SteveandMarianne

CHILE: ISLANDS AND VOLCANOES This section of our journey covers our travels from the Island of Chiloe in the south, northwards to Pucon, Valparaiso and finally Easter Island - all of which are in Chile. We have called it Islands and Volcanoes of which we saw many! At the end of our last blog we were in Puerto Varas a small peaceful town, but just a one night stop on our way to the island of Chiloe. Chiloe is the second largest island in South America and we spent a fabulous 4 days there with a hired car, numerous ferries and wall to wall sunshine! The views of the archipelago from both land and sea, framed by a ring of snow capped volcanoes, were spectacular (see video above and photo at end). Three things stand out ... read more

Compared to the usual UK festivities, Christmas in BA was relatively quiet and relaxing. That is except for the fireworks that erupted a few minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve and continued for well over an hour. Although we had been forewarned, neither of us expected the city to turn into the war zone that it did. At first there were just a few bangs and explosions in the distance, but then the cacophony began. We sped to the top of our apartment block roof, where at 14 stories high, we virtually had a 360 degree view. Stretching into the distance we witnessed the cityscape bubble with fireworks - mainly rockets. The noise and heavy smell of gunpowder was both mesmerizing and magical. On Christmas day itself and with a friend from Hong Kong, we had ... read more