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Published: November 21st 2010
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On our last afternoon in Santiago, we joined a walking city tour designed to show us the city as the locals know it. It involved traipsing around the huge vegetable, fish and meat markets, where there was an abundance of cheap, fresh food to tempt us into cooking for the evening.... We also visited a coffee house in the city however, and thoughts of mundane tasks such as cooking flew straight out the window. For those uninitiated in the ways of Santiago’s coffee scene, they have coffee bars where you go for “coffee with legs”. Starbucks in Chiswick it is not... they only sell coffee or soft drinks, but you do need to be over 18 to get in, as the “waitresses” wore nothing more than a Napkin, and left nothing to the imagination... sadly for some of you, cameras were not allowed!!
From there we went onto a local bar where we had their infamous drink, “terramotta”, or Earthquake. It was basically a pint glass filled with a cheap and nasty local white wine, a scoop of pineapple ice cream and then a shot (or two) of something a little stronger.... we started drinking it, and it tasted dreadful,
but then learned that we were meant to wait until the ice cream had melted before drinking. No one likes to wait for a drink, but it couldn’t get any worse... thankfully it was a LOT better once melted, but still incredibly strong!!! I know why they call it earthquake – after just one there were some shaky legs in the group!! Our tour guide decided we should leave at about 6:30, as the bar has a reputation for angry intoxicated locals throwing a couple of “questions” at each other – once they have spent a few hours there it more rumble than earthquake!!!
The next day we joined up with the truck tour, and headed towards the lovely town of Pucon. Nestled at the bottom of the Villarica volcano, surrounded by mountains and with a picturesque lake at the bottom of the high street and Range Rovers and the odd Carrerra in the driveways, you could have been forgiven for thinking you were in a small Austrian ski resort instead of Chile. The next day we set off bright and early for the volcano. Kitted out with our hired waterproofs and snow boots, we started climbing. It was
a tough climb, but 3 and a half hours later we were at the top of an active volcano, listening to lava bubble and breathing in the sweet smell of sulphur as we devoured our jam sandwiches and tried to catch our breath. It was the perfect day for the climb, with blue skies and no wind. The effort was definitely worth it for the spectacular views we were afforded. Even if the views had been rubbish, however, the coming down definitely made the climb worthwhile.
For those of you who have been fortunate to “witness” James on the ski slopes, most of the time is spent on his backside. In this case that was appropriate, as we had been supplied with a “nappy” and a tray to sit on. Even though the slope looked steep on the way up, our guides insisted this was the best way down. It was great fun, with only one or two minor spills in the group on the way down!! On the way up we heard the whistle being blown to alert everyone on the hill something was falling. “Something” turned out to be Eileen, a lady who had joined our tour
in Santiago, and who had lost her footing and slid a long way down the icy face. Incredibly (as I would have given up and gone home at that point!!) she re-climbed the ground she had just lost, and kept going right to the top!!! Luckily she suffered only some minor scratches and a sprained thumb from her tumble!
With an early start we were off, back to Argentina. The border crossing wasn’t quite as smooth as we would have liked - apparently there was some problem with the truck insurance..? After a couple of hours our group of bored tourists started hanging their damp washing around the border crossing, and proving how good our football talent was in the car park. This seemed to do the trick, as the border opened pretty quickly. No doubt impressed by the silky skills.
We arrived in Bariloche in the early evening, and decided to hit a steak house for some vino tinto and a slab of carne with our group, and spent the next day lazing in perfect weather in our lakeshore camping ground, ruing the day we stopped work....
We found ourselves in another faux European / North American
pleasure town, with skiing (both water and alpine), kayaking, paragliding, kite surfing and nearly every other water sport imaginable. The second day there we spent a lovely day kayaking out to a beach on the other side of the lake, hiking up to a mountain lagoon before coming back to a little picnic one of our guides had laid on whilst we were walking. After paddling back to the car, our perfect day was somewhat spoiled when one of the girls (there were 2 other girls with us from our tour, plus the guides) discovered her purse was missing.
The weather was definitely starting to get colder now – the last 2 nights had been incredibly cold, getting down to freezing even though the days had been in the high twenties. We packed up early again and spent the whole next day on the road, where the scenery changed dramatically, from snow-capped mountains and lakes everywhere, to flat, dry arid country with clusters of grass resembling saltbush (pampas grass I believe) and the occasional flat-topped hill. We set up camp just off the road for the night, and the wind was blowing so hard just before dark we needed
to peg the tents down as they were starting to blow away. Our salubrious start to the tour was over – we are in Patagonia, and it is cold and windy, very dusty thus far, and roadside camping got us well acquainted with the terra firma, or at least the rocks under our tent!!
Next stop is El Chaten and then onto el Cafayete, where we hope to be able to provide another update!!
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Lottie
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Wow
Flipping Nora!!!!! I don't know what I am more amazed about. The photographs - which are stunning, the drink and the fact that you actually drank it, your beard and how quickly it us growing this time or that you actually walked up that mountainside and slid down whilst remaining in one piece with you heart working naturally and not with artificial help!!!! We love your blogs and miss you both lots. Keep up the great writing peewee you are so entertaining to read we feel as though we are living it with you, especially your bar moments!! Lots of love and hugs