Chile

Hola all...

Valdivia

So we arrived in Valdivia in the evening after the 6 hour bus trip over the snow covered Andes from Bariloche and got a taxi to our hostel, Hospedaje Internacional. Nice place with owners that spoke very little english but between our broken spanish and their broken english we were happy. Valdivia is a University town sort of like Rhodes It was evening already so we went straight out to a chinese restaurant called shanghai and had sushi and chinese. Not quite Fresh Stop quality but WONDERFUL! We met two american students at the restaurant who were studying at the university and gave us some tips on where to go and what to see. On the walk home we looked for somewhere to have a coffee but EVERYTHING was closed or super dodge.

The next morning we started out at the fresh market on the shore of the river which was out of this world. So much fresh fish, vegies and fruit for prices you will never believe. A kg of fresh salmon for R25, 3kgs of mussels for R20 odd and a kg of Strawberries for about R15 just for a few examples. Laura was in her element...

However due to the fact that it was a sunday and election day, nothing else was open. We took a bus to Niebla, a town 20 mins away and also to Los Monilos just further for some seafood lunch but all was closed there too. It was all beautiful however.

So we made our way back to town to find somewhere to eat and the only place open was Mc Donalds... YAY.
We spent the rest of the day walking round town and had yoghurt for dinner.

The next morning early we had our bus to the resort town of Pucon just 3 hours away and got there eventually after missing our first bus due to time difference complications.

Pucón

A beautiful little town under the shadow of the still active Volcano Villarica...
We were met by a myriad of hostal owners and eventually settled for Hospedaje Victor which was awesome. Private bathroom and cable TV for like R70 each. On the bus on the way we got chatting with two Americans, Jake and Max. They had just come from Bariloche as well and were also on the way to Pucón. We got on well and shared stories of our travels. We said cheers to them at the bus stop and went to our hostels. We organised a tour to the hot springs that evening through our hostel and who else should happen to be on the same trip but Max and Jake. So we chilled in these amazing and boiling hot springs under the stars till midnight when our transfer back to the hostel left.

The next day we wanted to climb the volcano and ski down but the weather was bad so we ended up chilling around town and caught a bus to santiago that night. We would have stayed another day to do the climb which really would have been awesome but we had already booked our bus and were rushing to meet Giorgio in Mendoza on the 1st.

Santiago

21:00 We left for Santiago and arrived at 7am after one of the most uncomfortable busses so far. We walked to the area we wanted to stay in and found a nice hostel called Hotel Plaza Londres. We did a recommended walking tour that day to all the sights around town and later went out for a really nice dinner at a restaurant called R. The following day we wanted to get the cable car up San Cristobal but we found out it was closed for renovations after we had walked the whole way there. So we walked around town more until our bus to Valparaiso at 3pm.

Valparaiso

5pm we arrived in ¨Valpo¨ and got a very expensive transfer to our hostel we had reserved. Lovely homely old mansion turned into a hostel in a good location on Cerro Conception called Resedencia en el Cerro. We walked the area for a few hours trying to find somewhere to eat and after finding out that it is VERY expensive to eat out in Valpo we had given up and were going back to get the credit card when we found an AMAZING and cheap little pizza/pasta place where we ate.

The following day we had breakfast at the hostel and sat with such a nice British guy Andy who we ended up chatting with all morning and discussed where we should go and where he should go as we were heading in opposite directions. Then we set out to see the town, and it really is beautiful. We used the ancient elevators that get you around as the city is built on the cliff and had a nice seafood lunch in the harbour. Oh and we have decided we are not very good backpackers because we dont do anything budget. (Parents can expect a phone call for emergency money soon...)

Using the Elevator(venicular)

At 22:00 tonight we are bussing overnight to Mendoza in Argentina and meeting Giorgio there.

Ciao