Finally a new update ;-)!!!!

Hey everybody!

After almost a month hereby a new update. It will be a very nice long update so save it till the evening or working day and enjoy the amazing weather you guys are having.....!

The last update ended in El Chalten, let´s catch up at that point!

El Chalten turned out to be a really nice experience with a couple of the most beautiful hikes in the area. We decided that our next stop would be Bariloche. We really loved Patagonia sofar and being outdoors and hiking is amazing. So Bariloche it was going to be. We went to the buscompany and bought our ticket. We alway buy the semi-cama tickets, which means you have a lot of space and your chair is big and comfortable to sleep in (you can pull it backwards quit a lot!). We had to catch the bus in the middle of the night, which wasn´t a really good start. But it got worse...and worse. The drive up to Bariloche would take us 28 hours (pff!), so we came prepared and brought a lot of stuff with us in the bus. After leaving El Chalten the bus had to take Ruta 40, the road turned out to be unpaved for 50% (like 14 hours!!!). The bus was the most crappy bus we´ve got untill now, no space, no airconditioning (it was just like a sauna with 50 people in it: smelly and sweating people everywhere). I think they won´t let their best buses drive on this road.. So try to imagine a really disgusting bus, with 14 hours hoblling on rocks and a lot of noise: then you will have an idea.

We arrived in Bariloche and it felt like we had a jetlag or something. But we arrived..jeuh! That felt good and the guesthouse we stayed in was really nice. There weren´t that many guests and we stayed in the house of the family. Silvia (the owner) made fresh jams everyday and made sure that at whatever time we got up, everything was ready..she was really amazing! We definately needed a day to recover from our busride and decided to have a relaxing day the sunday we arrived. Turned out to be a good idea, because Tom had got the flue and didn´t feel to good for a couple of days. It was really nice just to read a little bit, relax etc. The weather wasn´t good at the same time, so no rush in doing things. We decided to rent some mountainbikes and we cycled the ´Circuito Chico´, a 26 km lap which takes you to a lot of lakes and beautiful places in the environment of Bariloche. It was really beautiful and cool to cycle a lot downhill. Which ment we had to go up first (which was quite steep and difficult). Result: a good muscle ache haha! The day after we rented a car and drove 350 km on the ´Ruta 7 lagos´ (between Bariloche and San Martin de Andes). WOW! Beautiful lakes, landscapes with red and orange trees (it´s fall in this part of Argentina now), a lot of rainbows and it was just really cool to discover the region this way. We drove on really terrible roads again (big holes in the road, a lot of rocks) and it took us like 10 hours to find our way back home again (we got a bit lost in the middle, the Argentina people aren´t that good in pointing out in which direction you have to go). It didn´s matter anyway because of the beautiful things we saw!

After a couple of days of Bariloche we decided to move on and the next station would be Pucon, Chile.

Pucon is a very nice small city which is situated underneath a volcano. we arrived early in the morning so we could walk around for a while, but travelling is so hard we need some relaxing time once in a while so we went to thermal pools to threat ourselfs ;-). The volcano you can climb but that was way to expensive so we hired bikes again and cycled to the base of the volcano. It turned out to be a very nice ride which ended at a river that was following the path the magma had created after the last erruption. here we just spend some time reading and of course relaxing :-D. The best thing of travelling this time of the year in South America is, that is is low season so everywhere we go their is almost nobody. The next day we went for a hike with some amazing views on the volcano, it was a hike of 7 hours so after coming back home we just did nothing any more.

After following the touristy path we decided we wanted to do something more adventurous and leave the beaten trek. So we decided to go to malalcahuello (look it up on the map, we promise you it is a small village in Chile). To go here we had to take two different buses and in the second bus we had to ask the driver if he could drop us of at kilometer sign number something....

The driver dropped us of and we had to walk to the campingsite, it turned out we were the only two guests (what a surprise :-P). The place was very nice, with lamas walking around. We went to this place because we had read something about the national park. In the park there are 3 different volcanoes of which the last one errupted 20 years ago. During this erruption it created a new crater (Crater navidad). In a year the new crater became a small peak of a 100 meters next to Longquimay volcano. We went here for a day hike and we could climb the new volcano without a guide. The scenery was just amazing, they compare it with planet Mars.

We planned to stay here 2 days but the weather turned out to be very bad so the next day we left to Santiago, we had to pack the tent in the rain :-S....!

Santiago turned out to be a very nice capital city. While walking around the city you did not had the feeling it was a capital, it felt more like a village. The hostel we were staying in was really cool and made us stay some extra days in the city. For example, after 2 minutes arriving in the hostel we were invited for the barbeque. We spend 5 days walking around the city. But we are in Chile and chile is famous of the wines so off course we did a wine tour with some of the people in the hostal. we visited 2 vineyards with some very nice wines but the vineyards as well were amazing with very old winecellars and very good guides showing us around the wineries.

After Santiago, drinking a few wines :-S, we had the feeling we needed some more wine tasting. So we went to Argentina for the last time. The stop would be Mendoza, for the wine knowers under the readers you know there is al lot of famous wines coming from there.

To go to Mendoza you have to cross the Andes, which was an amazing ride with some beautiful views. In Mendoza you notice their is more money then in a lot of other cities in Argentina, the houses are nicer and the people are better dressed. The first full day we were here we went to Chacras, here we visited 3 wineries with some very good wines. The most expensive bottle we tasted was about 280 pesos, this is 50 euros, very nice wine :-P!!! The wineries we visited are all exporting to Europe so we have the adresses where to go :-D.
After a day of wine drinking we decided we needed some fresh air so we went into the Andes. We visited a national park from where you can go to the base of the highest mountain outside Asia, the Aconcagua (almost 7000 meters). After a day of getting around the Andes we decided to spend our last night in Argentina in a nice restaurant with steak and wine.

next stop was Valparaiso. After this we will stop and leave you alone with the nice weather and let you enjoy your long weekend....

Valparaiso is a city on the Pacific coast, after 2 months we saw the sea again. The city is build on mountains and is known of the small elevators going up the hills and the coloured houses. We spend a couple of days walking around the city. The second day we were here the president of chile was giving a speech and he is not he most popular man in the country. In the city their was a massive protest mars wit 100.000 people which turned out in massive riots at the end of the day. Tanks were driving around with water cannons and the swat teams were shooting teargas into the crowed. We did not see a lot of it, but the city was covered in teargas and that is not the best we can tell you.

The last day we went to Viña del Mar, a small city nearby Valparaiso. I (Tom) wanted to go here because a a museum they have a statue standing ouside of Rapa Nui (the Easter Islands). the city itslef is not much so after the statue we went back and booked the bus ticket to La Serena were we are at the moment.

But we will keep that for the next time, think their is enough to read at the moment. Sorry for all the text this time. We will try to post more often so that we can spread it a bit...!

For know, enjoy the weather and your extra day off.

Besos Tom y Eline