Chile

We had 6 days left in South America, and they were spent in Santiago the capital of Chile.

We booked ourselves into a rather nice apart hotel with a mini kitchen
so we could cook for ourselves. The room had a great view of the city with the Andes in the background. It really is quite surreal having a large city with the back ground of the mountains, and yet the coast was only 2 hours away.
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The lucky residents have the benefit of great skiing and snowboarding in winter and the coast nearby for summer!

For a few days we checked out the city, exploring the various districts and getting the cable car up to the Cerro San Cristobal, which is a put basically a hill looking over the city with great views, oh and a rather large Virgin Mary statue!

Statue of the Virgin Mary on Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago, Chile

Nice pic here of two virgins!!!!

To be honest whilst we were in Santiago our minds were focused on planning for New Zealand and sending back-up cds and other items back to the UK so there really was not much to write about.

After leaving the humid heat of Mendoza we were off to Chile and the beaches of Pichilemu. The beach with the longest left hand break in south america, or something like that...basically it had really good surf and perfect for a pro´s like Em and myself!!!! After crossing the border and collecting a connecting bus from Santiago, we headed south. We arrived at the small seaside resort of Pichilemu. We had already booked accomadation with Laguna Cabins and for some reason only known to myself (Rob) I had assumed that they were by the sea! We arrived in the dark and although you couldnt see the sea you could hear the rumble and crashing of the waves on the shore, it sounded awsome! Ok so we werent on the sea but we were only 5mins walk away. The cabins were owned and run by a great family with Eduardo the father in charge, they made us feel really welcome throughout our stay.

They offered to give us lifts down to the beach to surf as his two daughters went everyday at 10am and 4pm! The first day we didnt quite make it but checked out the town, which to be honest was like a mini version of Western-Super-Mare with loads of arcades and not much else. But we were here for the beach so we got some supplies and headed back to the cabin. That afternoon we rented bikes and headed along the coast to the beach of Punta de Lobos, where all the surf action takes place! Wow the waves were huge!

The following day we headed for the surf, slightly apprehensive about the size of the waves!! We rented our wetsuits and surfboards and were ready for some action. Now the guy who rented us the gear had warned us that the rip current was very strong, and that conditions were not great for learning...but we headed out anyway. We lasted about 1hr, spending most of our time battling against the current but it was great to get wet and catch a few waves! We went again a couple of days later when conditions were better and caught a few more waves! It really is an amazing place for surf!

The following day we rented a car and headed into the mountains, as Emily and I tend do on our road trips we managed to end up on some very dodgy tracks and this bridge in particular!!

Still our sporty little fiat made it across, thank god they are made of paper!

On our travels we visited a watermill in a town called Rodeo, and were shown around by a really great little kid!

We had never seen a mill work but were quite surprised by how effective it was! It was great to see all the inner workings, it could shurn out serious amounts of flour.


After the short tour we were asked if we wanted to try what was basically a wheat and water drink. As Ems two favourite pass times are drinking and eating bread she jumped at the chance.....it was turned out to be really nice, tasted like sugar puffs!!

After that we drove to various other places along the coast and a nice picnic. That evening the car came in use as Emily not to be out done by Rob by going to a South American hospital, developed some really bad stomach pains which would not go away! So Eduardo (slightly drunk) and his daughter very kindly accompanied us to the local hospital and acted as our translaters! Emily was put on a drip for an hour, and no matter how hard I tried I was not allowed to see her - in Chile it is against the law to be in A&E unless you are the patient! Eduardo imformed us that she had a dose of ´Chilititus´, which quite a few people get when they arrive, something to do with the oil! The next day she was feeling better so all was good.

After a few more days we were ready to head of to our final destination in South America, Santiago!

After christmas in Bariloche we headed to Chile to spend new year in Valdivia, apparently Chile´s most attractive and enjoyable city´! After the quietness of bariloche during the christmas period we were looking forward to the enjoyable city with a large univeristy crowd. Before entering Chile we experienced for the first time the extremely strict customs at the Argentina - Chile border. No trace of animal derivative, plant, veg etc etc was allowed through. As we were travellers not only was i carrying the left over tea bags, herbs, garlic and sugar left over from the cabin, we had also made some lovely cheese and ham sarnies for the journey and bought some juicy apples. We signed the declaration form that we had nothing to declare and continued through customs. However the yummy ham and cheese sarnies or juicy apples did not. We had to quickly munch down the sarnie before passing though. The backpacks then went through huge luggage scanners. I was extremely concerned about the tea bags but we succeeded in smuggling them though!

Crossing Border, que of buses

Our first impressions were not good but headed into town to give it a chance. Well if this was the best that Chile could offer us we probably wouldn´t be staying long......and we didn´t! The city had the same atmosphere as Puerto Madryn, the city was not attractive at all and was very run down so we were a little disappointed.

We quickly took a taxi back to the bus terminal and booked a another bus that evening to Santiago.

Nice 70´s bus terminal counter!

Still unsure of where we were going and why we thought head to the capital and we can decide onroute.

During our stay in Valdivia we did test out the famous ´Completa Hot Dogs´. The meat was pink and the sandwich contained everything possible including Avo! Not the best dinner we have had but we were hungry and this was about as far as our thoughts could go as to what to have for dinner and where.

We arrived in Santiago the following morning.

The city was hot hot hot! A couple of days later was new year and we had heard that Mendoza in northern Argentina is a livley place which has much to offer. With our spirists a little low we headed off on yet another bus to Mendoza. Once again I was concerned about crossing the border, however another signed declararion later and clerance through customs the tea bags made it through! Not only was our concern over the smuggling in of food and now trying to smuggle out the food but also that the customs officials would question our one day stay in Chile, entering in the south on 28th Dec and leaving in the north on 29th Dec! We got through ok without any questions.

The journey over the border and through the Andes was amazing. The bus climbed the winding roads up and down the mountain range while we sat at the back of the bus with the smell of not only burning engine but also the smell of hot wee and sick. Not the best of journeys but the scenery made up for it.

Fantastic. The land was so dry. You could see the skit lifts up the mountain when they are snow covered in the winter. Three hours from here you would be on the beach. The land is so different everywhere we go, every courner is a picture.