| We had always kind of thought, in a flaky save the | | | | along with several of our more critical turns. |
| people kind of way, that small communities were | | | | What got us to our destinations was the fact that |
| important to tourism. However, we recently had an | | | | local people where always willing to help us out with |
| experience that reminded us of just how critical they | | | | directions, a cold bottle of Coke, and some really |
| are to the regional tourism industry is to places like | | | | great Sopaipillas (Chilean fry bread). We started |
| Southern Chile. | | | | taking about making this a mission to put these |
| We were returning from a day trip to Conguillio | | | | towns on the map for and moving beyond our flaky |
| National Park in Southern Chile, on our way to a | | | | save the people attitude. |
| meeting in Villarrica, via some of the less traveled | | | | In less flaky terms, just imagine a bus full of |
| back roads of Chile's IX region. We had picked up a | | | | Germans never made it back to the tourist meca of |
| free Government tourist map of the area to | | | | Pucón in time to gamble at the Casino and have |
| navigate our way around. It turned out to be less | | | | dinner. That would at least be worth a few |
| than complete (yes, we do know better). As we | | | | thousands Euros to the local tourism economy in the |
| made our way through the hills of Chile's IX region, | | | | south of Chile. So, this is a plug for the little towns |
| and around the volcanoes, we passed one town | | | | like Los Laureles that missed the last printing of the |
| after another that did not appear on the tourist map, | | | | Chilean Goverment tourist map. |