I have realised that I have been quite slack with the whole blogging thing....and haven't written nearly as much as I thought I would. I am going to try and write a little bit more frequently, so everyone knows what we have been up to over this side of the world.
Currently we are in a place called La Serena, in Chile. It is basically a huge beach where all the Chileans flock to in Feb for their vacation...so the beach is full of families and kids. There is also however, a fun nightlife and lots of clubs come alive from about 11pm onwards, which overlook the beach and play good music. We are staying at a really cool family run hostel called 'Marias Casa' (meaning Marias house in spanish)...which is full of tusacan style villas and huge garden, with a big plum tree and lots of outside tables and chairs to enjoy the sunshine! I have really enjoyed being here and we have met some great people too. The family who runs the hosel are rally lovely and one of their friends took us out last night to a club. He had a mini van, and about 12 of us squished into the van...and drove to the club, whch was fun!
Before La Serena, we were in Pichilemu, which is further South of Chile and has great surf. Andrew finally got to put his board to use....and even I got in the water and had my first ever surf lesson. Again, a great place and we met some really great people and shared a very fun game of Kings! We stayed in a place called Pichilemu Surf Hostel and I would defintiely recommend it to anybody. Its basically like being in a shared beach house with lots of randoms that soon become your friends. Amazing 360 views of everything around you and overlooks the whole beach.
Before Pichilemu we spent time in the Port town of Valparaiso and also Vina Del Mar. Before that we were in Santiago, which is actually a beautiful city. So clean and easy to get around.
Before Santiago, we were right down South...in Patagonia. We spent quite a bit of time in a place called Puerta Natalas, where we did a five day trek from. This trek was called the W trek and it was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.,,,mentally and physically. We trekked about 90km in 5 days and camped each night. On our first day we camped right next to a glacier, very high up. It was pretty amazing. Although admittedly, I was happy when it was over....and was very eager to get into the sunshine further North.
Oh...did I mention our thirty hour bus ride from El Bolson (Argentina) to El Calafate????! Hideous! We booked our tickets very last minute and realised we were on the worst bus known to man. Seats hardly went back....no food......terrible air conditioning and heating system and a toilet which you could smell through the air con ducts. YUCK. Never again!
So....next stop from here, bus back to Santiago then head straight down to Ritoque (another beach town!) After that we fly to Salvador, Brazil, for Carnavale. We are meeting out friends Alyssa and Ed there, and are staying in a small apartment for a couple of days. Am looking forward to carnavale....should be quite the fiesta!
Anyway, I leave you now as I have to have my 5pm siesta! :)
Until next time!
