Two for the price of price: Curicó and Talca
Today's post is going to cover the last two places I've visited: Curicó and Talca. I've only spent a couple of days in each and so decided I'd put the two together. I'd traveled to Curicó from Valpo via Santiago. I could have gone directly but decided to do it with a stop off in Santiago as I'm doing so many long journeys, I thought I'd try to limit my risk of DVT by introducing a break to the trip. It also meant I didn't have to carry any food with me as I could get some at the bus station in Santiago, although little did I realise at this point that at major stops along the way, people get on to the bus selling all kinds of foods so there's absolutely no reason for you to go hungry on a journey!
Despite my careful planning so I knew where the bus would drop me in Curicó, of course, it dropped me somewhere differently! Fortunately not too far from where I needed to be (thank you again Hayley for the Ulmon recommendation for offline maps that saves me on many an occasion!). This was to be my first Homestay in Chile, which is basically renting a room in someone's house. The owner of this place was a guy called Guillermo, he and his wife rented out rooms in their own house and then they'd purchased a second place that they just rented rooms out from, and it was this second house that I stayed in. This was a great experience, Guillermo was a really interesting guy who had travelled a lot himself and was also an English teacher so we had some really interesting conversations that went a bit deeper than the standard travelling questions (where you are from, how long have you been traveling, how long are you away for etc. etc.)! I didn't do an awful lot the night I arrived, just went for a walk along the Alameda, which is where everyone seems to congregate of an evening with there families and friends.
There are stalls along there, things for children to play on, an area for skating/skateboard and bike stunts and it was just a nice place to be. I had been recommended a local pizza place by Guillermo but it was closer to the Argentinian pizza I'd had than the first Chilean one!
Knowing I had two days in Curicó, the first day I decided to go to Parque Inglés at the National Park Radal Siete Tazas. I got a bus from Curicó to Molina, about 15km away, and then took a bus from there to the park. Unfortunately, all the tickets for seats were sold when I got to the ticket office but standing places were available so I decided to take one of those. Overall this was a good decision, but it was hard work once we entered the park because it was gravel roads and the minibus having obviously done this journey a few too many times, wasn't really up to the job and its suspension was shot to bits! Its air con was also not working and so sweaty hands and the momentum that carries you forward in an emergency stop situation meant that at one point I got a little closer with the girl standing next to me than either she or I wanted! Mum, let's just say I did a great impression of you, although I didn't land in anyone's lap!
After a 2.5 hour journey we eventually arrived at Parque Inglés and I went and practiced my Spanish by explaining to the Park Ranger the walk I wanted to do and finding out if it was difficult. His answer was that it was very difficult but very beautiful and so despite the misgivings I was starting to have at being so ambitious, off I went to do the Los Chiquillanes walk. The walk was 7km and the suggested time for it was 4 hours. One of my fears when visiting a place like this and being on my own, is not being back in time to get the return bus. I was starting the walk around 1.15pm and the buses back were at 5, 6 and 7pm. Ours going there had been really busy and so I didn't want to risk the 7pm bus and not being able to get a place (sitting or standing!) which meant going for the 5 or 6pm, giving me either a little less or a little more than the recommended time.
I set off at a steady pace and was soon mesmerised by how beautiful the walk was
and having passed the 1km marker after 20 minutes decided either a) I was walking too fast or b) it was going to get a lot more difficult so I wouldn't be able to maintain the pace for much longer. You've guessed it, it was definitely the latter! It took me around 30 minutes to get to the 2km marker and shortly after I really was beginning to wonder if I'd bitten off more than I could chew and seriously considered turning around on a number of occasions; it was just so steep, I was having to stop to get my breath every 10m or so! I kept telling myself, if you can just get to the 3km marker, you can reassess and decide on the plan of action. It was incredibly hot, I had a good amount of water with me but I was sweating buckets! Anyway, just when I thought 'this is it, I'm turning back' I reached the fork in the path where I had to turn right. And on doing so, suddenly I emerged from the forest and was rewarded with this view
which 30m along the path only got better! With this view in front of me...
And this view when I turned round!
And at that point, I knew I was going to see this walk through! The next marker I saw was this one:
Not sure what happened to 3km but am so thankful that either I missed it or it isn't there or else I wouldn't have gone on to have these amazing views.
Along the route, there was the constant rustling of the leaves with little lizards running around all over the place. Then at one point I both saw and heard what looked initially like a twig that had dropped, but on closer inspection I realised it was an amazingly well camouflaged insect!
Coming down again was a little tricky, the paths were very soft and sandy so in places it was difficult to get a firm footing and this has also meant that my new shoes no longer look new!
The last 2 km were just a very gentle meander downhill and I got to thinking about the name of the park: English Park. At this point I had this view on my left:
And this one on my right:
Not sure either of those are very 'English' personally!
Anyway, turns out that I managed the walk in 3hrs 15 mins so I'm thinking they expected you to take it a bit slower or spend longer at the lookouts but it meant that I was able to get the 5pm bus back, after treating myself to a mote con huesillo (remember the super sweet peach drink with the grains at the bottom? Well after all that walking I figured I needed to replace the calories!).
The next day I took it fairly easy and just went for a meander around Curicó. Their Plaza de Armas was described in my guidebook as being picture postcard perfect so I went and checked it out, it's true, it was very beautiful.
From there I went to the park,
then back to the homestay where I wrote up my Valpo blogpost and then in the evening went back for a wander along the Alameda where this group of drummers were performing
which ended a very lovely couple of days in Curicó.
From there I've come to Talca. In 2010, a large earthquake hit this region causing considerable damage to buildings and causing the death of over 500 people. The strategic and economic importance of the towns has affected how quickly they have been rebuilt and my guess would be that Talca is a little further down the list to Curicó. Whilst it's mostly recovered, there are still some areas where the damage is evident and so it's not quite as developed as Curicó. However it does have a really nice feel to it. Both places are within the big wine producing region of Chile and so yesterday I decided to take advantage of this and do a wine tour and tasting at Viña Balduzzi, in San Javier, about 15km south of Talca. My bus fortuitously dropped me off right outside
and I'd timed it perfectly as a tour was just a out to start. Admittedly it was going to be in Spanish, but they very kindly offered to translate into English for me where necessary!
It was fascinating! We went to the underground cellar where wines from 4 generations back had been stored. Sadly many of the original bottles were lost in the earthquake...
Those wrapped in paper are because they have the original hand drawn labels on them and the paper is there to protect them.
Then we went to see the vines.
These are Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and they're watered through a drip feed system which helps to keep the grapes small and their skins tough. These are the original vines that were brought over from Italy by the first generations in the late 1800s!
The red wines are fermented in these large tanks.
When the earthquake hit one fell and then they all tumbled like dominoes causing a massive flood of red wine (which the dogs enjoyed!). This is one of the tanks that crumpled up.
They're now reinforced with bricks under the legs to steady them!
This room contained the barrels where the wine matures - around 600 in total - it smelt amazing in here!
From there, I did the tasting. I got to taste 4 wines: Carménère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and a late harvest dessert wine.
They were all delicious but the Carménère was my preferred red wine. The Chardonnay had been oaked but only for 14 days. This is totally the way to go. I can't stand oaked Chardonnay usually but this was delicious. It was dry and crisp and just had a hint of oak in the aftertaste. Turns out the ones I've had they've just been leaving them in the barrels too long!! The dessert wine was also very nice. I'm not usually a big fan of dessert wines but this wasn't too sweet and had great flavour. Apparently Viña Balduzzi isn't the name the wine retails as in the UK, we get it as Los Andes. Will be looking out for it when I'm back that's for sure! Included in the tasting was the glass, but I figured it was a lost cause trying to not break it over the next few months so I made do with a photograph!
Didn't do much else the rest of yesterday. It is so unbelievably hot here and the UV rating is extremely high - I'm running out of ozone In this bit of the world! However, today I went to the Botanic Garden.
It's in the University. Can you believe it? A university and botanic garden - two of my favourite places combined into one! Talca University campus was beautiful. Kind of like Royal Holloway on speed. Not only was there a botanic garden, the campus was covered with amazing buildings and sculptures
This one is 'El beso' by Mario Irarrázabel.
It's so apt for Chile, everyone of school/university age seems to kiss constantly out here (yes, I am getting irritated by it!) and so I'm not sure there could be a more appropriate sculpture!
The garden was lovely, quite wild which is definitely my preferred layout rather than perfectly manicured, with lots of ponds teeming with aquatic life.
The only part that I didn't like was that they had quite a few birds. Many were free to roam around which was fine. This one amused me as he was also trying to escape the sun!
However, there was a peacock and he was with other birds in a triangular pen that the short sides were around 3m. This alone was bad enough, but when I think that those at Kew get the run of the gardens, this seemed did immeasurably cruel to me.
From the garden I then wandered into the arboretum for a meander before heading back to my accommodation via the supermarket for the makings of a salad in my attempt to save some money!
I've spent the last couple of hours in the garden of my accommodation, making the most of the heat whilst I've been writing this post. It was around 35 degrees today and there's not been a cloud in the sky. Tomorrow I'm heading the Temuco, a 6 hour drive south where the top temperature is currently 12 degrees lower than here and it's due to rain tomorrow. I know, you UK folks are experiencing much colder than this, but it's just because of that whole northern/southern hemisphere thing... Something tells me that my new rain jacket may be getting its first outing!!
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