Nevados de Chillán and Valle Las Trancas

As it is our usual tradition, we normally take a weekend out at the beginning of May to celebrate Patricia's birthday and take a breather from the routine. This year we went to Valle Las Trancas which combines opportunities for outdoor activities and outstanding natural beauty (as well as peace and quiet!).

We hired a cabin for us, the 3 dogs (we adopted another elderly street dog lady a few months ago) and a couple of friends. As it happened, Alan - an old friend of Christian from uni - came to Chile for a conference and could stay on for the weekend. And Sandra came down from the North, where she lives and works now, to join us for Patricia´s birthday weekend.

Alan and Christian chillin' in Chillán

The four of us on our Saturday afternoon walk

Our three dogs, relaxed after the walk

You´d be surprised how many family and friends this VW Polo can carry

Saturday afternoon we went on a short walk to scout the area and enjoy the autumn colours of the forest. Sunday morning we set off on a longer walk, the original plan was the Aguas Calientes valley, a 5h crossing several thermal rivers where one can enjoy a hot bath! :) However, we had some skiing injuries in the group that we needed to adapt to, so we opted for a shorter route towards the summit of the Pirigallo mountain.

Autumn colours everywhere

We got some impressive views of the Nevados de Chillan volcano (which is a little active right now and surprised us with a few "burps")

This is smoke from the volcano... not a normal cloud q-:

The evening was for relaxing back at the cabin with an outdoor hot-tub or "Tina", some nice food, some wine and beautiful starry sky.

A hot bath with a view

We'll definitely have to come back for a longer period of time as the trip felt a bit like a scouting mission :)  Nevertheless, it was a weekend to remember. A couple more photos in below slideshow (or higher resolution here)