoland. Strictly quadratic shapes and the life at a modern and clean city. Within you’ll find the hotel Terrano – a very good hotel with an underground car park that is much to small and narrow.
Panamericana, te amo
The Panamericana – or short Panam – is a network of roads going down from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. You can cross the whole continent on this 25.000 km long route, you can see wonderful landscapes and visit up to 19 countries. The plans to create the Carretera Panamericana were agreed on in 1936; only a small part of 90 km length next to Panama is still missing (even 80 years later).
Las dunas de Putú (and why I will never forget them)
It was a nice day in November and I was driving with my Renault Samsung S3 (I didn’t even know that such a car exists) from Talca to Concepción, Chile. On my way I wanted to have a stop at the dunes of Putú (las dunas de Putú) – a wide area of sand dunes close to the sea. It is supposed to look like the Sahara, but I’ve never found out, because I never arrived there.
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Lago Colbún & the Andes
Travelling throughout Chile doesn’t always lead you to historically important cities, big monuments or institutions. It is stunning because of the landscape, the fantastic lakes, the mountain ranges and the possibility of switching fastly between the shore and the mountains. When you are in Santiago de Chile you can go skiing and swimming at the beach on the same day.
Casa Chueca
Wow. Simply wow. An Austrian couple went to Talca, Chile and bought some land to open a harbourage for travellers. Today there are different courtyards with small houses (named after famous places in South America) attached where you can stay. Every evening a bell calls all current inhabitants for a vegetarian dinner. A very special place that has been built like an ideal settlement and playground.
Ruta de los Poetas
Dinner in the vineyard
Around Santa Cruz, Chile you’ll find many, many wineries. The best option would be to travel from one to the other with a tourist group or by public transport. If you’re driving on your own you’ll have to limit. That is why I didn’t make a tour with a wine tasting at the Montes winery but rather enjoyed their great restaurant directly in the vineyard.
“No problem, we’ve got an agreement with the local police.”
Visiting the Clos Apalta Winery near Santa Cruz, Chile was an adventure from the beginning on. My host at the hotel decided that my last name was much too complicated and registered me at the wineries I intended to visit simply as “Mr. Stefan“. Arriving at the Clos Apalta Winery I saw that the whole place was protected by high walls and fences and at the massive and closed gate a solid security officer was standing.
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Chilean history
The Museo Colchagua in Santa Cruz, Chile was one of the few museums I was able to visit during my tour from north to south. And it is a special one, not really going deep into topics but very wide. It starts with some archeological exhibits, shows the time of the Spanish invasion and the first settlers, gives inside into the developement of the republic and then switches over to winemaking (important in this area) and it exhibits also some railways.
Hotel Tierra y Vino
The hotel Tierra y Vino is a very good and small hotel at the heart of Santa Cruz, Chile. It has only few rooms that are placed around a small garden with a pool at the center. The host is very friendly and organizes local tours like visits of wineries for you. A place to relax not far away from the not very touristic city center within the vineyards.