Chile and Argentina

Santiago

We arrived in Santiago on Monday afternoon at 2pm which was very confusing as we had set off at 6pm Monday from New Zealand.  That day ended up being 40 hours long! Understandably we were exhausted and it took us a couple of days to get over it.  We decided to go south to Pucon after a couple of days in Santiago.  We got an overnight bus which had seats that turn into little beds and an attendant who brings you drinks and snacks, it was great!  We loved Pucon as soon as we got there, it’s a small town on a lake with a volcano and mountains in the background with lots of wooden cabins, and we stayed with the loveliest lady in a great little hostel.  In the winter it is a ski resort and has that kind of feel to it, it made us both miss skiing lots!



Professionals, complete with crampons and ice picks!




Real live volcano!




Sliding down in the snow, action man!



The volcano from Pucon town centre

The main thing to do in Pucon is to climb the volcano which we did the day after we arrived.  The weather was amazing all the day and the views were spectacular the whole way up.  We decided to climb it all instead of getting the ski lift up the first part, a decision which we regretted as soon as we saw everybody else going up on the lift whilst we slogged up in volcanic sand!  It took about 4 hours to get up to the top and I think it is the hardest thing I have ever done, at some points you just have to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other and breathing – the altitude makes it extra hard, Tim had a rough time because his boots weren’t big enough and hurt his feet.  We did eventually make it though and it was worth it, we looked right down into the volcano crater and could see the smoke coming out and hear the lava bubbling and the volcano rumbling.  It was pretty surreal.  The view was the best though, it was so clear we could see for miles including the lake by the village and another volcano over the border in Argentina.  After spending 4 hours climbing the volcano we strapped on our protective nappies and back down in the snow on our bums.  We had to use our ice picks to control our speed (or not!) and it took us all of 45 minutes to get back down. 

Pepe - Such a sweetie!

Best way to see the Andes- from the back of a horse.

View of the lake- Amazing!

The next day we went over the border to San Martin De Los Andes in Argentina.  It had a similar feel to Pucon, a ski town by a lake.  We met up with Yvonne, a friend of a friend, and she took us out for a lovely steak in a family restaurant followed by amazing ice-cream – two things which Argentina does particularly well according to Yvonne.  The next day she took us up to her riding stables and I went out riding with her and a friend whilst Tim sunbathed, took in the view and relaxed by the lake with a book.  The ride was fantastic, we had proper cowboy style saddles and I felt like Clint Eastwood the whole time.  We rode for about 2 hours and went up to some brilliant viewpoints where we could see the Andes and the lake.  The scenery is so amazing, it is so beautiful here. 

Tango dancers in Buenos Aires

We caught a bus from San Martin to Bariloche, stayed one night then headed up to Buenos Aires on a bus which took 22 hours.  It’s not as bad as it sounds as they show films and we slept for a lot of the journey.  We wandered around the city earlier and got thoroughly lost, the city has some really beautiful buildings and monuments.  We watched Juan, another friend of a friend, play with his band which was really good then the next day enjoyed the celebrations for Memorial Day, a national holiday in Argentina.  It was crazy with parades and dancing everywhere.  In the evening we saw a free open air concert with Domingo (one of the 3 tenors) with about 200,000 people.  We had to leave early because we had to get the night bus to Montevideo, Uruguay.  What we saw was fantastic though.