After checking out of the Mar Andino Hotel we went shopping at a supermarket on the outskirts of Rancagua. It was a Sunday and packed with folk stocking up for Christmas. What was noticeable was that folk were buying lots of soft fizzy drinks, like Coca-Cola and Fanta. Our food shopping was a bit random as we did not know what cooking facilities we would find at our next stop, up in the National Park Radal Siete Tazas. A typical Chilean food is empanadas, traditionally filled with meat and eggs but which come in vegetarian form too. You can buy the pastry wrappers to make them yourself. However in this shop, Lider (Walmart) we could only find ones made with lard.

Heading down the Panamericana to Molina we photographed a road safety sign that read: Do you think you are Schumacher?

At Molina, a small town, we were surprised to see a restaurant advertising vegetarian food.

As we headed in to the hills, the roads eventually became gravel tracks. There were signs advertising camping and cabanas all along. As well there were signs advertising parcels of land for sale. The roads deteriorated as we grew closer to the national Park, but there was still a steady flow of traffic, driving implausibly fast given the state of the highway and leaving dust clouds behind them.

Eventually we turned on to an even bumpier private road which took us to the campsite. We met a truck which stopped and asked where we were going. When we said the Valle de las catas cabanas, he radioed ahead to let them know we were coming.

The cabanas were situated in a high alpine-like meadow, grazed by cows and horses. We had to wait whilst the cabin was cleaned for us. It cost $45,000 per night. Small but clean, it had two bedrooms, a corridor kitchen, dining area and bathroom. When we paid, the little boy who lived at the site shook Kevin's hand like a little old man, and offered Joan his cheek to kiss!

Outside was a table with bench seats which we moved in to the shadow of house as it was so hot. Kevin put the food that needed cooling in the nearby stream as there was only three hours of electricity at night so a fridge would be useless.

The owners’ dogs came to visit us, especially during dinner of aubergine parmigiana. The little boy played on his bike near the next cabin which seemed to be having some work done on it ahead of the tourist season. Unsurprisingly there was no internet so we just downloaded our pictures on to the laptop.