In Chillan Christian and his niece showed us the town he was raised in and while there we also bought Longaniza for the weekend. Longaniza is a big pork sausage (yes and all the jokes that go with it) very popular in Chile and Christian says the best ones are made in Chillan. We had another 4 or so hour journey from there to Lago Villarica where Pamelas family have a holiday home. It was cold and we arrived in the evening to find the fire lit and a lovely snug cottage to enjoy. Pamelas parents, brother and niece arrived later in the evening bringing with them Christians 2 boys as well.
Next day we met the rest of the family, Aunt Lulu and her family have a house just along the lane and cousin Rafael had bought a huge new barbeque that was to be christened over the weekend. So our 3 days was spent in a little bit of heaven = a wonderful setting and a wonderful family with wonderful food. It was lovely for us to be with such a big happy family and with children around. Kent had been suffering from steak withdrawal but these Chileans really know how to barbeque! We have had enough meat to last us a while now! Both Pucon and Villarica towns are quite lovely and very German in their architecture. The lake itself is not huge and is quite cold (Pam says even in summer) but is very clean and pretty. Beside the lake and towns sits an active volcano also called Villarica. It is a perfect cone and at the moment is covered in snow and very pretty.
We stayed there until Sunday and everyone packed up to head back to their ordinary lives and we caught a bus to Lican Ray.
