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Ah, Concepcion - great name.
Rolled in to town late, taxi'd to the local square, strolled up to where the hostal is supposed to be - above a shopping mall, or galeria. But it's about 7 at night and the mall is shut, shutters down. Walk round the block, can't see a way in. Then chat to one of the vendors nearby, as the street is alive with people, who shows us how to get in to the mall. Step 1.
Step 2 - buzzing the hostal on the intercom - no answer. In the end the same helpful women shows us we can get up to the 3rd floor via another staircase - great security here.
Step 3 - Ring the doorbell, a friendly old lady answers the door, sees us, then says 'uno momento', shuts the door and then we wait for 5 minutes
Step 4 - another lady shows up outside and we tell her our story....she looks kinda interested. She rings the bell - we wait 5 more minutes.
Step 5 - a man appears at the door, lets the woman in.....WHAT THE?!?!
So we have a chat in stilted spanish....turns out all these people are German guests (they don't speak english)...and the person running the place had popped out. They were not near to letting us in but said we could leave our bags.....how nice?!
Step 6 - the senora appears and we finally make it across the threshold - phew! And that's just checking in.
We stay here for 2 nights, one whole day, and make the most of the cafe culture going on in the place as well as take in a bit of the culture. Make a trip to the local history museum with its fantastic diarama's, stroll through the park, tour the local Uni campus, pop in at the Art museum with its 'famous' mural.
Also, when we get back, apart from the Senora, we have the entire hostal to ourselves - cheap, comfortable, clean, cable tv (yay), we have to light the boiler for hotwater but no worries - breakfast of bread and jams included!
Sampled more of the local types of food - a plate of chips covered in onions and bits of meat, selections of cheese, meats, olives....great stuff. local beer - Cristal. Yes, been sippin' on Cristal.
PS I am famous in S America - everyone looks at me. Helps that i am on average 6-10 inches taller than the average local, and the blode-ish hair/blue eyes seals the deal. So far have not encountered many/any other travellers....but with the Spanish, still feels like i am closer to home than ever before.
Catch the bus (10 hours) to Puerto Varas.
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