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World Trip 2005-06
We had 7 days in Chile so we made sure we planned the trip well and didnt waste anytime! We arrived in Santiago, the big city. Entering the city to find accomadation felt exciting, we have arrived in a country that was vibrant with many different contrasts. The architecture was fantastic, however there was a lot of graffiti. We checked into a pleasant hotel and walked into town to explore, after an intial struggle with ordering food we realised that not many people here speak English! We had a phrase book at the ready tough. Next up we hit the park which was full of people, couples, chess players, business men walking to an from work and elderly people enjoying a slow pace of life in the sunshine. We continued to walk around the city, after enjoying a laugh with a large Barney puppet and getting our photos taken i was approached by a suspecious looking guy who wanted me to take a photo. Two mins later we realised he had distracted me while his friend had taken my wallet! That put a bit of a dampner on the day, we later also had trouble at the hotel when we tried to check out early as we had decided to take a overnight bus instead of a room. What a first day!!! Nevermind the bus trip was great, it was like being on an aeroplane, waiter service, revolving chairs and all. We decided to heads south to the lake district, it took several hours, around 10hrs i think it was. We stayed at Pucon, a small town that thrived on tourism as it boasted a range of adventure activities. That night we stayed at Monkey Puzzle which was basically someones house! I liked to call it a house-hostel! Anyway the owner (Brad) was cool and arranged a fantastic trek up a volcanic mountain for us, and he also cooked a great breakfast. Our first day in Pucon we were taken to see our guide for the walk Gustavo! A big bearded man that spoke good English, he fitted us up with all the neccassary gear for the treck and then after we shopped for bait, took us to some thermal hot pools to relax.
The Walk up Vallarica Volcano Mountain
The walk started at 4.00am, we woke and were ready for when Gustavo banged on the door. The intial walk up the mountain seemed easy, it was dark with the only light coming from our helmets. I guess due to the fact we couldnt see how big the volcano was our motivation wasnt effected any. After an hour of so of walking the sun began to rise, it was beautiful, we where above the clouds and could see mountain peaks in the distance. The walk was hard work, killed the calve muscles. We walked for around 3hrs before we had to put on our crimp-ons and get out our icepicks in order to climb up the icey part of the mountain. 2 hrs later we reached the summit. The crater was full of smoke but we didnt see in lava. The views were amazing and we both felt on top of the world. The descent was much easier, invovling sliding down the ice on our ass with only our ice pics to slow us down. It was amazing speeding down the snow tracks at high speeds. It then only took us 2hrs to get back down to the bottom.
That afternoon, we ate out and chilled before catching an overnight bus back up North to Valparaiso.
Valparaiso and Vino Del Mar
Beautiful and very individual. The city is set in the hills boasting an array of colourful buildings that came in all sorts of shapes and sizes within a maze of steep streets and intersections. Check the photographs, its hard to explain, the city basically sums up the people of this country; very individual, creative and expressive. There was graffti but it seemed to fit the towns vibe, it was very impressive, in addition many walls featured mureals, one local explained that through mureals they were trying to beat the rise in graffiti. Both i though contributed to one of the most amazing places i have ever visited. Even peoples homes in the same street featured an array of colour, from pink to sky blue to green. After walking around the streets, taking a crazy lift up the hills and dining at a small cafe we caught the bus again and headed to Vina Del Mar. Vina Del Mar was another pleasent city, we enjoyed a meal and some wine at a local cafe, slept in the park, walked around and then caught another nightbus. This time to Le Serena. We were greeted at the bhus stop by a hostel owner who lured us in with the offer of free internet, breakfast and 4pounds beds. Although she didnt speak much spanish she was a lovely lady who helped us book a day trip for the following day. The day trip was an educational journey up the Elqui Valley. We viewed a newly developed dam (Puclaro Dam) and visited the Capel Pisco Distillery. We learnt how they made their famous local drink Pisco. The rest of the trip involved cruising through the valley viewing the area within the valley that they grow grapes and the surrounding hills that was scattered with loads of cactus. We stopped at numerous small towns including a visit to hometown of Gabriela Mistral,who won a noble prize. We arrived back late afternoon and chilled. Today we are staying in LeSerena before getting a bus back to Santiago to catch a plane to Argentina.
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