My final four days … relaxing in Casa Chueca

So … as I mentioned at the end of my last blog, Fran and Hannah recommended me a fantastic place in Chile to spend my last few days in South America. The only problem being that, from where I was, it was quite a distance to get there. And so it was that I spent two nights and around 40 hours travelling on buses to get to Talca, all in a bus with seats that barely reclined as there was nothing else available! With only movies such as transformers (in Spanish) as entertainment and only ham and cheese sandwiches for food, I definitely felt each and every one of those forty hours! I am now a very well-trained bus traveller and will never complain that going anywhere in the UK takes time again! 

Chilling in Casa Chueca
I won’t dwell on my epic bus adventure anymore, except that I added my last border crossing to my record, this time at 3 am in the morning, which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone thinking of taking the trip from Mendoza to Santiago! And so it was that I arrived in the hostel called ‘Casa Chueca’ … immediately I felt the stress of my trip escape my body as I was shown around what could better be described as a rural resort. It’s situated 5 km out of the nearest town and on 10 acres of land, and with most people getting around on bicycle, it was just so quiet and perfectly peaceful!

There was a gorgeous swimming pool surrounded by colourful flowers and inviting deck chairs in the sun. There was a beautiful outdoor setting with views down to the river and the acreage below. The dormitory room was the nicest I have seen in all of my travels and really, was just like home, except that there were 6 people sleeping in the room! The dorm room itself was absolutely HUGE and even had a lounge setting and bathroom inside. There was also hammocks everywhere, a gym, book exchange and massive breakfast buffet on offer. So .. all in all, Casa Chueca was amazing and I knew I was in the perfect place to spend my last few days. 

A glass of vino and a vegetarian buffet as the sun sets … 
My first night there couldn’t have been any more perfect. I sat outside with the Austrian hostel owner and we chatted over a glass of red wine as the sun slowly set… I was so interested in hearing the background of his hostel and how he came up with the vision for this idyllic relaxing place, which is also next door to his family home. 

The restaurant in the hostel in vegetarian, which is not only unusual for South America, but was also a nice change from the meat-overload in Argentina! So every night, there is a big communal dinner cooked and everyone sits outside around big old wooden tables sharing stories and having a drink. 

Time to drag myself from the pool for a spot of wine-tasting …
It was with much difficulty that I managed to drag myself off the deck chair beside the pool! However, if anything was going to detach me from the deck chair, it would be the offer of wine tasting! As we were situated in the heart of the Chilean wine district, it would be rude not to at least have a try, so off I went. I headed off with a couple of others from the hostel to a few of the nearby wineries, where we enjoyed a tour of the vineyard and wine production area, followed by the obligatory wine tasting! It was definitely a sensational way to spend a lazy afternoon.  

And a Chilean cooking course … 
It was with great joy the next night that two new-comers joined the big dinner table and I overheard them speaking in English!! This was only remarkable as for the previous few days the hostel was mostly occupied by German speakers and so I felt like I was constantly obliging them to speak English in my presence! So Gemma, James and myself were united on the basis of language and we enjoyed the next few days chilling out in Casa Chueca and having a good laugh. 

It was these guys that inspired me to do a Chilean cooking course with them the next day. We joined the chef of the hostel, Danny, for an afternoon of entertainment as he demonstrated how to make empanadas and sopai pillas whilst we observed and copied his technique at the same time as drinking red wine, chatting and generally making a bit of a mess of the kitchen! But it was a great afternoon, not only for learning a few new culinary skills, but also because we got to celebrate by sampling our creations over yet another glass of red … Another tough afternoon! 

Lazing by the pool, with just a massage missing from the picture 
And so I spent the next few days in much the same fashion … lying in the sun, having a swim when it got too hot, reading in the hammock, catching up on a few blogs on the internet and settling in with a glass of red in the evening as the sun set. We also met Fanny from the US who joined our dorm room and the four of us relaxed in the sun, with the only missing element being the masseus who had gone walkabout and couldn’t help us out with the ‘missing link’ massage! 

Before I arrived here, I was so worried that I wouldn’t have my hiking boots (refer to my previous blog) and therefore wouldn’t be able to enjoy the trekking in the area … however with the heat and also the ease of just staying put by the pool, even after one of the hostel workers lent me her shoes, needless to say, they didn’t get much use!! 

So, it was, that after four days, and with some semblance of a tan and a relaxed mind and body, my time in Casa Chueca was over. 

The end of a year in South America
This blog marks the end of my time in South America and with just one instalment left of my brief visit to my family in Australia for Christmas, I am almost back to the UK where my adventures began about a year ago, pretty hard to believe! Anyway, I headed about 3 hours north of Talca on a bus to Santiago where I boarded my plane bound for Sydney … My last South American bus! Until the next brief instalment about Christmas in Oz. Hasta luego, Tamara 

PS .. thought I would add the words of a mural that was in the hostel about Chile … 

“As God looked at the world he had created in seven days, he realised that there were still some things left over: volcanos, virgin forests, deserts, fjords, rivers and ice. So, he ordered the angels to dump all this behind a long mountain range. The mountains were the Andeans and so Chile was born … the most diversified country in the world”