Chillin in Chillán, New Years in Trancas

The main highway in Chile goes north and south. Driving along, through the middle of the country, you can see how fertile and abundant it is. Ocean to the west, mountains and volcanoes to the east, the valley is green, with one river after another flowing down from the cordillera. The country has gone grape crazy. Hundreds of vineyards, the grapes are everywhere. Also, fields of corn and tons of other vegetables.

The town of Chillán is halfway between Valdivia and Santiago. It’s no longer in the south, starting to get up north. You can see volcanoes from downtown. Chillán has been hit hard in the past by earthquakes. The latest one was in February 2010. Chilenos are always ready for the next one.

The marketplace in Chillán is the center for all the region’s produce. Mountains of beautiful fruits and vegetables come into the market, and people come and take it away. It´s busy every day of the week. This was one of the best markets we’ve seen yet. The restaurants in the marketplaces are usually great. It’s a chance to eat regional foods without fanfare. We ate paila marina, pastel de choclo, longaniza con porotos, and we drank a few glasses of mote con huesillos. ¡Qué rico!

We went east from Chillán, toward the volcanoes,  in search of some mountain air and a peaceful new year. We got on a small local bus and went to Valle de Las Trancas, about seventy kilometers from town. The bus is the lifeblood of the people who live up the valley. People got on and off continually. Grandmothers and schoolchildren, farmworkers and families. Some people just put a package on board and told the driver or the guy (There’s always a guy riding with the driver. He collects the money, helps people on and off, and knows everything. He’s kind of like a conductor on a train, but that’s confusing here, because conductor means driver.) When they delivered a package, the bus would stop and honk, and somebody from a house would wander down to get the package. Most of the people who got on knew the driver. Everybody said hello and good morning, many of the passengers knew each other. The bus would stop for anybody who flagged it down, and would stop anywhere to let people off.

We got off in Las Trancas. It’s not a town or a village, more like just a few building along the road. We were oping to find a place to stay a few days until after the new year. Trancas is really geared for the wintertime and for skiing. The busy season here is June, July, August, the dead of winter. There is a ski resort eleven kilometers up the road. In summertime, it’s pretty empty, and most of the businesses (there aren’t many) were closed. It didn’t take long, however, to find “Chil-in.” It’s a little hostel and restaurant run by a dreaded French guy named Fipa. We stayed in a beautiful log cabin for the christening of 2013. Lots of birds (big woodpeckers–carpinteros) and trees and the river in the back. Very peaceful. Next door to Chil-in is a little coffeeshop run by Lena from Germany and Matías from Chile. We also met Andy, a competitive skiier from the south of Chile (Punta Arenas) who has spent most of the ten past winters skiing in Whistler. Now he´s moving here. He compares the area and the ski resort to how Whistler was twenty years ago, and he´s ready to settle, and he wants to be here as the area develops. Now he has a little business renting bikes, with or without a guide. (him) We hiked a bit along the river and also up to a viewpoint of the valley and mountains. This was directly in back of our cabin. We enjoyed the quiet and the solitude of the mountains and welcomed in 2013. Early in the morning of January 4, we got on a bus to the capital of Chile, Santiago.