On Our Way to Southern Chile

Chile is a very long, narrow country and our destination in the Lake District was at least a ten-hour drive. We therefore opted to make the trip over a two-day period. This gave us a chance to appreciate the sites along the way. As we traveled back inland on our way to the I-5, we were again struck with how similar the landscape was to the central coast region of California where we live. Here in Chile there is also a coastal mountain range with small towns dotting the valleys. The climate is mediteranean and the land fertile. As we drove, we passed hectare upon hectare of grapes and other fruits growing, and saw an abundance of family farms growing an assortment of vegetables.

About mid-afternoon we began to get hungry. There were no major towns ahead on the map so we pulled over next to a gas station at a rather run down looking restaurant that served the local clientele. I wasn’t impressed by the outward appearance, but by this time everyone was famished, so we went in. In the States, if you stopped at a gas station restaurant you would be assured of finding canned, fried, or microwaved food items. Here there was no menu, only the three or four lunch offerings for the day. Not really knowing what we were ordering we got a couple of each of the items they had available, including something called cazuela. When the food arrived, however, we were all duly impressed! This was real home cooking; nothing was canned or microwaved as it would be in a similar type of restaurant in the states. I for one decided that in Chile you can’t judge a restaurant by its exterior. Cazuela, a delicious traditional Chilean soup was to become a favorite during our stay in Chile.


This restaurant didn't look particularly promising, but the food was great.

At one point during our journey south we got lost in a small town and accidentally took a one-way street going the wrong way. A police car just happened to be passing at the time and pulled us over. We had had several encounters with police in Argentina, all of them positive, but we didn’t know what to expect with Chilean police. The officer spoke no English, but was polite, explained that we were going the wrong way, gave us directions to our destination and sent us on our way.

Around 7:30 we arrived at a place I had found online called Casa Chueca. It turned out to be a very nice, somewhat rustic German-run hosteria in the country just outside of the city of Talca. We settled into our rooms and some of us had a relaxing swim before enjoying a simple vegetarian dinner with our hosts and the other guests. After being surrounded by Spanish for the past three months, it was a little surreal to hear everyone speaking German. Many of them did speak some English so we were able to meet an interesting group of world travelers and trekkers. The next day we would complete our journey to the Lake District of Chile.


The German owned Casa Chueca in the country outside of Talca.


The view from Casa Chueca