I traveled westward to Mendoza, when I arrived shortly after noon all the shops closed for a siesta of 4 hours to escape from the heat, probably to have a picnic in one of the shady parcs, definitly to have some MATE, a funny sight to see all those people carrying around their MATE-cup in one hand and a thermo with hot water in the other, sipping from it now and then. I crossed the Andes to get into Chile once more - SANTIAGO! I quite liked the city: the artist quarter Bellavista, one of the shiplike houses of Neruda, la Moneda, nightly projections of art upon the Mapocho-river......I also went to the habourtown of Valparaiso: colourful houses on hillsides overlooking the bay, some of them really seem to be hold together by the paint only -the mixture of colour and decay giving it a special flair, even the dogs and cats ( and there are maaany of them) seem to be more charismatic than elsewhere. I walked across the market ( all that fresh fish!), went on a little habourcruise and walked up and down the hills afterwards. I took one of those old lifts once, feeling like in a little wooden shoebox as we got up one of the hillsides. I had a look at another of Nerudas houses over there- what a view over the bay and the whole Valparaiso! I finally made it to the lake district, a place called Pucon, you really can´t blame the Chileanos to choose it as a holiday destination. The vulcano Villarrica greats you with some smoke, and there are nice hikes in the nearby Parque National Huerquehue.  For a stunning, beautiful view of the surrounding vulcanos and mountains I hiked up to a "mirador" in  the Cañi- sanctuary, accompanied by the dog of the information center who obviously had chosen me to take him for a walk that day.