9 January 2016 – Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu to Cusco

We catch the train to Aguas Calientes at about 7.30AM.  Not the earliest train we could have caught, but early enough.  It seems hard to believe it rained last night – looks like we’re going to have a nice day.

The scenery along the route to MP is spectacular.  Extraordinarily steep mountains, raging river (unfortunately full of plastic bottles), scattered Incan ruins along the way, along with local villages and crops (some more scenic than others).

We arrive into Aguas Calientes and to be honest, I’m a little dismayed.  We were funnelled through a market and then into the town.  Crammed into a narrow valley and chock-full of shops whose sole existence centres around MP.  Staying at Ollantaytambo was nicer. 

We queue for bus tickets up to MP.  As to be expected, the situation is hopeless.  Countless people arrive at once and everyone wants a ticket.  What do we find.  One ticket office.  Two windows to sell tickets, back to back, which means two lines in opposite directions.  Ticket sales are a slow process, which involves inordinate delays for no apparent reason.  Cash only.  Must show passports and this required substantial extra time.  It would take some effort to design a less efficient system!

Once one has a ticket for the bus, you must then join the next queue, this time for the actual bus up the mountain.  The queue is located randomly along the footpath in the street and again, you must show your ticket, show your passport, and eventually you’ll get onto a bus.  No use of scanners etc.  All manually verified, which takes far longer than it needs to.

The trip up to MP is surprisingly dusty for the rainy season, but quite spectacular.  Then we arrive.  People mill around aimlessly.  We fight our way through the guides and make it to the entrance.  We show our tickets, find our passports (AGAIN!) and finally we’re in.

Lordy, it’s a spectacular setting.  Despite the countless photo’s, it’s still an impressive site although it having been built up so much in our minds, there are elements that don’t quite reach expectations.  For example, there is less of the famous Incan stonework than I’d thought, it is smaller than I’d imagined (although still a big enough site) and as per usual, there are no explanatory signs around the place.  I have long concluded that the lack of signs is a deliberate ploy to provide work for the guides who plague the place.  Nothing inherently wrong with that I guess, provided the guides are up to scratch and give you all the relevant information.

Anyway, we wander the site for about 3 hours and are pretty exhausted at the end of that time, with lots of photos.

We queue for bus back down to Aguas Calientes, wait for the train to Ollantaytambo, and are on our way.

On arrival into Ollantaytambo, there are hordes of transport options back to Cusco.  We decide to take a private taxi for 50 soles.  Good price, nice enough car, nice driver.

Back in Cuzco at the hotel, I now have earplugs, just in case!  We’re back in the fancy room upstairs with the view.  And the disco noise…

8 January 2016 – Cuzco to Ollantaytambo

Another night with not so good sleep.  Fighting, swearing and bottle throwing outside our bedroom window on ground floor.  It’s a real shame because the hotel room is lovely.  It’s got nice, tiled floors, plenty of room, a big modern shower.  And the walls – they must be 60-80cm thick, although they only have single pane windows.  Double glazing would be an improvement!  It’s also down 4 flights of stairs from the main entrance level.  The hills are steep here!

Our first mission after breakfast is to pay for the tickets to Machu Picchu.  Being Latin America, nothing is easy.  One can’t pay online when you order the tickets, as that would be far too easy.  No, you need to go and find the office to pay for the tickets you have ordered.  After having to be re-directed from the first place we were sent to, we queue interminably while the other monkeys in front of us try to figure out when they want to go and for how long they want to go for whilst at the cashier.  Apparently it didn’t dawn on them to try and figure this out in the lead-up to arriving in Cuzco, nor in their hotel/hostal, nor during the walk to the office, nor during their time in the queue.  No, it’s far better to wait until you can inconvenience other people in a queue.

In the queue inside the building, there is little ventilation and one girl faints in front of us.  This causes quite a bit of consternation and everyone stops what they are doing to watch on staff member trying to bring the poor dear a chair.  Nobody has much idea how to help someone who has fainted.

Having finally arrived at the cashier, we get the next good news.  We can’t pay with VISA card.  Riiight…  Fortunately can with Mastercard.  Can’t figure that one out.

Back to the hotel to pack up.  We leave the majority of our luggage, only taking an overnight pack.  Walk to the ‘collectivo’ terminal to Ollantaytambo.  Collectivo’s are a bit different to the ones in Chile.  Here, they are what I know as a mini-bus, seating about 14(?) people.  It costs us 10 soles each, about A$4, for the 2.5 hour trip.  Bargain.  The driver is typical for here – a bit crazy, but we arrive safely.  A very nice man provides us with advice as to how everything works, as required.

We have lunch in the Plaza and soak in the environment.  The hills surrounding the town and quite steep, but nonetheless have Incan ruins scattered over them, including the massive ruins of Ollantaytambo itself.  Our hotel is advertised as being right in front of them, and to our surprise, it is.

We visit the Ollantaytambo ruins, which are fabulous.  Lots to see.

Afterwards, we wander streets of town looking for dinner and end up finding a festival going on with lots of music, dancers.  It’s a great show.  We’ve heard the music going on all day from the ruins, but now we see what it’s about.  Lots of music, dance and impressive costumes.  There’s also lots of beer flowing for the locals, who clearly enjoy their evening.

On the way back to the Plaza, we find a churro vendor – a pair of old blokes who look a bit dodgy.  We buy a packet of three churros and taste them warily.  They are delicious, so it’s back for another 3.  Should have bought more!

Dinner was pizza and limonada, plus two vegetable empanadas for 40 soles.  Bargain.  Reasonably good pizza!

As we get into bed and are ready to go to sleep, a band starts up nearby.  The traditional type – trumpets/horns, drums etc.  Surely not again, but it turns out to be only short-lived, and then everything is quiet.  Rain during the night.  Hopefully not a problem for tomorrow!

7 January 2016 – Incan ruins near Cusco

Not much better sleep last night either.  Disco finishes at 5.30AM, church bells ring at 5.30AM, sun comes up at around 5.30AM.  Bugger.

As a consequence, we get up early.  We have to move rooms (as planned) as someone else has the fancy room booked. Our new room is great, at the bottom of the complex, down four flights of stairs.  Going down is no big deal, but coming up takes some effort.  The porter(?) proves to be a lad of some strength and stamina, running our (heavy) bags down to the room and racing back up to get the remainder.  We’re happy to tip him!  The new room is certainly quieter (for the moment), with very thick walls, so let’s hope it keeps the disco noise out.

For today’s expeditions, we are going to visit the Incan ruins just outside of Cusco – Q’enco, Pukapucara and Sacsayhuaman.  Rather than take an expensive guided tour, we are recommended that it is easy to take a taxi up there and then move around by local bus.  The ruins at Q’enco are small but impressive.  Andrea is very much taken by the cave and sacrificial altar inside it.  Less impressive is the complete lack of information available to anyone that does not arrive on a guided tour.  No signs, no maps available, nothing.  Sadly, it becomes a recurring theme.  The Q’enco site is actually cut in half by the road.  The most impressive part is downhill, but the uphill part was also quite interesting and virtually deserted.

We caught the bus up to Pukapucara for the grand sum of 1 sol each.  There was no entrance person to check our ticket, however it is only a small site and didn’t take long to wander around.  It’s a nice site though.  We then head downhill in the bus to Sacsayhuaman.  If you pronounce it how us westerners do, you get “Sexy Woman”, or near enough to it. The bus drops us off at an intersection nearby, requiring a 10 minute walk in the hot sun.  I add more sunscreen to my neck, but the sun still has some serious bite to it.  On entering the site, we are greeted by a lady who offers to guide us around.  Thirty soles for an hour or 50 soles for 1.5 hours.  We decide that 1.5 hours seems fine and agree to that.  Turns out she is a great choice as a guide.  She takes us through a part we would never have found or understood and then through the more obvious parts of the remainder of the site – think big scale Inca masonry.  We are very impressed by the site and recommend it to anyone visiting Cusco – don’t miss it!

From Sacsayhuaman, it’s only a 15 minute walk downhill back to our hotel.  In the street before ours, we spy the street name on a small sign – Calle Resbalosa (Slippery Street), which is quite amusing and looks completely appropriate, as the street is very steep and narrow.  While taking a photo, I spot a small sign regarding a restaurant called Organika, offering vegetarian food, salads etc.  Why not, we ask?  We carefully descend the street and just as we find a cross-street we recognise from yesterday, we find the restaurant.  It is very unassuming from outside, and at first glance inside too, however we are hungry and tired, so sit down to try something.  The menu looks really interesting, so who knows.  Turned out to be a fabulous lunch.  They grow their own organic vegetables and while selling to a whole bunch of local restaurants, decided they’d give their own restaurant a go just over a year ago.  They are doing a great job of it.  Well presented, delicious food.  Highly recommended to anyone in the area, as well as to those who aren’t.  Come and visit them and support a bunch of people having a go and doing a good job of it!

Back at the hotel, we survey the damage.  As mentioned, there was plenty of sun.  It was also my first day out and about in shorts for a while and while I put sunscreen on my neck and arms, I missed a few bits, including my face, nose and especially legs.  I’m surprised at how red they are – I’d felt the sun on my neck and arms but not anywhere else.  Disappointing effort on my behalf.  As the night wears on, I look more and more like Rudolph!

We book tickets on the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes for our visit to Machu Picchu.  Pretty darn expensive, but we’re making up for it by taking the cheap option from Cusco to Ollantaytambo – a collectivo which costs 10 soles each, which is about 4 dollars.  The trick with collectivos though, is that they only leave when they are full.  We’ll see how that goes.

There is heavy rain before and during our dinner.  Let’s hope that’s not a sign of things to come.

6 January – easy day in Cusco

The disco last night proved highly effective at negating a decent sleep.  It stopped at 5.30AM, at which time the local church bells started, and the sun appeared shortly thereafter.  We manage a little more sleep but again it is interrupted, as apparently most foot traffic through to the other rooms passes right outside our door.  Ultimately the extra sleep is not very satisfying and we’re a bunch of grumpy bears in the morning… 

Breakfast is a little meagre again, but this time there is at least some cereal (granola? – it’s a collection of puffed things stuck together with, presumably, honey) to go with the bread rolls and eggs, not to mention a bit of butter and jam.  The cereal tends to dissolve with the added milk, but it’s tasty enough.  It also has quinoa and you can’t be unhappy with that!

After our leisurely breakfast, it’s back to our room for a relax and a bit of planning.  We eventually head out to the streets off the plaza and brave the countless stalls selling Andean textiles, carvings, jewellery and all-round crap.  Andrea is a skilled bargainer, which comes in handy dealing with the massively inflated prices one is usually offered on arrival into the stall.  After much experimentation, we find a stall Andrea is happy with and commence our purchasing run.  The owner seems rather pleased while we tear apart his stall looking for matching items.  Moving on to another stall, we purchase a whole bunch of Andean hats.  Arms full, we huff and puff our way around further streets, stopping for lunch at a quiet little restaurant with no-one in it.  We hope it’s not a bad sign!

As luck would have it, our lunch is very nice, as well as being a lot cheaper than those places around the plaza.  Feeling a little better, we continue our wandering and eventually make it back to the hostal.  All the lugging of luggage around the place, as well as this mornings walking, has left me with a bit of a stiff back.  I’m recommended a massage place by the hostal owner and it turns out to be a good choice.  There were lots of places offering ridiculously cheap massages near the plaza (30 soles for 1 hour), but they seem a bit dodgy, so I go with the recommended one.  She is very good and leaves me feeling like I’ve been beaten with a stick.  I now have a whole new list of sore spots from her prodding, meaning my back has become less noticeable!

Having now been in town for 24 hours, we decide to brave a pisco sour tonight.  We are pointed towards a bar that does an extensive range of them, and apparently good food.  We decide we’ll treat ourselves.  We get shown to a corner table overlooking the plaza and after a lot of thought, we choose our poisons.  Mine is a classic pisco sour, and Andrea has one featuring passion fruit.  Mine is not great, but certainly not bad.  Andrea was happy with hers.  Food good – vegetarian ceviche for me, which might sound odd but it was delicious.

During the day and continuing into the night, there have been random fireworks set off around town and this continues into the late evening as we are in bed and trying to sleep.  The disco is at it again, however I expect to be so tired that I will sleep through it.

5 January 2016 – Lima to Cusco

Turns out I was right about not sleeping well in the humidity.  Not a great night’s sleep.  In reality, most of it was probably spent awake!  I guess you’d probably get accustomed to it after a few days…  Breakfast was a bit disappointing – just bread rolls and some scrambled eggs.  I wanted some orange juice (as listed) but no, they didn’t have any.  I got some other juice, perhaps star fruit, but it didn’t really hit the spot.

We packed up, left out bags in the store room and headed out for a couple of hours before our taxi turned up to take us to the airport.  We had been quoted a good hour and a half to get to the airport, however it seems unlikely, as it only took about 45 minutes from the airport, during the first part of peak hour.  We decide to leave about half an hour for the trip, so that means the taxi will take us at 12pm.  OK, off to explore.

The hostal is pretty much only a street away from the Miraflores cliffs, right near the lighthouse.  We have a beautiful day, almost hot in fact, with blue skies.  I’m under the impression that Lima is usually mired in cloud and Andrea has never seen a blue sky in her various visits here.  We must be in luck!  Wandering the footpath along the top of the cliffs, there are many people exercising.  One lad jogs past with his shirt off and I make some comment to Andrea.  She doesn’t respond.  I think her mind is elsewhere!!

Further along, paragliders are taking off and there is a line of young tourists waiting to go with them.  It looks rather exciting, but not for me.  The girls profess no interest either.

Feeling a bit hungry now, we catch a taxi to the Larcomar Mall to have a wander around.  I’ve visited previously and been underwhelmed by it, however we’re nearby and a bit peckish, so why not.  As expected, despite it being about 11AM, very few stores are open.  I decide to grab a couple of bottles of water from the Starbucks there, however a girl in front of me is engaged in deep conversation with the cashier and neither of them has any interest in me.  They just continue chatting (there was no buying of anything involved), while after about 2 minutes of this, steam starts issuing from my ears.  After a further minute or so, I gave up and walked out.  Shame Starbucks, shame!

So, hungry and thirsty, we bite the bullet and head for a restaurant overlooking the cliffs.  The outside, shaded tables in the breeze and mostly taken, however as we were about to go somewhere else, as waiter suggests going inside.  Refreshingly, it is airconditioned, empty and we can choose a window-front table.  Fabulous.  We order and wait.  The food is fabulous, the water cold, the service prompt.  Thanks Tanta, you made our morning!

Getting a taxi back to the hotel proves a bit problematic as the one key linking road our taxi driver wants to use is closed for maintenance.  We spend more time than desired in a minor traffic jam, then we finally get moving and arrive at the hostal.  We retrieve our gear and wait.  The taxi is late by about 5 minutes, which for me is 5 minutes of stressing about missing the flight.  Oh dear…

We’re eventually on our way to the airport.  Traffic is heavier than expected, however our driver again manages to scare the bejesus out of us and makes it to the airport on time.  Check-in at Peruvian Airlines is remarkably smooth and apart from a delay to the flight, hooray, everything is going to plan.  We wander the shops outside security for a while, get bored with that, and pass through security without issues.  The delay to the flight allows us the opportunity to chat with a lady and her grand-daughter who are from Iquitos, out in the Peruvian jungle.  They are heading out for the summer holidays and if ever we find ourselves in the area, we are invited to look them up!  They have tried to fly out this morning, however a problem with the travel permissions for the grand-daughter means that they have to go to a Public Notary and sort out permissions.  The rest of the family went on without them, and they will catch up in the evening.  They’re not entirely pleased, but are coping with it by that Latin ability to remain calm in light of the endless queueing required to get a simple thing done.  It still does my head in.

After a looong time waiting, we eventually queue to board our flight.  Fifteen minutes later, the staff are handing out sandwiches and soft drinks, with the queue having not advanced one centimetre.  After some more interminable waiting, we eventually board, the plane takes off and we are on our way!

The flight to Cusco is over some spectacular mountain scenery, with several snow-covered peaks jutting out amongst the clouds.  Arrival into Cusco is well documented as being, well, interesting.  The city has grown to the point where it now surrounds the airport, and with all the peaks around, not to mention dark clouds, it’s a bit of a hair-raising landing that, of course, finishes well.  It has clearly been raining and we overhear that around 7 other planes have not been able to land during the day, likely explaining our delay from taking off.  Shame nobody thought to mention it to the passengers…

We are offered various taxi services, some of which are clearly over-inflated for the tourist marker.  We choose what seems like a much cheaper option, but later find out it is still double what we could have paid.  Poop.  At least he knows the way to the hotel.  They also extort another 5 soles out of us for dropping us at the door of the hotel, rather than in the Plaza and having to walk uphill to the hotel.  It’s not much, but it’s the principle of the thing.  They should have just been upfront!

The hotel is lovely.  We’re offered coca tea and lollies upon arrival.  We’re offered an upgrade to the room with the panoramic windows at no extra cost.  We get lots of recommendations from the owner.  We settle in and are pleased.

Dinner is just down the road at a local Peruvian joint.  Lovely owner again – he does the waiting etc, while his wife does the kitchen.  They are also full of useful advice and don’t try and upsell us on anything.  A lovely quinoa soup, followed by papas huancaina and I’m ready for bed.  Problem is the walk back up the hill.  For us newbies, there’s a lot of huffing and puffing before we get back to the hotel.  More coca tea and we’re ready for bed.  The panoramic view of Cusco’s lights is beautiful, however the disco just down the road presents some concerns.  Still, we’re so tired we are off to sleep quite quickly.

4 January 2016 – Santiago to Lima

The bus trip to Santiago was relatively uneventful, which was a blessing.  It must have been an ‘express’, as none of us has any memory of stopping during the night.  I normally sleep very poorly on the bus, however on this occasion, I only wake up as we hit the outskirts of Santiago.  The girls continue to sleep until about 5 minutes before the busport.  I don’t know how they do it…

We manage to find the ticket booth for the bus to the airport after 10 minutes of wandering around.  Turns out it was right in front of where we got off.  It figures.  The bus is remarkably cheap, only a couple of dollars each for the tickets and we are delivered right to the main terminal.  Great value!

We decide on breakfast in the terminal at a place we’ve eaten at before – Gatsby’s.  It turns out to be the worst decision we’ve made on these holidays.  Terrible breakfast, even for Chileans.  None of us feel particularly well afterwards.  We then head to the check-in gates.  We’re there a good 5 hours before the flight is scheduled to leave and as it so happens, Sky Airlines do not let you check in until 2 hours before the flight.  That leaves us 3 hours to kill.  We’re tired, not feeling great and now bored.  Happy days…  Anyone considering waiting in the check-in area at the Santiago airport, our suggestion is head downstairs, just outside the arrivals hall.  It’s quieter than upstairs.  The café’s there are also better than the ones upstairs!

Eventually the clock wound its way to mid-day and we could check in, which surprisingly, was accomplished without major fuss.  I’ve never flown with Sky before and they are making a reasonable impression so far.

We make our way through the new immigration hall and this time, leaving the country is easy.  Last time was a major drag due to an over-zealous immigration peon deciding to hassle us about Alma and her ‘permission to leave the country’ documentation.  Now she is 18, all that has gone away.

Wandering the halls of the international airport can sometimes be entertaining, but not on this occasion.  We tried to lunch at a few place, none of which had the items we wanted.  Welcome to Chile.  We eventually settled on something eminently forgettable and highly over-priced.

Boarding time came and went.  Goodwill towards Sky is evaporating…  Eventually we get the call to board and guess what.  We are in the absolutely last aisle on the plane.  The one with the special “even smaller than usual” seats.  Nice.  For the snack service, I am the absolutely last person on the plane to be offered something, despite having an aisle seat.  Everyone loves a gringo!

Our arrival into Lima goes smoothly.  So smoothly that we’re out beyond customs before we really know it.  I’d organised a pick-up with the hostal we’re staying at, and good news, there’s a gentleman waiting in the arrivals hall with a sign and my name is on it.  Our driver is a young’ish lad, well dressed and very polite.  He drives like a madman though, along with the rest of Lima who all appear to want to be on the same bit of road with us.  Six lanes of traffic on a five lane road is not unusual.  We cringe with terror for most of the trip to the hotel, however nothing comes of our worries and we arrive safely.  Along the way, we’ve been treated to a beautiful sunset.

The hostal looks nice from the outside and is functional inside.  The Manager(?) is very helpful and soon we’re in our room.  It’s not very large (which is OK – we’re only here for one night), featuring a double bed and a bunk.  There is a private bathroom for us across the hall.  The most worrisome feature is the absence of an airconditioner or fan.  When I’d made the booking, I forgot that we’d be arriving into Lima in summer and that being on the coast, it might be a bit steamy.  It certainly is.  Despite the temperature not being too high – around 23 degrees, we can feel the humidity.  That might make sleeping uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, we head out for something to eat.  On my last visit here, I had a Mexican meal at a restaurant called “Como agua para chocolate” – Like Water for Chocolate – and it was fabulous.  I insisted that we go there again but had not done enough research about how to get there from the hostal.  The directions we were given turned out to be rubbish.  We arrived near where it was supposed to be and it wasn’t even remotely familiar to me.  We continued asking for directions and had helpful people point us in the right direction, however none had a clue.  We asked a few taxi drivers and none of them were any the wiser either.  Eventually we went looking for an internet café to do some googling but meanwhile stumbled across a café whose staff were somewhat helpful, but even more helpful was one of the clients who overheard us and googled it on her phone.  Turns out we were a long way away.

We eventually found a taxi driver who got us to the right area.  We went to the restaurant and GUESS WHAT?  It was closed for summer holidays.  While I stood dumbfounded at the front door, the owners walked out.  After we light-heartedly berated them, they explained they’d be back on the 20^th, which is OK, because we’ll be passing through Lima a bit after that.

Feeling a bit frustrated, we went to the chifa (local version of a Chinese restaurant) next door and had some lovely meals there.

The taxi ride back to the hotel was again interesting.  The taxi driver had to stop and ask directions from a local tourist police officer – apparently it’s one of the things they are there for – but we eventually got there, after having to stop again and ask some guy walking his dogs where the street was.  He turned around and pointed at our hostal…

3 January 2016 - Temuco

It’s finally time to say goodbye to Temuco on this trip, which of course means a busy time with family and some friends who insist on dropping by or us having a last visit.  Morning involved a long awaited visit to the Museo Regional de Araucania.  I’ve always been interested in visiting but we’ve never found the time and Andrea has never been too interested.  On this occasion, she has some old photographs to donate to the museum.  We tried visiting a few days ago but they were on an indefinite strike and therefore closed, however today everyone appears to have patched up their differences and the museum is open.  While Andrea goes through the rigmarole of donating to the museum director, I get the chance to wander through a display of Mapuche silver jewellery, which is very interesting.  Not only the displays of the items themselves, but the stories that go with them.

Downstairs was a more traditional display of items relating to the Temuco area and its history.  There’s lots of pottery, stories about the Spanish settlers and life in the region.  Quite interesting as well, especially the pottery.

Back at HQ, lunch was in preparation for us and an aunt, uncle and two cousins.  As expected, it was a long, leisurely affair with far too much food!

By late afternoon, we had to duck out and catch up with some close friends for the final time.  Of course they had afternoon tea prepared for us…

After finally escaping without having to have eaten anything, we headed back to the Out-laws.  We had some final dessert type things (a delicious tart), said our goodbyes to the aunt/uncle/cousin and commenced the final struggle to pack everything into our suitcases, now bulging at the seams.  In my case, one of the seams is giving way.  The suitcase is not that full, just old.  OK, perhaps it is just full…

We head off to the Temuco bus terminal with about 25 minutes before the bus is scheduled to leave.  Should be plenty of time, but we have forgotten that this is the final day of the Christmas holidays for most and everyone is heading back to Santiago.  Needless to say the access to the bus terminal is chaos.  We manage to finally get in with about 7 minutes to spare.  As it turns out, the bus is delayed, so we end up hanging around for a while before it arrives.

Final goodbyes are only slightly teary.  On to the bus, settle in and watch a crappy movie, then try to sleep.

29 December 2015 to 2 January 2016 - Temuco

I finally have time to sit down and write about these days.  Unfortunately I can’t remember much happening.  I think we did mostly catching up with friends, wandering the streets and various shops and so on.  And eating too much, drinking too much.  And New Years Eve.

28 December 2015 –Caburga, Pucon and back to Temuco

After a lovely sleep-in and leisurely breakfast, we left Maison Nomade and headed up to Caburga to see the Lake.  Shockingly, the local government authority are involved in some useless infrastructure project at the lake foreshore that was completely blocking the usual view and access.  Poor shops etc on front of the lake.  I can’t imagine anyone doing anything different than what we did – turn around and leave.

We headed to Playa Blanca, where you can get another view of the Lake, walk along the edge etc, usually without much in the way of company of other people.  The solitude and views are wonderful.  On this occasion, it was a circus.  Perhaps because of the town foreshore works, there was an abundance of cars, new parking arrangements (in a paddock) that we had never seen previously, all for exorbitant sums (for Chile) of 4,000 pesos to park your car in a paddock.  For that price, one would expect a fancy carpark, toilets and so on, rather than the debacle we found.  Again, we left.

Back in Pucon, we wandered the streets for a while, trying not to twist ankles when stepping off the footpaths.  When we tired of window shopping, we found a pizza and pasta place for lunch, which made a nice change.  Afterwards, we wandered over the road to a dessert café type place called Kuchenlandia, where I indulged in my favourite Chilean dessert of Merengue with raspberries.  Gosh it was good.

Sugared up, we headed back to Temuco as uneventfully as it is possible to be.  I managed to hand back the car to FIL (father-in-law) without any additional marks on it than there were when we left!

27 December 2015 – Pucon

When we are in the Temuco region, we like to take a break from family and head out to the Pucon area for a night or two (or three, if time permits).  Sadly on this trip, we could only manage the one night.  We go to visit friends, enjoy the snow-capped volcano/s, marvel at the green of the forests and perhaps have a change from home cooking.

The drive to Villarica is generally uneventful, other than marvelling at the crazy drivers who insist on trying to overtake at any opportunity, however small it might be.  The road has enough straight sections that mean it might be possible, however there are always moments of having to slow down to avoid the oncoming idiot.  Things seemed a little calmer this time with only two (from memory) scary moments, perhaps due to the very visible presence of carabineros (police) at strategic locations along the road.

The section from Villarica to Pucon is always spent marvelling at the crap state of the road and verge, in addition to the driving skills (or lack thereof) on display.  Because it was a somewhat touristy time of the year, things were slightly complicated by a few hardy souls who chose to ride bikes along the road and pot-holes verge, creating an additional hazard to watch out for.  Sadly, it should be a gorgeous drive along the edge of the lake.  If any of the muppets from the local council should ever chance across this commentary, perhaps they could consider a long-term public works strategy where they provide tourist infrastructure in the region.  For example, re-lay the road, add in a bicycle pathway along the edge, add in some overtaking lanes.

Then we could mention Pucon – a town idling along due to past glories.  Invest in infrastructure!  Fix the damn footpaths and verges, tidy the place up with a professional rubbish collection system – make it a place to be proud of, rather than one that thinks it doesn’t have to do anything and people will just come anyway.  It should be so much nicer…

Rant over.

Needless to say, we stay outside of Pucon at a B&B called Maison Nomade.  Lovely place.  This was my fourth visit and because Alain and Carolina continue to invest in improving the place and the experience of visitors, I’m already looking forward to visit number 5!  And the view to the Villarica Volcano remains stunning!

26 December 2015 - hmmm

Something must have happened on the 26^th.  By the time of writing, it doesn’t stand out as having been memorable.  I think I exchanged a Christmas present – a belt that was too long.  Apparently I’m still not fat enough…

24 - 25 December 2015 - Christmas

The opening of Christmas presents in Chile occurs at midnight on the 24^th-25^th transition.  The festive season gorging takes a slight break on the 24^th, although I’m not sure how widespread this is – it may be a result of my complaining about how I feel like a prize pig being fattened up for the oven on Christmas Day.  I’ve told them if I see anyone coming towards me with an apple, I’m going to run away!

So, food-wise on the 24^th, it was (relatively) light salads and so on.  Presents opened, it was time for bed.  My presents were largely clothing and wine – perfect for an already full and heavy suitcase!

Oh, and the goat for tomorrow arrived.  In a sack.  Dripping blood.  The girls are not happy.  Alma went upstairs a bit upset with the idea of what was happening.  Eventually she calmed down a bit and came down to wish her grandparents good night, only to find them in the middle of chopping off the head!

The morning of the 25^th was a hive of activity as preparations for lunch commenced.  The poor old goat was splayed onto the frame for cooking over the BBQ, the wine chosen, and much fretting over the lack of space in the fridge.  Much the same as back in Oz!

My job has become the production of a sufficient quantity of pisco sour, due to Andrea talking up my “skills”.  Sadly it’s all chamullo and I’m very much an apprentice.  I have a method that varies significantly but seems to produce acceptable results to my taste, although I’m still not sure if when everybody says “Suave”, whether that’s good or really, they want more pisco in it.  Personally, I like not being belted in the face by it!

An uncle and two aunts, plus a cousin arrived to share lunch.  All ate their fill (and more).  All felt slightly queasy afterwards.  Andrea and I didn’t eat dinner, as we were still completely stuffed.

Another typical Christmas over and done with.

22 December 2015 – more adventures in Chilean bureaucracy

Today was the day to attempt to resolve a long standing issue with my 2012 Chilean tax documentation.  In Australian terms, there was apparently an issue with the tax return lodged during 2013 whereby it couldn’t be processed.  The issue was complicated by a change in accountants being used by my employer during 2012, from PWC to Montt.  After lodging the return in the middle of 2013, Montt discovered it couldn’t be processed due to an error in monthly tax payments that were short in one month, followed by an overpayment the following month.  Which of the companies was responsible was never satisfactorily explained.

Regardless of fault, it had to be fixed.  PWC had first crack at it, until they got bored and declared that since they were no longer the company accountants, they couldn’t help further.  Montt then tried to resolve it, before getting bored and the person responsible left the company.  After a further period of inaction, I requested another attempt.  Being Chile, no-one could find the relevant documentation and all had to be compiled again, including original documents being sent to Chile at not insignificant cost.  Eventually this third lot of accountants got bored and declared they were unable to fix it.

In exasperation, we visited the Servicio Impuestos Internos (“Sii” - the Chilean tax office) in Temuco in an attempt to see if it could be sorted out.  On arrival, we pulled out ticket number and commenced waiting.  We had number 44, and the counter was serving 20.  Hmmm, how long might that mean?  After an hour, the number had advanced to around 24…  A long wait beckoned.

The typical Chilean is well accustomed to long queue’s in, well, everything here that involves some sort of bureaucracy.  This doesn’t stop them from trying to jump ahead in any queue, particularly those in this type of situation.  They will go an pester a clerk/operative who is attending another person, with an oh-so-polite “Excuse me, but could you please answer this tiny little question/query that I have about my problem?”.  The average operative is well used to this and will show significant disdain, but normally will try to answer the question, while the person who is being jumped over gives a resigned shrug.  After taking up a disproportionate amount of time, the person trying to jump-in will be told that it is too hard and they have to continue waiting.  Unless of course, they can get sent somewhere else to have their problem sorted straight away, usually by someone coming back from a break or if there is an opportunity to jump in between clients.  So much for the ticket queue.

So, of course Andrea decided to attempt this.  She identified someone in a desk towards the back of the office who may have been a section boss and went and hassled him.  He agreed to answer the questions, entered the relevant data and then concluded he was sorry he couldn’t help, but someone should be able to, and we’d have to go back to the line.  The appearance of helping while doing nothing now complete, he went back to whatever he was doing (or perhaps wasn't).

After 2 hours of waiting, our number finally came up.  We went and spoke to the nice lady who was very helpful, and for the first time, identified the problem.  Apparently the tax return was lodged, but there was no back-up evidence to corroborate the salary and tax figures on the tax return.  Of course, I didn’t have that with me.  It was not something I ever had, but something that the accountants had.  The lady said that it was a bit odd, but she would talk to her boss, sitting right behind her (but occupied with another client).  We went back to waiting.  Another 10 minutes passed and she spoke to the boss and then called us over.  It turned out he could see documents in the system, but she couldn’t due to authority levels.  If we could change our address to something local, then she should be able to see them and then process the tax return.  It took nearly half an hour to change the address details due to a faulty computer system, but once it was done and we sat down with the lady, it was sorted in 5 minutes.  Tax return processed, my tax issues now cleared, and a small return to boot!

Unbelievable.  That fact that we could sort it out so easily (apart from the waiting times), yet 3 teams of accountants from 2 high-powered accounting firms were unable to screams PURE IDIOTIC INCOMPETENCE on their behalf.  Welcome to it.