Pucon, Santiago & La Serena, Chile

On 23 Feb at 6am we travelled from Martin de Los Andes in Argentina to Pucon in Chile. The drive took us through the Argentina and Chile Lake Districts and National Parks. The distance between the two towns is actually very short, but the journey took ages as we spent forever crossing the border on both the Argentina and Chile sides. We had to individually go through passport control and then take our luggage off the bus and put them through screening devices. As you can imagine it took a while for a whole bus of people to do this twice. The drive was very scenic, but I was glad to get to Pucon almost 7 hours after we left.

Pucon is in the Chilean Lake District and is a beautiful town. It is surrounded by mountains, forest, lakes and volcanoes (a few of them active and covered in snow). The highest and most famous of these volcanoes is Volcan Villarrica which is 2800m high. The town has a traffic light in the centre of town that shows the level of volcanic activity (you`ll be glad to know the light was green when we were there)! Pucon has a very trendy yet hippy feel to it, and is famous for it`s adventure sports and thermal baths. It`s also remarkably more expensive than the other countries we`ve visited.

The day we arrived we walked around town and ate at the Vegetarian restaurant at the hostel we were staying at. The food there was the most amazing food I`ve eaten since I`ve been away. Even the meat eaters ate every meal at the veg restaurant - it was that good! The hostel also had a great bar and lounge where we tried our first Pisco Sours - the national drink.

On our second day we got up at 6am to climb Volcano Villarrica. We took a chair lift to the starting point and then began our 4 hour 2800m trek up the volcano. 14 of us did the trek with 3 guides. They fitted us out with the appropriate gear (snow boots, water and wind proof clothes, gaters, helmets, gloves and a pick axe). I unfortunately turned back just over an hour from the summit. Juliet made it to the top. The whole experience scared me quite a bit as we were walking up a sheer snow/ice face with only a pick axe to keep us from falling. I was really nervous of loosing my footing. Sarah (from England) and I turned back with one of the guides. I was a bit disappointed that I didn`t make it to the top, but was also proud of myself for getting as far as I did.

To get down we literally slid down the snow on our bums. It was initially a bit terrifying, but it was then really fun once I got the hang of how to slow myself down using my pick axe. Once we got to the end of the snow we hiked the rest of the way down on foot. It was a very exhilarating, yet scary experience. I am glad I did it, but not sure I`d do it again!

That night we went to natural hot springs just outside the town. They are open 24 hours a day, so we were there until about midnight. The hot springs were situated in a forest and had many dimly lit rock pools. We just soaked in the hot springs for hours and had drinks under the stars.

The next day I was all actioned out so I just relaxed in Pucon and went to the beach. That night we had a surprise party for Erin (from Canada) as it was her birthday. Martin organised a cake and we had drinks before going out for dinner to a Peruvian restaurant.

On our last day I decided to give canopying a try. Canopying is basically sliding from tree to tree harnessed to cables linking the trees. I convinced Marie (from Ireland) and Tim (from NZ) to do it with me even though they`d already been canopying a few days earlier. We drove out to the forest, and were kitted out with all the necessary gear. We were harnessed in and climbed up to the starting point. From there we did a series of about 10 slides. It was so much fun, I loved it. The scenery was beautiful as we were in the forest, high up in the trees, literally swinging from tree to tree. What a great experience! I`d love to do it again. (There is a video of me canopying in the Videos folder of the photo site if you`re interested - you`ll need to save the video before watching it.)



We all met at the hostel for a final dinner at the vegetarian restaurant before catching a night bus to Santiago. I am thrilled to say that in Chile they have lots of English tea and avocado - I am in my element (you can`t even buy English tea in Brazil, and it`s only sometimes available in the other countries we`ve been to).

We then took a 12 hour overnight bus to Santiago. It wasn`t the best of bus rides as the man behind me was snoring so loudly - even my iPOD didn`t muffle the sound of his snoring. We arrived in Santiago on the morning of 27 February at about 7:30am.

Santiago is built in a valley surrounded by high mountains. The smog in the city is really bad, and you can hardly even see the mountains through the smog. The city itself is nice, but it`s no Rio. The bizaar thing is, up until now we have not been hassled at all when walking in the streets. In Santiago, the attention is constant (comments, whistles, the works - always from middle aged to old men). Two people in our group were also chased by muggers early this morning but they managed to outrun them.

That aside, parts of the city are really nice, and I enjoyed my time there. The day we arrived we went to get breakfast and then I slept for a few hours. In the afternoon we went to Barrio Bellavista. It`s a really awesome bohemian area of the city with great shops, bars, restaurants and parks. We did a tour of La Chascona, the home of the famous poet Pablo Neruda. He designed the house himself. It`s a great space with many courtyards, but the house itself is a bit odd as it was designed to be like a ship, so the rooms are small with low ceilings.

We then went to Cerro San Cristobal and took the funicular up the mountain. We then walked to the top where there is a statue of Mary. The Chileans seem to be almost as religious as the Brazilians. There were great views of the city from the top (well what you could see of it through the smog). We walked around Bellavista and went to Patio Bellavista which is a closed square with great shops. We walked back to our hotel along the river (a very brown river) and through parque forestal. That night we went back to Bellavista for dinner. We had a fancy dinner at "Like Water for Chocolate" as it was the final night of many in the group. We had to say goodbye to 8 people (Brittany, Maylinn, Tim, Jason, Mike, Be, Mark and Joanne), but we have since been joined by 7 new people.

On the second day in Santiago I went on a tour of the Undurraga winery which is about an hour out of the city. It`s a classic Chilean winery founded in 1885 and they produce 15 million litres of wine a year. We did a tour of the vineyards, the production plant and the cellars. We then had time to taste some of the wine. I tried a Savignon Blanc, a Cabernet Savignon and a Carmanera - all very good. It was a very informative tour about the history of wine making in Chile and `the wine industry´s links to politics.

We then went for a late lunch to the Mercado Central, the fish market. On our way back we went to the Plaza de Armas (the main plaza), went into the cathedral, and then went to Plaza de la Constitution which has the Palacio de la Moneda. The government buildings are all around this square.

The third day was very relaxing. I slept in and watched American sitcoms in the morning (the joys of staying in a hotel). I then went to Starbucks for breakfast (yes a very American morning!) and went with a few people from the group to the Museo Chileno De Arte Precolumbino. The museum was amazing. It has the greatest collection of pre-Columbian art from the Americas in the world. Most of the art is pottery and textiles and it provides a great history of the whole area. There was also a temporary exhibit of tribal headgear from the region which was interesting too.

After the museum I had lunch with Erin (from Canada). We got empenadas and sat in a small park. I then went to meet Juliet and we walked up Cerro Santa Lucia (a hill next to out hotel and great viewing spot). It is also the site on which Santiago was founded.

On our last night in Santiago we all met up for wine and cheese at the hotel. We then went out for Sushi, then onto a bar, and later to a club in Bellavista. The next morning I swore I would never drink another Pisco Sours as long as I live. We only got home a few hours before we were leaving to catch our bus to La Serena, on the north coast of Chile, so I slept the whole way here (7 hours).

La Serena is a small city on the coast. It doesn´t have a great appeal as a city itself but it has beaches and it near the Elqui valley which is famous for it`s astronomic observatories (the valley has 300 days of sunshine a year - much like England!). Yesterday Erin and I did a full day tour of the Elqui valley. It was damn hot! The scenery is very desolate and desert like, with barren mountains and cactus plants. Parts of the land is irrigated and there are lots of vineyards and plantation fields. The most bizaar thing happened. Bettina, Pino`s Swiss friend that we had met in Uruguay and had then seen again in Buenos Aires, was on our tour! We then also bumped into Mike (from England) in the Elqui valley. Mike had travelled with us from Buenos Aires to Santiago. It`s a big continent, but a small world!

We went to a papaya and chimimoya plantation field, the Puclaro Dam (200 million cubic metres of water), and then to the Pisco Capel factory where Pisco is made. We did a tour of the production and then sampled some pisco. We then visited a few towns - Pisco Elqui village, Montegrande village (grave and museum of Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean Nobel Prize winner), and then to the city of Vicuna. It was a really interesting day, but one day was definitely enough to see the region.

Last night we cooked dinner and stayed in. Today I am hoping to go to the beach, but it is overcast. Hopefully the mist will lift. Tonight we take a 17 hour bus north to San Pedro de Atacama, and then start our 3 day 4x4 trek across the desert and the salt flats into Bolivia. I am so excited!