Santiago, Pucon + Puerto Varas

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OK so I arrived back in Santiago at about 8.30am - tell me why I do this again!!!?? Oh yeah apparently it saves on accomodation costs!!! The bus journey actually was not too bad and I was soo close to not having anyone sit next to me.......but in the last minute some women made herself all cosy - D´oh!!! Could not quite get into my room though so had to be poilet to some of the other guests, was not really in the mood but hey!! I was surprised that the Intrepid people where not there yet to be honest as I know we had arrived already when I was leaving the GAP lot but hey I am sure we will all meet soon enough!!! Basically I just had a kip sooo needed it and went for a wander around Bellavista - was soo odd to be there with no Dave and none of the GAP lot as that is where we all left eachother!!!

Well about 6ish I decide the group have def arrived as it got real loud in the B&B ;-) so I pop out to see the deal........well there are not enough rooms for all so quite a few of them are taken to random houses to stay for the night - very strange!! So I get chatting to a few of the girlies there and do a quick sum up of how the group is that I am joining.......it could be interesting thats for sure!! Well I t all goes a bit odd as I ask to join them all for dinner and it all seems cool until I am told by the tour guide, Simon, that they all need to go to the internet to email Intrepid, by the sound of it so he can keep his job........very odd I am sure I will find out more later........so an hour and a half later they finally come back so we can all go for dinner it was cool and the group seem pretty friendly after the earlier manic appearence, so I am now looking forward to starting the trip properly............well I made a great impression we went to a bar after dinner and i knew i should have gone home as was still pretty sleepy but I ended up having a kip on the sofa at the back of the bar - nope not classy at all!!! Was pretty pleased to have a room to myself though thats for sure!!! So get up for brekkie and there are a few more new people to join the group and I meet my new roomie, Erica from Oz I toulght it was manic when I got here but she was dumped in a womans house at 5am as there was no room in the B&B, was not really on and sher was not impressed by it at all. The welcoming meeting is not til 6pm so we head out to the main square, the walk is sooo much futher than where we were staying with the last group but hey its good to get out and see whats going on!!! Due to the snow back in Blighty the welcoming meeting is postponed until tmw at 9am as a few people have not made it yet!!! Was hard to make the decison about food at dinner as there were so many of us, so our great tour guide dragged us all on the metro to a place for Sushi - which is great except the majority of people don´t eat it so that went down like a sack of lead!!! We ended up going to what was basically an American Sports Bar which is always what you want on the first day of the tour!!! We headed back to the same bar as last night and I managed to stay awake all night long - how impressive hee hee!!! Was nice to meet most of the group and get a small bit of background about them all...........

So we finally have our welcoming meeting although Simon did not feel it necessary to invite all the original members of the tour as they are already aware of the tour details, personally I thought they should be there just so we can all meet up!! Oh well I am sure we will all meet up soon enough hee hee!!! Did not do a huge amount in the morning but in the afternoon quite a few of us all went to the Concha y Toro vineyard which was cool as it was huge!!!! There was a few glasses of wine and again I bought a few bottles of wine my poor backpack is getting far too heavy with all this alcohol I am taking home.........D´oh!!!! On the way back tot he B&B we stopped for food as we did not have a lot of time before getting dredded nightbus, cannot believe it but Lousie (an Engish girl on tour) had her first kebab, bless her!!! We made it back just in time to meet the group and go to the bus station so all in a pretty good trip back to Santiago new stuff was seen ;-)

We survived the bus trip just, man we were spoilt with GAP the night bus we had was worse than most of the day buses that we had taken earlier in the trip!!! Was not too bad though we arrived in Pucon about 10ish so as all the rooms were not ready we all head out for some brekkie.....well after all that it really has to be done!! There are not really all that hot on brekkie out here but finally found somewhere that we were all happy with well it had a fixed brekkie meal and it included eggs I think that is the only priority hee hee!!!! So we wander back and still no room for me and Erica seems that everyone else is settled apart from us not really all that impressed but hey it happens.....most of them all head to the lake/beach but Laura and I are being a tad lazy and chilling in the garden until the room is ready and I can sort myself out still feel yucky after the night bus!!!! So they are all back from the beach and it looks like there has been a bit of an injury as Alex is being basically lifed back home......they all played footie on a wet floor thingy on the beach and it looks like he has sprained it pretty bad......We finally find a resturant that we are all happy to eat in, it did take a while but hey it adds to the fun apparently ;-) At leat the bill is in 2 tables though so makes it a lot easier for the bill to be split!!! Simon is being a tad generous and is buying far too much wine - but hey who am I to argue I think he is still aiming for a good review - yeah not really gonna happen!!! So for some strange Stu and I are left to walk Simon home (everyone else had more sense) and seriously its like walking a kid home as he is that drunk........the gate to the hostel is locked so we all have to jump it - was not really all that easy and thanks Stu for getting me over it!!! Then as we still have not been given the code to get into the main house where I am staying I have to wake up the owners they were not overly impressed but then they really should have told us how to get into the place.....

So I still manage to get up early today to do the volcano walk only to be told that they had oversubscribed and therefore could not do it - was not really to impressed as I asked them repeatedly yesterday and I was assured it would all be OK!!! Oh well back to bed for a short while and try to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.....went out to the garden to see Alex and Iain coming back from the hospital he has broken it and will need to have a op on it later in the day......bless him its only about day 2/3 of their honeymoon, hopefully they will be able to rejoin the tour......So now I just chill i n the sun for the afternoon as I tried to get on the horse riding tour but this did not have enough people - figure that out!!! hmmmm!!! Another downer is that I will not be able to see the Spurs v Arsenal game tmw as its not on telly!!! I have booked the free internet for it!!! So they all get back from the volcano and it sounds awesome a tad annoyed that I missed it but hey these things happen......we went for the quickest meal in the world as we only had about an hour before we all headed out to the natural hot springs......they were for sure real hot!!!! ;-) When we got back it was just a case of hitting one of the rooms for wine and cards.......found out far too much info about Pedro, apparently he used to be a stripper!!! Well it explains a lot!!! hee hee!!!

Had a real nice lie in today - i think it was well deserved!!! Spent most of the morning watching the Spurs v Scum game on the internet whislt trying to still get on the horses trip but still not able to do it, which is a bit of a shame really as it looked real nice......Tonight we have planned a ´family´ BBQ which should be a bit of fun. A few of us all walk up to the supermarket to load up on food, wine and beer to cater for all tastes and stuff, worked out really well and not too much per person so all are happy!!! Well most of the a´noon was spent preparing all the salads and food for later.......It turned out to be a real nice evening and everyone seeme dto pull their weight doing one thing or another so that is cool and we all head off for a beer trying not to make it a late one as we have to leave at 7.15am to get the bus to Puerto Varas hmmm we get in at 5ish but put alarm on for 6 aqs we both had to pack and shower - Nice!!!! Oh my goodness no-ones alarms have gone off and therefore we are woken up at 7.05am to pack and leave within 10mins.......seriously we made the bus by just seconds I dont think I have ever packed and left a place sooo quickly and actually remembered everything - bonus!!! ;-)

So we get to Puerto Varas at about 2pm ish and everyone is pretty tired but the hunger is def stronger so we all head out to lunch and found an ikle place where I had a fad chicken stew thingy with pretty much everything in it, rice, potatoes, veg etc was soo good and pretty much what i needed!!! We all head back to the hostel and discuss a plan for tmw - looks like there is a walk to the national parks, but we are going to see if we can get a trip to the local Indian communities and get some history behind the place!!! Had dinner in a fab place that overlooked the beach and saw a fab moon rise - whatever you wanna call it, it was nice ;-) funnily enough after dinner it was def home to bed and poss die for the night I think!!!

Today its raining.......that is a tad rubbish esp for those off to the national forest......we went to the tourist info place but they dont do the tour anymore so time to re think the plan, would like to go for the walk but in the rain i think not and it not looking like it will clear up!!! So we head back to the hostel and have a chill day, thankfully the rain does clear up so we all head to the beach which was real nice i think this is the first time I have chilled on a beach all holiday - it def was good to do!!! hee hee!!! I know I really should have gone on the walk now but hey how was I to know and I not really like walking in the rain!!! Was nice we headed to a place right by the hostel to eat dinner and it was real nice.....cant complain about the fiid so far at all - looking forward to Argentina tmw the food there should be awesome!!! Went to a cheesy as club so was not home til late now I am pleased I am on the later bus and not the 11.30 some things happen for a reason!!!

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