Blogs from Santa Cruz, O Higgins, Chile, South America

We say goodbye to Chile today and head back to Argentina. Breakfast in in our hotel then we load our bags onto the bus to head to Calafate. We change busses, bus drivers and local guide at the Argentine boarder. Out in the middle of nowhere we stop at a sheep ranch called Chali Aike. The owner of the ranch gives us a tour of the ranch. Our lunch bbq lamb is cooking over a wood fire. He tells us how this ranch has been in his family since his great grandfather bought the property. His great grandmother stayed on the ranch while his great grandfather traveled to buy sheep. It took his grandfather two years to travel to buy the sheep and herd them to the ranch. Sheep wool has been the main money earner ... read more

The Colchagua Valley, a 3-hour bus ride south of Santiago, is often visited on a day tour from the capital. Santa Cruz, the principal town, has pretty poor accommodations unless you're willing to splurge, but Peggy and I found a private apartment in town on Airbnb that was suficiente. The town itself was pretty ordinary, especially in the low tourist season (early August). We hired a cab for 30,000 for the day (42 dollars) and visited 3 wineries: Montes Peggy arranged a wine tour here, and since it was low season and we requested an English tour, it was just the guide and us. The guide looked half our age but was surprisingly knowledgable; his youthfulness translated into being a wine fanatic. Thankfully, he didn't concentrate on the separating of grapes or the process of the ... read more

Yes, I know, it's been a long break between blog updates, but I've been busy trekking amazing Patagonia and it turns out there is no wifi in the middle of no where!! So here is a quick wrap for those who don't want to read the really cool details *I feel in love with a food stand chorizo sausage bun thingy for a mere $13 peso in Buenos Aires ( or just over $2 Aussie bucks ) pretty sure i got got an upset belly from the experience after we watched the pigeons eat from the same food container AFTER we had eaten. Totally worth it though! * crossed the boarder into Chile and met up with my trekking group ( we all met through an online trekking partner site.... I know, it sounds dodgy, turns ... read more

We arrived in the little town of Santa Cruz after a fairly short bus ride from Santiago and immediately got to looking for accommodation. Our tactic was for the girls to hang out in the palm treed plaza whilst I wandered around the town looking for somewhere for us to stay. Looking back at my plan, it seems I may have given myself a bum deal! Luckily for us, there was an information point in the middle of the plaza and so I went over to see if they had any recommendations. Fortunately, the elderly lady at the information point had the perfect place for us to stay and set about making the arrangements on the phone for me to go see this ‘hotel’. I was guided to the accommodation in Spanish and immediately thought I ... read more

We went back to Rengo and went to the Santa Cruz museum, there aren't many pictures of us inside as we were not allowed to take pictures in enclosed spaces, we took a sneaky picture and a security guard came running out of nowhere to tell us off! Santa Cruz is a small town that's about 1 hrs south of Rengo and it has the largest privately owned museum in Chile, the owner used to be an arms dealer :s. The next day we went to a place where we had a bbq and it had a swimmig pool in Rengo, it was the same place where I went the day before Andy arrived in December. ---------------------- ESPAÑOL Fuimos a Rengo y de ahí al museo de Santa Cruz, no hay muchas fotos de nosotros adentro ... read more