An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
A more leisurely morning, as we had collectively voted last night to sleep in this a.m. We met for a good breakfast buffet, then hopped aboard the van and set off for Antillanca Nat’l Parque (a national park in Chile). Along the way, we continued our appreciation of the plentiful flowers - large red foxgloves, big blue hydrangeas, other yellows and reds - all around this area, as well as some fascinating tree and plant life, including Milton’s favorite monkey-puzzle trees, some quite enormous. After a 20km drive up a narrow, rocky road, we arrived at the ski lodge from where we then set off for a 4km hike up the road to the Antillanca crater.
The walk was through some forest, but most of the vast hillsides (along which climbed two of the double-chair lifts) were totally barren and covered with black volcanic dirt. We got to the crater, which was at the base of the glacier-speckled Casablanca volcano and had a picnic lunch (basically the same as the past two days with that damn good smoked trout) among a scrub grass and lava-strewn lunar-like surface, then we walked the 2km up to the summit. As it was wickedly windy, everyone waited in the van while Milton ran the last little bit up to the summit for a glorious photo-op. A spectacular panorama of the Andes, with four prominent volcanoes visible, (though with clouds obscuring their peaks) along with Lake Puyehue.
We drove back to the ski lodge which was, as before, basically deserted (though, oddly enough, their restaurant was fully staffed). We had them let us into their little shop, and amongst the usual offerings, we discovered a big box of whimsical wool and fleece hats that we all modelled and chose from (and I mean all, since even Aaron the driver had to get one!). We tried to get a group discount, but they offered us only 5% off, though the woman there admitted that we were the only sale so far in January. We then zipped back down the road to our spa for an afternoon of siesta and a perfunctory foreign-hotel massage before another buffet dinner.
Tonight’s buffet was the same themes as last night, but with some good pasta and a broccoli soufle-type thing with something crunchy, that we believed to be nuts, inside. Dessert was, again, wonderful, especially the raspberry cake which Wendy and Milton shared a piece of but was predictably gone by the time Felice visited the dessert table, leaving her quite forlorn and us struggling to suppress our giggles. We enjoyed some lively after-dinner chit-chat, then retired for the evening.
An addendum: We forgot to mention that toward the end of Sunday’s city tour in Santiago, Chile, our guide Maurice informed us that the city has a major earthquake every ten years or so and a minor one monthly, and he joked that the next one was due tomorrow morning at 6am. At 7:10, we were eating breakfast in the hotel, and the ground began shaking as though a subway were rumbling below (though there was no subway nearby), the coffee in the pots was visibly vibrating, then the intensity increased and the chandeliers began swaying. After about 15 seconds, it all stopped.
It was even weirder than in Umbria!