South of Santiago is the Santa Cruz vine region with some great red, but rarely any white wines. Mostly the Cabernet Sauvignon is famous here. We were most impressed by the local museum in Santa Cruz, just next to the main square. It featured great fossils, an impressive historic section about the chilean independence and other wars, plenty of inca information and (what we missed in Peru) Inca jewelry and gold, and finally a section about the mining disaster whe...

On our way north from Pucon, and back to Santiago, we stopped for a couple of days in Concepcion, a mid sized city on the coast. We arrived around the time when the unis were competing for new students and it seems that in the relatively small Concepcion, there are at least 3 significant universities. The highlights for us were a trip to San Pedro de la Paz across the river, where everything seemed to be German (German school, German sport club, German dentist) ...

From the little known Cochamo valley we went straight into the very touristy Pucon. What a culture shock. Well, we also arrived on the day the Pucon Iron Man was held, so the town was bursting with triathlon and sport enthusiasts, the roads were clogged, we heard English language around us, where for weeks we only heard Spanish. Pucon has everything for thrill seekers, rafting, climbing up the active volcano Villarica (you can see it smoke from time to time), hi...

After the cold of Southern Patagonia, we flew to Puerto Montt, borrowed a little car and spent 4 nights at the lake Llanquihue, directly between the two volcanoes Osorno and Calbuco (erupted in 2015), where the weather was fine, the water warm enough to swim and everything almost German (german cake, beer, language, houses, ...). Then we went on a hike up the poorly known Cochamo trail (Paso de Leon), a 100 yr old 'road' that gave Argentinians access to the Paci...

If you go to Patagonia, you must visit Torres del Paine. A set of massive mountains with a 10 day hiking track around and through it. Beautiful landscape, blue lakes, frequently changing weather conditions and great nature. The gateway to the National Park is Puerto Natales, a nice town with the last fuel station for 300 kms and plenty of hiking shops. In the National Park there are plenty of great hikes, some glaciers with wonderful blue ice, a waterfall where...