Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
If you want to stay at the Trailanqui lodge close to Temuco, Chile you should definitely have a GPS system. I didn’t have one and I prepared myself with satellite images to find the road there. In the end I missed the right crossing and had to search quite hard for the hotel while it was raining heavily. And of course: I had to overtake some natives riding their horses on the street.
Lota is the poorest city in Chile and its history reminded me much of the Ruhrgebiet in Germany. It is also within the same transformation processes that run a bit more slowly here. The whole region was living from coal mining and the mines have first been socialized under Salvador Allende and later privatized again under Augusto Pinochet. When cheaper coal from Colombia arrived here the whole economy broke down.
If you’re not at Santiago de Chile there aren’t that much museums to visit. The Casa del Arte in Concepción (Bío Bío region) is an exception. It belongs to the University of Concepción and within this not very modern building paintings from different Chilean epochs are on display.
Continue reading “Casa del Arte José Clemente Orozco (Pinacoteca)”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Continue reading ““No problem, we’ve got an agreement with the local police.””
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.