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Journey from Mendoza into Chile
Our 8 hour busride through the mountains into Chile. Greetings! Travelling does funny things when you are away from who you know, and what you are used to seeing... through out this trip we are always seeing people and meeting people and saying that this person reminds of this person and so on...
Todays entry is going to be about our past 10 days to two weeks in country number 5 on our excellent adventure... Chile! And more specifically how we were somehow able to travel to 7 towns/cities/villages in about 8 days... and how each and every place was incredibly beautiful for different reasons and how many of them reminded us of a different section of that country we love and really miss so much.. Canada!
We had to bid a sad farewell to our favourite place so far on the trip (mendoza) to take yet another incredible bus ride... this time directly across the second biggest mountain range in the world, the andes!
we set our sights on the chilean beach resort of vina del mar, right on the pacific ocean...hard for someone to fathom who has grown up in a country where it takes a frickin month to get coast to coast, to going
Viña del Mar
The view from our apartment. to a continent where you can do it in a night! or even more than that, a country where you cross it in 8 hours, but to go north to south would take you days... chile is such a diverse country from north to south!
Vina ,Im sure, is a stunningly beautiful beach resort... but damned if i can say for sure... cause there was fog as thick as pea soup the whole time we were there and i was down and out in our ¨äpartment¨ with my first ever migraine... amanda and joan saw the city and did some shopping... i finally got my ass out of bed and indulged in one of my favourite things ever... 10 pin bowling! yeah baby! Ok so amanda beat me once... but hey, I´m a gentleman! This place felt like halifax...
The next morning we meandered (thats for you joan!) over to the port city of valapraiso... this place is extremely unique... its layered on several plateaus right over the ocean with exteremely colourful architecture... its the biggest port in chile so there were boats everywhere! A neat thing about valparaiso is they have ascendores...which are basically 100 year old
Valparaiso
Elevators in Valparaiso, great views of the city. elevators which take you up to high points with spectacular views out over the city and onto the ocean...
That night was our last with our dear travelling partner joan, so we celebrated by taking advantage of two south american traditions we have come to embrace... pisco sours and their ¨obsession¨ with the 80´s! We hit up an 80´s bar full force and proceeded to get joan ridiculously drunk to the point of involuntary vandalism of a couple poor innocent glasses... a great time was had by all and we will miss joan and her craziness!
the next morning we decided to play a game...¨how to do a city of 4.5 million people in a day¨ We had heard many mixed reviews of santiago to be honest... but all in all we actually enjoyed it... yes it is smoggy and yes it is busy, but the section of the city where we were was very scenic, clean and had a great view of the city skyline... all in an afternoon! This place felt very toronto-ish...that night we said goodbye to joan and hopped on an overnight bus to quote ¨the prettiest city in chile¨... valdivia
it did
Adios amiga.
Gotta love Pisco sours and 80´s music videos! not dissapoint... three rivers converge at valdivia and filter out into the ocean... amazing riverside walk and even better seafood... it made us realize just how amazing fall can be... hard getting used to seeing leaves turn colours and fall ...in may! walking here actually reminded us of ontario... we both thought of how nice each of our university campuses looked in the fall...
We then moved on to the isle of chiloe, a secluded out of the way peninsula that jutts out into the pacific ... covered in national parks and surrounded by the ocean, this place had a real maritime feel to it... we stayed one night in puerto montt which is the gateway across to the island., and where we had the biggest hamburger we have ever seen!...we ferried across to the town of ancud, a beautiful seaside fishing town... after more seafood, we took a three hour tour of the penguin colony nearby... while the penguins were out of season, we did manage to see a few and the views were spectacular...especially for the tour guide who im convinced was in love with amanda! This place reminded us of the area near Peggy´s cove in
Santiago
Park Santa Lucia in Santiago. Nova scotia...
that night we caught a bus to the biggest town on the island, Castro...no, it was not communist, but still very intersting... literally built right into the sea, many of the houses are actually built on stilts... again very nova scotiaist...(with it being named castro, maybe i should say nova socialist!)... wow..bad joke...
We then embarked on another monster bus ride yesterday back across the andes... much different this time... the last ride was huge white capped mountains... this time we went right through a huge provincial park (think foothills of the rockies meets northern ontario)... back in argentina we have arrived in this amazing city surrounded by mountains and lakes... bariloche.. we plan on goign on a big hike tomorrow which should be incredible... this place is so much like banff and lake louise... hard to explain the natural scenery
sunday we head across to the atlantic coast and slowly begin to ascend up to buenos aires... all in all things are great... we are pretty wiped from all the bus rides, but chillng out here should be just the remedy! If not, well there are only about 4000 beaches on the atlantic coast...
Valdivia
The fall colours in Valdivia...it is strange to see leaves falling off the trees in May. so i think we´ll be ok!
Chile was great... the people talk very quickly and it is more expensive than what we are used to, but all in all very worthwhile...
hope everything is great back home...no battle of alberta breaks my heart, but go oilers!
all the best
jeff and amanda
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Journey Through Japan
Melissa Fennell
Beunos Aires Bound...
Hi Amanda and Jeff, Great photos, glad to hear that you are doing well. I enjoyed my week off, meditating with the monks was really an amazing experience. Wishing you safe travels and looking forward to your next entry. love, Melissa