Dar la bienvenida y Chile. Yep folks I've finally left the wonderful country of Argentina and all those cow-eaters and crossed the Andes into Chile.

Well we had a great few last days in Bariloche (Argentina) which involved getting on the lakes and then getting in to the bars. The kayaking was a good afternoon (easy paddle though) and the scenery was just stunning clear blue lakes surrounded by mountains (still reminded me of NZ). The bars were not quite as stunning but did provide good whiskey and good dancing (so lots of exercise at last). Anyway we made our way from Bariloche to a small town 4 hrs north called San Martin - and this was our last night in Argentina before crossing the boarder. However after the excesses of the night before let's just say it was a much more sober affair in an interesting small "local" bar where the 4 other patrons were highly amused to all of a sudden find the place packed out by gringos.

We got into Chile on Wednesday morning via bus across the Andes and through a national park. And I now find myself in pretty Pucon. This little town is in the Chilean Lake District in Northern Patagonia and sits at the edge of Volcano Villarrica - an active snow-topped volcano that you can see from every corner of the town when there are no clouds. And, don´t all fall over with shock but I've actually been pretty active and busy here and booked tons of stuff to do.

Wednesday afternoon was my first taste of whitewater rafting and it was just the best fun - we actually got on to grade IV rapids (so it was also quite an adrenaline rush) but I managed to stay on/in the raft much to my suprise - I would certainly do this again. Thursday was a day of trekking in Park Nacional Huerquehue - the park is full of forest, lakes and waterfalls and 8 of us went as a group with a guide. Good walking but pretty tough especially considering that the two slowies - that's Brent (our tour leader) and myself - got lost and managed to do an extra hour's unnecessary climb before we realised that the others had probably gone down at the sign-post that we went up at. Our guide Tina was apparently very very worried and spent the best part of the hour looking for us and finally found us as were making our way down with very red faces... the group we're highly amused. Then to help ease off the prospects of sore legs the next morning we all went to the volcanic water spas that night and bathed in glorious hot water until almost midnight.

So Friday... well that was the day I had my skydive booked. After chickening out of this whilst in New Zealand I finally found the nerve to book again. But for some reason it was not to be as like NZ the weather played its part and the clouds once again saved my sanity - I will do this one day I promise you!!

So last night was party night.... we're staying in a really cute hostel and when you have a professional chef as part of your tour group you can only take advantage of them. Thomas cooked us all a wonderful meal, we drunk gallons of beer and copious amounts of wine, danced to ipods, laughed, chatted, shouted, sang and then fell into our beds.

We´re moving on today and I´m actually killing time before we catch our nightbus to Santiago. I must say I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Chile as first impression is that it's a good place to be. It´s probably the most westernised of all the South American countries and even harder to believe I'm in South America especially considering the currency here is so stable which means everything is twice as much as it was in Argentina - let's just say the prices are much more UK than I expected. Oh well with Boliva, Peru and Ecquador still to come I guess I should just get out the wallet and enjoy it.

Well bye for now everyone. I'll be in touch again soon.

x