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Published: January 3rd 2006
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22nd December 2005
We caught the morning bus from Bariloche to Osorno. We had planned to go to Valdivia but to get there it would have meant Andy and I going on seperate buses on different days as they were so full, running upto Christmas. Therefore as Osorno was described in the guidebook as a transport ´hub´ and in the right direction we headed off there.
We arrived in Osorno at 1pm and found that the next bus to our desired destination was a night bus leaving at 11pm. So we booked our bus tickets and headed off to see the sights of Osorno. Which we soon found out wasn´t alot unless we wanted to get a taxi and head out of town.
Osorno seems to herald from the concrete era and the most notable piece of architecture is the cathedral. The cathedral is built in cast concrette and looks like some one has plastered over the places where the stained glass windows should be. We had lunch and caught up with our blogs on the internet but there wasn´t a whole let else to do. It was starting to feel a little more christmassy though, there was a
Christmas Dinner
Consisting of Rose wine and strawberry's christmas tree in the town square and one in the shopping centre along with a few Christmas songs being sang here and there.
We boarded yet another damn bus! As seems a theme at the moment, all the semi cama buses were booked so we just got normal reclining seats, but it was much better than the magical mystery bus we caught to Barliloche.
We arrived in San Fernando at 8am in the morning - our journey last night made it that 3 out of the past 4 nights have been spent on a bus.
We spent the day roaming the town like a pair of zombies, the travel was taking its tole. Still we only had 50km to go tommorrow and then we were at our resting place for christmas. San Fernando is as Andrew described it the Rotherham of Chile.
After yet another short bus journey to our luxury hotel in Santa Cruz, we booked in for our Christmas meal, in South America it seems Christmas Eve dinner is the main celebration. After unloading our bags and making ourselves feel like we were at home we headed out in search of wine and bubbles.
After a short walk in the town centre and visiting a few shops, we came across a sign for a vineyard, La Posada. So we decided to go in and sample a few. Several glasses later we walked out proud owners of 6 bottle of there finest wine to see us through Christmas. Christmas dinner was a quiet affair, with everybody keeping themselves to themselves, so with no-one but each other to talk to we decided to hit the bottle(s)!
Christmas day was spent just relaxing by the pool, broken up by making phone calls home and lunch consisting of La Pasoda Rose wine and strawberry's (a little different from the Turkey we'd have got at home). After "lunch" we decided to go for a walk and was suprised to find that quite a few shops had opened for business and busses seemed to be running as normal. We had dinner once again at the hotel where we met Jenny and Brian who were traveling Chile for a month with daughter Lotty and son Alex.
Boxing Day was again spent lounging around the pool and hotel, not much else to do in Santa Cruz other than lounge and
drink wine!
The next day after an excellent lunch at the restaurant at the La Posada vineyard we headed off to Pichilmu a surfers hang out where we decided to try our hand at surfing (I mean how difficult can it be). We booked in for some lessons the next day with Sebastian at Los Lobos Del Pacifico and were ready for off.
After a bit of theory on how to surf and stretches it was in to the water, the surf wasn't that big really compared to what it usually is just a mere 5 foot. After learning to get our balance paddling out it was time to get battered by the waves, a 5 foot wave looks much bigger when your laying at the foot of it. Anyway, I can tell you it's much harder than it looks. Sue soon got fed up with being thrown around in the water, so decided to body board and play in the water.
The next day I booked another lesson and was joined by a guy from our hostel Jordan. With fewer people in the group the lesson was much better and I even managed to catch a
Room with a view
th view we woke to christmas morning few waves.
We visited a restraunt called Costa Luna that had been recommended to us by La Posada where we met a guy who's board was on the wall smashed up by a 29 foot wave in Los Lobos. Apprentley he's some famous Chilian Surfer and very well known in the surf scene.
The following day it was off to Santiago, so after a quick visit to Los Lobo's to check out the surf there it was back on to a bus again for New Year in Saniago and our final desination of South America.
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Chid
non-member comment
Hi guy's - happy new year. Just a quickie to say sorry for not being in touch.. read your blog's and suitably jealous!! will write more when i get the chance.. moved house the week before christmas and been offline for 2 months now, so i'll find some time to write asap. take care buddies! Chid X