Chillan, Chile

From Pucon, we by bus about 5 hours north, to the town of Chillan. The only reason we went to Chillan was because it is the current starting place of the train that goes to Santiago.

Dave and I decided that we'd like to take the train rather than the bus, just for the novelty of it.

But we found it hard to get information about the train... the route and the schedule, the cost, and how to buy tickets. We asked several travel agents but they all said we could either buy them online, or in person at the train station. The Lonely Planet guide to Chile mentioned the train heading south, but not heading north.

We finally found the train system website at efe.cl (the 'F' stands for Ferrocarrill, or Iron Cart). It appeared to have an application to purchase tickets, but the ticket purchase required a logon. Though the website appeared to permit Non-Chileans to create a logon and buy tickets, I could never get the logon to work. I could create one, but when I went to use it, it told me I needed to create a logon. After about 3 times around that circle, I gave up. We finally just waited til we got to the train station in Chillan, and purchased tickets the afternoon before without any problems.

We stayed in the Canadian Hostel, I think we got the address from the Lonely Planet, it's only 2 blocks from the train station and 2 blocks from the new central bus station in Chillan. It was adequate... typically shabby, but clean with hot water showers, reasonable security, and decent beds.

After we got checked into the hostel and purchased our train tickets, we headed for the downtown market. We didn't really need anything, but just wanted to see the mercado. We ended up having dinner in one of the small restaurants in the mercado.

Look At All the Sausages!
Beans and More Beans