Villa Alegre - Happy Town

One of the little towns we visited in the South of Chile earlier this year was Villa Alegre. This town (with its name loosely translated as Happy Town) has streets lined with oranges trees and traditional colonial style houses. For such a small place it interestingly holds many surprises.

Villa Alegre is home to the Festival de la Canción de La Naranja (Festival of the Song of the Orange) where they have their Naranja de Plata (Silver Orange) as a prize similar to the Gaviota de Plata (Silver Seagull) given out at the Festival de Viña del Mar.

Then there is the church on the main road with the remains of Father Juan Ignacio Molina who wrote about the theory of evolution 4 decades before Darwin (it was even cited by Darwin).

It is only 32km south of Talca so worth stopping by if you are heading further down the country.

More information and photos at Villa Alegre.