After the rerouting of flights and shipments of both us and our luggage (went through Oslo ...) we came out from the terminal in Santiago. The amount of taxi and bus services was overwhelming and we had to wade through a throng of pestering men. Of course, we took a bus but immediately got cheated for some pesos change.
Santiago was for us a wildly bustling city, mostly because we might not have been to any wilder cities to compare with. We walked everywhere, which meant we could see much, but after a few days we began to think about leaving for Valparaiso.
The day before we left, we had planned to walk up to Cerro San Cristobal. This is a hill from where you look all over Santiago, with a huge Jesus statue on top. A cable track went up, but many chose to take the long way by foot, car or bicycle.
In spite of all the hundreds of tourists, we managed to get into a gap with three "crackpots". The oldest forced Erik to stop against the side of the road, waved a knife, cut off the camera; the three of them came and went within five seconds. Somewhat shocked we went ahead and looked up two Carabineros (police) who could help us, in fumbling English / Spanish on our part. They took us scouting in a police car, but we found none of the offenders. They drove us to the station, a fly-infested boring place with four questioning-booths, where we had to write our report.
We took the bus to Valparaiso, the port city two hours from Santiago. The city is located in a fairly large bay with Vina del Mar, the town which is to Chile what Marstrand is to the west coast of Sweden, situated only a bay north. Valparaiso mainly consists of buildings that climb the steep slopes surrounding the bay, which causes a lot of steep and winding streets and alleys. During the hot sun, we got to experience this when we did not find our Hostel for several hours.
The days in Valparaiso were spent mostly at a walk to Vina del Mar, in markets and looking for a new camera. A night out with a new-found friend, Jonny from Brighton, we got opportunities talking with beer-loving Poles and Chilean sailors - as well as time to play the accordion with some Chilean kids.
Our return ticket to Santiago was used pretty quickly. Our next idea was to take a bus ride south, arranged by a backpacker hostel, which we thought would give us great value for our pesos. But it was full, so our "free night" in Santiago turned into a planning evening. We chose to go down to Temuco, 9h by bus, to have this as a starting point to various national parks in the Chilean lake district.
When we checked out from our hostel, we acquired a traveling companion. It was Antón, a perhaps 60-65 years-old Swiss man who traveled around the world to look for a good place to retire. He had been out for six months and had just landed after a 12hr flight. He was going to check in, but when he found out that we were headed south he changed his mind with the phrase "My clothes are too warm for this climate anyway." Antón asked everybody about everything and every few minutes he stopped people on the street to ask how far it was to the station, where you could get the best chow and so on. And he did not hesitate if it was necessary to run a bit here and there - a real powder-old man (krutgubbe, LoL!! nice Google fail. The dictionary sez "tough old boy")
In Temuco, we visited a regional market and checked out souvenirs, but then went on to Pucon, a town nearby known for its backpacker life. There was a good selection of inns and activities. A short lady convinced us to check out her newly constructed "Hospedaje" nearby, and since it was both good and cheap, we stayed there four nights.
Pucon is magnificently situated with Vulcan Villa Rica only a few kilometers away, constantly seen in the corner of your eye. The city was pretty touristic but still charming. We spent one day on a ride to Lago Calburga and one day to hike in the national park Quinquehue.
The next long bus ride took us to Puerto Varas, a small town near Puerto Montt. The bus we rode in was actually to Puerto Montt, it dropped us on the highway near Puerto Varas. But fortunately the bus system in Chile works so that you only wave in the bus you want to get on, wherever you are, so we could jump on another bus into town. Puerto Varas was beautiful and we spent two nights here. The second day we took a bumpy minibus up to Lagos los Saltos and the National Park Vicente Perez Rosales.
A short trip to Puerto Montt and waiting for a sign of Anastasia began. We spent a total of three nights in Puerto Montt, constantly renewing our stays at various hostels. We took a day trip to Chiloe in order to see "Palafitos" - houses on stilts. These turned out to be nothing more exciting than houses on stilts.
Finally, the 19th, we were able to wander down to Marina Oxxean and meet AK & TH. As you know, several more days at Puerto Montt awaited, but now we had a boat and two captains who could manage our time. We have also had time to update our map, "Samuel and Erik" to the right.
Guest bloggers Erik&Samuel
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