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, traditi...

Today we booked a trip to El Teniente mine and its accompanying town, Sewell. You can only do this with a tour. We were picked up on the outskirts of town, and joined about 20 other people heading up into the Andes. Near Coya we entered the El Teniente compound and were surprised to know Sewell was another 36 km. The scale of the mine beggars belief. Over 17,000 people work there and the investment in infrastructure was obvious. Whereas in parts of Chile, even th...

As we are going to Sewell tomorrow, we decided to visit Hacienda Los Lingues a day or two early. It was not that far down the ruta 5 and easy to find. It is one of the oldest Haciendas in Chile, created in 1599, a gift of land from the King of Spain. For Chile just to look round was quite expensive (£8). We might have stayed there but at £200+ per room it was too much. It is a beautiful location. Part of the house was damaged by the 2010 earthquake a...

Today after breakfast (which is available until 11 am...bliss!), we set up the Carretera Cobre (named because of its winding path). The weather was clear, unlike some days so far when there has been a fog that rises around eleven. The road was paved and not very busy. It wasn't long before we came to the entrance to the big Codelco copper mine at which point we had to turn off onto smaller roads. We turned off to the Reserva Nacional Rio de los Cipreses, passed...

A transit day. We packed our things ready to move on. Unfortunately the pick-up we have has only a single cabin so our cases are riding in the back. After breakfast we had to remind Paula that we had the bill to pay. Victor put it together quickly and missed a couple of things off. When we pointed this out he shrugged it off. They sent us off with Christmas greetings and kisses as if we were old friends. We took the motorway south. There were bus stops, vans sel...