The Green South - Pucon

March 31st 2012.
It's been one hell of a night! The "easy" transfer at San Fernando we had been told about wasn't quite that. After arriving at 21.30 and doing the rounds of the bus operator offices, struggling with my limited Spanish and their unwillingness to speak slowly or even point me in the right direction, we pull aside a friendly rare passer by who translates for us that all buses to Pucon are full and our only hope is to try an operator that opens in 15 minutes. Half an hour later we are told by the newly open desk that they too are full but we can maybe get a bus to nearby (2hrs away) Vilcun if we come back in an hour and no one has bought the tickets in Santiago????? Ok, confused we go along with it and hour later we have tickets to Vilcun, from where we must make another 2 transfers. Oh, and the bus only leaves at 1.05am (although they all run at least half an hour late...). So at 2am we finally set off on a 7 hour journey south. By the morning we have been fortunate to have met another Chilean whose English is about as good as my Spanish who is headed in the same direction. He joins us on a hectic ride through to Temuco where we arrive just in time for our next and final transfer. Temuco is a working city, pretty run down and on a cold foggy morning, definitely not very appealing. As we head off through the scummy neighbourhoods I am starting to wonder if my idea to bring us to southern Chile was such a good idea after all.
Lo and behold, over the next two hours as we climb away from the gritty city, the sun burns through the fog to reveal a new landscape of green forested mountains and a large snow capped volcano that loom over the picturesque timber and stone town of Pucon and Lake Villarica. After a small mission we find the best digs in town at Donde German Hostel with breathtaking views over the surrounding forests and volcano: Score!!! We spend the rest of the day pottering about this cool little town, soaking up the sun by the lake and catching up on news from the outside world. Happy Birthday Mum!
Speak very soon! Love you all very much!

Pichilemu - A slower pace of life

March 30th 2012
So we came to Pichilemu to escape the city and slow things down a little, stay in one place for more than a couple of days and just relax...and that we did. The morning after our arrival, the fog moved in, the temperature dropped and time began to stand still. Our hosts so friendly after the first night seemed a little more evasive (maybe embarrassed by the fact that they had on so many occasions promised to "throw a fucking cow on the fire!" in our honour when the alcohol had been flowing the previous night). In fact they became so evasive that we didn't even know where they were for 50% of the time over the following week. This made escaping Casa Verde somewhat tricky and organizing a surf trip/horse ride or anything else even trickier. We seemed to work to their timetable which like Fiji and Bali, here ran in "Chile Time". The swell had died on the first day and for the first 24 hours we literally did nothing. By the second day I think they sensed I was getting a little tetchy and we finally hit Punta De Lobos. This reeling machine of a wave has a reputation for some of the longest rides in Chile and although my first surf there wasn't all time by the local standards, it was still pretty classic by my terms. Over the next few days the swell slowly grew and by the last couple of days I had surfed some of the best, longest lefthanders in my life without a doubt. The sun poked through here and there and all in all I got what I wanted from Pichilemu. I'm afraid it was pretty quiet for Jane who devoured "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Jane didn't mind so much that it was quiet and rather cold at Casa Verde, it was just a pity that our hosts who had promised so much at the start were so absent and unable to provide in the end - no horse ridding for Jane in the end.
By Friday my shoulders were aching from so many great waves and we decided it was time to see some more of the country. We'd been told good things about a town in the Lake Region surrounded by volcanoes with many great outdoor activities to do. Just a couple of bus transfers and one long overnight ride to get there. Well, off we go again!

Note to readers

A few things to note about this blog. As we are often out of internet reception i have been writing and saving posts to my phone. When i get a signal and upload the posts it adds the date of upload rather than the day the post was written. You'll have to use your imagination for the posts that have come before but from this point on i will try to add a date as well. Also, yes there have been some typos and I expect there will be more to come. I am adding these posts via my iPhone so the typos are the result of my fat fingers and the teeny keyboard. OK, that's all...

Beyond the city - Pichilemu

We woke up yesterday (26th March) and decided that although Santiago looks like an incredible city, we'll have to explore it on our return. We're both craving some downtime so we decide to head out to Pichilemu where we can set up base for a while and hit the world famous waves. A long and delayed although comfortable bus ride eventually sees us getting dropped off in this rugged little town. Pichilemu is supposed to be a popular getaway for the rich Santiago people but is not quite what one would expect. Rather bare and shanty, a random assortment of colourful timber dwellings sprawl the open landscape, some funky and modern, but many not. Apparently this place gets busy in the summer months but obviously peak season is over. We meet Marc(o) from Atlanta at the bus terminal who has organized a pick up to stay at the nearby Casa Verde. We choose to follow what has been put in front of us and are soon rewarded by warm greetings by Pete and Thomas who stuff three of us and our bags into the back of a VW polo. We drive through town and up a bumpy dirt lane to the newly built, although rather rough and ready Casa Verde and walk through the door the catch the sun setting over the Pacific. After an emergency meal of pasta and sauce we laugh the night away with our new Chilean hosts drinking wine, sipping rum, singing songs and playing guitar.
So far, loving the Chilean hospitality!

Rumble in Santiago

As we cross the Andes and descend into Santiago it is very apparent that this is new territory for the both of us. It is evening in Santiago and the massive mountains that hover about the city glow orange the pink as the light fades. We make our way through a rainbow of colored buildings covered in funky street art to a clean and tidy hostel in Bellavista and dine in a funky square full of great restaurants. That night as we ask for directions Jane feels a slight rumble. News next day is that it was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Welcome to Chile!

Sorry no photos of Santiago yet. Will return here before we leave.

Adios Argentina

Racing Football Club 0 - Union Santa Fe 3. Buses weren't coming, our friends didn't show...maybe it was a sign from the Universe telling us this wasn't such a good idea. We'd been told that we mist go to a football game in Argentina and as we weren't around
for a Boca Juniors game this was the next best thing. So in good traveller form we pushed through the obstacles to get ourselves to the game. As we got off the bus amongst the now increasingly rowdy crowd, there was definitely excitement in the air. I held Jane close as we headed to the stadium, then into the crowd as we pushed through to the ticket booth. As we get closer I notice we don't have sufficient cash so we decide to head back to find an ATM. One block away I notice something is missing. Yup, you got it - Wallet gone! From the front pocket of my jeans! Can't help but think those friendly old men who helped into the crowd might now have had ulterior motives but apparently this is old news in South America and no one is really that surprised. We spend the next few hours stuck in MacDonalds free wifi zone canceling cards. Back at the hostel we are quickly cheered up by a young couple from France Juliet & Yohan who invite us to join them in a few drinks at a local Columbian bar with hostel hosts Bruno from Mexico and his Columbian compadre. We decide it might be what we need so we go for it. WHAT FUN! These Latinos know how to party! We find ourselves shaking our hips and kicking our feet as we are flung around by our Latinos hosts and their ladies. Definitely the best way to turn the night around as we eventually hit our beds at 6.30am. A typical hour for a night out in BA apparently.
The next morning we push ourselves through our hangovers and lack of sleep to race down to the colourful suburb of La Boca, Maradonnas' home turf, before jumping in a cab to the airport. Sleep deprived and headaches pumping it's adios Argentina and hello Chile!

Tigre and more BA

We've covered a lot of kms over the past two days. Yesterday we took the train with two new French friends Ronn and Philip to Tigre. This smaller town
is on the 5th biggest delta in the world located some 30kms west of the city. Tigre is apparently a popular weekend escape for the Portenos (BA locals) and it was immediately visible why. We caught the little wooden ferry boat a couple kms up to one of the jump off points and walked around past many of the sweet little shacks. We got back late and reluctantly as pre-arranged grabbed our luggage and moved over to our new digs in San Telmo. We'd checked this hostel out the day before and fell in love with it straight away. Better than any hotel surely!
Today we started by going straight to the Evita Museum. Small and informative but not especially Magnifique as we had been told. Walked back via a few of the architectural marvels before losing ourselves in the Ricoleta Cemetary. A beautiful maze of mausoleums including Eva Perons' which is crowded by tourists. Back at Puerta Limon hostel now recouping before heading to watch Racing Football club play later. Can't wait for the vibes!!!

Pounding the Pavement

Had a big day today walking around the city. Started in the centre - blown away by the incredibly beautiful and large scale heritage buildings. So many all over the place it kind of feels like a time warp except for the juxtaposition of the brutalist concrete blocks that sprout up in between. After the center we trudged on up to the suburb of San Telmo. My favorite so far. Medium scale buildings, again many of which date back to the late 19th century, line the cobblestone streets which ooze character, class and style. We stopped at Plaza Dorrego to feast on pizza and beer and were treated to a Tango show right there. Finally we made our way back along the docks and jumped a busy bus back to the hostel. Feet happy to be off the ground. Not enough photos of the amazing architecture. Will remember to grab a couple snaps tomorrow.

Argentina

Arrived in Buenos Aires this morning. Pretty jet lagged after the massive flight but first impressions are that this is a pretty cool city! Huge beautiful heritage buildings mixed in with endless concrete blocks scattered in between. Can't wait to explore some more but perhaps a little shnooze first.

Departure Day

First post and interested if this will work. I'm doing this all from my iphone from here on out! Not sure if I will be able to maintain the blog on our adventures...hopefully having too much fun for this sort of thing, but thought it might be a nice way to keep people updated on our adventures without the medium of Facebook. OK, let's get started! Departure minus 13 hours...many other things I should be doing!!!

Photos: Monkeying around with Jahli on the front porch of Aggy St.