Day 65 - Don't inhale

San Pedro de Atacama (Chile)  to Villa Mar (Bolivia)

The tour company we picked for the trip from SPdA to Uyuni in Bolivia takes people by 4WD in groups of 6. We were collected by a mini van pretty much on time at 7:30am. Our travelling companions for the next few days were three guys in their late 20s to early 30s - Glen from the UK, Michael from Switzerland, and Derek from the US, as well as Pan, a lady in her fifties from Thailand.

The driver took us to the border, where we sorted out the border formalities (exit from Chile, entry to Bolivia), then taken to meet our driver/guide for the trip, Rudolfo. Rudolfo made us breakfast, after which we moved our luggage to our 4WD, and started our trip through Bolivia.

Nice spot for brekkie, if a little cold

We had read enough to know it was going to be pretty basic, no phones, internet, heating and maybe electricity? We had chosen this particular tour company because of very good reviews (including no mentions of the drivers being drunk, which is apparently happens a bit), and because we were told we would have our own room.

The car wasn't as roomy as we'd hoped, there were seven of us including the driver, and we hadn't put our day packs up on the roof with the rest of the luggage, so space was at a premium. It was all bearable though, just a little uncomfortable at times.

We drove on to see Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde, with the snow capped peaks of Volcan Licancabur and other mountains all around us. We then stopped at the Salvador Dalí Desert, with lone rocks rising out of sand, you could why it was named after Dali.

No, Dali was not here

The lunch stop was at a thermal bath, only Derek decided he'd give it a go, the rest of us were still feeling the cold and didn't think getting out of our clothes was a good idea, though Derek did tell us it was nice and warm.

Cold air, warm water - but not for us!

After lunch we drove on to Sol de Mañana, a geothermal field with fumadores emitting hot gases (we were told to go no closer than a metre, but that didn't seem far enough to us), boiling mud, and steam vents. At this point we were up around 4850 metres, and although we were fine, some of the others were impacted by the altitude, especially Pan, who ended up being given oxygen.

Glop, glop, glop

Our last sightseeing stop was at Laguna Colorada, reddish in colour due to algae living there, as well as sediments in the water. There were lots of flamingos here, but we also noticed a number of unhatched eggs, and many dead flamingo chicks. Rudolfo told us that there hadn't been much rain this year so the water level was low and this had also impacted the flamingos .... global warming strikes again?

How does that flamingo song go again?

We eventually arrived at our hostel in the small town of Villa Mar (at "only" 3990m) to find that we were the last group to check in, and that's when the issues started. We had been promised a private room as had Pan, however there was only one  empty room left - ours. Pan had been quite sick and didn't want to sleep in a dorm room, so we decided Pan could sleep in our room. Quite disappointing for all of us, although the upside was that we had a private bathroom, meaning we didn't have to use the outdoor toilet at all. We found out the next morning that the couple who stayed in the double room next to us were told on arrival they had to pay extra, when they refused as the tour was supposed to be all inclusive, the owner locked their ensuite and made them use the outside facilities!

Dinner was pretty basic, just some spaghetti followed by tinned peaches, but it was tasty enough and we didn't go hungry. We had initially been worried about what the beds would be like and how cold we would get, and though our bed had a sag in the middle, it had plenty of coverings and we didn't suffer too much at all!

Day 64 - Red rocks and high lakes

San Pedro de Atacama

Today we had booked an all day trip to the Lagunas Altiplanicas for our last full day in SPdA, so after being picked up around 7:15am our first stop was at the small town of Socaire for breakfast.

After breakfast it was on to Piedras Rojas, a rock formation right by the Salar de Água Calientes. The scenery was amazing, the view of the red rocks, blue icy water, salty shore and surrounding mountains was well worth the visit, though it was incredibly windy and cold, with the altitude and the wind chill factor it felt even colder than yesterday. At that altitude any exertion also makes you puffed very quickly, so we had to take it easy when getting around.

After that is was on to see the lagunas - Laguna Miscanti and Laguna Miñiques, both close together and surrounded by mountains. We walked along the edge of Miscanti for a while, and were then taken on the bus to see the nearby Miñiques - more beautiful views.

It was back to Socaire for a nice two course lunch, then on get a closer look at the Salar de Atacama. We stopped by Laguna Chaxa to see a large number of flamingos feeding and flying about, then proceeded from there to the village of Toconao to see the old church, and also browse the souvenir shops (along with all the other tour buses that arrived at the same time).

Back in SPdA we spent some time finalising our preparations for our trip to Bolivia in the morning. This included buying "emergency" supplies of food in case the food on the trip wasn't up to par, and getting ripped off at the money changers as we had no choice but to use their services to get the Bolivianos we needed along the way (for park entry fees, for example) until the next ATM in Uyuni three days later.

Happy Birthday M!

Day 63 - Coldest day ever!

San Pedro de Atacama

The alarm was set for 4am this morning for our trip to the geyser El Tatio, as we were due to be picked up from our hostal some time between 4:30 and 5:00am. As it turned out the bus didn't arrive until 5:15, and we were the first ones on .... so by the time everyone was collected it was approaching 6am .... could have done with a bit more sleep!

The reason for the early start is that the geysers are more active in the morning, since the steam (and other gases) leaving the geyser are more visible in the cold air of the morning. We arrived to see numerous plumes of steam over quite a large area. However it was also very cold ... we were at an altitude of about 4320 metres and the sun was barely up, we were told the temperature was about -10 degrees.

The temperature wasn't cold enough to stop some brave souls from jumping into the warm water, our excuse was that we forgot to bring a towel .... instead we tried to stand in the sun and hopped from one foot to the other trying to get the cold pain out of our feet and hands while waiting for eggs to be cooked on a small gas cylinder.

On the way back to SPdA we stopped at the almost deserted indigenous village of Machuca, with an interesting church as well as the income sources of barbequed llama and a paid toilet. The church was nice enough (though M was told off for using his flash) as were the skewers (which tasted like salty beef). K asked the guide where all the people were, as the village as pretty dead and the houses were all locked up. It seems that everyone was out tending to their flocks, but we also get the impression that the village is now just used to support tourism in the area. Along the way back to SpDA we also stopped to see some flamingos and vicuñas (a member of the camel family, along with llamas, alpacas and guanacos).

At 4pm we headed off from SPdA to Laguna Cejar, a salt lake in the Salar de Atacama (or Atacama salt flats) which is comparable to the Dead Sea in salt concentration and floating ability. We had our bathers and towels for this one, so we changed and headed toward the edge of the laguna. However by this time the day had turned overcast and windy, and it was surprisingly quite cold. The encrusted salt at the edge of the lake was quite difficult to walk on in bare feet, so right at the edge of the water K chickened out, leaving M to brave the freezing water alone (and after the initial shock of the cold it wasn't too bad).

After drying off (though not quite recovering from the cold), we drove to a new spot to watch an amazing sunset while we were served pisco sours and snacks.

Day 62 - To the moon!

San Pedro de Atacama 

We started the morning walking around town to work out which tours to do and which companies to go with. We followed the advice we'd read online and went to the tourist office, although the woman behind the desk seemed really put out, and we also saw her being quite rude to other people. In the tourist office was a list of accredited tour companies, and folders with customer feedback. We worked through the information (nearly all complaints, many about not being collected for a tour) and narrowed it down to three companies with good reviews, for the tours around SPdA, as well as the three day trip to Uyuni in Bolivia, which we planned to do after here.

We visited all three companies, we'd read that the overnight stops on the Uyuni trip were in poor conditions i.e. dorm rooms and cold showers, so K was very relieved when the third company we visited offered private rooms - crisis averted!

We headed off at 4pm on the tour to the Valley de Luna not far from SPdA, which took us to an area with an amazing moon like landscape and huge sand dunes and canyons, and returned after watching a great sunset.

The atmosphere is so dry that apparently you sweat but it immediately evaporates so you sweat more, meaning you have a constant feeling of dryness and thirst. Luckily we were both coping with the altitude so far, though we are aware that we are in training for our trip to Bolivia, as the altitude change on the first day is pretty big, and we had heard that it can be difficult if enough time hasn't been spent acclimatising beforehand.

Day 61 - To the desert

Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

We had a flight early this afternoon to Calama in the north of Chile, which is the closest airport to San Pedro de Atacama, our ultimate destination. Right from the beginning of this holiday many other travellers we had met had told us that Atacama is one of the highlights of Chile, so finally after 2 months we are making our way there.

We left earlier than needed to get to the airport as neither of us likes the time stress involved with flying - lucky we did as that tourist bubble we live in was ready to be pricked. We hailed a taxi only to find that the streets were gridlocked, the taxi driver told us that the first president of Chile after the dictator Pinochet was deposed had died three days earlier and his state funeral was today, only a few blocks from where we were staying. It took us almost an hour to get to the bus station, but fortunately we were able to get straight onto a shuttle to the airport and arrived with plenty of time.

We had picked up a US$17 fare with Sky Airlines, a real bargain, though we were still a little dubious as Sky had cancelled on us when we tried to fly from Valdivia to Santiago, but our fears this time were unfounded, as we had no trouble checking in and the plane left on time.

We landed in the incredible barren landscape of Calama, a mining town in the north of Chile. The airport was very new and modern, and as we exited the baggage area we were greeted by touts for the shuttle buses to San Pedro de Atacama, there were at least half a dozen different companies vying for the tourist dollar.

The shuttle bus ride was 90 minutes through desert with snow capped volcanoes visible in the distance, a real contrast to the green landscapes we'd visited in Patagonia. The shuttle dropped us at our hostal - that's service!

Desert and snow .... interesting combination

We had booked four nights in SPdA as that is the time recommended to acclimatise to the altitude. The town sits at 2400 metres, but the sights accessed from the town, as well as our planned future travels are at levels as high as 4000 metres. We had a little trouble checking in as the room we had booked had been mistakenly given to someone else, so we walked into town to have a look around while it was sorted.

The main square was full of people and vehicles participating in the Atacama Solar Challenge, we had passed solar powered cars on the trip from Calama, so we had a quick look at some of the cars, then had a drink, followed by dinner at a very busy restaurant. Fortunately when we returned to our hostal the issue with our room had been resolved, so we didn't have to worry about finding alternative accommodation.

Plenty of sun around to power these things

Day 55 - So much rain

Valpo to Santiago

It bucketed down pretty much all night, but there was a welcome break as we were heading to the bus station to return to Santiago. The very nice owners of the airbnb apartment we stayed in drove us to the bus station .... an advantage that airbnb sometimes has over other forms of accommodation.

Today's bus was a premium one .... really comfy seats and USB ports, too bad we were only on a short trip - it would have come in handy on the 10 and 12 hour bus rides!

It was a soggy Santiago we arrived into, a city feels more comfortable when you have been there before and because we now kind of know what we are doing we booked into a cute studio apartment in the Lastarria area, with lots of cafes, bars and restaurants at our doorstep. Last time in Santiago we stayed in downtown and although it is close to the museums and the plazas, it was a bit dead on the weekends and doesn't have the buzz of some of the other parts of town.

Our apartment here also had high speed internet provided via optical fibre .... makes us look pretty poor when a country like Chile can have state of the art internet, but back home we struggle to get a decent network up and running!!

Day 54 - Get yourself a pooper scooper guys

Valparaiso

Rain had been promised in Valpo for the last few days and it finally arrived overnight so we spent most of the day as a lay day and used it do some forward planning. We went for a walk later in the day and even in the drizzle it's still a vibrant colourful city, with so many murals and lovely graffiti. However the streets are also spoiled with the spoils of having so many strays, you need to watch where your feet are going at all times. It's a shame the local government doesn't invest in a few pooper scooper men or maybe even a dog pound.

As much as Chile doesn't seem a particularly poor country compared to some we've visited, there are still people on the buses and sitting on street corners selling things like individual bandaids and nothing else, that has to be a hard way to make a living. However we haven't seen much in the way of homelessness or beggars, in general it seems most people have a purpose and somewhere to go, though that may just be because we are tourists and hang around in tourist areas.

Day 53 - ¿Eres un gringo?

Valparaiso

This morning we walked along Avenida Alemania, which took us along the top of the Valparaiso hills, with great views along the way and without too much variation in elevation either (yes, we are tired of walking up hills). We ended up at Pablo Neruda's house, which is now a museum. Pablo was a Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet and a bit of a national hero. The house was very interesting, and had amazing views of the city, which inspired him to write this great description of Valparaiso:

"‘Valparaíso, how absurd you are…you haven’t combed your hair, you’ve never had time to get dressed, life has always surprised you.’"

K had read about an authentic Chilean restaurant, J.Cruz, so after Pablo's house we walked down the very steep hill (passing many tired looking tourists heading uphill to the museum) to have lunch, The restaurant was so authentic that when we asked for the menu they said there wasn't one as they only served one dish  - chorillana - so we said we would have that then! It was a huge plate of soggy French fries mixed with fried onions and egg, with beef strips on top. To add to the atmosphere a local came in and played his guitar and sang. The restaurant was jam packed with all kinds of collectables, and the walls and cabinets were plastered with customer ID photos (passport size). People who didn't have a photo had written on bandaids, so we did the same. Although the experience was interesting, we're in no hurry to have any more chorillana after this.

Possibly the effect of a chorillana only diet

We caught the bus back to Viña de Mar as we had decided to visit the Natural Museum. Though small, the museum had really interesting exhibitions - Easter Island (with a statue out the front of the museum), real shrunken heads with an explanation on how it was done, a mummy, and many stuffed animals, which were quite interesting to see as it's not often that you can get up close to a condor or a puma.

Comes with instructions

We stopped in at a shop on our way to the funicular as we headed home when the girl behind the counter asked K, in Spanish, if she was a gringo. When K confirmed that yes she was (of course she is!), the girl asked her if she could teach her to say "my name is" in English (which she did).

Baa Baa Baa Baa Black Black Sheep Sheep

Day 52 - Melbourne is famous for ......

Valparaiso

Give me a "C"

This morning we headed down the hill to join a walking tour and one of the first things they did was take us part of the way back up the same hill on a funicular (locally known as an ascensor) - pity we didn't know about that funicular yesterday. We retraced some of the area we had walked yesterday but this morning we had someone pointing out the interesting things that we had missed, like the set of steps that we had walked up that had been painted like the keys of a piano, apparently done for a photography shoot for a local band, now famous and known as the "Piano Steps". This was just one example of the street art that we saw all over Valparaiso, much of it was quite impressive (not all of it though .... taggers are everywhere!).

Apprentice tour guides

Of course a walking tour in Chile is never the same without stray dogs joining the group - this time we had an incredibly clever dog that left us at the start of the funicular and met us at the other end after climbing the steps! Valparaiso is also famous for mountain bike racing down the stairways and narrow lanes. Since dogs hate bikes (well they do in Chile anyway), they collect all of the strays beforehand  and keep them locked up, then release them when the event is over. Some other useful information the guide gave us was showing us the boundaries of where we, as tourists, shouldn't go as the areas are considered unsafe! Valparaiso has had a bad reputation for petty crime, although we were told it's no worse than Santiago.

 No idea what this means

After the tour we went for coffee at the interestingly named Melbourne Café, which had lots of pictures of Melbourne on the wall. We had a flat white (which they call an "Australiano"), which actually wasn't too bad! We then walked along the waterfront (avoiding the "no-go" area we had been told about just one street back) and caught the Artilleria acensor to the 21 de Mayo promenade, which had some great views over town, and the usual tourist stalls (where K found an alpaca scarf she wanted to buy, but when they were taken out of the huge pile they were in each one she looked at had dirty and faded lines where they had been sitting exposed to the air and the sun).

Not a bad looking (or tasting) flat white

We then caught the bus to Viña del Mar, not too far out of town, which is a beach seaside holiday area with a lot of high rise apartments along the beach. As it's autumn it was a little cool with drizzly rain so the place was pretty quiet, We walked along the beach for a while, having seen enough for today, then headed back to Valpo. Once there, we caught a different funicular to take us up the hill towards our apartment. This one was really old and a bit shaky, they don't look too safe from the outside but they do the job, many of them have been working for well over a century.

Reminds me of someone I know .....

Day 51 - Use the bike!

Santiago to Valparaiso

We're really getting the hang of bus travel in Chile, a couple of hours on a bus is nothing and we are starting to think the same about 8 plus hours as well .... we'd never even consider a bus ride to Sydney or Adelaide though!

The bus to the the port city of Valparaiso (meaning "Paradise Valley") was a cruisy 90 minutes, no need to book as they left every 15 minutes from Santiago. Valparaiso is built up on a number of hills, your address doesn't just include the street name and number, but the name of your hill as well ... and some of the hills are pretty steep too!

Use the bike!

We arrived at our nice modern airbnb a bit before check in time, so we left our luggage there and walked downhill to find somewhere for a quick lunch .... we were told the cafes were a block away ... 15 minutes and numerous wrong turns later we found somewhere that was open .... maybe their idea of a block is different to ours.

After lunch we wandered all the way down the hill to find a supermarket, then trekked the long hard slog back up the hill to our accommodation, stopping along the way for a Pisco sour, the national drink of Chile, made of Pisco (a type of brandy), lemon juice, and egg white - very easy to drink indeed!

Based on our experience walking Valparaiso today there shouldn't be any overweight people in town, though that's probably nullified by the effects of the Chilean food!

Pisco sours with a view

Day 50 - Back to the weekday crowds

Santiago

One thing we've noticed in South America so far is that there isn't any of the hassle or haggling we've experienced in other countries, the worst so far was probably the restaurants in the market yesterday, and not much anywhere else. The other day though we did get the old "Where are you from?" question from a guy we think was trying to get money out of us, M answered "Namibia" as he often does, but didn't expect the follow up question "What's the population of your country?" - a quick guess of "approximado dos milliones" turned out to be near enough correct!

We arrived in Santiago late on a Friday night, so we'd only seen the city over the weekend, and downtown Santiago was very different today as streets were packed with people, the shops were all open and there were stalls all over the footpaths as well - lots of people selling things you wouldn't even consider were worth selling, like the guy selling very old, used hard drives from a blanket on the ground. Still no hassle though, except the touts for the restaurants near the market seemed to be worse today.

Not much sightseeing today as we took advantage of decent internet to do some forward planning for our trip, plus we'll be back in Santiago later this week anyway.

Day 49 - Museum Day

Santiago

As most museums are closed tomorrow we used today to visit some of the local museums. First off was the very interesting Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, covering indigenous history and artifacts from all over South and Central America. Lots of weapons, masks, statues and ceramics of course, plus some other very interesting things, such as intricate works of strings and knots used by the Incas for counting and book keeping, an exhibition of funerary mantles from the Paracas culture with great designs, and much more - well worth the visit. We then visited the Chilean National History Museum which we didn't think was quite as interesting, then off to the Bellavista neighbourhood for a late lunch.

Not as high as Cerro Cristobal

After lunch we climbed Cerro Santa Lucia along with all of the other Santiagians (is that a word) who were enjoying a pleasant Sunday afternoon. We finshed our sightseeing for the day with a quick visit to the famed Santiago Central market, although as it was Sunday only the seafood stalls and restaurants were open, with some pretty aggressive touts trying to get us into those restaurants, before heading home.

Day 48 - A dog of a day

Santiago

We started the morning as we like to in a new city with a free walking tour, its a great way to get to find the interesting parts that you want to go back and visit and to get a lay out of the city.

Before the tour we searched for something light for breakfast, but all the shops around the Plaza De Armas seemed to only sell hot dogs and hamburgers. We finally found a medialuna (like a mini croissant), but K wasn't too happy that it was filled with dulce del leche (caramel).

This walking tour was longer than the ones we've had elsewhere, more than four hours with a restaurant break in the middle, but the time was well spent as Santiago has a lot to offer. We enjoyed the Changing of the Guards at Plaza de la Constitucion, with horses, dogs, a brass band and lots of military it was excellent, much more interesting than the one at Buckingham Palace.

Not sure why they need to change so many at once

All through South America we've found that stray dogs are everywhere, and Santiago is no exception. One of the highlights of the tour was the fat stray dog that met the tour part of the way (as he apparently does every day), followed us for a while, then disappeared, only to reappear a little further on - he could almost run the tour! The guide told us that a few days ago the newspaper's front page showed a picture of a protest in the city and the same dog was in the front of the photo! The locals actually look after the strays with dog kennels in the parks and clothing in winter.

"Australian Gold" .... some sort of suntan lotion we think

We finished the tour near the base of Cerro San Cristobal, so we caught the funicular up for a view of Santiago, though the smog had a big impact on visibility, it was difficult to make out the Andes in the distance. After wandering up to the statue of the Virgin Mary, we walked down, then made our way back to our airbnb via an asian supermarket to pick up a some Thai curry sauce to have with dinner .... we are missing the variety of cuisines we have back home.

Day 47 - We deliver you to the food

Valdivia to Santiago

We had stocked up on snacks for our 12 hour bus trip to Santiago not knowing what the arrangements would be for stops and food. The bus seats were nice and comfortable and in general we've found that travelling by bus is better than flying in economy - as long as you have the time of course.

The first part of the trip was slow, lots of roadwork and stops in towns and on the side of the road to pick up and drop off passengers, we weren't sure whether we were going to get to Santiago on time. Every now and then a seller boarded with snacks, sandwiches or drinks, they would stay on the bus just as long as it took to do their business then hopped off at the next stop, they must travel back and forth between towns all day.

It was all uneventful, and around 6pm we were handed a menu by the conductor. The idea was that we could order hot meals, drinks and snacks, which we would pick up at a roadside restaurant about an hour down the road. An excellent system, but the food in Chile generally isn't much to get excited about, they are into fast food big time, mainly hot dogs and hamburgers it seems ... we ended up getting some ice cream (yes, we know that's not exactly healthy either!).

The bus made good time after the food stop, and we made our approach to the bus station in Santiago around 10pm. The problem though was that we were caught in a massive bus grid lock, our bus, and all the buses around it, weren't going anywhere it seemed. We took the conductor's advice and got off, it was only a few blocks to the bus station, and to find our way we just had to follow everyone else.

It seemed a bit strange that there were taxi drivers touting for business in the gridlocked area, so we ignored the touts there, luckily by continuing on we were able to walk through the station and on to another main road where traffic was moving, and only 20 minutes later we were at our airbnb,

As we hadn't eaten much we went for a walk and ended up eating at a Peruvian restaurant - which was still very busy at 11pm, and the food wasn't bad either.

Day 46 - They're called budget airlines for a reason

Pucon to Valdivia

Today we headed southwest-ish to Valdivia. We were backtracking a bit, but the reason was that we'd booked a cheap flight to Santiago from there on Sky Airlines, Chile's budget carrier. We were half way into our 4 hour bus trip when we received an email telling us that tomorrow's flight had been cancelled due to industrial action of some sort. We later found out that the strike was for three days - not much use to us though!

We had an accommodation booking in Santiago that we couldn't change, so we investigated buses from Valdivia to Santiago. Once we arrived we purchased tickets for the next morning, retracing some of our previous route on a 12 hour trip to Santiago.

Valdivia ended up being a pretty town on the river with an amazing fish market. The market is based along a part of the river bank, and there are sea lions there waiting in the water to be thrown fish scraps and the occasional whole fish. The sea lions are massive, and they come right up to the fish tables and sit there waiting silently, begging with large dog like brown eyes.

Please please please can I have some fish please ????

We walked along the river on a beautiful day and saw other sea lions, there are platforms on the water that look like they are constructed specially for them, we watched for a while at one platform as one sea lion tried in vain to get onto the platform, every time he made it on the others pushed him off.

I've told you before ... get off ... and stay off!

Valdivia is also known for its beer, and just near our hostal was one of the better craft beer places in town. The highlight for us at this place wasn't the beer, it was the size of the plates of food they served - we've learnt never to order the "grande" patatas bravas in future!

Day 45 - These springs ain't so hot after all

Pucon

M's volcano trek came with a free excursion to Termal Metehue, some hot springs 45 minutes or so out of town. We decided that would be a nice relaxing way to spend the day, so we caught the minibus to the springs at 11am.

Unfortunately it wasn't quite what we expected, we had pictured outdoor pools with volcanic springs in beautiful surroundings. However it was a set of three indoor, not too clean, but nicely heated (at probably the optimum temperature for microorganism growth) in a building with no heating!

As this was mainly free (just had to pay K's entry fee) this wouldn't normally have mattered, except the return trip didn't leave until 4:30pm! As the air temperature was cool we couldn't just lounge around in our bathers in between dips, meaning we didn't spend too much time in the pools. The place did have a nice restaurant though, so we had a leisurely lunch, took a walk around the grounds, and finished up outside doing a spot of reading. After all that it wasn't such a bad day, just a little slow.

There has to be a reason why no-one is in that "hot spring"

The weather had turned today and the wonderful clear view that you could see of the volcano all day yesterday was gone, in fact there was no volcano to be seen at all. We spoke to "our" guy at the tour agency, he told us that the volcano climb was closed today due to 100kmh winds, and that they expected a dump of about 25cm of snow tonight, meaning it would also be closed tomorrow as the snow would have turned to ice, making it too dangerous. M was lucky to get the climb in yesterday - almost the last chance for the season.

One thing we noticed about this small town is that it has more than the usual number of large supermarkets - catering for the holiday crowds we suppose. One of the great things about the supermarkets in Chile has been that some of them cook their bread fresh on site, with bread being baked and put out for sale all day, you can still get nice hot bread at 7pm .... M especially likes the maraqueta - yum!

Day 44 - Up up up

Pucon

M had to be at the tour office for the trek up Volcan Villarica by 6am, so it was a very early start to the day. A quick breakfast and a dose of Codral (not the best time to have a cold!), and off to the trek office through the very quiet town, escorted by roaming dogs along the way. Once there he was fitted out with gear - a pack with a few essentials (more on those later), a helmet, a pair of boots, jacket, waterproof pants and gators. There were four others on the trek, and there were three guides - a pretty good ratio.

The drive up to the volcano took about half an hour or so, then onto a chairlift for the first part of the climb. The guides had politely insisted that we should do it, and no-one in the group objected. By the time the ride finished the sun was coming up, with the shadow of the volcano easy to see against the clear sky,

Pucon and the lake in the distance, showing the volcano's shadow

The trek was a constant upward climb, initially over the ubiquitous grey gravel, but as we advanced it became rockier and a little less stable. The guides showed us how to use our ice picks to steady ourselves, always with the pick on the mountain (uphill) side. There were regular short breaks to hydrate and have a bit to eat - needed to keep our fuel reserves up!

The glacier begins

We steadily climbed and were soon above the snow line, much of the snow had melted over summer so we were able to climb a fair way on the gravel. Eventually we reached the glacier, so we put on our crampons, and started up the ice. Having done the glacier trek in El Calafate this wasn't new - however by this time our group of five had split into two groups, M was in the front group so the ice trek was a lot less leisurely this time!

Single file only up the glacier please ....

After about an hour or so of ice climbing, we reached a layer of rocks and gravel over the glacier ice, We had to keep the crampons on, but from here the rocks were getting bigger and were less stable, so a combination of fatigue, the weight of the crampons, the altitude and possibly M's cold meant that M was having a little trouble keeping up the pace and not tripping over.   

A little further and we were able to remove our crampons, that made it a bit easier, then more climbing before another short break where we were able to remove our packs for the final assault. We had been able to overtake the slower groups during the ice climb, so we were the first group to head to the crater. Another 15 more minutes over very scrambly rock and gravel we were there, we knew we'd made it as we started smelling acrid fumes, and had to don our gas masks.

After all that the crater wasn't as spectacular as we'd hoped, it was having a quiet day so all we could really see was a cloud of gas and the occasional spark of glowing lava. We spent just six minutes at the top, enough time for a look at the crater and a few photos.

Wouldn't want to fall in ....

Fortunately for all of us his face is hidden

The trip down was much easier, the highlight being that we were able to slide down the glacier in a few stretches. Apparently earlier in the season when there's more snow the slide goes most of the way down and can go for up to an hour .... our slides were limited to four sections of just a few minutes each time. For the sliding we put on some glissading shorts (before today who even knew these existed?) and hooked a plastic seat thing to our packs that we then put between our legs to create a toboggan. Using our ice pick as a brake, we were then able to control our slide, though there were a few crashes along the way when there were slower people in front.

Wheeeeeeee.........

After the sliding it was a long walk down, but the gravel was very easy to walk down below the glacier, this time bypassing the chairlift to the car park.

We made it back to town by about 4pm, where K refused to tell M what time she got out of bed. M suspects that he had probably reached the crater before K had even stirred!

Day 43 - Another day, another volcano

Puerto Varas to Pucón

Another morning bus trip and a good day to be stuck in a bus for a few hours, with thick cold fog blanketing everywhere. We have been so lucky with our sightseeing over the past few days, perfect blue skies and not a breath of wind. We arrived in Pucon a lot later than expected, there was a lot of roadwork along the way and plenty of stops to drop off and pickup passengers, so the trip took five hours. By the time we arrived though the sun was out and it was starting to warm up.

Pucon is the base for a lot of activities, there's the lake, whitewater rafting, boat trips, but the big thing is Volcan Villarica, which erupted last year. We had been getting mixed reports on whether it was closed or available for hiking, and we had also read that you need to be careful which company you book with as the less reputable companies don't provide a refund if you're unable to proceed with the climb once you've entered the national park.

We found a good agency who were not pushy at all, quite the opposite, telling us it was risky, there is lava and flames, you may only get a minute at the top, are you sure you want to go, etc. M booked in for tomorrow, while K decided it wasn't for her, based on the difficult terrain, length of the trek, the need to carry a pack and use crampons and ice picks. As much as she would love to see a spewing volcano she thought she'd have more fun sleeping in and spending the day in the cabana with a good book (sounds boring to me though ....!).

Blue sky .... green water .... black sand

After booking the trek, we wandered around town and along the lake. The lake beach was black gravel, and the water had a greenish tinge - not that appealing, and it must get really hot to walk on in summer as well. By the time we'd checked out the town and done some grocery shopping, the clouds that were hovering about the volcano had cleared, and we could see the peak in the distance.

Nice view of Volcan Villarica, with our cabana on the right

Day 42 - A perfect Sunday

Puerto Varas

We took off in our rental car today to circumnavigate Chile's second largest lake. Lake Llanquihue.   First stop was Fruitillar Bajo, a town with a very Bavarian influence, those Germans used to get around! We came across their replica towns in Namibia as well, here is another one in Chile. We stopped here for kuchen and coffee - and it was delicious!

Next stop was Las Casadas, after driving a very bumpy road for a few kilometres, then walking for about half an hour over precarious fallen log bridges, we reached a superb waterfall with a sheer drop of at least 50m pounding straight into a small pool -  definitely worth it though we had no idea what to expect.

We then continued around the lake, with Volcan Osorno as our back drop, stopping at little villages along the way until we reached the volcano itself. It's known as Chile's Mt Fuji as it looks incredibly similar, it has the same symmetrical shape with snow topped peak.

Locals and Volcan Osorno

We caught two chairlifts to travel as far as we could up the volcano, with amazing views of the nearby Andes and the lake below, it must be so spectacular in winter and skiing to that background might beat anything Europe has to offer.

On our way up in the chairlift we were discussed how blissfully quiet it was until we could hear someone talking loudly coming towards us in a chairlift. The voice sounded familiar, and when we realised who it was we were amazed. About 11 days earlier when we crossed into Chile there was a young Swiss girl on our bus who didn't draw breath for the entire 8 hours bus ride, we felt sorry for her travelling companion at the time, but here they both were, and motormouth was still going!

After finishing our Osorno visit we didn't have much time to get the rental car back, so we drove at top speed back to Puerto Varas., overtaking the numerous Sunday drivers at every opportunity. Also along the road there were lots of local families picking berries, we think they were blackberries because we had seen them around, though we could be wrong.

Day 41 - Fished out

Castro to Puerto Varas 

It's a shame to leave our lovely cabaña over the water, its such a beautiful spot but we're leaving Chiloe today, so we drive north to Quemchi. We didn't see much of note in Quemchi itself, but just near Quemchi is the small island of Aucar which is accessible by a 500m long wooden pedestrian bridge. The island is a pretty spot, not very big, with a nice garden, a cemetery, and of course a wooden church.

Isla Aucar - wooden cross and wooden fence to go with the wooden church

From here we drove on to Ancud for a fish lunch - fishing is what Chíloe is all about. We both had huge serves of grilled fish with chips - neither of us could finish the meals. Before catching the ferry back to the mainland we stopped to fill up the car, and again we are amused at the way the attendants rock the cars to get the total price to a round number.

No longer used as a lookout - now a shop (of course)

We didn't need to wait long before the ferry started off, on the way back to Puerto Varas we stopped by Chabulco and walked along the water front. Just near the old lookout tower there was a great view of the Chabulco volcano which spectacularly erupted in April 2015.