Sad to leave South America...

---

We have had a more restful time in Chile and it is a beautiful country. We flew from the desert to the Lakes District, a lovely flight and from the plane you could see the spine of the Andes with volcanos peaking through the clouds, all the way down to Patagonia. We landed in Puerto Varas, a picture postcard town which reminded me of Cabot Cove in the Murder She Wrote series. I kept expecting Angela Landsbury to pop up at any time... It was very refreshing to be at sea level after 4 weeks at high altitude and lovely to have long sunsets instead of darkness at 6pm on the dot.

We organised a days fishing trip and Aidan caught 20 trout. They were literally hurling themselves out of the water at him. The scenery was beautiful and my modest 4 catch was only because I was too busy admiring the views - honest! We moved on to Pucon, six hours North, a town dubbed the 'adventure capital of Chile'. Again, it is beautiful with lakes and snow topped volcanos surrounding it. We rashly signed up to climb active Volcano Villarica without having witnessed the height or degree of slope as it was cloud covered until the day of our asent. I can honestly say the climb was one of the hardest things I have ever done and I'm not even sure the views from the top or the supposed sense of achievement was worth it!!!

We spent the next three days recovering and then caught the bus north again headed for Valparaiso with a stop over in Talca, one of the wine region towns. People in Talca were unbelievably jolly, chatty and friendly, maybe it's all the wine. We were the only gringos there which was a welcome relief after the tourist town of Pucon. In general, Chileans are relaxed, kind and love their country; it is refreshing to feel such infectious national pride. After a notably delicious lunch of lasagne to rival Paula's (no mean feat) we took the train to Santiago (hurrah! After all the long bus rides!) then the bus (boo!) to Valparaiso on the coast. Valpo, as the locals call it, is very eclectic, bohemian and romantic. Two of its many hills are UNESCO World heritage sites. You travel by funicular railway to save your puff and we spent three lazy days wandering, eating, and toasting ourselves in the sun. We also spent a day at the seaside at Vina Del Mar, only 20 minutes away. We are now in Santiago for our last night in South America and fly off to Easter Island first thing tomorrow. Santiago is very busy as you would expect of a capital city, however, it is green, has distict neighbourhoods and feels very safe. We had our first parillada last night; basically a meal of meat. We had a small breakfast with lots of coffee this morning...

We are very sad to leave South America and would happily stay on to go to Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela etc - we will return!

Next installment will be from New Zealand!

---