Cronica de Viaje - 21 - 24 Febrero, Bariloche (Argentina)

Well..... back to civilisation!
The "once" on my Hospederia in Entre lagos was nice. I met there the other guy, that was not from Barcelona but a German that used to live in Majorca but he was living now in Chile. That was really good as he was a tourist guide, so I showed him my route and he gave me hints of places to stay, go & see. We spend 3 hours chating with the women of the house.. a really relaxing evening.... Then I took the bus to Anticura, in the border with Argentina and in the middle of Puyehue National Park. Thank god I missed that bus to Argentina or I would have missed the beautiful Puyehue. I arrived quite late to the Hostel. The place I was staying for the night was a normal cottage but done to accomodate 9 people. When I arrived there were already there 2 chilean guys. They were a bit quite but really nice poeple. After 1 hour a mother with 4 children arrived. It was really funny, they didnt arrive on time to the border and they had to stay until the day after. They remind me of one of those kid novels : "The Hollister".. haha was a funny night.
The day after, all of them left and I stayed to explore the Park. My intention was going to the Vulcano but the weather was not good, so I decided to stay near the Hostel. There were a lot of routes and I did them all. I was the only person visiting them and it was high season! Was very nice. Lots of waterfalls and nice woods. I really enjoyed it. The only bad thing is that the hostel didnt sell any food, so at lunchtime I went walking 2 km to "El Caulle" where I found a great restaurant. Was a bit expensive but was worth it. I had an enormous piece of meat, it was delicious! I loved the place and I truly recommend it if anyone goes around there. That night there wasnt anyone sharing with me the cottage so I had it for myself. I must admit it was a bit scary being there alone!
So finally yesterday I took the bus from Anticura to Villa La Angostura, Argentina. I arrived there at lunch time and I went straight to the hostel. Nice one, but had to share the room with 12 more people. I had a quick lunch and I went straight to Los Arrayanes National Park. 12 km walking in one direction! I did it in 2 hours and was lovely as there is the big lake beside you. At the end ther is this beautiful wood with Arrayanes, worth seeing it. After the 12 km you can take a boat and return through the lake but you must buy tickets before, thing that I didnt do.. so when I arrived at the end of the route, I just thought I would need to go back again the 12 km, and that was a problem as it was getting dark... but I was lucky and there was a place on the boat (I was so destroyed.,...) The return by the lake was amazing! Such a beautiful lake: Lake Nahuel Haupi. The waters are pristine, and clear, and they have these turquoise colour that if you dont see the mountains and snow on it surroundings you would think you are in the caribbean. Yesterday night after that trip I went to internet trying to send a few e-mails, and I forgot my jacket and camera on the internet cafe! After one hour I realized it and I went back. My jacket was there.. not the camera... but instead there was a note of this guy telling me to phone him... At the end I was lucky again and he had the camera! Would have been a disaster losing it! I feel lucky!
This morning I took the bus again to Bariloche, where I am right now. Bariloche is nice, quite big and reminds me to Puigcerda (town on the Pyrinees where I use to go to ski back in Spain). I am again on an hostel with wonderful views to lake Nahuel Haupi, and I have decided to rest for today as for the last 4 days I have been trekking every day.
I already booked my bus ticket to El Calafate. It takes 2 days to arrive from here.... but apparently the landscape is nice.. I will let you know when I can as I suspect I will be again for a few days with no internet.
I keep saying "coger" all the time.... and that is bad! ("Coger" means "to take" or "to grab" in Spain spanish but "to fuck" in argentinian spanish)
I will upload pictures as soon as I download them from my camera

Cronica de Viaje - 21 Febrero - Puyehue

The visit today to Aguas Calientes, the entrance to the Puyehue National Park has been a bit dissapointing.
The landscape was nice, but nothing spectacular, and nothing new. The day was grey, very cloudy and I didnt even see the Vulcanos...
I woke up early and took the bus to Aguas Calientes. The guard advice us of the few routes for a 1 day trip... I think he was mistaken as there was a longer route that would have been nicer to do but I followed his advice and missed it. The good thing? I met a couple of travellers. She was german and he was southafrican. Really nice guys and I gave them my email just in case we travel together through the carretera austral, in the middle of march. We will see...
Aguas calientes was very massified with people.. so I decided to return early to Entre Lagos and head towards Argentina. I went to the tourism office and apparently I missed the last bus to Argentina, so I decided to go to Anticura, on the border of Argentina and in the middle of Puyehue Park. I will give it another try tomorrow, and try to do another trekking route. Hopefully the weather will be better. And friday I will go to Argentina.
I went to my hostal and the woman told me she invite me for "once" (tea), so I will be going in 5 minutes. Apparently just checked in another guy from Barcelona, would be funny to meet him, but staying here only until 8 pm.

Cronica de Viaje - 20 Febrero - Entre Lagos, Chile

Here again. Now on a tiny internet cafe in the middle of nowhere. I am in Entre Lagos, near the Puyehue Natinal Park where I will be heading from tomorrow. I didnt find any accomodation inside the park so probably I will ahve to stay here and go by bus from here. I will go tomorrow and see if it is worth saying another night, if not I will cross to Argentina, heading to Bariloche.
today nothing exciting, I took the bus from Temuco to Osorno, 5 hours... watching Jackie Chan on the bus.... pffff.......
After that trying to sort out my night and finally heading with a small bus to here, Entre Lagos. this last bus was funny, I f there had been a cow inside it wouldnt have surprise me! People were starnge, very local.
In Entre lagos there is no tourist except me.. well, international tourism... The village is small but not bad, in front of Lake Puyehue... very nice. I forgot to go out with my swim trunks if not I would have had a swim.. and too many people looking to go naked!
I have been critisized by not explaining in detail our Domino game. Eva just won 3 of the 4 games we did.. she is an expert... i loved her tactics... but we must admit she was very lucky! hahaha

Cronica de Viaje - 17-18 Febrero - Conguillio

On saturday morning we took the flight from Santiago to Temuco.
Once there we rented a car, we were so happy with the choice! We drove for 2 hours to arrive to the natural park El Conguillio. The roads there were awful for our car!
We stayed the three of us on a Cottage, quite small and a bit cold.
Our cottages were on the base of the Llaima vulcano. The last eruption was in 1957 but the place is amazing.. all desertic as if you were on the moon. All the mountains beside the lava are plenty of these amazing trees called Araucarias.
We stayed three days in the Conguillio. First day we just went around by car. We stopped on Arco iris Lake. Spectacular! the clearest water I ever seen, and you could see the trees on the bottom of the lake, destroyed by the last eruption, with amazing colours. I hope the pictures reflect what we saw in real life.
We walked around laguna verda and Conguillio Lake.
the day after we woke up early and javi and myself went up the mountains trekking. We walked around 3-4 hours, and the views of the vulcano and the lake were great! the day before we arrived to the Park snowed a lot, quite rare for the summer, and there was plenty of snow while we were trekking up the mountain. My face is red again beacuse of the sun! My mother will kill me!
Today we woke up eraly again and we went for three hours riding horses. was so nice riding on that desertic place. I would have taken so many pictures...
Now we drove back to Temuco, and Javi and Eva are returning to Santiago and I´m starting my trip alone! scary!
I´m not feeling very well.. (stomach problems...) and I hope I get well as i feel so uncomfortable.
javi is returning home with my pictures and he will be posting them on this blog soon.
I´m going to miss them, they have been really nice with me, and they are trying to convince me to change my route so we can do another trip together before I fly to Buenos Aires.. We will see, that is going to be in a month!

Cronica de Viaje - 16 Febrero

My original plan was staying a night in Viña del Mar, but as I didnt like it I decided to return to Santiago. I finally didnt meet Laura as she was busy that night, but maybe I will meet her tonight, so i ended up having a lovely dinner at Javi´s and Eva´s place. We drunk 2 bottles of chilean wine between the three of us, so was at the end our conversationw as quite funny.
Becuase i liked so much pablo Neruda´s house yesterday I decide today to see his main house in Isla Negra, at 2 1/2 hours from Santiago.
So this morning I catched the bus and isla negra was last stop. At the end I was the only one in the bus stopping at Isla Negra. Isla negra is a place by the sea. Quite awful area, but there are some nice houses with wonderfuls views to the Pacific, and neruda´s was one of those.
The house, again, was incredible. Neruda was an excentric coleccionist. He collected almost everything, from glass bottles, to tribal masks, or shells... All displayed on the house, and really worth the two hours by bus. His tomb is also in there, looking at the ocean.
After the visit, there is nothing else to do, so I go for lunch in a typical road bar and back to santiago.
Today is cold here, and my summer jumper is not very warm. Bit of a contrast with yesterday.. I didnt put protection and my face and neck is awfully burnt!
Tomorrow, javi, Eva and myself we are taking the flight to Temuco, and from there we are going by car to Conguillio Natural Park where we will be spending 3 days, trekking or riding horses. After that my real trip starts alone. I will try to post something on monday, after the Conguillio trip.

Cronica de Viaje - 14 - 15 Febrero

I met Javi and his friend for lunch and after that they took me to the typical "Cafe con Piernas". I couldnt believe it! Was so funny! At 3 pm we where inside a small room, all dark with fluorescent lights, a small bar in U shape, all men around having coffee as the most natural thing in the world and in the middle of the Bar 2 women with no clothes..well, just minimal bikinis , but minimal! and they only serve coffes! Was so weird being there and not having at least a Gin and Tonic! Obviously I couldnt take pictures in a place like that but you must go to a cafe con piernas if you come to Santiago one day.
After that I was alone again, and I walked to Barrio Brasil. I really liked the atmosphere and as first impression, this is the place I would probably lived if I lived in Santiago. I saw really nice cafes, and is not a touristic zone at all.
I crossed half the city to go to the Bellas Artes Museum. The building is beautiful and is worth just to go inside only to have a look at the main Atrium. There where few interesting exhibitions.
From there I walked to Barrio Bellavista, known for its colorful facades and its cafes and restaurants. This is the place to go out at night. Was nice to walk around and I ended up on the base of Cerro (hill) San Cristobal. From there I took a "funicular" (sorry my english is not so good!) and I went up the Hill. The views are great, and you can see the enormity of the city... it extends kilometres and kilometres and you can see the Andes on the back.
On top of this Hill there is a big statue of the Virgin Mary (as per Rio de Janeiro). On the base of this statue there is a small chapel where people leave candles to the virgin. The funny thing is that they leave the candles with the bag, so there was plenty of colourful bags on the floor with the candles. Didnt take a picture as there were people praying.
I went down the Hill and had a beer in one of the trendy places in Bellavista. Alone....
Javi picked me up from there and we went to pick up Eva. From there we went to a typical Chilean place called "El restaurante de Doña Tina" where we had a great chilean meal. Was a lovely evening and we took few pictures.
This morning I took the Bus and I went to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is caothic. The city is ugly but if you go up the small hills with the Ascensores (lifts) you can see these colourful houses, similar to fabelas, but quite safe. I have done plenty of pictures of them.
I had lunch in this really nice restaurant "Cafe Vinilo" in one of the Hills. I loved the place, and from there I have gone walking to La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda´s house in Valparaiso. The waiter on the restaurant told me was 10 minutes walk but 40 minutes I arrived exhausted. But its really worth the visit! that was really interesting and I loved that house.
From there I have taken a bus to Viña del Mar, where I am now. Viña del mar is famous for it's beaches and because people from Santiago come here in Summer. My god! IS AWFUL! I didnt like it at all, and after this post I will go back to Santiago. This is worse than Benidorm!
This evening maybe I meet Laura, a friend from university that now lives here. Would be good to see her!
By the way.. who said travelling alone was easy to meet people? :-)

Cronica de Viaje - 12-13 Febrero 2007

After a nightmare trip taking 3 planes and hearing kids screaming for 13 hours I arrived to Santiago de Chile on Tuesday 12th February at 9.30 am.
I went directly to Javi´s house where I had a shower and I waited for him and Eva, his girlfriend to pick me up to go out for lunch.
They took me near where they live to Las Condes, on the "financial district" or one of the best parts of Santiago to live.
Lunch was great, but the best was being able to have lunch on a terrace with the sun. I love the summer!
After that, Javi drove me to the center and left me in "La Moneda". I followed the Lonely planet walk sugestion, and in 2 hours I saw all what you need to see of Santiago! Not much.
La Moneda is a free short visit, and I forced myself to go to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. Interesting but not so much! I prefered the temporary exhibition about differents hats of the Aztecs, mayas, etc.
I entered a few churches and what surprised me was not the magnificient architecture but how religious is the people here in comparition with Europe. People from all backgrounds, ages, where bowing to the Virgin, praying and there was even cues to have confession!
I havent get used yet to travel alone. Where do I meet people? in the street? hahaha
I saw a guy with the Lonely planet around Plaza de Armas, the nicest square in Santiago and I followed him a bit, but I thought it was so ridicolous that I finally went on my own way. So well, I guess I will meet people once I´m completely alone on the middle of Chile.
Javi and Eva organized a dinner that night with spanish people at their place. At the end we where 9 people, was very nice and we laughed a lot. The party ended up almost at 2 am. I was so tired with the jet lag....
This morning I went to Las Condes, to do some architectural pictures and now I´m waiting for my friend Javi to go out for lunch. After that he will take me to the "must thing to do in Santiago¨: go for a coffee to one of "cafe de piernas". Apparently, women in bikini serve you the coffee. Will be fun and I will explain you on my next Cronichle!
I dont know when I will be able to issue some pictures as first I need to download them from my digital camera.