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In early february at the end of the school holidays, Doug went with two teacher friends to the south of Chile, some 800km from Santiago, to do a three day hike in a National Park. It was a great opportunity to get to know Carey and Naomi better and to escape the heat of Santiago and stresses of working by internet in Chile!

Its a tongue twister of a name, but Parque Nacional Huerquehue (phoenetically “werkewe”) is a beautiful park east of Pucon and Lago Villarrica. In addition to day trails, a 3 day trail is on offer, camping in the wilderness and reaching some thermal springs on the second day. It is around 15km to the campsite from the carpark, 22km round trip to the thermal springs and another 15km back to the base, passing at least 5 lakes and walking through a variety of landscapes. The most memorable are ancient Araucaria forests.

Araucaria trees (Monkey Puzzle trees), are native to Chile (at least to Patagonia) and are some of the most hardy trees around. They are, literally, indestructible, although they grow very, very slowly. Indeed, you can find specimens of more than 2000 years old, with girths of 6 metres. These enormous trees rise to over 100m and have survived numerous earthquakes, nearby volcanic eruptions, pyroclastic clouds, ash falls, snow falls and severe icing! In fact, just about everything nature can throw at a tree.

You might notice the absence of Rachel on this trip… I certainly did. It was very unfair, but Rachel was on a shift at Paranal and the school holidays could offer no more possibilities for our teacher friends…. So off we went, three of us.

I’ve just returned from a chat with our concierge.

While talking, we were interupted by a neigbour and her 3 year old who asked: “is it cold outside?”. The concierge replied, sweating as he wrote a receipt for me and having his breakfast at the same time, “yes, its really cold…. ch ch ch… really cold. You need to wrap her up well this morning”.

Sure enough, the neighbour pulled a scarf out of her bag and the girl left the building cosy warm.

I tried not to laugh. “hace frio”?? Really?

I returned to the flat, checked the thermometer: 25C. Hardly frosty.
We’re shivering as we eat our breakfast on the balcony, honestly. But there is a collective fear of the cold amongst chileans, that results in them wearing many layers while we wander around in shorts and Tshirts “making them feel cold”. It turns your average granny’s advice in Scotland on its head!

I may as well advertise the National Christian Resource Exhibition, between the 15th and the 18th May at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey.

For more information, visit CRE’s website, whose maintenance and content is managed by me, here in Chile.

As some of you know, I got a job with Christian Resource Exhibitions in December 2006 and am now managing the implementation of a new website (to replace the one you see), due for launch in April. I’m really enjoying it, despite early starts (7am Chile time is 12noon UK time as of today) and inevitable pressures to post content “yesterday”.

The annual national Exhibition really is a special event, bringing together more than 350 exhibitors who supply to the Christian community or who depend upon the support of that community in the UK. These can be companies, charities, foundations or teaching/bible colleges.

Whether global warming, El Niño, pesky argentinian cloud seeders or the Bolivians, Chile’s warmest month, February, has been wierd this year. It just wasn’t very warm. Or at least, not as warm as last year.

And then we had a thunderstorm- heard loud and clear but “unheard of” in Chile. And a four hour rain storm. That caused havoc for the building work going on in Santiago. And, as usual, brought deadlock on the roads. Although it helped to evade a potential drought warning- we are told that a hosepipe ban has been imposed once in the last 15 years and even then it was ignored. Either way, it doesn’t stop people watering their lawns, washing the leaves from their front porch (yes, washing!) or cleaning their cars, sometimes every day…..

Anyway, Santiago flees to the coast for summer. But they’ve almost all returned now, for the start of the school term. And what happens?

Yes, March starts off with 6 days of more than 30C. Its hot and sweaty.

Timbo would like to inform everyone that he is currently taking a vacation, in the vicinity of Los Hornitos, north of Antofagasta, in northern Chile.

He is not contactable by telephone as he is by the beach. He does not want interruption to this intensive lifestlye nor hassle from the paparazzi, whose treatment of Kate Middleton has, in the words of Timbo, defied the rules of decency and non-intrusion.

For press enquiries, please contact us. Photographs available on request.

For general enquiries as to the activities and whereabouts of Timbo, please also, ermmm, contact us.