Moving along to Chile

Saturday Feb. 02


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We had a late wake up in Bariloche, Patagonia - Argentina after our crazy late night out dancing the night away until almost 5am. Along with that was a missed crepe breakfast and had HUGE hangovers. We managed to find some coffee, thank goodness (even though surprisingly, we've managed to go days and days without it in the past), before we got the energy to heat up our leftover pasta from the night before. Greg from Vancouver joined us for our tasty lunch and already had a plan for us for the day. He was up early with no residual effects from the night before and had already done some research on a 4 hour hike up the mountains.


Canadian Greg!

Before we could even think about our low energy levels, we were already on the 1 hr. local bus out of town to the trail. We got off the bus one stop too late and had to back track a bit, but we finally made it to the start of the trailhead and began the VERY steep trek up to the first panoramic point called Rocha Negro (Black Rock). As soon as we started the hike, our dehydration set in and we realized how crazy we were for even thinking about hiking on a day like today. It took us only 15 sweaty minutes in the heat to get to a small look-out point and the view was already breathtaking. Alice was ready to throw in the towel as she was satisfied with the view and was complaining of a headache in her eye. But we pushed ourselves to keep on going. The steepness of the climb didn't let up even a little bit for the entire hour up to Roca Negro, but somehow we made it and it was well worth it. We reached the rest stop, which was a little restaurant consisting of 8 tables, made of raw wood. We dropped down on the porch and looked out to the perfect view of the Andes Mountains and the Nahuel Lake in front of them.

There, were downed a bottle of water each and had granola snacks and apples. 25 minutes later the boys were getting their gear all ready for the next leg of the hike and Alice was tapping out. "Sorry guys" she said "you guys are going to have to go on without me on this one". So, Dave and Greg set out on their own. Alice laid down and figured she would spend the next 4 hours lying in the sun and taking in the scenery while the guys courageously finished the mission. Only 45 minutes went by and she was starting to get really annoyed of trying to ward off the gigantic black flies that were swarming around her, and wishing she had put on some sunscreen in the morning. Next thing you know, she hears the boys voices in the distance. The boys made it 3/4 up to the next view point and threw in the towel as well! Alice was so happy to see them and was secretly relieved that she wasn't the only one who was a quitter. This hike was officially an adventure unfit for a recovery day. So, we spent the rest of the afternoon eating snacks and getting to know "Maaike" a woman originally from Amsterdam that worked and lived at the rest stop with her Argentinian fiancée.

At 6:30pm we said goodbye to Maaike and started our descent down the mountain. Thankfully we had more energy for the way down and it wasn't as treacherous as the way up, so we made it down in no time reached the bus stop early for our bus. When we got back to the Tango Inn we hit the hot showers and napped for 2 hours. We woke up famished and decided to take the quick walk back to the Pizza Libre (all you can eat pizza) for round 2! We stayed there for awhile and watched a local soccer game between Argentina and Columbia and went right back to bed shortly after that.

Sunday, February 03

Believe it or not, (sarcasm) we had another late wake up and missed breakfast again. Dave ran to the bank with Greg to try to take out more of the money we owed him and Alice lazed around at the Inn. When the boys got back we walked Greg to the bus terminal as he was leaving for Chile and we purchased our own tickets for Osorno, Chile for the following day, as we had a free fourth night's stay at Tango. We wished Greg a safe trip and stopped at the grocery store on our way back for sandwiches and soup and spent the rest of the afternoon blogging and napping. When we woke up at 7pm we decided to take the 45 minute walk into town and be bad girls and boys and get McDonald's as our usual "breaking the diet binge". We quickly headed back to Tango just in time to make it for the super bowl on the big screen TV.

Next thing you know, Greg shows up again at 10pm and he didn't look happy. He had lost his passport somewhere in between Argentina and Chile and got refused at the Chilean border and sent back on a bus to Bariloche! Poor Greg, his trip just wasn't making anything run smoothly for him. It was another late night before we went to sleep.

Monday, February 04

It was an early wake up, as our bus for Osorno was leaving at 7:30am. Of course, David was worried about crossing the border again even after spending a good amount of time working on yet another impeccable fake itinerary the previous day. We all had to get off the bus at the Argentinian border for our exit stamps. They had a security dog  jump onto the to sniff up and down the aisles, then the dog jumped into the luggage container and hopped around sniffing everybody's bags. After everyone's belongings had passed the test, we all piled back on the bus for another hour before we had to do it all over again at the Chilean customs.

This time we had to line up our purses and carry-on bags for a round of dog sniffing and they actually took all of our luggage off the bus and lined them up on long tables for the dog to get a better whiff. An Asian guy on our bus had a bag of apples in luggage that the dog went crazy over. It was illegal to bring any fruits, vegetables or meat over the border and they were confiscated. It was a good thing that we ate our apples and got rid of the evidence on the way before we got there! Once we were clear again we got back on the bus for the last 2 hours of the trip.

We arrived 2 hours late and quickly booked an ongoing bus ticket to Santiago (the capital of Chile) for 6:30. Since we had 4 hours to kill, we walked around exploring the town of Osorno and settled down on a patio at a café for some lunch and a much needed Spanish lesson that we had been putting off since we started our adventure. We pulled out our "Learn Spanish in 15 minutes" book that our old friend Huw donated to us back in Nicaragua and spent 2 hours testing each other on some basic terms. After lunch we walked over to Chile's version of a Walmart called "Lider" walking up and down every aisle to kill the last 2 hours of our layover. We stocked up on snacks for the bus.

When the bus arrived a few minutes late, it was already full of passengers coming from a previous destination. We threw our bags into the luggage container and hopped into the best seats we've gotten thus far, the 2 most anterior seats on a double decker coach! Unfortunately however, unlike the previous freezing cold bus experiences, this bus was boiling hot, recirculating the same humid air through the air vents. It took us a few minutes to get used to the temperature and we quickly started to enjoy the first few hours with our first class view of the roads and jamming to our Ipod. We eventually fell asleep for a short while and woke up to the same familiar arctic air conditioning we were used to and it kept us up almost the entire night.

Tuesday, February 05

At 6:00am we arrived at the Santiago terminal and it was still pitch black (or pitch dark as Natalie would say it). We hadn't done our homework ahead of time and had no place to stay lined up so we decided to wait until the sun came up and the internet café opened before we made our next move. We found a place just a subway ride away and enjoyed the very organized and easy to follow metro system that took us there.

We checked into Andes hostel and dropped off our bags and sent out a safety update to the family before setting out to explore the big city. Just around the corner from our hostel was our first stop called Castillo Hidalgo, a big old castle that was now a big tourist attraction. We climbed up hundreds of stairs to get to the top and got a great view of the very smoggy city. We could only faintly see the outline of the Andes mountains surrounding the city due to the amount of pollution. After the Castillo we walked down the pedestrian walk filled with shops, restaurants and merchants selling crafts. We stopped at a restaurant called Schopdog for some scrambled eggs, coffee and freshly squeezed raspberry juice (yum!). The food instantly made us tired, so we headed to the Plaza de Armas (an old political square) before we headed back to our rooms for a much needed 4 hour nap.

When we woke up we took showers and set out for round 2 of our exploration. We walked an hour down Providencia (the main street) to the Costera Mall. It was an interesting walk with a lot of wonderful cultural things to see along the way. We stopped for some food along the way and when we made it to the mall we were pleasantly surprised as it was the biggest mall we had ever seen! It was 6 floors full of stores, a whole floor designated to fast food and restaurants, and the top floor for the movie theatre. Although still under construction, we had heard that the mall, when finished, will be the second largest building in all South America.  We walked up to the top level to do one of our favorite things; Watch a movie! 

 

We watched Django with Spanish subtitles,  and although it was a new and modern movie theatre, the tickets cost only $3 each!. After, walked back to the hostel, and ended up getting a little lost at 1:30 a.m.  So we asked a local guy for directions, and he was kind enough to offer us a ride.  Tentatively, we got in his car, but he ended up being quite nice, and we arrived back at our hostel around 2:00.

Wednesday, February 6.

We woke up a bit late, and missed the hostel's breakfast period.  It was going to be another lazy day, as we were still a bit tired from our most recent long distance bus.  We went for a little walk to try to find breakfast/lunch, and stopped at the government palace along the way.  As we didn't find anything that was in our budget, we decided to hop on the subway and head back to the super mall.   We had a food court lunch, and walked around the mall a little bit, before spending the remainder of the afternoon at another one of our favourite places; Starbucks.  We made a happy birthday video for our friend and travel partner Cheff, and jumped on the subway to get back to the hostel.  We had another nap, and went downstairs for the hostel's complimentary pasta and wine dinner where we met some new friends and spent the rest of the evening hanging out in and around our hostel.

Thursday, February 7.

We managed to wake up for breakfast, which turned out to one of the better hostel breakfasts we had had to date, with eggs, toast, coffee, and cereal.  We spent the morning blogging, and repacking our backpacks, as we had a bus to catch later that day.  We jumped on the subway again, and arrived at the bus terminal with enough time to buy a ticket to our next destination; Vina del Mar.

Thankfully, this bus ride lasted only about 2 and a half hours, and we arrived mid afternoon.  We searched out a particular hostel, "Jaguar", that had been recommended to us by one of our hostelmates in Santiago.  We found it, and discovered that it was and "over the budget" bed and breakfast, but decided to splurge a little and book for two nights. 

After settling in, we walked around and saw the town, and then got some groceries to make some cheap meals for dinner, and for lunch the next day.  After dinner, we found out that some people at Jaguar were having a big backyard asado party, so we hung out and were treated to free meat samplings, electronic music, and good company.  We also spent an hour and 8 minutes "Skyping" our best pal Mitch, which was an interesting conversation, as he didn't have a microphone, but could still hear us.  Thus, he would write down his questions and answers, and was also dancing around to the electronic music. 

Stay tuned for more adventures, and thanks for reading!
With love from the Mar,
D'Alice