We left Puerto Varas to Chillan on a luxurious overnight bus and both managed to get some good sleep. We stopped in Chillan a few days, long enough to go to the local produce market and get amazingly cheap fruit and vegetables - e.g. choice cherries, $1.50 a kilo, blueberries $3.00 a kilo. The town itself was again very Americanised and as such we felt right at home. It´s a tourist town in the ski season, but in summer there are no gringos about. Although I´m black on the inside, my obvious superficial whiteness and crazy haircut made me a bit of stare-magnet. I´m getting used to that now.
The above photo is of a defunct nightclub - looks cool but; I´d go out there!
We also visited a still-operational school donated by the Mexican Government around 1931 to Chillan after a earthquake destroyed the city. There in 1942 a famous Mexican artist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, was commissioned to paint spectacular interpretive murals about the respective colonial and indigenous histories of both Mexico and Chile. Very interesting.
But some sad news from Chillan. Michelle and I have decided to split up and have since made our separate ways to Santiago. Suffice to say it was a mutually agreed decision. If you wish to stay in contact with Michelle please let me know. I will continue this blog and I think she plans to start one of her own.
As such I bussed it to Santiago on the 21st, all the while watching a series of massive and spectacular mountains to the east known as the Andes and observing the complete alteration on the lowland landscape for the purpose of argiculture, predominantly monoculture farming. Upon arriving I came to a lovely hostel in central Santiago. More on Santiago in the next post.
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