Being good in Pucon, Chile

The view from our hostel room, Villarica Volcano, Pucon

We took the new overnight direct flight from London to Santiago on 11 January, and spent the day loitering in the city, where a couple of ladies tried to have a go at dipping their hands into my handbag while we were at a café.

It was right next to me, so was quite flagrant. I spotted an odd movement, so checked, and kept a closer eye on it, which obviously stopped them. Then the waiter came over and suggested moving all of our bags, so clearly he had his suspicions too. They left just after that.

Emma and Olivia, Pucon

Aside from that, we had a pleasant enough day in a very hot Santiago, and then got an overnight bus down to Pucon. Having expected not to get much sleep on the flight, we had treated ourselves to a cama bus, which has seats that recline into a fully flat bed. We had a very comfortable night, and slept far better than on the plane.

Villarica Volcano, Pucon

In Pucon, we arrived at a hostel we had used before, where we were pleased to find that not only was our room ready for us, but they also had recently got two gorgeous little kittens, called Emma and Olivia. We soon settled in, and allowed ourselves to go out for a meal and a last beer that night, before starting our healthy regime in earnest the next day.

Fire Station, Pucon

In the morning, we hit the supermarkets, and bought ourselves plenty of healthy meats, fruit and vegetables, and set about planning our menu. We have opted to do the Slimming World plan, which is a little easier to do when you're on the move as we will be, and we know a few people who've had good results from it.

Not wanting to end up with any excuses for not sticking to it, we had made sure we were staying in places with decent kitchens, but we also supplemented this by bringing a few items that wouldn't normally be included in our travel kit. One is a large silicon collapsible microwave steamer, that can also go in the oven as a casserole dish; we have used that almost every day, and in fact we are considering making a regular part of our luggage. Another is a spiraliser, which is much less essential than the steamer, but it has encouraged us to eat more courgette in particular, as that works really well, and it has certainly been a talking point with our fellow travellers!

Olivia, Pucon

Then on Monday, we joined the gym in town and did our first session there. I knew I was unfit, but my goodness it was hard work. Still, we stuck to the plan for food and regular gym going, gradually increasing the time and effort spent there over the weeks.

We were both so exhausted after our gym efforts, and spending so much time cooking up healthy foods to try to keep things interesting, that we never really got around to doing anything much else. We concluded that taking bikes out wouldn't really get us that far and would just leave us too achy to do the gym the next day, and we were burning off more calories in there that we would have done cycling. So we decided to stick to the gym.

Emma, Pucon

We spent a lot of time semi watching the TV screens while we pounded away on the cross trainer etc, and one of the main things we were seeing was the horrific wild fires that were raging through the country further north. Whole towns had been destroyed in some cases, and it was heartbreaking to watch footage of people literally seeing the fire creeping up to their homes, doing everything they could to create firebreaks and divert it, but knowing that in all likelihood, their home would be destroyed.

When we saw the fire brigade in town doing a collection, we stopped and made a donation. The guy we spoke to was interested to hear we were from the UK, and quickly got his smartphone out to show us a photo. It was of him and his brother, as young boys, presenting flowers to The Queen when she had Prince Philip visited Pucon in 1968.

On our two days off per week, we walked into and around the town, and stopped off in one of the cafes for a well behaved cup of tea, virtuously resisting all of the rather lovely looking cakes.

And the good news is, albeit that it is slow, we are losing weight. I had hoped for one of those wonderful first weeks that you hear other people talking about, where you hop on the scales to find you've lost huge amounts. Sadly that was not to be, but we're not doing badly.

Aside from never-ending shopping and cooking, and being in the gym, we spent a lot of time enjoying the company of those two lovely kittens, whilst looking at the rather splendid view of the 2840m high Villarica Volcano, the closest of the three volcanoes in the area. It is an active volcano, and last erupted on 3 March 2015, albeit only a shortlived one. 

When we hit our first milestone target, we treated ourselves to a meal out at what we had heard was the best parilla in town, La Maga. We weren't disappointed. We treated ourselves to a fillet of beef, by which I mean the whole 1.5kg fillet, and it was delicious. We even had a drink to go with it.

We needed that treat, but we were right back on the straight and narrow afterwards.

If you're in Pucon for normal tourism, rather than chained to the gym, there is plenty to do here. Last time around we had a hike in Huerquehue National Park and went kayaking on the Lake. There are also plenty of bike rides out to waterfalls and other sites, there are thermal springs that you can go to, and of course, you can hike up the volcano if you feel so inspired.

We may not have seen much of Pucon ourselves this time, but it was certainly a good decision to come here to do this. It is working.

London - and a trip to the Houses of Parliament

Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben, Palace of Westminster

Away from the seaside, we spent the rest of our time back in London, most of it in a house sit Stoke Newington, looking after a couple of lovely, if slightly timid, cats.

We needed to spend some time in London anyway, as our tenants in our flat were leaving and we needed to find new ones. Thankfully, after one false start, that process wasn't too painful, and we soon found ourselves a new set of tenants, who are now safely installed.

We quite liked the Stoke Newington area, but didn't end up getting to see too much of it as I managed to go down with a pretty rotten chest infection, that had me coughing, which initially sent the cats running out of the room, but they soon got used to it, and stayed put, but just gave me a bit of a dirty look for disturbing their peace!

Oliver Cromwell, Palace of Westminster

Unfortunately though, during one of my violent coughing fits I managed to put my back out pretty badly. And believe me, coughing when your back is out is not a good way to be - one time it hurt so much that I actually passed out briefly, leaving poor Nic thinking I was having a stroke or something!

Thankfully, the antibiotics that I'd been given soon cleared up the chest infection, but the back issue turned out to be rather more lengthy. You'll hear more about that later, but for now, suffice to say, I was largely immobile for quite some while.

Palace of Westminster

One thing we had managed to do before I became stuck to the sofa, was to finally get along to a visit to the Houses of Parliament. I have a fondness for the gothic style, so The Palace of Westminster has long been a favourite building of mine from the outside.

There has been a Palace of some form or other here since the Danish King Cnut, who was King of England from 1016-35. King Cnut is the one who tried to hold back the sea, and is often therefore referenced as someone vain or thinking they are more powerful than they are. In fact, historians believe that this was not the case, and that Cnut was in fact demonstrating to his over flattering courtiers that he did not have that power, only God did.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

When Edward the Confessor took the throne in 1042, he commissioned the building of Westminster Abbey (though this original was mostly demolished by Henry III in 1245, and the current one built over the next few centuries,) and a royal palace. He didn't last long enough to enjoy them though, as he famously died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror took the throne.

It was his son, William II, who built Westminster Hall, which is oldest surviving part of the palace, dating from 1097. The roof of the Hall was replaced in 1393 by Richard II, and is an impressive hammer-beam roof, which is the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

This is the place where many important events have taken place, from the trial and sentencing to death of Charles I and subsequent inauguration of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, to coronation banquets and lyings in state of royalty and other honoured people like Winston Churchill. It is also where visiting dignitaries, like Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela have stood to address Parliament.

Westminster Hall, was one of the few parts of the original palace to survive the Great Fire in 1834. The fire started when they needed to get rid of two cartloads of wooden tally sticks, that had previously been used for accounting. It was decided to burn them in the two underfloor stoves, but it seems that the heat caused the wooden panelling to be set alight, and most of the Palace was destroyed.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

It was after this fire that the Palace as we know it today was built. A competition was held to come up with a design, which was stipulated must be in either the gothic or Elizabethan style. This was because, while the fashion of the day was neo-classical, the fact that this had been used for The White House in Washington DC meant that it was associated with republicanism, and they wanted something that gave a more conservative feel.

The competition attracted 97 entries, and the winning number 64 was submitted by Charles Barry, with some help from Augustus Welby Pugin, who was to design most of the interiors. Neither man actually made it to the end of the build, both working themselves to an early death before it was finished.

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

They reclaimed some eight acres of land from the River Thames to build the Palace, and it took thirty years to complete. The Lords moved in to their Chamber in 1847, and the Commons to theirs in 1852, with the building work still going on around them.

The use of the sand coloured Yorkshire limestone turned out to be something of a mistake, as it quickly decayed in the coal burning pollution of London, and had to be replaced with Rutland limestone during the restoration in 1930-60. Even then, the pollution quickly discoloured it, and a lengthy cleaning process had to be undertaken place in the latter part of last century.

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

The Palace also suffered during World War II, being bombed like so much of London. On 10-11 May 1941, the bombing was especially bad and both the House of Commons and Westminster Hall were set alight. A former cabinet minister, Walter Elliot, hurried from his nearby home and not only made the quick decision to sacrifice the Commons Chamber to save the much older Westminster Hall, he even to an axe to the locked doors of the Hall himself to get access for the firefighters.

The tour of the Palace is good. It contains a nice amount of detail, without becoming tedious, and the inside is certainly impressive. There are lots of interesting little snippets of information along the way, about the decoration, the history, and odd little rules or customs.

Broken spur, St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

The tour takes you into The Queen's Robing Room, the two Chambers, St Stephens Hall and Westminster Hall, amongst other areas. Sadly, no photos are allowed in most areas. And you definitely aren't supposed to sit on the benches in the Chambers.

In the Members' Lobby, you can see The Churchill Arch, which Churchill suggested should be rebuilt from the bomb damaged stonework, as a reminder of the fortitude of the country during the war. This is also where he, David Wright-George, Clement Atlee and Margaret Thatcher have been immortalised in bronze.

St Stephen's Hall, which is where the old House of Commons once sat, is full of historical paintings and statues. One statue has a damaged spur, which is historical in itself, as it was broken when the suffragettes chained themselves to the statues as part of their campaign to obtain the vote for women.

New Dawn, Palace of Westminster

One new feature, is the addition of a new stained glass window, called New Dawn, which made up of 168 hand blown glass discs, that are designed to look like the rolled up scrolls in the Parliamentary Archives, and represent people and acts that were part of the movement to give women the vote.

There was also an interesting piece art in Westminster Hall, which was created by Jorge Otero-Pailos, and is called The Ethics of Dust. It is a 50m long latex cast of the hall's eastern wall, which was used to clean the wall, and so has hundreds of years worth of dust and pollution absorbed into it. It is a strange idea, but it actually looks quite good, and it is fascinating to think that hundreds of years worth of history is contained within it.

The Ethics of Dust, Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

We enjoyed our visit to The Palace of Westminster, and even picked up a couple of souvenirs in the shop. Just do bear in mind if you go, that the Elizabeth Tower, which is the clock tower that the bell named Big Ben is in, is a separate tour, not included in this one.

Palace of Westminster

  

Palace of Westminster

 

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

 

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

St Stephen's Hall (l) and New Dawn (r), Palace of Westminster

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

What is it with us and fire?

So those of you who have been reading the blog for a while will already know about our fire experience at Shangri-la when the lodge that we were in burnt to the ground. You may not know that we just missed a fire in Argentina too. Apparently the estancia we were staying at back at the end of August suffered quite a serious fire just after we left too. And no, we didn't start that one either.

So we had one that happened after we left and then one while we were there. Now we have heard that the fire has overtaken us and is getting to places even before we do.

We were planning to be in Torres del Paine, which is a national park in Chile famed for its mountains and trekking routes, for about six days towards the end of January but we have just discovered that there is a major fire in the park. The people that we booked our accommodation through contacted us yesterday to tell us that the park has been closed and everyone evacuated; obviously we were hopeful that by the time we were going to be there the fire would be out and as long as it hadn't hit the accommodation, we would still be able to go. But having done a bit of internet searching we have just found some news articles that say that the Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has now announced that the park will remain closed for the whole of January. So much for that then!

Will now need to rethink our plans slightly. And we have another reason to come back here at some point in our travels.

Counting the losses - and more of the Amazon Rainforest

In the morning, needless to say the talk at breakfast was all about the fire, what we had lost, and how lucky we all were to be alive.

In terms of losses, Nic has lost most of his underwear, and I lost most of my outer clothes.  Luckily, Nic and I keep one set of clothes separately in each others' rucksack in case one gets stolen, so I had two tops and two pairs of trousers, and my fleece and waterproof jacket were safe.  But I also lost my walking boots, and some jewellery and souvenirs that were in my make up bag. We lost other bits like gloves and sleeping mats etc, but thankfully nothing that's irreplaceable like photos, or really troublesome like medication.

Others lost varying amounts, ranging from just the set of clothes that was drying, to everything but their laptop.  Shanyn was the only one to lose her camera in the fire, which is obviously terrible for her, but we will give her copies of our photos to try to fill the gap.

We were very aware though that some of the people sat next to us either were the owners of the
 lodge, which would not have been insured, and so they had lost a huge part of their livelihood, or people who worked at the lodge, who had possibly lost their jobs if the owners could not employ them elsewhere.  We definitely considered ourselves lucky.

Izzie and Roberto had, despite the obvious difficulties, arranged that we would still go put to the animal sanctuary and the local community today.  Alternative lunch arrangements had been made, as we had been due to ear at the lodge, and the only thing we could do was the planned tubing down the river.  We were very impressed that they were able to let us go ahead with the activities, and although many of us felt a little odd doing such touristy things they day after the fire, it probably did us good to get on with our normal routine.  It no doubt also helped Izzie as then she didn't have to worry about us while she spent the day chasing around police stations getting police reports for us all, and making arrangements for us to get to Quito the next day.

banana boat

So we got in taxis and drive to the river, where we saw bananas being offloaded from a boat and we had a boat waiting to take us to the animal sanctuary.  We were all given life jackets, and as the boat set off we could see why.  It was a long, narrow boat that sat very low in the water, and so whenever it got a bit choppy, or we turned a bit sharply, it felt like we were going to dip into the water.  In fact the driver obviously knew what he was doing and we didn't even get wet aside from a few splashes, but I know that a few companions were very glad when we arrived nonetheless.


toucan



The animal sanctuary is huge, although as many of the animals are loose, we only got to see a small proportion that were in cages, although some of the uncaged squirrel monkeys did put in an appearance. They had a number of different types of monkeys, some ocelots, various birds, and caiman, amongst others.  It was interesting to walk around hear what they're doing to help rehabilitate and protect  these animals.  We also bought chocolate!

We were back down the river to have lunch, and then into the taxis again to go to the local community.  But on the way, we stopped at Shangri-la.  A few of our travelling companions still held out hope that some of their belongings would still be there.  It was soon clear that they would not be.





after the fire



Arriving in the clearing at the top of the steps, you could be forgiven for thinking nothing had happened.  The trees had thankfully not caught fire, so the jungle around the lodge was as green and dense as ever.  



after the fire - our cabin


But when we went down the steps, we could see the devastation of the lodge itself.  There was nothing left of it other than a few brick walls that had supported the toilets and showers, and the corrugated iron that had been on some of the rooves.  Where our cabin had been, there was just a mound of earth and ash, with a couple of sheets of the corrugated iron on top.  And the same was true for the others.


the remains of Shanyn's camera

We picked our way over the still hot ashes, and looked around the rest of the site.  Then Nic spotted something amongst the ashes.  Shanyn's camera.  Or rather the charred and melted remains of her camera.  She was strangely pleased to get it back, even though it was clearly useless now. Our companions also found an odd sock and a nail file that had been dropped on the pathway during the evacuation, but nothing was going to have survived the fire. 

The sight of the complete destruction of the cabins that we were only about half an hour from being asleep in, brought home to us just how lucky we had been.  We left feeling a strange mix of horror at how narrow our escape had been, sympathy for how terrible the loss was for the owners, and pleasure and relief that we were all safe and well.





the paint pot tree



Shanyn and Roberto



We carried on with the trip to the community but I could not help but feel slightly detached, so was a little relieved that we weren't expected to participate in any activities other than trying a bit of their yucca chicha drink, which was actually quite nice.  We did try out the face painting using the fruit of one of the local trees as little mini paint pots, but I think we were all quite pleased to make it back to the hotel.

 

the traditional dance



Izzie had arranged that we would get the bus from Tena to Quito the next morning, and so we had the evening free.  Nic and I were planning to try a restaurant nearby, but got sidetracked by sone event happening in the main square.  It was celebrating the 20th anniversary of something, and had lots of people doing various traditional South American dances - and a few that weren't so traditional!

 



the not-so-traditional



Later in the evening, they announced a singer called Gerardo Moran.  Now I have no idea who he is, but the crowd were thrilled.  All of a sudden, hundreds of people surged down from the stands where they had been sitting, to gather in front of the stage.  I wouldn't quite call it a pop concert - it was more like it was Barry Manilow or Cliff Richards, but you couldn't doubt the excitement of the Ecuadorians.  We stayed and watched most of it, slightly bemused as to why he was so popular, but left when the songs that he did for the numerous encores all started to sound the same.



Fire - and a narrow escape

So the generator went off at about 8:15pm.  Izzie had already taken her sunburn off to bed and Sue and Ken had gone a short while ago, so the five of us all figured that with only the light from Nic's and my torches, we should finish our drinks and go to bed too.

Then we saw the fire.



section of the fire as seen from the top of the flying fox



It was burning behind the kitchen area, around where the flying fox was, thankfully the other side to the route out of the dining area and the lodge.  It had already engulfed the cabin directly behind the kitchen area, and was spreading fast through the ne next to it.  Thankfully those cabins were empty, though it is quite possibly where TJ and Cathy would have been had they been there.  But the next cabin along was Izzie's and the steps up to it, ie her escape route, were in real danger of catching fire very soon.

We all began yelling fire very loudly, in English and Spanish.  Leon and I both went running up the steps to Izzie's cabin, yelling at her to get out.  Leon was banging on her door and we were both shouting at her that we weren't joking and she seriously needed to get out now.  The pause while she got dressed seemed like an eternity, but she came out having had the presence of mind to grab her laptop.  She never had the chance to go back for anything else.

The guys from the lodge started trying to put out the fire, but it became clear this was a losing battle.  Ben helped the guys to ferry the gas bottles away from the fire, Shanyn was banging on nearby doors, and I went to wake up Sue and Ken.  Our rooms were all on the far side of the lodge, so we we had a chance to go in and collect some of our stuff, but there wasn't time to get everything, especially as in the dark it was hard to see what was there.  Poor Shanyn couldn't find her camera, and after the second attempt, Izzie quite rightly said she should not go back in to look for it again.

We knew that the rain from earlier in the day would have helped dampen down the trees, but with the way the fire was burning, we were concerned that there was a possibility that the trees above the lodge could catch fire, blocking off our escape route. So we figured it was time to leave. With a backward glance to the advancing fire, we set off up the steps. We were pretty relieved when we got there, and equally pleased to see two fire engines pull up. They started setting up, and when I told them that there were still people down there, they went into overdrive. We realized that two of our group had not made it up yet, and Izzie went back down to make sure they got out safely. We were all pretty relieved to see the three of them come up the steps.

The lodge had obviously made arrangements for what would happen in the event of a fire, as taxis started to arrive to take us away to town. All eight of us piled into the taxi truck that turned up and we were driven the twenty minutes back into town to a hotel owned by the same group. Izzie then had the long task of getting in touch with TJ and Dragoman HQ to let them know what had happened. We were up for some while afterwards, and the guys from the lodge got back around 1:30am. The lodge had burned to the ground.

We were lucky. We had all lost some stuff - Izzie just about everything - but we had all escaped without any harm at all. Had we been sat further away from the fire, we would not have seen it so soon and so the situation could have been much worse. And had it been thirty or so minutes later, when we had gone to bed, I think we might have been lucky to make it out at all.

A narrow escape then, but an escape we are very thankful for.

NEWSFLASH

A quick newsflash. The jungle lodge that we were staying in burned to the ground last night! We saw the fire and raised the alarm but the place was like a giant wooden treehouse and the blaze was quickly out of control. We all made it out safely, but it was all very dramatic! Have lost some stuff - mostly clothes - which is a nuisance, but just glad everyone OK. Will post more when catch up with the blog.