A big catch up. Part I

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So OK, we´ve been a bit lazy. First blog in ages! I´ll do a bit of a summary of what we´ve been up to, and hopefully we´ll be a bit better from now on. We´re in the desert in northern Chile at the moment, nut for now here´s a catch up...

From Bariloche we went down to El Bolson, a nice little town in the lake district in Argentina. It´s a bit of an old hippy hangout, apparently it´s got one of the world´s great energy centres, but we didn´t feel anything man. What we did feel was a big 8hr hike in the rain up and down mountains, and over indiana jones style bridges, which Sarah loved.

From there we got a couple of buses over to Chile, where the slightly anal border control took my garlic off of me, on our way to Puerto Montt. It was a bit of a hole, where we stayed in what must have been a recently purchased abandoned house - not a nice place! We stayed there one night, and decided to head south to Chiloe island.

Chiloe was much nicer, and apart from a bit of a dog attack which hostel hunting, we had a good time! On my birthday we went on a boat tour out to a smaller island called Machuke (maybe!), and finished off the night with a little 3.5 pint glass of beer. Or two.

From Chiloe we headed north, staying at a nice town called Puerto Varas, which had a lake, waterfalls, and a couple of big volcanoes. We kept moving fairly quick though, as it was a bit pricey.

Luckily we decided to stop at Valdivia, instead of moving further north, as at 4am on our first night there the big earthquake hit Chile. We were 350km south of the centre, and luckily we were fine. A few windows broke, as the buildings moved around, and cash machines were out of action, but other than that the city was unaffected. Still mass panic though, as the locals poured out of town past our hostel throughout the night. Apparently they had a big one there in the 60s, and they weren´t taking chances!

We were fine, but our plans to head further north to meet Ryan and Kees in Santiago were screwed. We went to Pucon (bit stupid seeing as it had the most active volcano in south america!) and quickly moved into argentina, as the tremors continued. We worked our way back up to Mendoza to meet the guys - Ryan coming in from New Zealand and Kees from Costa Rica. They still had flights to Santiago, and could get buses to Mendoza - a nice first test for Ryan´s Spanish!

To be continued....

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Photos

Proud hiker
holding the staff of doom.

Gently does it...
Sarah loved the bridges!

Sturdy bridge
This one was 3 hrs hike from the road, so no slip ups!

Unexpected local
These guys hung out by the fish market in Valdivia for easy pickings.

Comments

[mum]

pirahna!
I don't think that bridge would have taken my weight. What happened to your trouser leg Greg. Were there pirahna in those waters? You're both looking nicely tanned now. xx

[debs]

BEER!
Your search has ended for the worlds biggest beer, I feel your travels are complete! xx