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After Bariloche we crossed the border and arrived in the city of Puerto Varas which is in the Lake District of Chile. The town itself did not have a lot to do but was set on a beautiful lake that was so still and serene. Our hostel in PV was the strangest place we have ever stayed (and we´ve stayed in quite a few places so far!). It was like a rabbit warren with loads of different corridors and floors and then randomly placed furniture everywhere. There was a television just sat on a step with no sofa or chair anywhere near it so anyone could watch it! Outside our room in the hallway there was a sink on the wall which just had a house plant sat in it! It was so odd, like a 70s set of flats that had been turned into a hostel but no money had been spent on changing it!
The most famous bit of this area of Chile is Chiloe Island which is an island of about 180km in length. It is most famous because it has penguins on it...obviously we had to visit it! The island was a strange place, apparently all the people who live on it care about is eating and getting drunk so when we arrved at about 10.30am there weren´t very many people around! Also as a result it is quite a poor area with little industry apart from farming or tourism. Also most young people move away when they can because of the lack of opportunities. The President of Chile was going to fund a bridge from the mainland to the island but then withdrew the money and put it into something else instead. We couldn´t work out whether this was a good thing or not, obviously it would be good for the islanders to be able to get to the mainland more easily in case of emergencies etc but on the other hand it would be nice for the island to retain its charm. We drove through the countryside for an hour and it actually looked a little bit like the England or Wales with lots of little smallholdings with cows, pigs etc and lush rolling hills. We then arrived at a deserted beach where we took a boat out to sea to see the penguins. Within 5 minutes we had arrived at an island where we could see both Humboldt and Magellanic penguins. They were so cute, just waddling along the rocks. Then, we could see something swimming in the water and thought it was a sea-lion but then realised that it was way too small and saw that it was a sea otter! They are really rare to see! It was really cute and had a mussel in its hands, awwwww!!! That made our day! Then we had a gorgeous lunch on the deserted beach, eating the catch of the day!
The next day we took a bus to Pucon which again is another ski resort in the mountains. It was a beautiful place with lots of little wooden chalets and cabins. We stayed in some cabins, 9 of us in one and Matt was the only bloke! It was again a bit of strange set up with the people who owned the cabins sleepng downstairs in our lounge and using the 2 showers we had between the 9 of us! It felt like we were sleeping in their house!
On our first day in Pucon a group of us decided to go white water rafting! We´d never done it before but were told it was amazing. The river was called the Trancora and had rapids of up to level 4 and one rapid of 6 (the highest is 6). We had to wear the sexiest outfits of wetsuits with waterproof shorts over the top (????) and then lifejackets and helmets, lovely! We had 6 in a boat and were then taught all of the commands and what to do as we´re going through the rapids! When we started the river was still and clear and beautiful but then in the distance we could hear the gushing of water and see the steam rising into the air (so melodramatic aren´t we?). We all just concentrated on paddling and tried to ignore the fact that there were rocks everywhere and that we were about to go over waterfalls without seeing what was beneath them! Luckily our guide was brilliant and gave us plenty of warning and told us when we could hide in the bottom of the boat and hold on tightly! It was great fun being tossed about in the water and getting completely soaked, except the water was freezing! It was really good fun and we were so glad we did it. When we´d finishd we all jumped out of the boat and just drifted on our backs along the river with the current taking us which was really cool except that both of us managed to smack our bums on rocks just under the surface, ow! It was St Paddy´s Day on this day so when we were finished we rewarded ourselves with a beer. Unfortunately we couldn´t drink too much as we had to be up at 6am the next day to climb the Villarrica Volcano!
The volcano was 2800m high so we had to start early in order to reach the top and get down again before sunset. We all got up early, filled with trepidation at not knowing what to expect and all worried that the boozing and local food might have taken their toll on our fitness more than we knew. We were kitted out with water and wind proof jackets, crampons and ice picks, it was going to be serious walking! We were told that a chairlift would take us up the first section which was pretty steep. However, when we got there it was closed which meant that we would have to walk for an extra hour up a very steep gravelly incline. When we got to the top of this we were all aready tired but were told that although it was another 4 hours to the top it would get flatter! We carried on plodding upwards and eventually reached the glacier. It was actually easier to walk on this than the gravel and it didn´t move from under your foot. It was very cold and windy though and also very steep, we had to use our ice picks in case we slipped which we really didn´t fancy doing as it would be a long but very fast way down! WE carried on up in silence, the only sound was our breathing and the odd squeak here and there when one of us slipped. It was tough going but we stopped every now and then to eat some chocolate or trail mix which kept us going. We had been talking about Touching the Void the day before and although we tried not to, it did keep popping back into our heads as we continued to climb higher onto the glacier! We eventually reached the top which was amazing, there was a huge feeling of euphoria mixed with absolute exhaustion. We were hoping there might be a cable car at the top that could take us back down, we´d forgotten that we had to get down too! The views were stunning but we were unable to look down inside the crater because it was puffing out too much sulphorous smoke that we couldn´t get too close. Once we had rested it was time to go down. This involved sliding down on our bums in carved out niches, a bit like doing the luge. It was great fun and got us down the volcano so fast! After taking over 5 hours to get to the summit it only took 1.5hours to get down! That night we were in bed by 10pm and slept like babies.
The next day we decided that we deserved to treat our bodies and so went to the local thermal baths. They had baths of all different temperatures which helped soothe our aching muscles and various bruises! Matt and I tried the mud bath which was very strange, it was literally like stepping into the mud that you have in your garden, there were twigs and leaves in it which got everywhere! It was very relaxing though and helped send us to sleep on the night bus to Santiago that night.
We arrived in Santiago at about 7am and after checking into our hotel went for a wander around the city. We climbed a fort that was near our hotel called Cerro Santa Lucia which gave us our first views of the sprawling city. The first thing we noticed was the smog, you couldn´t see the mountains that surround the city at all. The city is quite different to Buenos Aires, it´s not nearly as wealthy, there were a lot of homeless people. Also, it didn´t seem as sophisticated or ´buzzy´ (word of the trip!). That night we all went out for dinner and then ended up at a club which was interesting. It cost 1 pound 50 to get in and they gave each of us 2 litres of beer free which was very strange but made the night pretty cheap. It was a good night and our last night with some of the group members and first night with some others.
The next day we got up early to go wine tasting. We first went to the Concha y Toro vineyard which was beautiful with an old colonial house and sprawling gardens. We tried 2 red wines which were delicious. In the afternoon we went to the Cousino Mural winery which is a much smaller, family run one. We had a great tour guide who told us all about the wine making process and showed us the 100 year old barrels that had been used originally. We als saw some bottles of wine from 1927, not sure that would have tasted too good though! We tried some more wines, which were delicious, so delicious that we just had to buy some. They did a unique sauvignon gris which is made with white wine grapes with the skins left on so it had a pinky colour but itsn´t the same as rose. This isn´t sold abroad so we had to buy a bottle of course! These vineyards weren´t very far out of the city and it was hard to believe that the soil wasn´t affected by the smog which seemed to engulf everything. That night we convinced ourselves that the wine would have to be drunk because it was chilled and wouldn´t stay cold, another boozy session!
More of Chile to follow if you can bear it.....!
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