Travelog for: Blinchick

Hi mum,
my holiday at the seaside is going to finish and I'm coming back in Milan but first I want to say "hello" to the sea and to spend some more time to the pool of the hotel.
Bye

Hi mum,
here I'm in Laglio, on the Lake of Como. This small town has become quite popular because of the house of George Clooney. Maybe I'll meet him...
Bye

Now I'm in another place on the Lake of Como, it's called Argeno. Also my friends Nathalie, Barnardo and Baabaa are with me and they all say "hello" to you!
Bye

It's time to start a new adventure... another host is waiting for me, goodbye Italy!!!!!!!!

Today I finally arrived in Chile! 
I wanted to get out from that narrow envelope so bad!



I was welcomed by Claire Tamias, she's a TV, just like me! And she's been here for a few weeks already.



In my first walk outside I found a treile egg! 
They're chilean birds, and it's very common to find their eggs on the grass in this time of the year, because spring just started here! 

I tried some empanadas, the national food of Chile, they're fried dough filled with meat, onion, one olive, and some other ingredients, they are really really yummy!! 

We are going to Queule for the weekend, it's a fishing village with beautiful beaches. My host has a summer house there, so i might be going there often! 




We got there at night, so all I saw that day was the big and beautiful full moon above in the sky!

The next morning we woke up and went straight to the deck to see the view and then to the garden to see the plants and flowers!






These are called ''nalcas'' and they're native from Chile.




These little flowers are called ''no me olvides'' which in english is ''dont forget me''





Have you ever seen a flower like this? It's a tree called floripondio and the flower can be used as a drug, but it's not my case 

We went to the town to see the boats and everything closer, the weather was really nice! 





Many of these boats were destroyed by the tsunami in february 2010, and there are still some traces of it.

Later we headed to ''Agua de las Niñas'' beach, which in english would be ''girls' water''
We passed through this viewpoint called ''El Tope''
From here you can see the whole fishing village.




That beach is called ''La herradura'' (the horseshoe) because of its shape, oh, by the way, that's an island.



...then we kept walking...



I found this dock, Leslie told me it was destroyed by the tsunami



This is called lion rock, can you guess why? 




Time for a little rest 



This is Ronca beach, ronca means snore. It's called like that because of the loud sound of its waves.









We arrived! This is Agua de las Niñas.



Look what I found!! 



A jellyfish 







I found  this very weird rock full of wholes, what could have made them?










After all that I can say...





Finally we went back to the house.

Today we are going back to Temuco, I enjoyed a lot this weekend here!
I made a few last shots from the main dock 

It's beautiful to see how all the trees are blooming at last after the cold winter! Spring started around 20 days ago and the weather is nice almost everyday! 

We visited the central market of the city. There were lots of artisans in their stands selling typical stuff.

These are kultrunes, they're drums from the Mapuche culture.



More Mapuche instruments.



These are Mapuche jewelry pieces. The biggest ones are ''trapelakuchas'', they are made of silver and are very expensive.




This is a huge ''indio pícaro''

Quote:

The Indio Pícaro is a traditional wooden statuette of a Mapuche Indian with a long penis. It is found in traditional artisan shops in south-central Chile. It is usually made of wood, used primarily as decoration or for jokes. It consists of an image of a traditionally dressed Mapuche painted with a broad smile that, when lifted, shows an erect penis.

These are ocarinas, musical instruments from the altiplanic zone.

We watched the rescue of the 33 miners who were trapped for 69 days 700 meters underground in a mine in the north of Chile.
The rescue process lasted 22 hours and 30 minutes.






I have to admit I dropped a couple of tears watching them hug their relatives again.
Now they are all safe with their families again!

We went to Ñielol Hill, a natural monument.
It has a huge historic meaning, because here, chileans and mapuches established peace.



There were super huge trees! 



This is the Patagua tree, here is where spanish and mapuches established peace,  in 1881, after 3 centuries of war.



These 4 meters tall mapuche totems are called chemamüll, they represent the family.





This tree is a Notro, they have these cute little red flowers.



This is the view of Temuco from the summit of Ñielol hill.




I read the description of some tree, they were in braille as well!




There was a little museum, so we went in



These things are Piñones, they are the seed of araucarias, the national tree.



I made a new friend! He is a Coipo, a South American species of rodent.







WOW, this one IS important! It is a Cóndor, the chilean national bird.
It is the biggest flying bird in the world!

Quote:

The Andean Condor's wingspan ranges from 280 to 320 cm (9.2 to 10.5 ft). It is heavy, reaching a weight of 11 to 15 kg (24 to 33 lb) for males and 6 to 14 kg (13 to 31 lb) for females. Overall length can range from 102 to 135 cm (40 to 53 in).

This is a map of The Araucanía region. By the way, Chile is divided in 15 regions, La Araucanía is the 9th of them.



After the museum we kept walking though the forest



Look at this weird tree!!