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| We absolutely LOVED Chile - the land of the saviours of Shackelton,the largest sheep farm in the world (over 60,000 hectares), the infamous Tierra Del Fuego and some stunning scenery |
| Blog pages (Click on the country to find out the latest) * Argentina * Chile * Bolivia * Peru * Equador |
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| Torres del Paine
I don't know whether it is something in the air or the fact that we're in a tent but there is no stopping Mel. Show her a mountain and she's wanted to climb it..... After 5 days camping in Argentina and climbing to Mnt Fitzroy basecamp I thought that she'd be happy with just a couple of nights at the famous / infamous Torres del Paine..... But no, 8 more nights in a tent!! I guess the only way of describing Torres is ...o..... Your thoughs of the snow capped Andes but BIGGER... If Tolkein had based Middle Earth on the home counties then Mordor was based on Torres, with the tops of the mountains having teeth like a fangs ripping into the clouds 3000m high... And Mel dragged me up all of them.... (I was going to say kicking and screaming but it was more just grunting and groaning under the weight of a fully ladened pack) We had heard stories of hardend trekkers coming for 2 or 3 weeks and never seeing the tops of the Torres, of people so drenched after a couple of days in ra n drops the size of golf balls they returned tails between their legs to dryout their sodden kit only to return for more. But as luck would have it we faced no more than a few light showers, and were lucky enough to see the famous towers in beautiful sunlight on a wonderfully clear day, but.... WIND, believe me I though I knew wind !-) But try hiking with a full backpack in winds which reminded us of skydiving. So strong your mouth can be prized open and your cheeks flap about like sheets on a washing line. You fight to stand up let alone move and then for a strange instance, the wind dramatically stops and you fall crashing to the ground as the 45 deg angle you've been walking at is no longer supported... But it was well worth it, one of the top sights of the trip so far, amazing views, the outdoor life style and campfires, food so bad it made us appreciate even Argentinian food!! And birds so varied and beautiful we can appreciate where twitchers get their thrills from.... |
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| Navimag boat ride across Cape Horn
Gale force winds, Gale Force 12 infact, waves 10m+ high crashing down upon the bow of the boat as Mel and I cling to the sides for our lives.... Like a scene from the film Titanic (not the car scene, (you perves)! We're on an amimal cargo ship with cattle and sheep pens, not a luxury liner...) We talk of our love for each other and tell the other that if they survive they must tell our parents we loved them...... I'm sure some amongst you may have experienced rougher seas ...... Even our captain told me that I was wrong, it was Gale Force 1, not as I had told you gale force 12. The waves were not infact 10m high but about 10cm. Infact even Stephen King would be hard pushed to put pen to paper to describe our current mill pond calm seas as anything other than .......totally, dead calm, flat and uneventful.!!!! And Ok, so we didn't even cross Cape Horn... What kind of entry would this be if I told the truth........ Hi, got on a boat to cross some of the roughest seas in the world where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet..... And, what a truely calm and uneventful voyage we had.... The worst I felt sickness wise was the nausea due to the sea sickness pills I'd just taken....(Ironic really). So instead I sit here on top deck, thanking our lucky stars for the weather that we've been blessed with so far and wondering what will be the offering that we have to give for this blessing. (Worryingly this may be Bolivia as we've heard of crazzzzzzzzy rain washing 80% of roads away.....) (Though it can't be true if it's not in "The Sun", Sun readers please let us know...(not sure we know anyone who reads the Sun???)) It's beautiful though watching the snowcapped mountains go by as we sail up the coast of Chile, spotting the odd blue whale blow up then sink back off again. Whiling away time relaxing and doing nothing.... We could nearly imagine we were on a cruise ship..... Thanks to all the people who helped to upgrade us from the cattle pens .... We now share a four person bearth and look with pity at those who arrive to breakfast half dead after sharing a bunk in a room with 22 others backing onto the cattle pens...... (Belive me, Mel loves you more than you can imagine.....) |
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| John Peel Few books I have read in my life have made me stop and think and be re-inspired to live life to the full...... Probably the greatest of these is Nelson Mandela's Autobiography which tops this list hands down but I have just read another..... John Peel margrave of the marshes His Autobiography A few people may be amazed that I can - let alone do, actually read.... Some may know that I like music, strange after growing up in a house of which I remember never a tune being played.... Music for me was a symbol of wealth, even my definition at university of wealth was to be able to buy a CD whenever I wanted, imagine having £10 (or in those days £15) of disposable income to spend on something like music... I now have more CD's than is healthy but alas nothing to do with too much money or late nights listening to John Peel but, hours driving across country to avoid listening to the local "bland" FM station.... Maybe it's a tribute to John to say that his music collection was probably too innovative and young for me.... Alas I remember him more for the Saturday mornings listening to "Home Truths" an eclectic range of stories about other people's lives.....topics that could have been (actually many were) totally banal but wound together and interwoven with a dry whit that was the voice of John Peel... I'm saddened now after reading the tale of his life in his own hand (and completing part of the book in his wifes) that I didn't listen to him more. There a trates in the book of his personalitly and .......... Wow. |
| It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...... Ok, A) I'm not too inventive, I think someone else came up with that title, and B) Mel has only let me have it on a technicality as, yes relativly it was the worst time of the period, but as you will see it really wasn't that bad....... Imagine the scene, the last night on the boat you don't sleep because, well, possibly a tad bit too much vino (Spanish for wine, my Spanish is improving as you can see....) And off to bed late. Combined with docking at 3.30am and listening to the trucks and cattle being unloaded (obviously not that much wine!!) Sitting about for most of the following two days either on buses or searching for the next bus and that companies station.... But finally you arrive.... Park Hùerquehue and Tinquilco lodge... Now although we had this on the list, due to our schedule we were not able to book the plush room (or in fact any room) so we're camping.... So instead we use the extra money to make sure that we can stay for longer and eat from the resturant and don't have to suffer any more camping meals.... (An option approved by the fat camp supervisor although possibly not due to my slender figure but rather her taste buds overriding any technical rules!) Whilst traveling (especially such big distances) you often spend so much time on the move you don't relax that much ( to all the workers back home I apologise....) So we've passed many of the touristy places and come here. Tinquilco, a holiday within a holiday, day one, arrive late, day two, sleep in (in the tent) and relax, read, write, play cards etc.... Life was looking gooooooood so goooooood. But, then came the rain, and then snow, so much so rain in fact the tent was a bit damp (my a bit damp = Mel's "it's totally flooded", truth is probably in between)..... And the rain came and came, and then came some more.... We did make it to the lodge and, like drowing rats tucked into lunch (a hot bowl of soup) with extreme gustor. And nothing to do but prep the tent for a long wet day and possibly night ahead and .... Well, chill out and relax some more and try to dry off... But in a way this sums up how great a place Tinquilco and the people were, whilst one of the guys cleared out a space for us under the shelter of the wood shed, (out came the adds to level the floor, fresh sawdust....)And we were able to move the tent into the dry...yee.... Later that night they also prepared a space for us in the lodge library (I don't know why Mel turned it down, it was above the wood burning stove in the room below, very toasty....) But back we went to the tent safe in the knowledge the rain wouldn't hurt us... We loved it so much so we stayed a couple more days doing some lovely walks, eating home made bread from the AGA, home made jams, .....oh it's food like your old nan use to make on the range.....not a burger or turkey twizler in sight.... Plus the owner of the lodge was an active musician involved in campaining in the removal of Pincochet and the dictactorship and his wife a journalist (Canadian) so some great politicial discussion and I'm about to break into her book discussing the times. So technically speaking a fantastic relaxing time, a true holiday within a holiday and some of the best time of our trip..... (And a bit of rain)..... |
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| The Perfect Valentines One of the wedding gift lists presents took us to park huerquehue in the middle of chile....an off-the-beaten track park that was stunning. Although it is the height of summer here in chile, one thing we have learnt is that the weather is anything but predictable and we witnessed a rare downfall of snow one day from the comfort of the park lodge. The following day we got up early and went on a 5 hour hike to a series of lakes in dense forest nd it can only be described as the most breathtaking walk I have experienced.....passed about 5 other hikers so we felt like explorers discovering it all for the first time. There was a fine mist rising from the gound and the thousand year old trees towering above us were dripping melting snow creating mini rainbows through the sun.......beautiful. And after this we regained strength (and warmth) in the wood-burning sauna in the woods ....divine , before heading to the lodge for a slap up valentines night meal where we were treated to an impromptu music performance by the lodge owner, patricio, who was a famous retired chilean actor/musician........what can only be described as the perfect valentines day (well, apart from the sleeping in a tent bit)!!!!! |
| We climbed an active snow-capped volcano!!
In the middle of chile is a volcano, somewhat active, that humans feel challenged to climb. We realised that despite being a little unconventional, we are human after all and the draw of the challenge awakened our adventurous streak and before we thought twice, we had booked onto a tour to do the 6 hour climb up to the top. We were kitted out with specialist gear (this was not going to be a walk in the park) including icepicks, special trousers of the plastic kind (we hoped this was not protection against weeing ourselves if the volcano went off unannounced when we were near the top), gasmask for the toxic fumes we would encounter at the summit, and some weird plastic over-pants, the purpose of which, somewhat disconcertingly, we were yet to discover! So, off we went and after only a few minutes we were zig-zagging up the volcano on ice, using icepicks to keep us stable, walking through the first cloud level to be greeted with a stunning view at about 2000 metres. But we had further to go.... Up to 3000 metres to reach our goal. After around 3 and a half hours we were grateful to reach the top as it was a pretty hard climb and took a fair bit of concentration watching our footwork at every step. And suddenly we were rewarded at the top by a stunning view of the surrounding area with other volcanoes and lakes in the distance, as well as gazing into the caldera of the volcano to hear the gurgles and rumblings of activity and to see the resulting impressive spurts of lava coming forth and splattering on the sides of this amazing volcano. Coming close to nature....I think it is fair to say that you can't come much closer than this! And if you are wondering if we had a 3 hour climb back down......no, we laughed when we put our outer-plastic-pants on to slide down bob-sley ice tunnels on our behinds all the way back down to solid ground.........glad we are still (nearly) young!!! (I have carefully left out mentioning the bit when John fell down a mini crevasse which turned out to be actually quite a large crevasse because nothing awful happened and our Mothers are also reading this blog........one to ask us for the details of when we get back or in secret email!!! |
| The Hot Springs Another of our wedding gift list items was an indulgence in the hot springs of this volcanically active region in the middle of chile. We wanted to go at night (more romantic) to bathe in the 40 degree waters under the stars but the night we wanted to go there were only the two of us booked in and they needed a minimum of 4 to take us ......and this is a perfect example of how our giftlist has worked for us......we just paid the extra and got them to take just the two of us anyway!! We had 2 hours to bathe in the pools of varying warmth, gazing at the stars twinkling from these wonderfully clear skies ......it was lovely! |
| John and mel become film stars for the day
....well nearly !! Ok - not exactly film stars, but in Santiago de Chile a tv agent came to our hotel looking for 2 english tourists to play "extras" in an episode of a famous chilean sitcom, and when they offered us payment for our time we jumped at the chance!! We were picked up at our hotel and taken to the tv studios where they gave us breakfast and provided us with costumes (an I-Love-Chile t-shirt) and put on our make-up (well, powdered our noses)! It was exactly like a scene out of Ricky Gervais' "Extras". There were another 6 people roped into playing the roles of the tourists, but all the others lived in Chile and spoke Spanish. We met the crew and main actor who was to be playing a tour guide on his first day of work. So, we all leapt onto the bus with fake logos of a fake tour company plastered onto the sides of the bus. We got driven around Santiago (great way to see the city), filming scenes - long shots, but als close-ups on us "acting" (looking out of the window, pointing at things, taking photos, discussing in English what we were seeing), etc. Not too novel (but lots of fun) for me, but for John it was the first time on a tv set, seeing how it all worked and was put together, so that was great. In the afternoon, we then went to the Marriott hotel to a suite on the 33rd floor where they had cooked us traditional Chilean lunch and there was an amazing view of the city and we then filmed a couple more scenes in the hotel lobby. It seems the lead actor was pretty famous as several fans came up and shook hands with him or asked for photos. Obviously we had to do the tourist thing and get our photo taken with Mr Famous Chile.....It was a great (and funny and a very different) way to spend a day of our trip, and one we won't forget (and how lovely to get paid for having a great day and fantastic experience)! |
| A fantastic seafood meal in Chile
An indulgence taken only thanks to our giftlist, we went to one of the best seafood restaurants in Santiago called Azul Profundo, which our basic Spanish has translated (either rightly or wrongly) as profoundly blue, which may in fact be an accurate translation as this marine-themed restaurant which makes you feel like you are eating underwater with porthole windows as nautical refences oozing from every space. It was located in the trendy region of the city and we had a wonderful meal. We indulged in a crisp bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and had a huge plate of calamari to start, followed by a speciality of Chile called Cerviche, which is raw fish and seafood heavily marinated in lemon juice which "cooks" the dish by its acidity. It was delicious. We also had a piece of fantastic sea-bass cooked in butter and garlic.....we were in our element and we can vouch that the fish and seafood in Chile is indeed out-of-this-world.....yum,yum (oh and the wine is pretty damn good too)!!!!! |
| BOO - HOO. We did not want to leave Chile because we loved it so much, but time moves on and in March, we carried on our travels into Boliva.........so, for the next installment, please read Bolivia!!! |
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| Our Hotel in Santiago |