As I write this on these crazy South American keyboards, I sit in a hostel in La Paz, Bolivia, a crazy sort of city. But more on that later, for the moment, let me update you on my last few days in Chile.
Steve, Moss and I headed down to Pucón, in the lakes district of Chile. Pucón is sort of the Byron Bay of Chile, packed full of tour operators, and so close to beaches and adventure sports. In our short time in this town we managed to go white water rafting (which was seriously awesome), get belted by the sun as we lay on the black sand of the local beaches, hike through glorious national parks and swim in pure mountain lakes, bathe in volcanic hot springs, as well as hike up to the top of the active volcano, Villarica, which overlooks Pucón, and constantly billows smoke.
When I say hike up, I am kind of bending the truth. Steve got to hike to the top and look inside the crater, but Moss and I were not able too. We got up there on a Thursday (to the volcano hike base camp), but the conditions were too treacherous for the climb to the crater. So instead we headed to the national park for a day of walking, drinking water from natural springs, and looking at waterfalls. Steve elected to challenge the volcano the following day, but moss and I were so exhausted from hiking (plus we had to check out of our hostel the next day) we decided to pass.
From all reports, it was quite an experience – even if Steve had only 1.5 hours sleep, and a nasty hangover. Many thanks for Herman, our shape-changing hostel owner for many a laugh (long story, I’ll explain it person to y’all if you remind me).
We took an overnight bus back to Santiago (which was hell), and Moss and I took a brief trip out to Valparaiso, the self-proclaimed ‘cultural capital’ of Chile. Imagine lines and lines of houses built on top of each other throughout a valley that overlooks the sea. Walking around the hills, photographing all the strange houses, elevators and graffiti was fun enough. I even had enough time to visit Pablo Neruda’s other house, La Sebastiana (the one in Santiago is better though!). I didn’t enjoy the market area, though this might have had something to do with the limited amount of sleep I had the night before. My friend Steph describes Valparaiso much better than me in one of her blog posts (click here).
All in all, I enjoyed Chile, particularly Pucón as well as my stay in Hostel Forestal, probably the best hostel I have ever stayed in (Pato and Dani were the bomb!). I have many photos which I would upload if any of these damn computers supported USB 2.0!
Anyway, I’m running out of time and steam to write anymore. My next update will more than likely have something to do with Bolivia, so stay tuned.
why am I not in Bolivia with you??? Dios!! I’m really enjoying your writing, Daz! Can you take lots of pics of Lake Titicaca for me? Ta & hugs. ps so you’re doing rest of bolivia, peru, and then up to ecuador to start work in april? (you’re nuts!!)
Steph
March 11th, 2008
Hey Steph. Ha, glad you’re enjoying it, I don’t think the writing is particularly any good, due to the fact that I must summarise everything in like ten minutes on hostel computers with little or no editing.
We leave for the salt flats in two days, then to lake titicca, then cusco…and then on to ecuador.
daz
March 11th, 2008