Santaigo and the South

18 Dec Got collected this morning to go on our 7 day tour of South (of Santiago) Chile. The tour group, of around 14 including 4 Irish, seem like a nice crowd. Today we went to a little town called Pomaire ´Village of the Indians´ for breakfast and a look around at their craft shops. After that we continued down to see the Rapel dam which provides 25% of Chiles power. It was interesting to see but we have seen better. Our final stop for the day was to a little seaside town called ´Pichilemu´. We had a look around the town and then of that evening to ´Punta de Lobos´ to watch the sunset over the Pacific.

19 Dec After a desperate nights sleep on possibly the worst bed I have ever had the misfortune to rest my royal behind on we headed to a town called ´Santa Cruz´ to see an amazing museum. Its is Chiles largest privately owned museum. It has a huge collection of artifacts, cars, carriages, farm machinery, first printing presses and heaps of stuff from throughout Chiles history, very interesting. At the end of the day we arrived in a town called ´Pucon´. It’s a lovely skiing village, out of season for us, that has lots of adventure sports. We booked the volcano walk, for the 21st, and got measured up for all our necessary equipment. We all went out for dinner that night and had great auld craic getting to know the other travellers in our group J.

20 Dec Me and Frog went mountain biking this morning. Thought it would be the same as before but when I saw the bikes we were going to be using, I thought I was in over my head. They were $2000 machines and built for serious downhill stuff. We were kitted out like 2 robocops and after a 30 min 4WD trip up the side of a mountain we began our descent. It was crazy stuff and we were flying it, thru quarrys, over rock beds, through forest, water, tree trunks, ramps and water swamped woodland walkways. We were head to toe in muck and had mud in our eyes and everything. I couldn’t believe how capable of abuse these bikes were, still frog managed to break his chain. Later that night we went to the local hot springs for a late night dip in lovely hot water whilst it was really cold outside and lashing rain. It was a lovely experience. The tour organisers had beer and wine for us to drink while bathing under the stars. We sang on the bus all the way home (45mins) to Irish and German music.

21 Dec Today at 7am we were piled on the bus for our trip to a nearby volcano. It was a hard going 5 hour snow hike to the top carrying a backpack full of all the necessary equipment. At the half way point, exhausted and aching from a pulled thigh muscle from the mountain biking, I let out a wry smile when the group leaders said that weather conditions were too dangerous to go any further. Oh well, what a pity ;-) late that afternoon we were on the bus again for a tour of the lakes in the area, and along a small gravel road we got a puncture. It was nice to sit and watch the lakes and smouldering volcano in the background.

22 Dec Today we went to Puerto Montt, our southern most point of our journey. It was a small town with lots of crafts etc but was a bit of a dump. We stayed there for lunch and had a look around the markets. The good thing about a tour is they have a fair idea how long people want in a certain place. Had we done it independently we would have probably checked in for 2 nights. We then headed North to a town called Valdivia which has a strong German influence and had a look around and had some dinner.

23 Dec We took a 200km ride along the Pan American highway (runs almost uninterrupted from Alaska to the South of Chile) to a nice German town called ´Puerto Varres´ which had amaing views of the Osorno Volcano. That evening we arrived in Saltos del Lava to see the waterfall, although the waterfall was interesting, most attention was paid to Frogs nude pose.

24 Dec Hard to imagine that it´s Christmas eve. The weather is in the high 20´s and although there are a few Christmas trees and dicky didos about, people seem to be going about their normal daily lives. I think I´ll miss midnight mass in Bearna and the Ham and brown bread feast (with grainy mustard and lots of Tea) afterwards with the neighbours most. Later in the morning we went to a vineyard called Vina Baldazzi. We tasted some wine and bought a couple of bottles for our Christmas dinner and a good one for Maria Jesus and her family. While we were having lunch we got a call from the hostel saying that our booking for the 3 days over the Christmas would not be honoured as they were overbooked. We were very annoyed but they found us another place to stay not too far away, which was OK.

25 Dec Up this morning and went to the Santaigo Cathedral with Caroline for a sample of Christmas in Chile. The mass that was on was a little chapel in the cathedral but were told that a bigger one was on at 12 midday. Back to the cathedral at 12 with our 2 Mexican friends and the Cathedral was alive with TV crews, huge choir and lots of musicians. The acoustics in the Cathedral added to it all and was very impressive. Constantly resisting any religious influence on this day, Frog was spotted sitting at the back of the church enjoying the fuss.
That afternoon we went up to Cerro San Cristobal, a hill overlooking Santiago, for a day out. On the way up the hill on the electric train Frog got told off by the conductor for interfering with the electrics, he had some reason I can´t remember for doing what he did but it was funny making faces at him behind the conductors back. On top of the hill they had a crib with life size figures carved from solid wood including cows and shepards etc. It was a holy place with a big Mary on the hill top with her arms out like the Jesus on the hill top in Rio de Janeiro. We went down the other side in a cable car.
That night we went to our previously intended hostel for a Christmas party and had a good night drinking, singing, dancing and playing table tennis, strange I know.

26 Dec Fell in the door at 2.30am and up again at 8.30am to go with Maria Jesus to a town 160km away called Valaparaiso. It is a nice city if not a bit higgledy piggeldy and the obvious absence of any organised planning. There are houses painted all kinds of colours which adds to the place. We continued down the coast to the nearby holiday resort called Vina Del Mar and had a nice Mexican lunch and walked along the strand. After a few hours there we headed back to Santiago and to her house for a drink and a chat with her Dad and sister before heading back to the hostel for our final night in Santaigo.