Exploring Santiago and the neighbouring south with Marcus

When I picked up Marcus, the country became denser and denser the closer I got to Santiago. As I had time, I drove overland and not on the motorway. I found an interesting pass near Santiago, the Cuesta Lo Prado - Pudahuel .

Shortly before, after Santa Ines, I passed wild rubbish tips on the side of the road, almost 2 kilometers long. I had never seen anything like it in Chile beffore.

Some more information about the airport, Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport for vanlifer. It is located in the north-west of Santiago, is well connected and I was able to drive to both arrivals <Llegadas> and departures <Salidas> with my 2.8 meter high Sprinter and parked there briefly for free, at noon!

We did a quick shop in a Jumbo and drove afterwards to Chada to a swimming pool with 10 pitches for campers. We were totally impressed by the clean banos and the whole complex. All for CLP 12'000 per person per night. In the evening at 19:00 the day guests left and there were only a few campers left. But the camper van shouldn't be much higher than 3 meters!

Our motto was wine, volcanoes and the Pacific and the Ruta de Vino was our first destination. We traveled along the Panamericana Sur to San Fernando, but didn't stop, as there wasn't much more we could do than go shopping.

I hadn't imagined Chile to be a ‘poor’ country, but the huts on the south bank of the Rio Tinguiririca along the Ruta 90 reminded me more of Indian slums than houses. But this is where the Ruta del Vino in the Valle de Colchagua began for us. 

Everything takes place along the Rio Tinguiririca, which draws its water from the Embalse Rapel. I knew that we would come across industrial wine production here with many large wineries. And for the first 50 kilometers we did see vineyards and villages, with the occasional wine shop, but you have to leave the R90 at Nancagua to see wineries.

There are also smaller wineries, but we opted for one of the big ones, Montes. 

Whereas around Mendoza I had problems buying wine from the winemaker (either closed or only visitable with food for €80+), here there were botegas, stalls (Se Vende de Vina) and home sales.

Montes or the Viña Montes Alpha winery has a small shop where you can also buy the wine, offers various tours and has a restaurant. We were spontaneously given a guided tour in English. Romy spent over two hours explaining the local vineyards, how the wine is grown and harvested and took us through the production process and the wine cellar. 

We learnt that mainly red wine is grown in the Valle de Colchagua. This is due to the soil and the climate. Carmenere, Malbec, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon are the most commonly grown grape varieties in the region.

We were even able to see the gravity press. It is on the roof because the grapes are delivered at night, as the grapes are harvested at night. After sorting, the grapes fall under their own weight (🤔 they just fall through a 5 meter long vertical pipe) into the steel tanks, which are one level lower. All further steps take place in the tanks or in wooden barrels. 

We then tasted 3 ICONS wines, the most expensive of which were over €90 a bottle. The fun cost €45 per person, but it was by far the best tour I've been on in a long time. Note: the same wines can be found much cheaper in the local supermarkets

If you want to know more about the wine regions in Chile, you can start here winesofchile.org

Afterwards we strolled through the city center of Santa Cruz and did some shopping in what was now 33 Celsius. As we could not find any decent pitch nor camping, we spent the evening south-east of Curico at the Centro Turistico Manzanares, another swimming pool with pitches. We were the only campers and had the baños, the pools and our own barbecue.  

We drove on through the hills and looked at various pitches and villages. Further south, near Talca, we saw the first large almond plantations.

We spent the weekend in the hills above the Rio Maule reservoir. Nothing to report, just a lazy weekend

Villa Baviera aka Colonia Dignidad was our first stop the following week. Colonia Dignidad  was an isolated colony in between 1961 to 1997 founded by Germans emigrants which became notorious for the internment, torture, and murder of dissidents during the military dictatorship of Pinochet. 

The main legal economic activity of the colony was agriculture and this is what you nowadays see or left of it. 

Hardly any signs or museum educating visitors. Instead you find a hotel, pool, space to celebrate parties and weddings. Really odd.

We met an old lady. Born, raised and living her whole life here. Not speaking any Spanish. She loves the village.

Looks like people try to ignore or forget what happened. The 36 years of the regime is just one entry on the poster. Seems to be the theme here, but not only there

Our motto was wine, volcanoes and the Pacific, so the week we made our way to Termas de Chillán. We knew that there was a forest fire a little further north, but didn't give it much thought. Just before the Termas de Chillán, we found what we were looking for. Boondocking by a stream, away from the road.  

Our hike the next day took us to the Centro de Ski Nevados de Chillán. I don't like ski resorts in summer, but a ski resort on 2 volcanoes, Volcan Chillan Nuevo and Volcan Chillan, was something new. You walk across lava fields and look at the unforested black slopes, which are used for skiing in winter. But the entire ski area was deserted. No tourists and only a few construction workers were at work. 

We didn't make it to the Fumarolas, where volcanic steam comes out at around 2'408 m.a.s.l. But we were at the Termas de Chillán, the thermal springs. As it turned out, there were 3 round pools. More like another swimming pool. 

In the evening we saw dark clouds at sunset, probably the effects of the forest fire.

The next morning we learnt that the power had gone out in large parts of Chile the day before. The president had declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew during the night. We hadn't heard anything about this and there was no sign of it the next morning either. Business as usual

We went shopping in Chillian and as a red warning light came on in the Sprinter, we drove to Automotriz Kaufmann. With my Spanish this could have been a problem, but the boss called a local German who translated and they fixed the problem within an hour, the bill was on the house. Proof again that German companies can take a leaf out of this service book. !!!!

We continued along the N50 to Buchupureo. After testing our first Mote con Huesillos. We drank and spooned it because a Mote con Huesillos is a non-alcoholic Chilean drink made from peach juice, wheat barley (mote) and dried peaches (huesillos). 

At CLP 30,000 per day, the Queltehues Concept Camp was the most expensive, but also by far the cleanest campsite. Each pitch had its own barbecue, water and electricity supply. We also got to know nice people there.

In La Boca and also in Buchupureo there was the ‘Garúa’ or ‘Camanchaca’ the next day without warning. The cold waters of the Humboldt Current along the coasts of Peru and Chile are responsible for the Garúa. The coastal fog, which is created by the meeting of higher and lower oceanic water temperatures, forms a blanket of fog with a high content of fog water. But as we all know, this is all nonsense, because climate change doesn't exist!  

While filming, I lost another drone, my second. This time over land. But even with the help of the campsite owner, I couldn't find it because a herd of cows and bulls were grazing on part of the property. To cut a long story short, with Marcus's and Siegfried's help I found the drone the next morning. Not where DJI had located it. DJI's ‘Find my drone’ function is only of limited use. If the drone's battery is empty, then that's it. I thought about painting my drone neon red, because you can't really see the grey!

On the run from the Garúa, we traveled north along the Ruta del Mar. There were far fewer holidaymakers on the road during the last Chilean holiday week, which made the journey more pleasant. However, the weather didn't really improve. The next morning we fled inland. Temperatures below 20 degrees were not what we were looking for. 

We drove via the Valle de Colchagua and Curico into the Valle Rio Claro. In the south-western part of the Valle de Colchagua, we saw  fruit plantations until the first vineyards appeared. Curico (135'000 inhabitants) on a Saturday afternoon was hell. At Lider #1 we couldn't even get into the car park, at Lider #2 it took us 15 minutes to leave without having achieved anything. We finally got lucky at a Unimarc on the outskirts of the city.

There was a lot going on at our CAMPING LOS LABRADORES  on the last weekend of the school holidays. First there was karaoke from 4.00 pm, everything from South American music to European rock, in other words, everything your heart desires. But things quietened down around 20:00 because it was the day of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival 2025. Next to us was a group of around 25 people who had brought their TVs and were barbecuing during the broadcast. For those who are interested, Metalengua from Chile won the folklore competition with ‘La baba del sol’, while Kakalo from Mexico won the international competition with ‘Tierra trágame’.

So it was a very musical Saturday at the campsite. Not bad, but standing free also has its advantages

On Monday we finally made it to Santiago. Santiago de Chile has around 6.9 million inhabitants and is by far the largest city in Chile (19.9 million inhabitants). The Santiago Metropolitan Region has up to 9.0 mio inhabitants, roughly 45% of the Chileans are living on those 15'400 km²

I had prepared myself for an interesting car journey, but it was not that bad. With my DE plate they must have been considerate of me.

We had found a hotel in the Providencia district without a lot of problems, but no parking space for the Dog.O.Mobil. We arrived at 3.30 pm at 32 Celsius. Pleasant residential area, nice little hotel (Heidelberg Haus Apart Hotel Providencia), but no parking space for my 7.3-metre-long camper van nearby. In my best Spanish, I asked the receptionist about the possibilities and he showed me the hotel's own car park in the open underground car park. 15 minutes later we had parked my camper van at an angle so that the other guests could still get in and out.

In the evening, we had a lemonade with ginger and peppermint in the highest building in South America (Sky Costanera). On the 61st and 62nd floors, at a height of around 300 meters, I didn't feel quite right.  It was extremely foggy and the mountains were only vaguely recognizable in the distance.

The entrance fee is CLP 18'000. On the first 5 floors there is a huge shopping center with all the usual brands you would find in a shopping centre.

At the next metro station, we bought a BIP tarjeta (ticket) for the metro, bus and train. The most expensive fare costs CLP 870 for one journey

In a Peruvian restaurant (TACU TACU - Providencia) we had an absolutely delicious meal at a fair price. I would describe it as the best dinner in South America in the first 6 months.

Day 1: We explored the city on foot.

This was a good idea as Santiago has so many faces between Providencia and the centre.

The middle and upper classes live in Providencia. Whether in elegant high-rise apartment blocks, apartment blocks or, for those who can afford it, in detached houses. Some of these old and elegant houses are now mainly used as offices.

In between you will find parks, restaurants, cafés, in other words everything your heart desires. There is also construction going on all over the city. The construction site of the Hospital del Salvador was huge and there are construction cranes every few meters along the Rio Mapocho.

If you choose to walk through the residential neighborhoods, it is a pleasant stroll. The temperatures in the morning were fine, but after 2pm it was over 30 Celsius. 

Between Parque Bustamante, Parque San Borja and Cerro Santa Lucía, it looks a little bit more like social housing and we were asked by a nice young lady not to carry cameras and mobile phones around openly. However during the days in Santiago we have not had any bad experiences

The shopping area in the center of Santiago started for us at Cerro Santa Lucía and stretches between Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, Tetinos, Av. Cardenal José María Caro and Cerro Santa Lucía.

If you want to shop, this is the place to be, if you are looking for museums and monuments, this is also the place to be. And if you just want to stroll around, you can spend hours here.

The walk along the Rio Mapocho, through various parks, is long, but was not really worth it for us! We should have taken the bus or Metro instead!

Day 2 was dedicated to the Mercado Central de Santiago, the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos and perhaps the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago. This time we traveled into the city by bus. The ticket cost CLP 820 and the journey to the Mercado only took 20 minutes.

The Mercado is more of a collection of restaurants in an old market hall with a few fresh fish stalls inside and some vegetable stalls outside.

After 15 minutes, we decided to go straight to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos. It is located 3 kilometers further west, at the Parque Quinta Normal.  Several other museums are located in the park in case you need another museum. BTW. Santiago has plenty of museums all over the city.

The museum is impressive and offers an excellent and detailed introduction to the Pinochet dictatorship. What I missed was what happened to all the supporters and murderers afterwards. 

We skipped the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago as it was hot in the afternoon and visibility was once again poor. Instead, we tried the metro. It didn't even cost 1,000 CLP. We spent the afternoon in a café and relaxed before we had to take our last dinner together.