Packing seems to get a bigger job every time we want to move on, particularly where there are food stuffs involved. We left the keys with Jose's wife who was convinced we were leaving on Saturday and once again headed to the Ruta 5. It was a very hot day, every tractor seemed to be out on the road and San Clemente and Talca seemed so much busier. We turned off the motorway on to the Ruta de Conquistadores, heading to the coach and Constitucion. The road quickly ...

With Viviana and her family returned to Rancagua, the compound of houses was very quiet. We decided to do some housekeeping . The evening before we had watched one of the neighbours pull inflatables behind jet skis in the lake. It was about the only time we were aware that others lived nearby. In the afternoon, we headed south down the Ruta 5 to visit the Spa at Quinamivida. It was a great big complex set in gardens. The entranc e hall had a piano and we walked ...

We were up early but then discovered the gas was not on so there was no showers, water for washing up or burners to make coffee on. Not a soul was about so we ate breakfast with tea – not a popular thing with Joan. Eventually we saw Jose in the garden and he sorted out the gas. As it was Xmas day we exchanged gifts. We had opened our main presents from our families the Friday before we left. We never buy each other much at Christmas – just a token gi...

We tidied up the cabana and left the key in the door as we saw no one around. The road out of the national park was much quieter than on the Sunday we had arrived. We were held up by some roadworkers who had been tarmacking sections of the road and painting white lines badly and somewhat unnecessarily as most of the road was just gravel. We headed further south to Talca, where, as the guidebook says, the phrase "London, Paris and Talca" is painted mysteriously o...

During the night there were some weird noises but we put these down to horses passing by the cabin, the cows and the dogs. By the time we got up the sun was already high in the sky. Our plans for breakfast were a bit compromised as during the night an animal (mostlikely one of the dogs) had got the plastic box which we kept cheese in out of the stream and had eaten the contents! The day was hot o we decided to do some reading. Kevin read a cartoon book by xxxx, ...