We love Chile!

Border crossing - Chilean style

Working our way back up the spine of the Andes we crossed into Chile and were greeted by a typical Chilean landscape - a huge snow-capped volcano towering above us. We arrived at the town of Pucon which according to the Lonely Planet is the place to holiday if you're Chilean. Having already been impressed by Argentina's relaxed lifestyle we were even more so with Chile's. It seems espresso drinking and reading the paper are the orders of the day!

Pucon has a stunning setting, another massive volcano dominates one side of the town (although for the three days we were there it was shrouded in cloud...!) and on the other there is a huge lake. Volcan Villarrica seemed like a good challenge so we set the alarm for 5am, hurried down our breakfast and waited for our minibus to arrive... and we waited. Unfortunately the weather wasn't in our favour and our early start was wasted. So instead we decided to give white-water rafting a try (my first attempt). I must admit I was already feeling nervous but when our guide informed us in broken English it was a grade V/VI river I looked at Tom for reassurance which was a bad idea, "grade V/VI is probably something you should only attempt once you've had a few tries and not as a beginner". In actual fact it was so much fun, albeit in icy cold water. There was one moment when my true colours came out - we were told to jump off a 4m high rock into the river as the rapids were too strong for us to tackle in the raft (we left our guide Max to it!). Somehow I think a skydive in Australia is going to be a big ask as I chickened out and had to be led around the rocks by a very unimpressed Chilean kayaker who didn't hold back embarrassing me infront of the group by making chicken noises! Back at the hostel we met another couple travelling for a year who coincidentally are taking the same flights as us to Easter Island and Tahiti (our off-the-beaten track route maybe isn't so off-the-beaten track!)

With just over a week before our departure from Santiago and South America we decided to head north to the city of Valparaiso, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of 14 small hills with a large port about an hour away from Chile's capital. It is referred to as a "Little San Francisco" and its easy to see why with the arty but slightly worn-out look of the place. Our hostel was a lovely old mansion house complete with cats and overlooking the bay. When we arrived the weather was glorious so we headed out to explore the city centre.

Houses up the hill in Valparaiso

 

 The beach at Vina del Mar

Day 2 we headed further up the coast to the beach town of Vina del Mar, another holiday spot for the city dwellers. Accidentally we stayed on the bus for a bit too long and when we saw signs for Mendoza (the town across the Andes in Argentina) we began to worry. Fortunately the bus driver took one look at us, laughed and headed back towards the beach. The Chilean people are similar to Brazilians in their friendliness, although look more like the Peruvians but slightly taller!

 

Our room in the guesthouse, Valparaiso

Our stay in Valparaiso was great, we picked a gorgeous place for lunch back up the hill near the hostel, again overlooking the Pacific and treated ourselves to a bottle of Chile's finest vino tinto (which is actually very cheap!)

From Valparaiso we headed north again to a town called La Serena. I must admit we weren't totally enamoured with La Serena - there is a serious discrepancy between the guide book's description and the reality but hey ho. Anyway our main reasons for heading north were to taste some locally made pisco - grape brandy - and to check out the observatories.


The Elqui Valley, home to the pisco grapes is like a barren, dusty desert which similarly to Mendoza (Argentina's wine region) has been irrigated in places allowing the grapes to grow in the hot, dry climate. We hired a car and spent the day cruising around and visited the major pisco distillery.

Vineyard in the Elqui valley

As the sun began to set we headed up into the mountains to the Mamalluca observatory which is one of many in the area. What an incredible "show". As the light began to fade, stars began to emerge in the sky which reminded me of our time in Yellowstone National Park where as sunset hits the animals begin to appear.

Sunset over the Elqui valley

By 10pm we had an incredible view of the Milky Way and through the telescope were able to see two other galaxies only visible in the Southern Hemisphere which in a few million years are going to collide with the Milky Way and will be the end of us!! One of the most facinating things for me was when our guide pointed our a few roving satellites which are visible without looking through a telescope and there are around 10,000 up there orbiting! They look like little cars with their headlights on. Mars also made an appearance and Tom inevitably was in his element (being a stargazer and all)!

 

Telescopes at the ready...

The night sky

From La Serena we bussed our way to Santiago, yesterday we wandered around the city which is similar to Buenos Aires in terms of large parks and lovely European-looking architecture. As its Shrove Tuesday we've also managed to squeeze in one of two home-made pancakes (impressing the other travellers in the hostel I must add!)

Pancakes a la Elizabeth