Tuesday, Aug 20th was to be the day I made my way down south. My first destination being the Volcan Chillan and the ski resort Nevados de Chillian (formerly Termas de Chillian). I had hoped to wake up early for the first time on my trip and do the 5+ hour drive in daylight. That was not in the cards. The rental car was late, 2PM late in fact.
The owner of the company that was setting up the rental, Andres, was very apologetic and took me out to lunch while we were waiting for the car. We went to a classic Chilean lunch spot (Fuente Alemana) that was very busy.
About half an hour after lunch I was in my rental 4Runner with gear in the back terrorizing the streets of Santiago. In an attempt to do the trip (mostly) in daylight I skipped my planned breaks. Everything went quite smoothly on they highway. This segment of the main highway felt very much like driving through the Okanagan but on better maintained roads (thanks to numerous tolls).
I rolled into the city of Chillian just after sun had set. It was still at least an hour from the city to my destination in the mountain. There was a thick smoke/dust at ground level that permeated all areas of the city that I drove through. I’m not sure if it was from the road construction, dust, or a nearby fire. It gave everything a rather spooky feel, especially while driving past rows of ramshackle tin roof homes and shops while cyclists and pedestrians weaved in and out of traffic.
Before heading into the mountain I thought it prudent to top up at a gas station. This turned out to be another opportunity to feel like a complete ‘tard. It started off smoothly and I was proud of myself for communication the octane and ‘fill er up’ request to the attendant. However, my sense of accomplishment was shattered when it came to paying the bill. I figured that would be the easy part — hand over the card and sign, right? Not so fast. I had to answer a question ‘uno or tres cuentas’ What? I could not possibly think of a question that would need to be answered after showing me the amount and swiping the card. There were several minutes of confusion. Two attendants counting 1 and 3 on their fingers — yes I get THAT part. But one or three what? Three counts/accounts? What the hell does that mean when you’re paying for gas? Finally they went and pulled some kid out of another car. The kid looked puzzled for a second, trying to find the right English words. And then he said ‘pay in one or pieces for three months’ rather unsurely. Then it dawned on me. Gas was so bloody expensive (don’t bitch about Vancouver gas prices, it’s almost $2/litre here!) there that they had a payments system where they’d break put he payment across three months. Uno uno! Dammit. I smiled sheepishly at the guy and gave him a small tip which he was happy to receive.
It was completely dark as I started my drive up into the mountain. It wasn’t a problem initially, there was one road to follow and it was obvious where to go. As I got further up, the pot holes became increasingly large and the game of avoiding them by headlight became more challenging. Finding my lodge was the next challenge. It was located up a turnoff onto a dirt road that I missed the first pass through. GPS wasn’t much use here because only the main road was in the system. I spotted the turnoff on my second pass and slowly made my way up the ‘road’ towards the lodge. Thank goodness I had high clearance.
Finally I reached my destination, Rocanegra Mountain Lodge. It was a really nice place. A fairly large wood and stone building sitting right below several mountains and a glacier. I unloaded my gear with the help of the awesome staff and went straight to a lovely dinner and my very own bottle of wine. Restaurants serving wine by the bottle only seems to be a thing here, oh dear!
My plan on skiing the resort Wednesday fell through. There was a snow storm with no visibility and high winds. I walked around the grounds of the lodge, took some pictures, and had a relaxing day reading, tubbing, and eating my face off.
Before my dinner and evening bottle of wine, I got in touch with local backcountry guide. The weather for Thursday was looking amazing. A trip to Volcan Chillan Nuevo was on!
