Arriving in Chile has been a change in mode compared to the last few months in Oz and New Zealand. It is back to backpacks, hunting for the best guesthouse, working out what all the food is (very important) and speaking the local lingo. From stepping off the flight we were expecting things to be comparable to Asia with personal security issues and being hassled in the arrivals lounge. It turns out that this country IS pretty developed, in the city at least. We were only propositioned by a couple of taxi drivers and we have not been robbed yet (ok early days still)! Unfortunately this also means that prices are not that cheap but we are getting along fine.
Emily is doing a sterling job fronting the communications department of the team. However, she has her work cut out because the accent here is very difficult to understand. Chileans slur their Spanish and occasional run out of steam and end their words half way through!? Her situation might be compared to an Englishman trying to discuss philosophy with an intoxicated Glaswegian (no offense intended to Glaswegians or any other incomprehensible members of the English speaking world.... no no seriously we are joking and would love to visit Glasgow - any offers?). Meanwhile Chris has proved to be an apt baggage handler! He is still trying really hard to learn French on rainy days, as well as to speak English properly! Surely that’s enough?!
The food here has proved a pleasant surprise! We were expecting just a lot of carbohydrates like potatoes, the major South American contribution to world cuisine, but in fact there is a wide variety of dishes to choose from in lots of "diner" style cafes. Both deep-water fish and shellfish are plentiful and affordable. Beef is very popular too given our close proximity to Argentina, and all the portions are enormous and weighing us down nicely. Shame. We were hoping to come back emaciated for extra sympathy!
Whilst eating out we’ve encountered another South American (?) theme, this has to be the easiest place in the world to get a job in Marketing. Why? Because almost every single advert we are bombarded with has been created using one very simple method: 1. Take photograph of product being sold e.g. Engine Oil, Booze, Software, Bread, Excursions to Patagonia 2. Take photograph of buxom model in teeny weeny bikini, preferably on a sunny beach with vacant look on her face 3. Super-impose photo of product on to waif female image and circulate. It can not fail!;-)
It’s interesting as a lot of these observations and impressions come very early on in our visit to a country. We’ve found that after a while we become used to them and they are no longer so obvious. (At least, Chris assures Emily that this is the case regarding the semi-naked women surrounding us...she’s not convinced!?).This is in fact one of the attractions to traveling and we look forward to moving on to a new country for this stimuli.... Santiago was certainly a pleasant place to arrive into. Although it’s very busy, the pace is very comfortable. There is a vibrant student population, lots of artistic influence and young love every where you look. Quite literally, on every available piece of grass there’s a couple doing very non-British things in public:-) This came as a shock to us, after 3 months in Asia where the only public displays of affection are among family members and same-sex peers. Naturally, and as with all things on this trip, we have taken things in our stride and become re-accustomed to the local ways! With a beautiful backdrop of snow-capped mountains we strolled around the city taking in sights of old colonial buildings and looking around markets. We also spent some time in the Pre-Columbian museum boning up on our history of this region. Like most places we’ve visited South America has been ransacked by Europeans, this time (mostly) the Spanish. Unfortunately a lot of the precious gold artifacts from the ancient indigenous civilization was melted to be sent home to Spain, but we saw a few pieces of cultural and religious significance in this museum. The most sophisticated of these civilizations were the Inca, whose reign stretched from northern Ecuador to central Chile. However, their empire was short lived and eventually defeated by the Spanish.
Well, that was enough culture to make our brains hurt so we got on a bus and headed South for some adventure. The buses here are a great way to travel, comfortable, affordable, reliable and even on time! We were heading for Pucon, slap bang in the middle of The Lake District. As we drove up to the town the sun was setting and the main attraction of the area was clear from the bus window, a snow-dressed smoking volcano! It looked absolutely stunning in the pink light, if a little intimidating. Arriving late, we sought out a good place to stay and found Hospedaje Irma. The evening was cold and it was very welcoming to feel the warmth from the log-fueled Arga (Range) and to meet with some very good company also sleeping at this Home-stay. The proprietor, Irma, was a lady in her mid sixties with thousands of children and was the kind of lady who liked to play surrogate mother to all her guests making us all feel at home. You want to spoil us, Irma? Umm.....errr...alright then. If you must!
With lodgings settled we sought our entertainment. The primary activity available was to climb the Volcano which is just short of 3000m high so you do need a guide and ice/snow climbing equipment. Having researched all the companies offering the trip we arrived early the next morning ready to climb the mountain with our chosen guides. It was a beautiful day, perfect for the excursion. Sadly, it turned out there was a shortage of guides, the company says because of an "accident" but we know the problem is also known as "overbooking". Ten people had to step down and we volunteered because they offered us a free white water rafting trip later that day. We could always do the volcano the next day....
So back to bed for a few hours and we were up again to go rafting. We love traveling in less regulated countries because their attitude to risk is a lot more practical than the more paranoid risk-averse approach at home (mainly we mean the UK). They said to us "do you want small rapids or do you want big rapids?". Well, we’re not going to pick the namby pamby little ones are we? Of couse we took the big ones:-) We later learned that white water rapids are graded on a scale from 1-6 and the ones we were going to tackle were rated 4-5! Not so clever now, were we!?! A casual safety brief followed in Spanish to mostly a non-Spanish-speaking audience. The general idea being that if you hadn’t understood the vague life-saving instructions, then "make up your own as we go along"! So with fair-to-middley hesitation we hopped aboard our inflatable rafts. Fortunately the guide in the boat with us was a lot more helpful and gave good instructions how to paddle as a team to negotiate the raging river ahead. It was a blast! You can see the pictures to the right. Note the respective facial expressions when faced with imminent danger - Row 1 on the right and Row 3 on the right! (Emily swears that she was just blinking. Of course she didn’t permanently have her eyes shut - that would be silly!)
Our day rafting worked out really well but it turned out that the next day’s weather was really bad meaning that the volcano trip could not go. We got up at 6am with lunch packed only to be turned away with the trip postponed until the following morning. Sadly this happed three further mornings in a row. To relieve "cabin fever" we hired some bikes and cycled out of town (45 kms!) to get very wet in the rain but had some fun. This situation also gave us a good point of conversation with some other people staying in our Home-stay who were also waiting to do the same thing. It’s funny how you get talking to people, of several interesting people we met in Pucon we met a Vietnamese lady who told us all about her life before and after leaving Vietnam in 1980 as a "boat-person" refugee. Fleeing persecution because she was half Chinese it was fascinating for us to hear a human account of the troubles we learned about whilst traveling through that region. We were literally blown away by her nonchalant accounts of bombs flying over her head every night and how she ran for shelter at all hours with her family. "It’s something you get used to", she said, "it happens every day. It’s just the way things were. You accept them". Oh, right. Silly us for making such a big deal!
Finally the weather broke and the Volcano trip was on! To our relief the weather was just as nice if not better than the first day we’d tried to go. We were fitted for Ice boots and crampons as well as several layers of thermal clothing. We took a bus to the foot of the mountain and then a ski lift over the first layer of very loose volcanic mud. Don’t worry, the ski lift wasn’t cheating as we still had at least four hours’ hard climb to follow. In fact we should get extra points for getting on the death-trap in the first place! You know how the Ski lifts in Europe slow down before you get on them? Well, these don’t do that! Oh, and no safety bar either!.... Well, the ride passed without event and we were soon trudging up the mountain (cursing the good weather after all. Man, it was hard work!).
With crampons and an Ice Axe (Emily refers to this as a "power tool") we zig-zagged ("smashed") our way up through Ice and snow. Due to the recent bad weather, it had been snowing at this altitude and we were treated to quite a bit of fresh powder. After a couple of hours, the going got tough and a few people dropped out, it was fairly challenging but we carried on. At around the four hour mark we reached the top (2,847m) to get a magnificent view of the smoking crater! We were upwind of the crater meaning that most of the smoke disappeared away from us but some curled back our way. It was pretty noxious with a caustic smell but amazing to watch geology in action. From this vantage point we could see the whole Lake region as well as two other volcanoes in fairly close proximity. Amazing scenery!.... So we ate our lunch on top of this smoking volcano, as you do, and considered how fortunate we have been to do so many things like this. So after pondering this thought for a while we made our way back down. This turned out to be a fun activity in itself as we were able to slide down some of the slopes on our bums, using Ice Axes as brakes!
After a bit more walking and enjoying the scenery we left Pucon for Valdivia, the most attractive town in Chile, which is where we are now. There’s no one defining feature but it’s just a pleasant place to hang out. There are lots of good shops, restaurants and an excellent fish market where we saw every type of fish imaginable and some enormous fur seals in the river estuary behind feeding on the fish guts thrown away - a strange sight in the middle of town. We’ve also indulged in some local specialties, wool knitted jumpers because it is a little bit chilly:-)
On Tuesday we’re flying to Lima to being touring Peru and Bolivia. Great! Till next time, take care.
C and E