leaving

We had a soft morning with a really nice breakfast with fresh bread and home made jam on the patio. After having found the way to the airport we managed to get through the pain to check in and through customs and security check. Now we are just about to board the flight and start the long journey back home. We'll be bringing som sun so pleace remove the snow storms.

A long drive

We woke up early to get the most out our last full day in Chile. Just north of Termas del Socos is a strange rain forrest located where it actually shouldn't be, called Fray Jorge and we wanted to check it out. As we left the highway we realised that is was a 25km drive on a crappy gravel road to get there and since we were a bit short on time and we decided to turn back and head south instead.

We made a quick stop to be amazed by the enormous waves from the pacific that clashed onto the shores.

A little further south we stopped in the little coastal town Pichidangui for lunch. As usual it was a bit over priced compared to what was served and my 'seaf food soup' tasted a bit funny but Anias fish was quite alright.

The goal of today was Vina del Mar which we had heard would be a beautiful but slighly blant city close to the coast. We reached VdM just after 16 and then started to look for a place to stay. Quite quickly we realized that all of Santiago had come here for the weekend and pretty much all places had printed notes on the doors saying they were full. After 30min of getting rejected we drove down to the ocean to decide what to do.
The sight that met us was astonishing. On a little 200m stretch of sand we finally saw our "penguins". Though they were not really of the kind we had been hoping for but the many thousands of people that had packed themselevs on that small beach could just as well have been penguins, because that's what they looked like.

Now we had had it with Vina del Mar and thought that if all of Santiago had came here it would be a breeze to find a place to stay there instead. The first two phone calls was neegative and we actually started to get a bit worried but then we found what sounded like a nice b&b that had room for us and we grabbed it instantly.

It took about 1.5h to drive into Santiago and it was a bit of a shame that we didn't know this before because we could have saved quite a lot of time then. The place we found is called El Patio Suizo and is located in a vey nice area of Santiago and it is super cozy. We felt that the day would probably end on a high note after all.

We walked a good 30min to a restaurant called Cafe del Patio to have dinner. For a change we got some really good food and we practically rolled our way back home.

It was actually good that we went back to Santiago because this evening has really showed the city from its best and we now feel a lot more positive about it.

Tomorrow we are leaving Chile.
We have a soft morning ahead of us that we will enjoy here in the patio. The Swiss couple that runs the place have just baked a special swiss bread that we will have for breakfast and it smells great.

Contrasts

Today we really got to see many different sides of Chile.

We woke up in sunny Vicuna and had a long breakfast and then very slowly packed our stuff together as we enjoyed the morning sun and waited for some laundry to dry.

Heading out to the coast we stopped to have a walk on the massive dam just west of Vicuna. It's an impressive construction and beautiful to see all that water in the middle of a lanscape that is very close to being a desert. Here we also tasted Copao(?) which is the fruit that grows on cactus. We also had some juice from fresh fruit that was almost destryed from too much of the Chilean-never-ending-love for sugar.

We reached the coastal city La Serena just after noon and stopped for lunch. It's an hectic city with quite a lot of traffic. The advantage though of driving in a bigger city is that one-way streets are marked on the GPS and that makes it a whole lot easier.

After having walked around the central plaza for a while we felt like a coffe and a tea. Chile have no cafe culture and it's a bit of a gamle to set your foot into something that is branded cafe. There is no such thing as order at the counter and that makes just having a quick coffee into a bigger project. Anyhow, we got our coffee and tea together with a massive piece of cake. We were a bit sceptical towards the cake because we had a similar one on the night we got food poison and we are not sure if it was from the food or the cake.

We left La Sarena around 16 and started to drive south. As the motorway followed the coastline the ocean simply looked to inviting so we drove off the panamericana highway at a no-name little town along the way. We dipped our feet in the cold pacific water and then enjoyed a fresh melon in the sun (sugarless).

In the late afternoon we reached our goal for the day. Termas de Socos is located at the end of a 2km gravel road off the highway. It's a place with thermal baths and the whole place is surrounded by nothing but sand, rocks and cactus. We took a walk in the cool Lucky Luke western landscape and then prepared dinner. When it got dark we watched the stars while eating some chocolate that had melted in the car when it was parked in the sun.

Czesc rodzinka! Blog mozna latwo przetlumaczyc poprzez www.translate.google.com - wystarczy skopiowac adres strony (http://www.almostneverlost.blogspot.com) i wkleic na stronie Google Translate. W ustawieniach wybrac trzeba jezyk( z ang. na pol.). Caluski Ania

from crap to stars

Yesterdays dinner came with the additional treat of food poisoning and we have been feeling quite crappy most of today. As we are approaching the evening we are slowly returning back to normal but I think we are getting a bit tired with Chilean cousine.

When it comes to food Chile don't have too much exciting to offer for a food lover and no matter where you go it's all pretty much the same. We did have some really good food down in Puerto Natales but that was an African restaurant. You can probably find some good food in Santiago as well but you really need to know where to look. We have understood that Chileans are a bit afraid to loose their face if they go into a restaurant and don't understand the meny and that might be one answer to the conformity of what's served.

The old French Consulate we stayed as was very charming at first sight but it was very run down and for sanity reasons we were happy to leave.
After we had breakfast we slowly drove inlands towards Vicuna. Every city in Chile we have driven through has proven to be a project in itself. The one way streets are spread at random and they are not indicated on the gps which makes it only useful for macro navigation. This morning it took ages just to get out of Coquimbo and we drove in circles several times. Btw for some reasons the drivers in Chile are in love with the horn on their car and downtown of any city/village is a constant honking symphony.

We reached Vicuna just after lunch and found a fantastic little garden of a hostel in the middle of town where we could camp. In the afternoon we just kicked back and lay under a tree enjoying the sun and treated our bellies.

This part of Chile is known for very few cloudy nights and there are several astrological obervatories located here. After the sun had set we took a trip into the mountains to see the Mamalluca observatory where we got to peek in their telescope and a energetic guide tought us how to use stars to navigate. Very little information actually stuck but it was an amazing evening.

Now we are enjoying a quiet night with the crickets under a star covered sky.

The scenic route

Today we decided to head inlands to check out the Chilean countryside and what we had been told was some cool rough nature. We left Los Vilos and drove a couple of hours east until we hit the little city Illapel where we had a slightly chaotic lunch; The waitress was really nice but didn't understand a word of english and even though we tried our best to speak from our dictionaries we probably scared her a little bit.

We continued north and as we drove through the mountains we were treated to amazing sceneries, almost moon like with lots of cacti and the occasional goat and donkey. It's crazy that some people actually live in this brutal environment, though not very many.

After a few more hours of driving through desert like mountain terrain we reached wine country. We didn't stop for samples, instead we headed back out towards the coast.

After a long but very nice day in the car we reached the coastal city Coquimbo, just south of La Serena. We found a room in what used to be the old French Consulate, now Hostal National.

Coquimbo didn't have much to offer in restaurant selection and we made what we thought was the least bad choice. We stuffed ourselves with something that made the Punta Arena junk food seem like Micheline quality and then we had coffee and tea in a friendly Brittish style cafe.

As we came back to the hostel the area blacked out and we had cozy candles in our room. The blackout only lasted 10minutes though and it was a little bit of a disappointment to be able to flick the switch again.

The picture is from Illapel where Ania has just gotten hold of quite a big water melon that we later treated ourselves to on the side of the road.

the dirty dusty hot way to the top

Today we sat out to follow the footsteps of Darwin and climbed Cerro La Campana. The peak is at 1890m after an intense climb of 1490m in just 7km. This would be the longest climb we had done in one stretch up to date.

We started at 9 in the morning on this beautiful day. What we didn't know then is that all but one of the three water holes had dried out and the one that still had some water was the one located furthest down. The temperature slowly climbed to about 30degrees but luckily a big part of the climb was in shade. All and all it went vert well but it was a very dutsy and exhausting experience. The view we had from the top was an amazing 360 panorama and if it wasn't for all the agressive wasps we would have stuck around a lot longer than the 10 minutes we did.

We were quite beat when we had finished our hike down but feeling very pleased with what we had achieved. After having had some fresh water melon in the sun we prepared a late lunch and headed off.

We drove 150km north and landed in a small coastal village called Los Vilas. The place was hardly on the map and it was by pure luck we found the b&b we had planned to stay at. This is also where the locals come to celebrate holidays so we were quite lucky they had a room available. The b&b is called El Conquistador and is a really nice place run by some very friendly chaps.

We had a good dinner at a restaurant the b&b guy recommended and finished of the evening with a short walk along the beach, enjoying that it's hot enough for shorts even at night.

A colorful smelly chaos

We started the day with breakfast in the sun on the terrass of lovely Hostal Casa 199, where we had spent the night.

After having kicked back and soaked some sun we sat out to explore Valporaiso. It's a crazy but very colorful city and we climbed many stairs during the day. By the afternoon we had gotten a bit tired of all the polluting cars and smelly back alleys and we were ready to leave.

We jumped in our shitty rental and sat course to the national park La Campana. Having battles our way out from the roads of Valparaiso we reached the highway and after about 1.5h drive we arrived to the park. We found a fantastic private spot on a campsite occupied only by a few others. It was quite a change to crowded Patagonia and also a very nice experience to be able to feel ones fingertips after having done the evening washing up.
Now we are enjoying an almost total lack of human sounds but there are many strange noises comming from the forrest surrounding us.

Tomorrow we have planned probably the most insane climb we have done so far, following the footsteps of Darwin (relax, it's physically insane, not dangerously insane so no need to worry).

Back in the heat

This time the plane was on time and three stops later we landed in sunny Santiago 10min ahead of time.

After the normal excessive paper work we got our rental car from AVIS. Rental cars in Chile are really expensive and for what we are paying for our shitty Hyundai Getz we would have gotten at least a Volvo V70 at home.

We headed straight to the coast and a city called Valporaiso. The city is built on hills and a nightmare to drive in but with a combination of a GPS equipped Nokia E71 and some sharp guiding skills by Ania we finally found our destination. We had booked a room at a cool place with a view from the terrass overlooking the massive harbour.

We had dinner at a nearby fish restaurant. The view was amazing and we watched trucks get loaded with containers and massive cranes moving heavy stuff during the meal. The food was decent but over priced and the place was a bit touristy.

We had been warned to stay out of the city center at night and to avoid stairs and since it was quite late when we had finished eating we just went for a short walk before heading back to the room.

Tomorrow we plan to do some quick city explorations before once again leaving civilization for something a bit more rocky. This time in slightly warmer climate though.

Almost penguin

Today we planned to be 100% tourists and we had booked tickets to Isla Magdalena that has a huge penguin colony of about 70000 penguins. The only way to get there is by a 2h boat trip. As we were on our way is started to get windy. We were closing in the Island and saw thousands of super cute little penguins jumping of joy to see us (or Ania saw them, I had gotten a little pale by then bacause of all the rocking).

We were about 1m from the shore when the captain decided we couldn't continue becouse of the weather and we had to turn back. After another 2h on a rocky chestnut we finally made it back. I was then about the color of a ghost and we were more than a little bit disapointed as we walked back to our hotel.

In the evening we found what looked to be a nice warm restaurant called Tekus. The service proved to be horrible and after over an hours wait we actually left sinse they seem to have no answer to when our food would be ready.

We ended up having some Chilean junk food that should have been prohibited to sell, but the hour was late and it was fast. The attached image actually sat on the wall in the junk food place and is picturing the restaurant we left with the junk food logo taped over it.

Tomorrow we are off to the north again with a three flight trip to Santiago.

Punta arenas

Friday was a calm day that was mainly about transportation. We had lunch at a nice veggie place in Puerto Natales called el Living. Then we jumped on a bus heading for Punta Arenas. We arrived in the late afternoon and headed for a hostel we had managed to book during the busride. Apparantly the 'we need a room today' hadn't gone through and they were full. After some searching around we managed to find another place in a good location called Hostal de la Patagonia. In the evening we just chilled and had some nice food and a drink.

mixed order

The posts qued up and got sent in mixed order, but you probably get the picture anyway.

Rain and wind

Today was the second worst hiking day we ever experienced. We actully had one day last year in Ålesund that sucked more, but it's a close call.

That hope of some sun to dry up the tent in the morning sure didn't happen and it has been poring down all day. Add to that the relentless patagonian wind and try to walk towards that and the closest thing that can explain it is a hail storm. There where times when we were only managed to stay on the ground bacause we carried big backpacks.

We hiked back the 11km we did yesterday and anothe 8km to something called camp Italiano. We actually had planned to either to a small side excursion or to continue to another camp but we were simply to depressed to continue.

The trail is actually quite easy to walk but this time a year it's peak season so there are a lot of people here so as soon as there is some rain the paths turn into a mud bath almost impossible to walk.

It's quite fun to watch how many locals dress in the trails and it's quite clear they don't come prepared for rough weather. We have seen many people with jeans and sneakers and they get soaked to the bone. Actually when we took the catamaran yesterday we wondered if we came over dressed compared to many of the other people on board. That has not been the case, but in the end not even our gore tex coated clothes stands a chance and by the end of the day we were soaked.

If the weather remains this crappy we'll try to hike out either by tomorrow evening (wednesday) or thursday. But in the way of our freedom lies 18km of almost impenetrable muddy paths and then another 7km road to walk.

Lets hope for some sun tomorrow because it would suck to throw in the towel this early.

On a more positive note we had a great dinner and our sleeping bags are still dry (knock on wood) so it is very cozy in our tent right now.

1 minute of sun

It was hardly raining at all when we woke up in the morning. Because we had dug paths around our tent to lead off the rain and put some twigs under our backpacks, we came through the night quite ok.

We decided it was way too soon to give up and we sat our goal to hike a steap path up one of the mountains for a good view. After about 15 minutes we started to break the tree line and it quickly became clear that we were on a foolish mission. Since we after all are some quite sane people we headed back down again to initiate plan B.

After having re-packed our gear to the big backpacks we first hiked 6km through the forrest in what sometimes can be described as challenging conditions (lots of mud and paths that had turned to rivers). Just before lunch we experienced the few minutes of sun the day was going to offer. Of course it was still raining though. still the scenery was amazing and the rain was actually not that bad. With wet feet we had nice lunch at a campsite located along the path.

We then hiked 11km to Las Torres where we have set camp. This piece of the trail was mainly outside the forrest which meant no mud and it turned out to be a very nice hike with some fantastic panoramas.

Tomorrow we really hope the weather will be better because we plan to hike far up the mountain but for it to make sense we can't have too many thick clouds blocking the view or rain pouring down to ruin the experience.

27km sunshine walk

We woke up to a wonderful sunny day that was made for what we had in mind; hiking. We headed up to see the three 'towers' that defines Torres del Paine and also is kind of the icon of Patagonia. The hike was a 10km stretch climbing about 800m. We were really treated to some fantastic views and had lunch in the sun at a mountain lake at the foot of the 'towers'.

After we had hiked the 10km back down again we felt great but tired.

We had planned to return to Puerto Natales today so we had to get to the bus station, but it wasn't exactly around the corner. Almost 8km later and a slightly stressed dinner we sat our tired behinds on a bus heading back to 'civilization'.

We reached Puerto Natales a little bit after 22 and then came the quest to find a place to stay, since we hadn't booked anything ahead. After having checked five places that were all full we picked up the Lonely Planet guide book and dialed a number at random. We got lucky and at 23.05 we checked in to a supernice little place called Amerindia.

To finish the evening we found a cool Chilean restaurant/microbrewery Baguales were we had some local food and an ale.

Tomorrow's plan is to find a bus that can take us the 3h to Punta Arenas and then faith willl decide. Now we'll take our blistered feet and tuck ourseleves to bed.

some updates

We now have wlan access so here are some chronological updates.

Hitting the mountains

we could have used a couple of hours more sleep but the busses leave at 7.30. We had arranged with a buss company to pick us up outside the hostel but imagine out surprise when no bus showed up when it was supposed to. After an hours wain the very friendly woman who runs the hostel contacted the bus company and they arranged for a minivan to pick us up together with four other guys they apparently forgot as well.

After a 3h bumpy bus ride we arrived to Torres del Paine. TdP is said to be maybe the most beautiful national park is south america and so far we have absolutely no objections. All though we have nothing to compare with.

We took a catamaran to cross a lake and then hiked 11k to Grey glacier where we have set camp for the evening. Grey is one of the few glaciers that still maintain its size and it's amazing to look at the lake below that is all white with blue blocks of ice floating around.

The weather here is a bit funny. The wind is just brutal and simply never stop. We had mixed sun, cloud and some short showers during the day but after a fantastic evening it has started to pour down. We hope for some sun tomorrow to dry up the tent that is getting wetter by the minute.

oh no you didn't thinks so did you....

Soooo.. After the smooth check-in the plane taxed out on the runway right on time and that's when it went wrong. The plane suddenly drove back to the gate again and after some confusion we managed to figure out that another plane from that airline had a problem and needed a spare part. Thing is that the plane with the promlem was in another part of chile and we were selected to be couriers of the part. It took almost two hours to find the part and then we were on the way. because we had purchased a kind of flight shuttle ticket it ended up with four take-offs before finaly arriving to punta arenas.

After some confusion we jumped on a very comfortable bus that drove us the three hours to puerto natales.

We actually managed to find a open sports utility shop at 21:10 on a sunday evening where we could by gas for the kitchen and a compass.

we are currently finishing this longest day at an african restaurant before we will try to find our hostel.

Heading south

We ordered breakfast from the 'restaurant' and it was prepared maniana-style so we had 5min to eat before throwing ourselves into our taxi. Schumacher drove us to the airport this morning and we probably arrived before we left.

Someone apparently thought we spent enough time waiting in line yesterday because check-in was over in 4minutes. The line to LAN next to Skyairlines, that we are travelling with, was covering half the departure hall.

Now we are leaving sunny Santiago for a bit more rugged weather down south. Our flight has two stops on the way and then we have a 3h bus ride ahead of us before reaching Puerto Natales.

Food

Downtown Santiago sure isn't a culinary experience. We had a decent lunch at a very local restaurang. Both of us using dictionaries to figure out what to order.

in the evening we went to a place a couple of km's to the west of the city center and got a more east-berlin-ish feeling with some funky restaurangs. We got some good sushi for supper.

A side note on Santiago airport is that we experienced a passport line that made heathrow feel like an express experience. Hopefully we'll not have the same guys working tomorrow because then we'll miss our morning flight for sure.

Santiago

We have finally arrived. 13.5h in economy is more than one should have to endure. Still it feels great to be here. 25 degrees and blue sky ain't too bad. We have been checking out downtown santiago today and done some shopping for tomorrows trip down to the south. Right now there is only one problem and that is how we will get hold of gas for our kitchen when we arrive tomorrow evening to Puerto Natales. Our planned bus to the mountains leaves at 7.30 monday morning and no stores are openbefore that. We also need to get hold of a southern hemisphere compass. But these are minor issues and all in all we are doing pretty great.

ready for boardning

After the usual behaviour of running around like mindless ants before leaving home it has been smooth sailing. Due to the last couple of days train chaos, we left with pleanty of time to spare. Amazing enough the train was on time and check in was a breeze. First flight is to Madrid where we will have a 5h wait until finally crossing the atlantic on a 13h+ flight. That's a serious trip for sure.

packed

So, it looks like we are finally packed and this time is was actually quite easy. The normal procedure is for Ania to stay up until atleast 1AM trying to figure out what she hasn't packed. We haven't done a final weigh-in but I think we are well within the weight limit as well. Somehow it almost feels too easy, something is bound to go wrong.... But it won't... no really..it won't

Chile

We are off for another adventure. This time we are heading to the Patagonian mountains of Chile.