We were reluctant to get off our cama bed bus as we pulled into Pucon as it was pouring down with rain. Trudging around the streets Jona smugly showing off his built in rain cover utility on his backpack, while Emma trailed behind with her black bin bag covering hers! Accomodation sorted (crap room first night, cute little Hospedaje booked for the following) we had a brief wander round the Alpine Swiss style town, but were beaten into the bar by the weather and...

Feeling like part of the Jet Set we headed the exclusive (ish) resort of Valle Nevado only 1.5hrs drive from Santiago. Despite the heat of the spring sunshine we were impressed with the amount of snow and condition of the pistes. The facilities were top notch and they even had free tissues at the bottom of the ski lifts, genius idea! It was nice to escape the pollution of Santiago and spend a day playing in the snow. Our first experience of Southern hempisphe...

Emma's description of Valparaiso was that it's like an oil painting; it looks lovely from a distance, but its a bit rubbish close up! The brightly painted buildings and colourful street art that tumble down the hills make up for the run down city centre, which looks a bit like Slough on Sea! Again cursed by the fact that the town was practically empty for the Independance day celebrations, we consoled ourselves with a slap up feed in a lovely restaurant overloo...

A bit of a nightmare journey from Mancora to Santiago. 10hrs overnight bus only to turn up at Lima airport at 2am for LAN to tell us that they had no record of our online reservation. Luckily we managed to get a flight with another airline for half the price so it all worked out well in the end. So, our first impression of Santiago? An expensive polluted city that could be anywhere in the western world, and they speak funny here as well (Its Chileano, not Spani...

Wow, finally some heat! What can we say about Mancora? A typical day would go something along the lines of breakfast on the beach followed by a few hard hours relaxing in the sun in our beautiful beach front hotel. A spot of lunch then Reine and Jon (our kite surfing instructors) would come and find us and we would spend the afternoon being pulled the sea by a huge (21m) kite! A few beers to unwind on the beach afterwards then dinner and a spot of star gazing on ...