Fabulous February 2018

Tenuan,on the largest and very charming island of Chile, Chiloe, (known for its spirits and legends) with its lovely church. And the weather was perfect!

Chile is a land of billions of trees, fertile fields of corn, wheat, orchards of delicious fruit, lakes, rivers, falls, volcanoes, majestic mountains, indigenous people, and modern cities and people living in wealth and in poverty. We had a break during temple closure for twice a year maintenance, so decided to explore. The Poulsens did most of the planning and invited us to join them.

Fabulous February 2018 in Southern Chile

February 5, 2018, 5 of us headed south in a rented van, driven by Nancy and Norm Poulsen. Our first stop was in Concepcion to see the new and second temple in Chile, to be dedicated in the fall. It will make temple attendance possible for many and easier for those who have come great distances to Santiago. It is larger and very beautiful, as is the housing for patrons and temple president.

We were the guests of President and Sister Castro of the Santiago Chile Temple presidency for two nights. They showed us the sights of Concepcion, which has large steel and oil refinery plants, many other industries and interesting places on the River Biobio. We visited the university, a restored ship, a hacienda from late 19th to first half of 20th century, the beach, and took a long train ride along the river.

Before our seafood dinner: Miriam (who was pleased to celebrate her birthday there), Norm and Nancy Poulsen, Ulf and Elsa Muntzing, the Castros)

The next morning we toured the Huasco, restored Peruvian military ship, which ended up in Concepcion, whose captain Grau defeated the Chileans in May 1879 in Battle of the Pacific (Chilean heroic commandante Prat died aboard the ship), but the Chileans came back to win in October 1879, and gained back some of their lost territory.

Most of the lake and ocean beaches have black sand from all the volcanoes! The monument below is to earthquake victims. The largest took place in 1960, but there are daily tremors, and volcanoes which threaten to erupt! Most buildings are constructed to withstand quakes.

The Poulsens were eager to see the Honduran Olmos family they had known on their previous mission in Osorno, but the parents were working far away, so we just visited with the boys. The oldest, David is a wonderfully talented artist.

From Concepcion we traveled on south and inland in the Lake District, settled mostly by Germans who were encouraged to come in second half of 19th century to a beautiful place that is much like Germany. The volcanoes, waterfalls, lakes and mountains were spectacular. We rented cabins in most places and mostly cooked our own meals. We ran into lots of traffic in places, as it is vacation, and the Chileans love sports and the outdoors. We visited the Island of Chiloe, too, with its many painted wooden churches, a fortress (the last stronghold in Chile of Spanish governor defeated in 1770), a small island Aucar.

Below are shots of Petrohue Falls, Lake Panguipulli, with volcano, Lake Villarica, Los Ojos with Blue Lagoon. We went up to the ski resort on Osorno volcano.