A Meeting In The Middle

Chile is among the most geographically diverse countries in the world, encompassing regions of lakes and volcanoes, island archipelagos, snowcapped Andean peaks and glaciers, barren desert, ancient temperate rain forests and endless beaches. Chile is 2700 miles long but only 250 miles wide at its widest point. Its average width is only 110 miles inland from the southwest coast of South America. Yet at 292,257 sq. miles, Chile is about the size of California, Oregon and half of Washington State combined. If you laid Chile out over the United States, it would stretch from Maine to California.

Up to now, we have confined our visit to just three of Chile's 15 regions:

IX: Region De La Araucania - around Pucón and Temuco

XIV: Region De Los Rios - around Valdivia

X: Region De Los Lagos - around Puerto Montt and Chiloe

Now it was our plan to venture north into Region VIII, the Region Del Bío Bío. Two friends from Utah, Martin and Joni Plaehn had arrived in Santiago and were travelling south to meet us halfway at the town of Chíllán. We planned to drive up together to the ski center at Volcán Chíllán east of the town. In addition, Henry had invited a friend from Pucón, Tomas Schmeisser, to take time off from school and join us for a few days on the slopes.

It's a four hour drive up the Pan American Highway to Chíllán. Along the way we stopped to stretch our legs at the Salto Del Laja , near where Route 5 crosses the Rio Laja.

Laja Falls

About 1:00PM we arrived in Chíllán, the birthplace of Chile's founding father and its first Supreme Director after independence, Bernardo O'Higgins . Just about every town of any size in Chile has a street named "O'Higgins" after this general, who in 1817, with the help of Jose de San Martin, wrested the independent Chilean state from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence.

On the way into Chíllán is a park dedicated to its famous son at the site of his home there. All that is left today is the entry gate and a low wall, the casa itself long gone.

Near the gate is a large plaza with a lifesize stone mosaic diorama displaying the iconic view of O'Higgins astride his rearing horse.

We arrived at the Santa Teresa bus station in plenty of time to meet the bus from Santiago with Martin and Joni Plaehn. They had actually boarded and found their reserved seats on the scheduled Chíllán-bound train that morning, when it was unexpectedly cancelled. We heard the tale how they had to drag their skis and luggage from the train station many blocks to the bus depot, buy new tickets and find the correct bus. Fortunately a couple of Chileans from the train had to make the same trek and spoke enough English to help them make the connection.

We introduced the Plaehns to Tomas and our driver, loaded their gear into the van, and took a quick tour around town.

One unusual attraction we wanted to see was the school donated to Chíllán by Mexico after the 1939 earthquake. We had heard it contains some splendid murals painted by Mexican painters David Alfaro Siquieros and Xavier Guerrero , both communists, and Guerrero for two years an assistant to Diego Garcia.

Unfortunately, the murals were being restored for the Bicentennial Celebration next year, and we could only see the ceiling at the entryway, part of which is shown above.

Next we visited Chíllán's unusual cathedral, built to replace the one destroyed in the 1939 earthquake.

The new cathedral was built to withstand the next earthquake. At the moment of our visit, the sun shone directly through the glass arches to bask the altar in a dazzling glow of light.

As the winter afternoon shadows grew longer, we left the town of Chíllán behind and made our way east up the highway toward Nevados de Volcán Chíllán and our hotel at the ski area's hot springs, Hotel Termas de Chíllán, a very nice place to relax after a long journey.