Lebu, Chile 🇨🇱
Leaving Lebu, we felt we saw the city. Our big adventure yesterday was wandering to the river and photographing the small destitute fishing town All along the way. I couldn’t help but think my mom wouldn’t have lasted an hour in our “Boutique Hhotel Plaza Lebu“. Earnest and eager Nicholas, who was patiently waiting outside for us to arrive at 10:30 PM. Seemingly new to his check in job, he eagerly showed us to our room, offering several times to carry my bag and not knowing if I didn’t accept because I didn’t think I needed his help or “Because or COVID”? but when we asked for a key to the door, he scurried downstairs and spent nine minutes opening and closing every drawer and door in the building. After the next three flustered trips to deliver new towels, clean the bathroom when I asked for a refresher ( 👀 ), and deliver the breakfast of tightly saran wrapped wrapped slices of ham and cheese, bread, yogurts and breakfast bars - to leave out overnight on a little table in our room -, he excitedly brought a “bottle opener” (Aka a door strike plate) up and opened the second beer..
When bambam asked for a second time for the room key, Nicholas looked at us with a mix of frustration and exasperation and said, “Oooooh.... i thought you meant the beer key!!!!” Once again he ran downstairs to find the key for us.
Ultimately, we settled and had a great night of sleep in the King size bed with soft and clean sheets, woke up thankful for the breakfast and headed off in the drizzle to head the Grocery store. For the record, Chileans seem to be far ahead of the Americans in how they approach Covid prevention. We waited in line to take our temperature and the required squirt of sanitizer.
For a fishing and tourist town there didn’t seem to be any fishing or touristing going on. Fisherman are not known to be wealthy and the town reflects it. We spent several hours delighting in the Beauty and sides of the town with our cameras and phones constantly going in and out of our head bags whenever we saw something else intriguing.
Due to CoVid, There are no restaurants offering sit down service but we did find a couple where we could have a ticket. We enjoyed lunch on the steps of the town square and dinner on our hotel bed as we surged the internet and kept tabs on various projects.
Leaving Lebu, we felt we saw the city. Our big adventure yesterday was wandering to the river and photographing the small destitute fishing town All along the way. I couldn’t help but think my mom wouldn’t have lasted an hour in our “Boutique Hhotel Plaza Lebu“. Earnest and eager Nicholas, who was patiently waiting outside for us to arrive at 10:30 PM. Seemingly new to his check in job, he eagerly showed us to our room, offering several times to carry my bag and not knowing if I didn’t accept because I didn’t think I needed his help or “Because or COVID”? but when we asked for a key to the door, he scurried downstairs and spent nine minutes opening and closing every drawer and door in the building. After the next three flustered trips to deliver new towels, clean the bathroom when I asked for a refresher ( 👀 ), and deliver the breakfast of tightly saran wrapped wrapped slices of ham and cheese, bread, yogurts and breakfast bars - to leave out overnight on a little table in our room -, he excitedly brought a “bottle opener” (Aka a door strike plate) up and opened the second beer..
When bambam asked for a second time for the room key, Nicholas looked at us with a mix of frustration and exasperation and said, “Oooooh.... i thought you meant the beer key!!!!” Once again he ran downstairs to find the key for us.
Ultimately, we settled and had a great night of sleep in the King size bed with soft and clean sheets, woke up thankful for the breakfast and headed off in the drizzle to head the Grocery store. For the record, Chileans seem to be far ahead of the Americans in how they approach Covid prevention. We waited in line to take our temperature and the required squirt of sanitizer.
For a fishing and tourist town there didn’t seem to be any fishing or touristing going on. Fisherman are not known to be wealthy and the town reflects it. We spent several hours delighting in the Beauty and sides of the town with our cameras and phones constantly going in and out of our head bags whenever we saw something else intriguing.
Due to CoVid, There are no restaurants offering sit down service but we did find a couple where we could have a ticket. We enjoyed lunch on the steps of the town square and dinner on our hotel bed as we surged the internet and kept tabs on various projects.
Chile 🇨🇱 and COVID 19
America can learn some things from Chile about Covid consciousness and preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
Having gone through a stressful series of conversations before we decided to book our international flight, we were glad to find that every roadside gas station, establishment, and grocery store took took our temperature and asked us to use hand sanitizer. We need in a negative PCR test to enter the country and and uploaded affidavit to memorialize it. The government sends all visitors a daily email for the first 14 days after entering the country. There are four bullet points on the daily email that indicate your health status, potential exposure, and sleeping address for epidemiological tracking purposes.
After one week in the country we started receiving personalized WhatsApp messages from 2 different government women trying to contact us to ensure we were “feeling fine”.
America can learn some things from Chile about Covid consciousness and preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
Having gone through a stressful series of conversations before we decided to book our international flight, we were glad to find that every roadside gas station, establishment, and grocery store took took our temperature and asked us to use hand sanitizer. We need in a negative PCR test to enter the country and and uploaded affidavit to memorialize it. The government sends all visitors a daily email for the first 14 days after entering the country. There are four bullet points on the daily email that indicate your health status, potential exposure, and sleeping address for epidemiological tracking purposes.
After one week in the country we started receiving personalized WhatsApp messages from 2 different government women trying to contact us to ensure we were “feeling fine”.
Linares, Chile 🇨🇱
Restaurant de comida internacional
When you’re traveling & you pull over on the side of the road, you never know what you’re going to get.
(For the record, they don’t either. We sidled in wearing 20 hour old outfits, jeans baggy from an over night. My cowboy hat and rhinestone hipbag garnered-at least one up and down From a distinguished gentlemen wearing a blue button down who was dining with his “niece” or granddaughter.
This was the kind of place where diners prop their elbows behind them on the tufted backs of the rounded leather banquettes to enjoy a leisurely conversation over a mid afternoon meal, and then go home to make love on a Saturday afternoon.
We landed in Santiago airport this morning after an uneventful but neck stiffening overnight flight. En route to the solar eclipse that passes from Chile through Argentina, we are heading to our first destination, Lebu. Selected for two reasons... 1) it’s a sandy beach town in a country known for rocky beaches. 2) it’s halfway to our viewing destination, Pucon, and would break up the 9 hour trip. Once again I’m reminded that there’s nothing like calculating distances once you’re actually in the rental car and Waze is fired up. Surprised to find out that “halfway“ is actually eight hours south (riddle me that, Batman), we had a low blood sugar dip at 2:30 PM and pulled off the highway to the nearest town, Linares.
Following a travel mantra that’s decades old (head to Centro Cita!) we went straight to the town center and drove around the square, looking for an interesting restaurant... until we remembered that the last time we were in Chile and left our unattended car with our suitcases, we were robbed! Not wanting to repeat that… We drove away from the town square and pulled off in a restaurant with a fenced parking lot on the side of the 2 lane highway that said “Internacional Restaurant“.
Sketchy at best, right?
Luckily... In this case. we won.
Salmon, salmon, salmon was the answer to our initial question of “what are we going to get?”
We ordered a lovely half bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and two salmons. His was cooked; mine crudo. The salmon with a mushroom cream sauce was served with double fried potatoes, there wasn’t much left... but the ceviche. The ceviche was just this side of “too salty” and with enough cilantro to pop through the-loads of lemon & limes, it earned the comment, (not by me, for the record, although I agree...) “Some of the best ceviche I’ve ever had in my entire life.” (Of course, it was the most recent ceviche!)
Oh, and by the way, the garnish rocked. Looking like some combination of fish scales and popcorn, could they be toasted extra large corn kernels? How can I be 50 and just learned they exist???
When traveling. Take the risk. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This time, we won.
VIBE: 4
FOOD: 4.5
DRINK: 5
SERVICE: 3.5
PRICE: M
OVERALL: Yes!
Reposted from A Delicious Lifestyle.
