Pichi Christmas

We spent Christmas in a small surfy town on the coast of Chile called Pichilemu, 3 hours south of Santiago with Rob and Kim who we´d met in Pucon. We stayed in the cutest little cabana at Cabanas Buena Vista - a real find as we rocked up the day before christmas eve without reservations. The owners Sonia and Eugenio were great and supplied us with eveything we needed to cook our christmas lunch in the tiny little oven.

Days were spent on the beach, attempting to surf and bodyboard and we drank and played cards in the evenings. The waves were great, but really strong currents swept you down to the other end of the beach in a matter of minutes. Just outside of town was a beach called Punta de Lobos which has huge waves and is where they hold annual surf competitions.

Our mock christmas lunch of Roast Chicken with the works and icecream for pud made up for what we were missing at home. Christmas isn´t a big thing in Chile, with most celebrations happening on christmas eve. On the big day the locals were out eating empanadas and chips in the town and relaxing on the beach - James and Rob even found a freindly seal to bodyboard with.

Sur de Chile

I love Chile. The people are really friendly, the weather is great, the supermarkets are full of fresh fruit and they eat Guacamole with everything. There is however, one thing we discovered that I don´t like one bit, and they´re called Tabanos, a type of horsefly that are big, mean and hungry.

From Bariloche our first stop back in Chile was a town called Puerto Varas, in the south of the Chilean lake district. It lies next to Lago Llanquihue and there are stunning views over to Volcan Orsono. One day we decided to jump on a local bus to go to Lago Todos Los Santos for a picnic, we´d heard it was a beautiful green lake, surrounded by volcanoes and with unbeatable scenery.

Unfortunately, we´d only been off the bus for 5 minutes before we were absolutley swarmed by Tabanos, we had at least 15 on each of us trying to bite through our clothes. So we both ran back to the bus and jumped straight back on, much to the drivers amusement, and headed back towards town. We learned one important piece of information from an old man on the bus - apparently Tabanos are particularly attracted to black and blue, so J in a bright blue tshirt and me in my black fleece were pretty much asking for it. Lesson learned, we stopped at a place called Las Cascadas on the way back and just about managed to take some nice pics of the waterfalls and Volcan Osorno while beating off the Tabanos.


From Puerto Varas we headed to Pucon further north in the lake district. We were booked in to stay in a brand new hostel, and when we arrived it was quite obvious that we were the first guests, and the guys who ran the place we´re learning along with us! The manager was the loveliest lady called Connie, who despite speaking not a word of English really made us feel welcome. She was also an amazing cook and let us sample what she was cooking. Despite a few teething problems Etnico Eco hostel was an amazing place to stay, the house was an old vicarage, it had been owned by one of the richest families in the town but had been unoccupied for 5 years since they moved out. It had a real feel of faded glory, complete with swimming pool, chapel/games room, and a huge garden full of trees with ripe cherries and lemons. There was also a huge dog called Mattheo - who had apparently been brought to the town from the country after he´d killed two llamas - but he seemed to be the softest, laziest beast alive now.

Pucon is surrounded by amazing countryside and there´s plenty of adventure sports on offer. As we´d had a week or so of being bloody lazy we thought it was time to get involved. Our first trip was to go rafting on the the upper Trancura river. It was amazing, although I think our guide Claudio despaired of our useless group quite a bit - it was something to do with the way he kept diving off the boat just before a rapid and leaving us to make our own way down it.

Our second day of activities was postponed due to storms, but a day later we began the attempt to climb nearby Volcan Villarrica. The owner of the hostel, Gustavo, was also a Mountain guide, and he took me, James and another couple from the hostel, Rob and Kim. I can honestly say it was obne of the scariest things I´ve ever done! Because of the rain the day before it was really icy and we had to wear crampons and use ice axes really early on in the climb. That combined with quite a wind and some bloody steep sections left me feeling terrified. James obviously loved it and was massively disapointed when halfway up we realised we weren´t going to be able to make it to the top because of the conditions. Me and Kim wimped out at a point above the clowds while Gustavo took James and Rob further up to the plateau to see the peak.

The best bit came when we had to climb down, when we got to a part where the ice had softened enough, we sat on our bums and slid down! Definitely my favoured bit of the climb. That evening we went to some hot springs just outside of Pucon called Termas Los Pozones. There were 8 or 9 pools in total, all of different temperatures and surrounded by river rock to retain their natural appearance, there was a small path running between them that followed the freezing cold glacial river that you could jump in at any time to cool off (James and Rob did, I´ve never heard such girly screams), the whole place had a zen like atmosphere. So much so that it was only when we arrived back at the hostel that I realised I´d nicked someone elses flip flops by accident when I got out of a pool - leaving them my well worn Havaianas in return. So if the said flip flop owner is reading this then I´m sorry!

From Perito Moreno Glacier to Bariloche

The day after Torres Del Paine we were back on the road and trying to head north. There are only a couple of ways to do this as southern Chile/Argentina is rugged, mountainous and the roads are simply gravel ways. The Navimag Ferry up the Chilean coast is one way but a costly one, flying from Punto Arenas is another, but our chosen option was to head back into Argentina and cut across country to the east coast - as we love busses a lot!

Adventure Patagonia in Puerto Natalas was our extremely helpful hostel and sorted us out with a mini bus across the Chilean border and north to the Perito Moreno Glacier; situated outside the tourist hell hole of El Calafate. The sheer size, colour and noise of the glacier is awe inspiring and as you watch chunks occasionally fall off crashing into the lake as it advances toward the land. Once you go up onto the viewing platforms the scale of this ice field is realised and stretches for miles.

After visiting the glacier we were dropped off in the nearest town, El Calafate. In my opinion this place is touristy, garish and in comparison to the rest of Argentina it is extremely expensive. It´s sole existence is to feed off tourists who want to see the glacier so my advice to anyone wanting to go/needing a stop over is to get through it fast! We stayed one night at an equally souless and over priced H.I. hostel aptly called Calafate Hostel.

From El Calafate we had to head south and across country (east) to changes bus in Rio Gallegos and head northwest back across country to Bariloche, in the heart of the Argentine Lake District.

At last we had finished the roller coaster journey of 33 hours and slept, sunbathed and slept some more for a few days in Bariloche. We did little more than eat steak, drink excellent red wine and stay at an incredible hostel called 1004, so named as it is on the 10th floor of an apartment block over looking the lake and mountains. From the balcony we had this view of the full moon every night. It was quite incredible and the nicest hostel we´ve stayed in so far on the trip.

Torres Del Paine / Towers of Pain!

After checking out of our over priced hostel, HI Patagonia, we caught the bus south, via Rio Gallegos (Or as I say - Gallallagaygos) and across the Chilean border to Puerto Natales. This journey takes about 22hrs, give or take a couple of hours for the big, fat Chilean Policeman to route around in your bag for fruit; which is a no no.

Puerto Natales has the feel of a frontier town and is one of the furthest south so doesn't get dark until about 11pm; its blustery and surrounded by stunning scenery. Most who come here come for one reason - Torres Del Paine, or as we now refer to them - The Towers of Pain, which is one of Chile's incredible National Parks.

Obviously being seasoned hikers and pro mountain goats we thought we'd have a crack at this and amble through the park. However, the infamous Torres Del Paine is home to some difficult weather conditions! The 'W' route is one of the more popular hikes and takes about 5 days. It takes you to three different valleys and there are various places to camp on route so you end up walking a route that resembles a W. The day before we went to a hostel in Puerto Natalas called Erratic Rock where they give free talks about the park, the different routes and what to expect, consequently we decided to do the W from left to right.

In retrospect, Day 1 was easy, a short 3.5 hour walk to Glacier Grey. Although we each had 15 kilos of tent, food, clothes and general stuff we arrived in good time and pitched camp by 4.30pm. Our campsite was incredible, a small beach next to Glacier Grey and its lake. Whilst we sat on our camp bench and made Nigela Lawson proud with a volumptuous bowl of pasta con tomate, icebergs would float past and the sun shone high.

Valle de Francais and Camp Italiano was our destination for day 2. This involved 6 hour back track from the glacier and across the first 'dip' of the W. After the hike to Italiano the cool sheltered woodland camp was a sight for for sore eyes, and feet! We set up camp and brewed a hot chocolate as some friends, Pete and Jo who we'd met in Puerto Natales appeared from the bush (they had been out walking the Valle de Francais). That night we ate another mountain of pasta and knocked back some of our emergency rations of vino tinto, without a care in the world; little did we know what the towers of pain had in store for us on day 3!!!

Ah yes day 3 = HELL! There is always a point during hiking when fun disappears and is replaced by anger, pain and 70mph winds! Luckily the winds tended to be behind us (one reason for going left to right) but even so with our packs on our backs we were knocked over, pelted with stones and burnt by the sun for a mere 11 hours! Not to mention the three large river crossings. These were actually great fun yet slightly risky. The biggest had water around our shins and was about 30 metres wide with rapids! Crossing the river (with those 70 mph winds) involved holding a rusty bit of wire whilst hopping from bolder to bolder, with water crashing over and filling your boots (well, H's). By the end of day 3 our feet were blistered, our bags were still bloody heavy and our minds were nearly distroyed - thank god we had more pasta for dinner!

The last major hike, day 4, and we were at the end of our tethers. Han's boots had got soaked in the river crossing and only partially dried out, there was a 2 hour climb ahead of us to take us back up to 1000 metres but we decided there was no way we could drop out now. After that climb everything improved, we had spreadable cheese and crackers for lunch - oh soooo good - and by 3.30pm we had made it to our final nights camp, 'las Torres'. This campsite is just below las Torres and in woodland, as the towers looked clear we decided to assending the bolder field which led to the towers. After an hour of scrambling we'd made it and completed the bloody 'W'. The following day we descended the same way in half the time and headed straight for the Hostario (the posh hotel in Torres del Paine) and had our first beer - moy perfecto, and a Lomo al Pobre, the tastiest steak sandwich in the world.

Whale watching and some really tasty Pizza!

From El Bolson we headed towards the East coast of Argentina to the Peninsular Valdes (stunning national park) and Puerto Madryn (not so stunning city). We had 2 main aims, to go whale watching and to eat some good mariscos (seafood)!

The Peninsular Valdes was incredible, we had a guide for the day to drive us around the park and help us spot the wildlife, we saw Guanacos (weird llama type things), Maras (overgrown rabbits with dogs heads), and Rheas (similar to emus). We also saw Magellan Penguins and Elephant Seals.

We ended the day in a small town on the peninsular called Puerto Pyramides, where we joined a group of other tourists for the whale watching trip. The locals there seem to have devised a joke around the visitors, by insisting that we dress up in completely unnecessary huge oil skin coats and old school life jackets, they then paraded us through the town to the boat by which time we were all sweltering!

The whale watching was fantastic however, we saw a mother and her young calf who came so close to the boat, and seemed to be checking us all out, and probably laughing at our stupid outfits. We both took hundreds of mostly undistinguishable photos, its so hard to capture their size and how close they were.

Back in the city we discovered that there is something worth staying in Puerto Madryn for, a San Francisco Pizza from the Lizard Bar. It was the tastiest pizza I think I´ve ever eaten. Thin crusty base with the usual tomato sauce and mozzarella, but then topped with Spinach, Onions, Olives and a fried mixed topping of crushed walnuts, breadcrumbs and sage. It was incredible. We also ate our own body weight each in Rabas Fritas (Calamari) due to a little bit of a translation problem where I ordered the same thing for starter and main course. We then decided it was time to jump on another coach, this time headed for Chile.