Blogs from Aisén, Chile, South America - page 7

The elevators greet us as they have every morning, informing us today that it is Monday. We made our way to the Lido at 6:45 AM to start with the continental breakfast, only to find the full buffet up and serving people. I guess there were a lot of complaints about the full buffet not being ready early when there were so many early tours. I am again had a bowl of oatmeal, but couldn’t help adding a side of pork link sausages and potatoes. Sharon stuck with her single slice of French toast and bacon. We both had some apple juice. The Lido was crowded when we got there, so it looks like a lot of tour goers today. We were in the “RED 2” tour group (with HAL’s reddish orange sticker badge). The “tour ... read more

Before hitting the road, I had worked 3 months at a hostel (www.patagonia-hostel.com). The reason being 1. so that I could improve my Spanish, and 2. so that I could become a little bit more assimilated before I set off to travel by myself. After several goodbyes and toasts, I was finally sitting on the plane to Santiago. There, I had an American from Flagstaff, AZ, next to me (check out his website at www.rioslibres.com). This was somewhat coincidental, because I had worked in Prescott, AZ, for a couple of summers. Furthermore, James Q, as this Arizonian is named, spent the previous day with a mutual friend of mine (this will become a theme, I am sure). We chatted the entire trip to Santiago exchanging stories. But despite the distraction of conversation, I felt that I ... read more

I continued to be on survey until the 16th. The last day of survey we went out to put in a few shovel tests to check the depth of a few of the promising but questionable sites. It was a hot day and a few people were rubbed the wrong way by procedures. Mostly it was just a communication problem, as we speak little Spanish and the Chileans here speak little English. It makes it hard. Matt N (There are three Matts, did I mention that?) found some really nice lithic material wandering around close to the vans while we waited for the third team to finish their test units. One pretty little white chalcedony projectile point. Started excavation on the 16th. We opened a new 1mx1m unit the day I got there. We have to ... read more

The past couple of days have been very cool! It has felt like we are really getting into Patagonia now - high mountains, snow, heaps of rivers, glacial meltwater lakes and of course, cold weather : ) Leaving Coyhaique behind, we drove to the little town of Villa Cerro Castillo, based at the foot of the mountain we were planning to hike up to. This village lies on the Carretera Austral: the final southernmost road in Chile, that meanders through mountains and rivers. During winter, this area is completely cut off from the northern parts, due to the snow and rain. Not many people drive this road and public transport is very scarce. Most people cycle or hire a car or hitchike to get to the southernmost village, O Higgins. We opted for the hitching/attempted public ... read more

Hi all! Many thanks for the messages, we can really see people are on holiday and have more time on their hands! We can´t believe our holiday is drawing to a close, with less than 2 months left and still so much to see!!! We left the island of Chiloe and went back over the Andes to Argentina, to the tourist town of Bariloche. Here, we had made plans to hike in the Nahuel Haupi nature Reserve. While driving to Bariloche, we were surprised with the overcast conditions despite a clear sunny sky forecast. As we drove further we noticed this fine grey dust everywhere which just got worse and worse. We drove past a sign saying Puyehue Reserve we then realised it was the ash of Volcano Puyehue (or something like that) which erupted last ... read more