Fodor's Expert Review Cholchol

The experience of visiting this small village 29 km (18 miles) northwest of Temuco begins the moment you board the bus. Expect to share space with Mapuche vendors and their enormous sacks and baskets of fruits and vegetables, all returning from market. A trip in your own vehicle is much less wearing but infinitely less colorful. Regardless of your chosen mode of transport, you arrive in Cholchol to the sight of rucas, traditional indigenous thatch huts, plus claptrap wooden houses, horse-drawn carts, and artisan vendors lining the dusty streets—all of whom sell their wares from 9 until about 6. Photo opportunities are plentiful, but be unobtrusive and courteous with your camera. Locals dislike being treated as merely part of the scenery.