Chillán

I have been doing a lot of travelling over the past couple of weeks. The last weekend in March, Diane and I went with Eduardo, Paola, and another Rotarian named Alex to Chillán. It was supposed to be a big Rotary club retreat, but people kept dropping out for various reasons. The five of us stayed comfortably in a cabin that could have held six or eight. Chillán is about two hours away from Concepción, and the Termas are in the mountains (or maybe they are the mountains…not sure). It is a big place to go skiing in Chile, but since it is the end of summer/beginning of fall in Chile, it is low season, and there was no snow. The mountains are still beautiful, though.

There is also a casino in the Termas, and we went there Saturday night. I didn´t really know what I was doing, so I played a few rounds on the slot machine and quit. I came out pretty much even, maybe winning one or two dollars! In the casino restaurant, a band was playing American songs from the late seventies and early eighties, so that was fun, and it became more fun with each glass of wine. After the bottle from our table was gone, Diane and I ordered another glass of wine apiece. The waiter, who must have liked us, decided to get the biggest wine glasses they had and fill then almost to the top! By the end of the night, we were all dancing, and Alex videotaped us, which is quite embarrassing. I wasn´t exactly dancing my best.
We left Sunday morning and stopped to visit Alex´s newly-purchased land in the Termas on the way home. He plans to move out there next year, and he will certainly be out in the middle of nowhere! We ate at a mom-and-pop restaurant called La Cocina de Eva (Eva´s Kitchen). I had a very traditional and delicious dish that was a bean soup with longariza (a type of sausage very akin to chorizo). It is a sausage very typical of Chillán.

Chillán is very beautiful, and I can only imagine how amazing it will be in the wintertime. Diane and I have been talking about returning in July or August when it will be nice and snowy. I might take ski lessons. Still, visiting Chillán only in the low season is like going to Salt Lake City or Denver or some other skiing place in the summertime. I will be pretty much missing summer this year, but hopefully things like a trip to Chillán will make a second winter worthwhile.