Best experiences:
- trip from San Pedro to Bolivia: breathtaking scenery
- horse riding with the gaucho in Cochamo: Indiana Jones, get lost!
- trekking in Torres del Paine with Jonathan: testing our limits and opting for margaritas at the beach next time!
- a day at the estancia with Ben: stepping back in time and galloping full speed through cow fields
- climbing the Villarica volcano with Charlotte: testing our limits (again!) and sliding down on our butts!
- bus rides, even the night ones: watching the scenery, learning Spanish from stupid movies, and talking to random neighbors
- people watching while sipping coffee at a plaza...especially in Argentina, since you get real coffee there!
- breakfast: sitting down at the communal tables and never knowing who you are going to meet
- New Year's eve and being 'adopted' by a Chilean family...fake champagne with egg-white froth
- goofing with Jonathan: so easy to laugh and be stupid...brings the kid out of you
- horse trip at la Cumbre and dinner with the old couple
- meeting people from all over, bumping into them days and weeks later 1,000km away

Best food moments:
- Asado in Cafayate, La Cumbre, and while horse riding in Cochamo
- Empanadas in Cafayate and La Cumbre
- real lomo steak in Bariloche with Charlotte
- Soup and rice with Jonathan while camping
- ice cream in Mendoza
- 1/2 a fanta with Jonathan at the last leg of our trek
- cafe in Salta
- pastries in Bariloche
- pisco in Valparaiso
- plato unico in Putre: one choice meal- rice, egg, hot dog... amazing when stuck at 4,000m
- mate and terrere with Dani and Esteban in Cafayate
- tiramisu in Bariloche with Charlotte
- raspberries in Pucon
- dinner in the mountains of La Cumbre and breakfast with homemade dulche de leche
- dinner in Mendoza with Ben, yummy wine! yummy desert!
- sandwiches with avocado in Chile...the best avocados ever!

Unique moments (so many really, practically one per day, which makes you feel so alive, but here are a few):
- playing with kids in Bolivia
- old woman on the bus to Chiloe
- old woman at the embassy
- playing scrabble on the harbor in Coquimbo
- landing in Arica in the middle of the desert
- flying over the glaciers, wao
- repelling the 30m cascade in Puerto Varas, why?
- snoring guy in Mendoza, that Charlotte almost through out his bed
- playing cards with Argentinians in El Chaten, with Jonathan
- couple at the hostal in Valdivia: funky house, welcoming hosts, learned a lot about the culture
- opening the door to the hotel San Francisco in Mendoza: finally a real towel and shower
- racing through Ushuaia to get a bus...funny now, but almost belongs to the section below
- 3 am at the bus station with Jonathan...almost belongs below as well
- speaking with Argentinians all night and realizing I'm doing it in Spanish!
- walking in the desert and feeling like it's the end of the world
- walking on the salt lake and feeling like it's the end of the world
- walking in the cochamo valley (so green) and thinking it's the end of the world!

What I won't miss:
- sharing dorm rooms with 7 strangers, especially the ones that snore
- the WC at the bus terminals
- the taxi ride from outside Mendoza back to the shopping center: noooooooo!
- the police station and hospital in Valparaiso
- completos: those nasty hot dogs in Chile...not that I've eaten one, just the sight is gross!
- regeton: annoying music that all the Chilean kids listen to...same beat, no rhythm
- Nescafe....people of Chile, you need to drink real coffee!!!

All in all, the trip was just a fantastic experience...the positives far outweigh the negatives, which anyways become something to laugh about later....except sleep deprivation which is never a laughing matter...especially when you see how I look (picture of me in Bariloche at the coffee house) without sleep.

I can't say it enough to anyone considering a backpacking trip: go for it! It's so much fun, so enriching, so enlightening, and so re-energizing: makes you feel so alive and appreciative of what you have but most importantly it brings you back to earth and puts so many things into perspective. Just priceless! (hmm, sounds like a commercial).

Best of remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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For the little story....I landed in NYC and eventually had to take a bus from the city to the Cape. Well, guess what! We had not even left the city....actually we were crossing the Bronx...when the bus door flung open right when we're going 55mph on the highway!!! the door opened perpendicularly if you can picture it, not along the side of the bus....so you can imagine the big scare!!! thankfully, there was no car in the lane next to us, or it couldn't been a disaster. We had to pull over and sit on the side of the highway for an hour for another bus to come and take us to Providence. So of course I missed my connection and had to wait there over an hour, and worse the family friend picking me up in Hyannis had to also wait an extra 2 hours. What a day! In the end it took me 10hrs to get to my grandparents! After all the bus riding I did in South America, it had to be my bus from NY to the Cape that breaks down!!!

Maybe it's a sign...and I should just keep traveling...tbd....

The end remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Loved Buenos Aires! Found a cute hostal in San Telmo, the old section of town where Tango was born. Walked all around town the first day...mostly to situate myself. I've been here a few times for work so the streets look familiar...just needed to get the lay of the land again.

On Saturday, Ben arrived around midday. What a treat to spend a week with him. We're both starting new chapters in our lives> he just quit his job the day before flying over and will moving to Paris too in about a month. So a week to relax in Argentina was exactly was the dr. ordered! Although 'relax' might not be the right word...we packed so many things in a week, I think we both need another whole week to recover!

Day 1, we had lunch in San Telmo and then toured BA from the main square (with the casa rosa, the pink house = the white house, first pic) to Recoleta (that's where the famous cemetery is, but also the best ice cream spot) to Puerto Madero (the converted hangars on the harbor where fancy restaurants have taken over) to dinner in Palermo, the chic residential area where boutique stores, bars and restaurants have popped up in the last few years (=soho-like).

Day 2, we went for a day trip to Tigre up in the delta, where the city people hang out on the weekends to escape the heat and pollution (see pics 2 and 3). The delta is a maze of rivers lined with houses and country clubs, from modest to rich complexes. The water is brown so no swimming, thank you very much, although it didn't stop some people from jumping in. Instead we took one of the numerous taxi boats, like the ones in Venice almost!, to ride around the delta. We stopped for coffee to people watch and then headed back to the harbor. There's a famous puerto de frutos, so we were excited to go explore. Unfortunately the name has nothing to do with the real thing....we were expecting mountains of pineapples, mangos, strawberries, and the like, but instead found ourselves in the middle of arts and crafts from China and popcorn machines everywhere....yuk!! Needless to say we turned around and headed back to the city for a steak dinner. With the current farmers' strikes though, the lomo steak is hard to find. Milk, meat and veggies are not getting in the cities...so we settled for a flank steak instead. After dinner, we headed over to Bar Sur for a tango show. We negotiated our way in (prices tend to be an aberration...for tourists) and ended up with only 10 other people in this tiny bar with a 4 person band and 2 tango couples dancing. Such an intimate setting...great show. Late night.

Day 3, we went to El Ombu estancia 2hrs north of the city, in the pampa. Two german girls from the hostal joined us...good fun. A day at the estancia consists of chilling around the garden and pool, eating a delicious asado served under the trees in the garden, and going horseriding as much as you want or can! The setting was spectacular...an old colonial house surrounded by huge trees with hanging branches to provide shade...and stables not even 100yards from the house. Ben and I chilled around the pool for a bit, overlooking the pampa, enjoyed lunch and the house Malbec, and then went riding for a couple hours. My first horse was a treat...listened to me...padded saddle...great fun... Ben's horse was a bit temperamental so we switched for the second ride. Yikes that horse was dynamite. We went galloping full speed across the fields with those black angus cows looking at us, probably laughing, except being cows they just gave us blank stares...meanwhile I"m holding tight for my life...the horse wouldn't stop until it got to the next gate...plus 2 french guys riding with us who thought they were new-born cowboys kept inciting the horses to gallop further along. My legs hurt for 3 days. Ben's too. In the bus, we sat like 2 cowboys, very sad sight!
That night, we spent in San Antonio de Areco, the gaucho capital, a small village really...known for its silver carvings and souvenirs. We ended up chilling in that town for day 4 as there were no buses out until the pm.

Day 4, we got a bus to Mendoza at around 6pm...supposed to be a 12hr bus ride, but due to the farmers on strike blocking the roads, it took us 20hrs. Poor Ben!! He got a bad sore throat from the AC on top of it. The movies were ok, but the screen kept jumping so even the little entertainment we had gave us a headache! At 11pm, we stopped in the middle of nowhere at this tiny terminal for some food. Probably they weren't able to get the usual dinner boxes to the bus, so they improvised dinner at the bus stop in this little cafeteria....ravioli....of who knows what. Probably should've passed.

Day 5, we arrived in Mendoza around 1pm...dropped our bags at the hostal...and headed to Alta Vista bodega in Chacras, 20min south of the city. Great tour. It's the same bodega I went to with Charlotte, except then we had missed the last tour and only had done the tasting. This time I did both. The place was in full action, with the harvest just ending. Perfect timing. That evening, Ben and I went to a tango show near our hostal. A little over the top...too showy...and obnoxious english tourist who laughed too loud and too often. But other than that, it was good to see the difference with the Bar Sur experience in BA.

Day 6, we headed to Maipu for some bike and wine tour. Again, same as I had done before...this time we hit different bodegas...which thus made it fun for me! In any case, it was good chilling time with Ben, my priority of course!...we got to tour a small family run bodega and a huge industrial one....what a contrast...and how interesting to compare quality control and wine level expectation. I don't even understand why a bodega would be ok to produce medium quality wines. Why wouldn't you only want to produce the best wine. Why bother drink the so/so stuff is what i'm really asking!!! That night, we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner.. steak for Ben and steak tartare for me. It's still impossible to find a real lomo steak, the kind that melts in your mouth so I guess it means Ben will have to come back to visit another time. BTW, we did fit in an ice cream from my favorite shop before dinner. Yet it didn't stop us from trying some deserts, including a coco tart with dulce de leche. I know, i know. I said i would never eat that thing again...but i did...and i truly enjoyed it!!

Day 7, we got on a short bus ride to Upsallata, at the foot of the Andes. The idea was to hike around the parks there, but they all closed last weekend. We did end up going for a nice hike in a gorge near our hostal, but it wasn't the big hike to Aconcagua (highest peak in south america). That's ok though, 2 hrs hiking plus 1 hour walk to town was plenty of exercise. The town was the equivalent of those deserted run down towns in the middle of Alabama or Texas somewhere, like you see in movies. Except this is Argentina at the bottom of the mountains. Not sure of the analogy is working...but hopefully you get the feeling we got when we walked into town. Had a beer, yes a novelty for me....like I said, i'm trying new things for my 30th year... and grabbed a bite in this desolate restaurant. We were the only ones there (at first) and the only ones staying at the hostal too. It's like they opened it up just for us. The fridge in the kitchen was defrosting...the place is about to shut down for the season. So for once it was quiet!!! hehe. We had the room for ourselves...2 triple bunk beds...yes, 3 beds on top of each other, a first!!! not sure how you get to the top one. No fun sleeping up there, nor on the floor one...so we picked the middle ones! I guess you had to be there.

Day 8, we got a 10am bus to Santiago. The ride through the Andes is spectacular...great rock formations and incredible colors all over. The sky was clear which made for an even more impressive contrast. Our driver was a bit of a Schumacher and we got to Santiago 1 hr early! Actually, the border crossing was probably faster than expected, only 1hr, so the trip ended up being shorter. That left us with a full afternoon in Santiago, which I toured with Ben, for the 4th time!

That evening we ended up bumping into 2 dutch friends I had made in La Cumbre. We caught up over pisco sours and empanadas...and celebrated Ben's last night!

Day 9, Ben and I had just enough time to grab a fruit juice on the main square and a few last minute sunrays, before he had to leave. So sad!!! I ended up chilling at the hostal, the infamous Casa Roja (hostal where I started my trip 5 months ago), which has grown on me and that I actually enjoy now (my room is on the 2nd floor, far from the bar...so that helps!). I also bumped into a german friend from Valparaiso, so we hung out together and went to an improv show....very cool....good laughs...even if I didn't understand everything.

So there you have it....Ben's 8 days in South America...good he has a week to recover when he gets back!! hehe. Now it's time for me to prep my return!!! yikes!!!

Buenos Aires remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On Friday, I made may way to La Cumbre, a small town 2hrs north of Cordoba to this cute little hostal (see first pic). The town is a weekend-holiday destination for wealthy families in Cordoba or BA. But it remains quaint and very ´villagy´if that makes sense (not flashy, not commercial, just simple and unpretentious). The hostal is some old english-style house reconverted into a hostal....no more than 25 beds...a perfect number so you can get to know everyone...a big dining room that felt like someone´s house, not a hostal...a garden with BBQ patio...and a pool.... all that will a treelined entrance to the house....does it sound perfect or what... i ended up staying until Wednesday!!!

Lucked out and got to meet some great people too, which makes all the difference. The owner was super welcoming and organized asados for us and an empanadas bday party for one of the guests (see pic of all the different kind of empanadas...they are folded a different way according to the filling: meat, chicken, veggies, etc). You felt you were visiting him (and his 4 retrievers) instead of backpacking. Awesome feeling.

On Sunday, I went on a 2 day horse ride across the Sierras, the rolling hills of Cordoba....more like flat mountains...not much vegetation...just grass and those feathery plants again (like in front of our house). But great scenery...like the end of the world...very peaceful. Two irish couples had signed up so I tagged along, but soon after another Irish girl and an American girl caught up with us for the ride. Fun crowd! Only 3 of us knew how to ride, but all the first timers did a great job. The horses have this funny trot so you stay seated instead of lifting yourself each time. At first it was comfortable, but after 2 days, my back was killing...i prefer the standing trot. Maybe carrying a backpack didn´t help...or sleeping in a bed the shape of a hammock.

The highlight of the trip, other than the riding itself, was the host family in the mountains who welcomed us to their little camping site. They have a tiny house...more like a 2 room construction...one is the kitchen, the other the pantry/bedroom. The hosts (2 sisters, 1 brother) were such characters.... looked like they were 90, but only in their 70´s... true Argentinian hospitality...we couldn´t get up to clear the table or help with dishes... we tried over and over but if we had anymore it would´ve been insulting. Such lively and friendly people...very caring...and also curious about our lives.

You should´ve seen the kitchen... two old stoves, that you put wood in... from the last century... and messy...the whole place was messy ...when we first got there, I thought in what dump did we end up in...the yard is full of debris, old toilet, metal pieces, just stuff (see pic with the 2 horses tied up).... and the kitchen was just as messy... just random things stuffed under the stoves, on the shelves, etc... but it didn´t bother any of us....the charisma of our hosts was just too charming and inviting. For dinner, the hostess made fresh pasta and some delicious chicken dish... and of course empanadas to start...so tasty....afterwards we drank mate with the host...a great honor!

Then at around midnight, the hosts took us up to our cabin on top of the hill...a cute litte house in the middle of nowhere (see picture of house with cactus)... no electricity, but running water... the hostess insisted on making the beds herself, but we did lend her a hand... they practically tucked us in, they were so sweet.

After a ´grace mat´ (ie: sleeping in), we headed down to the ´main´house for breakfast... eggs and bacon....how perfect for St Patty´s day! After much kissing and hugging, we got back on the horses for the 4 hr trip home. The second day of riding was just awesome...going through fields instead of following paths...not too sunny, just enough without burning (unlike the first day)...crossing rivers and climbing hills... so adventurous!

Back in La Cumbre, we headed to town for dinner to celebrate our trip...and St Patty...but to be honest most of us were tired and happy to head to bed not too late.

Tuesday...another chill day...another asado...Wednesday, the last chill day....and bus to Cordoba.

Now it´s Thursday....went to Carlos Paz (the 'it' place for Cordobans who want to chill by the water during the day and go clubbing at night), but it´s too hot to walk around...will go read the paper on a terrace...then make my way back to the city to catch my night bus to Buenos Aires.

Tango city, here I come (not that I can dance to save my life...but I´ll enjoy the street performances!).

La Cumbre remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Got to Cordoba Wednesday am (the 11th) and thankfully my bed at the hostal was free so I could sleep a few hours! Big hostal...a little too travelers-factory for me...and plus I heard later on they had bed bugs problems (I escaped!)...so glad i only had 2 nights there.

Toured Cordoba in the afternoon...a lot of churches... this city was the home of Jesuits for many years...they build a lot of schools in the city and estancias (ie: farms) in the country side to provide for the schools. Still to this day, Cordoba is know for being the city of academia.

Such a contrast to Mendoza. Cordoba is afterall the 2nd biggest city of the country. Very commercial....stores everywhere...a good few blocks of pietonal streets in the center....but just too crowded for me... you don´t really enjoy sitting on the terraces there....although if you walk away a little bit, you can find some neat cafe overlooking little plazas...just have to look for them.

By chance, I ended up bumping into Lilian, a fellow french traveler that Charlotte and I had met in Pucon. How random!! It´s happened to me quite a few times now that I have to wonder how many other travelers I could´ve bumped into...all the missed connections. Anyways, how lucky to cross path with someone you know! We ended up checking out the bar scene with some other travelers, including a french guy who does magic shows in the street to earn enough money to keep traveling around. The poeple you meet...always interesting!

The next day, Lilian and I took a bus ride to Alta Gracia to check out the Che museum and a Jesuit estancia. Some cultural stuff...and a good meal.

Finally on Friday, I headed up to the Sierras (the mountains) of Cordoba. Per the hostal´s recommendation, I went to La Cumbre. And what a gem!!! See next entry!

Cordoba and the Sierras remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So in the end, I went to the Vendimia Acto Central on Saturday night. I had a ticket for Sunday since Sat was sold out, plus I was told the first night was a bit boring with the whole election of the Queen. Anyways, I ended up going to the outdoor theater where the event was taking place thinking there would be other activities outside...zip...after walking 1 hr to get there, I figured I might as well buy a scalper ticket and get in...not wanting to walk all the way back there again on Sunday. So that´s what I did....found a decently priced ticket...and got in just in time...and what a great show it was!!! Sort of like an Olympic production....300 dancers or more...taking you through the history of the Vendimia...a la ¨here´s the earth, and the sun, and water, and the pilgrims, and the Spanish, and the vineyards, and tango dancing¨...you see what I mean? a huge dance for each theme... all set in this outdoor greek theater with a 4 level stage with white panels in the back for some colorful projections.... I thought the show was extremely well done...some dances were a little amateurish, not everyone in queue, but it made it all even more special and authentic. The theater was packed...no assigned seating, except your section...so I ended up standing the whole time since I came late...people must have come at 6pm for the 10pm show!.
After the dancing, the special vendimia committee reads outloud the votes for the Queens...all 17 of them stand on stage in a row...and when their name is called out, they wave to the crowd. Mind you there were over 150 votes, so it took a good half hour to get through the election. The crowds were going wild...some Queens had big time fans with banners, noise makers, ever fireworks like in soccer games. Finally the Queen is elected and gives a small speech. And to clore the night: a huge firework display...at least 30min if not 40min. Insane! Great show, but i couldn´t help thinking how much it must have cost and how the city could´ve use the money in other ways....hmmmm. Walked home (no buses available.... hmmm, maybe $2K from the fireworks could´ve gone to a bus service to take people back to town??!!!)...back at the hostal around 2am.

So glad I ended up going the first night.... can´t always rely on ´information´ from fellow travelers. Sunday, I ended up going to the horse track. It was supposed to be the big opening day of the season. Well, the track is quite a site... very sad sight....the bleachers are concrete benches 10rows up, falling apart...don´t think safety is a major concern here....the betting booths are these tiny wooden huts...and the grounds are just dirt paths and parked cars all over. People come here to have their asado between cars...probably go bet once and a while...but just chill, eat, & drink mate. There was a big Vendimia race at 16hr or so...and for that, the crowds went wild...good race...a lot of shouting of course...fun to people watch...some gauchos, some families (somehow the kids always want the parents to buy them stuff...unreal!!... all the kids were running around with these blow up pink panthers and hammers... weird!), but no ´fancy crowds´like you would find in Chantilly or Saratoga.

That night, ended up hanging out with some french girls I had met on my first visit to Mendoza...they are working in wine and spending a few months here. They cooked dinner: liver! now is that french or what! Then they told me that the kilo only cost 1 euro, I almost wanted to faint on the spot...what did i end up eating???

Monday was a chill day...and for everyone´s last night at the hostal, we went to Azafran, the restaurant I had been to with Charlotte for the last night. Great food...great wine... long night!

But yet another circle completed.... now off to Cordoba! a short night bus...only 10hrs!

Mendoza remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bus ride from Tucuman to Mendoza wasn´t that much fun afterall....stopped all the time....so not too great to sleep....plus had some guy snoaring 2 rows ahead of me....and a kid throwing up behind me (kids are always throwing up on buses here, not surprising with all junk food they eat!). Ok, on that note, to something positive:

The Harvest in Mendoza!! It´s a week long celebration to elect the Vendimia Queen 2008 amongst about 20 or so regional queens....sort of like a Miss America pagent! All the stores have pics of their favorite queens in their windows....it´s funny to see how everyone gets into it. Every day there´s a special event of some sort, from folklore dancing to Cuban music to Tango on the street to kids´ puppet shows, etc. On Thursday, I went to the Italian square where Italian-decent Mendozans were celebrating the vendimia, with food stands, singing and dancing. Super fun, but so late. Events don´t start until 10pm. I don´t know how people function the next day...at least I can sleep in. No wonder there´s siesta from 1 to 5pm. Also, quite surprised to see so many elderly people in the audience...probably to reminisce the good old times.

Last night (Friday) was the first show of the Vendimia parade (well a short version of it, ie: only the floats with the queens)....so it´s more like the presentation of the contestants. I ended up going to this restaurant -with fellow travelers from the hostal- which happen to overlook the parade 10 floors up... fun!...people were cheering on and clapping for their favorite queens. Pretty roudy crowd. Afterwards, everyone meets up at the Independence square for some live music. We ended up grabbing a drink at a cafe on the square and meeting some young Mendozans eager to find out about where we came from and tell us about their trips (it´s funny, most people you meet will immediately tell you about how they went to this or that country in Europe or tell you about a distant cousin living in France or Spain). Anyways, good times... unfortunately quite late again since the music in the square kicked off at midnight! (do i sound like I´m 90 and can´t stay up past 1am...hmm... i´ll stop making comments then on the late nights...it´s just part of the culture here, so now you get the point).

Ok I lied, one more comment about sleep: after the late night to watch the 1st parade, you have to get up by 10am to go watch the Real Parade. It actually passes right in front of the hostal...how convenient! I was walking around at 9:30 as people were finding a viewing spot on the side of the street, buying coffee from the ´coffee guys on their bikes´ and reading the paper....so peaceful...like the calm before the storm... within 30min, it´s like the flood gates opened and hundred and hundreds of people took over the sidewalks. I don´t know what´s in those thermos, but the energy level was crazy!

So for the real parade, each float is preceeded by gauchos from the area where the queen is from. So many horses...with cowboys in their festive outfits...really cool to watch... i´ll post pics of the close-ups so you can see the intricate costumes, the boots, the stirrups and the knifes in their back...and the kids dressed up as gauchos too riding with their dads...so cute!

The floats are themed around the vendima: big bottle of wine, corkscrews, even a live asado (BBQ), vineyards, wine jugs, etc. The queen has a ´court´riding with her who are responsible for throwing goodies to the crowds....mostly grapes and candy and pictures of the queen, but also apples, pears and melons! so you gotta watch out! Kids are running around ecstatic trying to catch everything that´s thrown to the crowd, but believe it or not parents and the elderly viewers are fighting just as much to catch something! Some kids come prepared with sticks with a basket at the end, so the queens can just deposit the fruit and candy. It´s practically a sport...better off watching from the sidelines!

Amongst the floats and gauchos, there´s also folklore dancers from the Andean culture...some with big scary masks, others with colorful hats and costumes... and of course tons of music! A really good show!

So now everyone is resting, because tonight is the big election (starts at 10pm of course and will last super late). The show is so popular that it´s on again tomorrow and monday as well. I have a ticket for tomorrow ...so I end up skipping the whole election process which I was told was pretty boring anyways...but I´ll still go to the park and witness all the dancing & co.

So that´s the latest on the Vendimia. Earlier in the week I went on a bike tour of the Maipu vineyards. Ended up hanging out with some English travelers who were on the bus with me to the bike rental. Fun times...these English, really on a mission to get pissed (as they say)...heard so many crazy stories in a few hours...could write a booK! So much laughing! Unfortunately, they had to head back early, so I continued on to another vineyard by myself... and by luck I was the only visitor so had the whole terrace for myself, overlooking the vineyards and the Andes mountains in the background...such a pretty terrace, with white Tuscan-type umbrellas, so peaceful.... rested there an hour and then girls from my hostal walked in...so I ended up hanging out with them the rest of the night (ie: cooking pasta to soak up all the wine! hehe). I love how you get to meet new people all the time... you make ´friends´ in a few hours, share some fun travel stories and your ´previous´life....and then move on...before you get on people´s nerves and viceversa...so it´s like everyone is always in a good mood and friendly. The best is when you get up for breakfast...you never know who you are going to meet, but for sure you´ll end up talking to someone and possibly making a friend for the day.

Finally, the next day, the girls from the hostal who bumped into me at the vineyard, had planned a day trip to some thermal pools, so I joined along. Popular place for the locals... tons of hot water pools set in this Arizona-canyon type environment, red rocks and cactus all around. Great spot to relax & get some sun. Plus, there was a lazy river, so I got some exercise swimming around a few times! (no sulphur smells, as the water was treated for the pools....not like the natural thermal pools in Bolivia or northern Chile).

So now you´ve caught up on my week in Mendoza, chilling away. Got to fit a movie too, tons of reading, an asado at the hostal, and sangria drinks with Basque travelers, a first!!

Off to nap before the big election of the Vendimia queen!

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After a couple days of chill time in Salta (reading the paper on the plaza over a coffee, pressed OJ, & little pastries as well as going to a few movies...only 3 or 4 of us in the room each time...big huge comfy theater...$4 a seat... too expensive though for locals and probably not fun since not dubbed for them), I made it back to Cafayate....is that a run-on sentence or what!?

Cafayate is that cute little town I had visited for a night last week....the one in the middle of the vineyards at the foot of the pre-Andes mountains. The town is based around this huge square with cafes and artisanal shops all around. At first sight, it might look like a tourist trap of a town, but actually the tourists are mostly Argentinians! After a few days there, I was already making friends either from the empanada house (the best in town...with goat cheese even....such creative recipes...it's like crepes, you can make them with whatever filling inspires you!) or from walking through the canyon (beautiful hike to hidden cascades...felt like canyons in a Western movie...the cactus, the red rocks, and tons of those feather plants, like the one if front of my house...in France) or from the hostal. On Tuesday, the Argentinians staying at the hostal decided to cook an asado....mind you it was 9pm and I was having wine and cheese (ie: my dinner), but for them eating at 11pm is totally normal...so I essentially had 2 dinners that night. So much fun though... I'll post the pics soon...the 2 guys from the hostal prepared everything...heating the coal in a ' brouette' (can't remembre the word in english) and then cooking all this meat... filet mignon is famous of course but really mostly eaten in restaurants...at home Argentinians cook all sorts of cuts, some favorites being boudin and sausages. Tons of wine too needless to say. Went dancing in this abandonned building turned disco...no roof...so felt like dancing outdoors- fun! And in bed around 7am or so. It's still dark then, so you feel like it's a decent hour to go to sleep....except your roommates are getting up in an hour or two....so very short night!

One of the reasons I went back to Cafayate was to take part in the Serenadas festival, 3 days of folklore music concerts. On Mon, Tues, Wed, the town hosted little concerts on the main square...for the local bands to play...quite cute to see some of the younger ones sing...others really need to keep their day jobs... And then, on Thurs, Fri, Sat, it's the official festival. People from all over the region show up...most of them end up camping...although not like Woodstock or anything...it's a pretty well organized event...campsites & co. A few blocks from my hostal, this empty lot got turned into concert venue...the real deal with a big stage, lights, good sono & co. There were about 100 chairs set up in front of the stage, but most locals get the 'popu' tickets ($5)..which is more fun if you ask me... you can walk around, dance, get some food or drinks (asados everywhere of course!). Outside the concert venue, the streets are closed off with vendors and food stands all over. Also all the empty walls are covered by Serenadas and drawings (not graffitis, but well written poems with pics to illustrate the theme). Great atmosphere!

Now for the music.... it's folklore music (could be Bolivian, Peruvian, Chilean...as long as it's rooted with the Andean culture)... there were about 30 bands or so per night... started at 10pm ish and lasted until 7am!! Crazy... some bands got to play at 6am!!! And it's still packed!! For the first few hours, it was mix of the more rock type music and the tradional folklore music, with songs to the Pachamama (mother earth) and to the vendimia or to prosperity (some sounded like American Indian chants... I hope I'm not offending anyone writing this... poems chanted like a lamentation...) or the Cumbre, the local folklore dance where men and women dance in pairs, courting each other by teasing each other with a hanckerchief. The men wear all white, puffy pants and Spanish type jacket with a red & black blanket over their shoulder, as well as these cowboy boots that have an accordeon type of texture to them. During the dance, they perform this elaborate tap dancing routine... it almost felt like Riverdance. As the night goes on though, the bands are more rock-like...so by 3am the audience is totally excited. The young ones sing all the words and jump up and down...like at any concert you might say...but it felt special, because the music definitively felt folkloric, yet people from all ages were enjoying it (tons of families earlier in the night too). Anyways, as you might suspect, I once again ended up going to bed as the sun was coming out. And no, these were not nights of excess!!! just fun entertainment. After 2 nights though, I hit my quota. The town was getting more and more crowded. The first night was actually more fun as you could walk around easily....by friday though you were elbowing everyone and drunk people were bumping into you...so I skipped out on Saturday, the biggest night of all. Instead I headed 5hrs south to Tucuman....decided to get a good night's sleep before my night bus to Mendoza. Unfortunately the AC was blasting on the bus down, so now I have a stupid cold (well, the short nights probably didn't help either!).

Nothing much to report on Tucuman... ugly city...important though because this is were the Independence was signed...but other than that, it's super hot & humid...no mountain air & no relief at night... no cinemas either!!! sniff sniff... but anyways, off tomorrow night...looking forward to the bus ride... the movies & the bingo!!

The Vendimia just started in Mendoza...tons of parades, food fairs, and other events around the Harvest. Should be fun!

Cafayate remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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- women will breastfeed their kids just about anywhere: on the plaza, in line at the grocery store, practically standing up in the street....but the weirdest thing is, they will breastfeed their kids up until 3 or 4 years old!!! quite shocking when you first see it!

- the cars in Argentina are a mix of rusty old carcasses and new Europeans cars. The old cars are mostly old Renault's and Peugeot's...so weird to see a R12 or R9 driving around...those cars are at least 30yrs old. And it's not like old cars in Cuba that look like collectibles...these cars belong to the dump. A lot of old Fiat's too, the tiny little ones especially. No wonder car accidents is of of the highest cause of mortality in Argentina (and Chile too). The newer cars though are mostly WV. I guess the French weren't able to keep the monopole!

- back to kids: they tend to stay up late, very late. Parents take them all over, including babies that are only a few days old...best way to get immune to the world, I guess.

- stores close from 1-5pm or even 6pm sometimes. It's so hot during the afternoon, it's siesta time. Not in the big cities of course. But anywhere else, forget trying to buy food in the middle of the afternoon. The towns are deserted.

- dogs: they are everywhere... so many stray dogs...so sad...but also a little scary at times. In Valparaiso, before the big parade of independence day, the police goes around killing dogs so they don't walk across the parade (according to my teacher). In San Pedro, I did see the police shoot stray dogs in the middle of the street...yuk...must have been a fight or something, but I missed that part.

- the bottled water in Argentina contains such high levels of sodium...makes you feel bloated all the time....tap water is just fine.

- In Argentina, the most popular drink for young people is Fernet-Coke. Fernet is originally a sort of medicinal drink, like a vermouth, that the Germans brought over. Now it's the biggest hit and of course only the Branca brand. Definitively an acquired taste.

- Argentinians love to dress up, especially in the city, and even the kids. People always ask me the difference between Chilenos and Argentinians...there are so many...i can't begin to list them...but one quick observation is the way they dress...Argentinians definitively keep up with Europe and care about their looks (especially in BA...the other towns resent them...kind of like Parisians and the rest of France). In Chile, sadly because of economic reasons, people dress with what they can mostly, which resembles the left over rack at Marshalls.

- Both Argentinians and Chileans are very hospitable in general...the latin culture. But sometimes, I guess people don't know how to act with tourist/foreigners, so they just ignore you...like you're a ghost. It's so weird when it happens...people will cut in front of you in a line at the grocery store, or in queue for a computer, or to get bags out of the bus. It's not like French or Italians cutting lines...it's an older woman just walking right by you as if you weren't there...or a young guy just talking over you as if you weren't in the middle of a sentence. You have to be there to understand it, I think. Ben and Jonathan both witnessed, so I"m not exaggerating!

Anyways, just a few things for now, as I'm sitting on a terrace and people watching. Just for the record...

funny observations remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After a couple days in Mendoza resting (and eating ice cream!), I headed north to Salta (another night bus, this time with full service, hot food, blankets and even Bingo!!). The Hispanic architecture stands out in Salta, with its huge main plaza, narrow streets, colonial houses and statues. The center is quite pleasant with cafes and car-free streets, although a little run-down and dirty compared to Mendoza...which gives it a more authentic feel actually! Around Salta are some of the most fertile grounds (tobacco, soja, fruit, vineyards) at the bottom of the pre-Andes mountains- by the way the town is at 1,200m above sea level, which makes it pleasantly warm and dry in the summer. There is a rainy season in Jan-Feb, but so far it´s only been raining at night...and the heaviest rain was last month...big flooding problems.

Although I did experience some flooding on the first day of my expedition to Cachi and Cafayate (to the west and south). It rained all night so in the am, as we left the city, roads were flooded & traffic a total nightmare, while mud slides and rocks blocked the way over the mountains. Nothing unusual for the driver...just need a little patience...and a few spare tires (we had to change one each day). The drive is quite spectacular through valleys and cactus fields to canyons and rock formations that reminded me of Arizona a little. Cachi is a tiny little town (5,000 hab) surrounded by snow-covered mountains with adobe homes painted white. You feel like you step back in time when crossing the plaza and walking towards the church, a classified monument BTW. The people here use a lot of cactus wood for construction (church roof) and decoration (frames, boxes, altar, etc). Cactus are protected so you can only use its wood if the cactus died of natural causes. From Cachi, we drove through more valleys and canyons on this curvy dirt road to Cafayate (12,000 hab), another Spanish-architecture influenced white adobe town, yet more lively and popular...one for its touristic attractions (trekking, etc) and two, for its wine. Cafayate is indeed the center of production for Torrentes wine, a white wine, fruity to the nose, but dry when you drink it...perfect for a hot summer day. On day 2, we toured a few bodegas and then made our way back to Salta through more canyons and desert-like landscapes. I can´t even describe it all in words...as canyons and valleys sound so plain...the pictures will tell all...well, not really, as you only get a taste of it...being there though at the feet of all this beauty was simply magical and impressive...and like i´ve said before ´it makes you feel like an ant on earth´.

Back to Salta and then off to another 2 day expedition to the North to the altiplano parks. On day 1, we stopped by a salar (salt lake), similar to the one I saw in Bolivia, but smaller... still amuzing to take those funny perspective pics. We drove over mountains crossing over 4,700m (a little altitude sickness...dizzy and sleepy mostly) and through gorges and rocky rivers. The region used to be a crossroad for economic and social communication for the Andean populations. Later it also was a caravan road for the Incas. You can actually visit ruins of Inca settlements. The main attraction in the region though is The Quebrada de Humahuaca, a ravine of spectacular colors....a true geology lesson...it´s as if someone took a brush and went from left to right painting these colorful waves on the mountain...green, red, purple, pink, orange, yellow. Not sure if the colors will come out on the pics...I bought postcards just in case....they looked photoshoped but I did see it all with my own eyes! That night we stopped in a local village, mud bricks & co, which reminded me of Northern Chile (Andean kids in dirty jogging pants with runny nose, begging as soon as you step out the car) except the town is more in touch with tourism...more infrastructures and artisanal stores everywhere.

It´s actually mind boggling to think these kids live in poverty just 2 hrs hour away from a big city with asphalt, internet, stores & co. I guess you can say it´s the same in NYC... go from Wall Street where people blow $200 on dinner without blinking an eye and take the C train to Queens where some people live 10 to a 2 BR apartment with barely any heat in the winter and fast food left overs in their fridge. But the difference here is you feel you are stepping back in time....almost 100yrs backwards. On my tour, I had visitors from Buenos Aires...such a contrast! The people living in BA are like Europeans (in looks, culture, modernization, etc). For most, it´s their 1st time visiting Northern Argentina... so like us they take pictures of the llamas, the gauchos, the adobe houses... they don´t relate at all to the Andean culture, if anything they look down upon it.

On day 2, we drove back to Salta through more ravines and valleys. A long day, but full of incredible landscapes.

Foodwise (always an important part of the visits!), goat cheese is popular here...not the soft smelly kind like in France...it´s more like a mountain cheese. People eat it along with cajote, some fruit I have yet to figure out what it looks like. Empanadas are a must-try here... you buy them by the dozen...much smaller than the Chilean versions (and from the ones in BA apparently). Finally, goat meat...cazuelo de cabrata...pretty tasty.

That´s it for now...some resting...before I head back to Cafayate. Finally slept 12hrs last night!!! The black around my eyes is receding!

Salta & region remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After that ´terrific´last night in Bariloche, we got on a 18hr bus ride to Mendoza. First 6 hours to Neuquen where we had to change to a night bus to Mendoza. We paid for the ´cama´seats, which are the most comfortable ones (wider and go back more), but somehow no service came with it (ie: food or a blanket), strange. Good we came prepared with food...but we were freezing in the early hours of the morning. Another pleasant night. Í think we´re trying to set a record here. Poor Charlotte thought she would relax on her vacation...good she has a few days to recoup when she gets home.

Long story short, we get to Mendoza, the capital of the wine region. The town is actually really cute...very much influenced by European architecture from Spanish-looking plazas to French-looking facades. The town is also an interesting mix of the past & its wine culture with the younger style-conscious and techhy generation. Unfortunately, there´s also a big contrast between the newer rich and the struggling class. The first day, we toured the town & park. Not quite like Central Park!! very big, but full of roads and somehow people don´t see anything wrong with setting up their card tables or blankets right next to the road or parked cars, overlooking an intersection....instead of walking into the park more and enjoying the green fields. Bizarre. We stayed there late to catch a free salsa show (for the vendimia, harvest, the town organizes a lot of shows and activities) but couldn´t stay up at past midnight. Unfortunately another sleepless night awaited. We were in a mixed dorm of 6 and one of the guys was snoring all night. At around 5 am, Charlotte got up and slapped the guy on the shoulder telling him to roll over (in english, no less!). I was laughing so hard. I´ve never seen her lost her cool. We got probably another 2hrs of sleep, but not the best.

So if you´ve followed the last few entries and all my details about the short nights we´ve been having...you will understand the next paragraph:

Off to a hotel in the country side!! Charlotte and I decided we couldn´t survive any longer without a good night sleep, so we splurged for 2 nights in a countryside hotel, in the middle of the vines, in Chacras de Coria, a ritzy neighborhood (unbeknownst to us). We just googled around for estancias in the country side...not easy to find...now here´s a good business plan!... and eventually found this hotel 15km outside of town. We jumped on it. Turns out, it´s in the middle of the wineyards which makes it convenient to tour the bodegas and most importantly to RELAX.

What a treat: comfortable beds with a soft duvet!! a big towel! a clean shower for you and only you! luxury!!! Both days we didn´t leave the room until 1pm!!! went down for breakfast and then back to bed...just to tell you what a treat it was. Also fun to watch TV a little, it´s been so long!

The first day, we joined a tour of 2 bodegas (vineyards) and an oil factory. We get tastings of course in all 3. The wines though were pretty young and not that amazing. However the tours were fun and interesting...love walking around the caves. The first night we were there was a Monday...everything was closed. So the hotel suggested this Palmares mall for dinner. The cab driver though said we´d be better off at this other mall, El Shopping. We figured the hotel might send us in some expensive area, so we listened to the cab driver instead. BAD IDEA. He took us back to Mendoza to this huge modern shopping complex...what a nightmare...I hate malls...and to think we left our little paradize in the vineyards to end up surrounded by McDonald and La Brioche Doree, I was going to lose it. We jumped in a cab again this time to Palmares...although we might as well have eaten in town at this point....but we perseveered. Turns out this mall had a few restaurants, excellent ones actually. We ordered wine right away and a yummy Chateaubriand steak. Phew.

The second day, we walked around Chacras de Coria and had lunch on the main square...very cute...got to talk to a group of Venezualan women having lunch next to us (3 generation of women, aunts and cousins). We then walked to the Alta Vista Bodega: a fantastic vineyard. The building is a mix of modern and tradional architecture with arch and stone details and yet modern lighting on the bottle displays. The tasting was delicious. We discovered Torrentes white wine from the north and a delicous cabernet sauvignon. That night, we walked to restaurant near the hotel (Chacras claims to be the gastronomy center of the area, and rightly so...just not on Mondays!). Great trattoria.

Finally, one last morning to sleep in....followed by a horse ride in the vineyards. We found this little estancia specialized in Crillion horses where Cesar, the gaucho, took us for a ride through the vineyards and up a cerro for a view of the Maipu region. Great fun.

Those last 3 days were just heaven... from the bed, the pool, the food, the wine, the bodegas, the horseride, the little plaza... could´ve stayed a whole week!

Headed back to Mendoza though for Charlotte´s last night...and splurged for this cured meat and cheese plate at this cute little restaurant we had noticed our first day in town. I´ll have to post pics when I get them from Charlotte...so funny. And for the finish, a chocolate molten cake. Yes, a grandiose ending for the 3 weeks of traveling together (not to mention the delicious ice cream that afternoon...Argentinians make the best ice cream....feels like being in Italy...or even better...the flavors are exotic...and innovative...some even with wine hints to them... how will I resist the next few days...??).

Oh wait, i do have to add a few lines about Charlotte´s last night. After dinner, we headed back to the hostal where they were celebrating Valentine´s day early.... huge party going...noooooooooo. Until 2am music was blasting. Finally the music stopped but the people moved to the patio next to our room. Once again Charlotte got up and was ready to yell at them but I think the light scared them off. So that was about 3hrs for that night (C had to get up at 6 to catch her bus). I wonder if she made it back to France or fell asleep in the bus and continued on to Patagonia!!

As for me, I´m now in a new hostal....got to sleep 12hrs last night!!!...also bumped into some french people staying at the hostal...we´re going to picnic in the park tonight to watch a free tango show. Should be fun.

All in all, great times... super fun to have Charlotte to travel with... and go out to dinner with... a good change from ham and cheese and soup!! hehe.

PS: i posted a picture of a mate...it´s like an herbal tea (from coke leaves) that you sip through the pipe. Argentinians and Chileans love it...they are addicted. They carry thermos bottles everywhere so they can drink their mate. You only take a few sips and then pass it around. Some put sugar in it too...so you can imagine all the stuff you need to carry around with you. The bus stations are even equipped with huge hot water tanks so people can refill their thermos. Interesting....

Mendoza remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It´s been a while, sorry... let me catch up with the latest adventures.

Last time I was in touch, my friend Charlotte and I were off to El Bolson, a hippie town 2hrs south of Bariloche. Well, a hippie town it is...people think that growing out their hair and rolling in dirt is liberating...not so...the feria was not that big after all and sure didn´t have enough food stands! so we moved our bus tickets up and headed back to Bariloche early. (the one interesting observation was the movement of young people promoting a ´green´ way of living and agriculture....just don´t know why it has to be synonymous with being smelly and dirty).

The next 3 days we toured the Bariloche area....first hiking on the local ´cerros´(hills) for the great views of the lake, and then off on a boat ride almost to the border of Chile through the mountains. Actually Jonathan and I were on the other side of those mountains when in Puerto Varas and at lago Todo Santos with all those vicious flies. I need to explain with a map, I guess. Anyways, good hiking followed by some great restaurants in the evening: filet mignon on the grill...yum yum yum.... but very short nights thanks to some party girls sharing our dorm who would greet us with ´hola chicas´ at 4 am! We did luck out with the new hostal though: it was the 1st year annivesary when we arrived and the owner threw an ´empanadas´party for his guests...what a treat. The last night though we had to change yet again to another hostal...total nightmare...the road next to the hostal was so loud...traffic all night... couldn´t sleep... see picture of me at the cafe the next morning...even that yummy coffee couldn´t keep me awake. We are both starting to feel the accumulation of lack of sleep...but are keeping our spirits up....sleeping, that´s what bus rides are for!

Next was San Martin, 4hrs north of Bariloche, another little swiss looking town, more upscale but without the splendid lake view like in Bariloche. We relaxed some -canoeing on the lake- and exercised some more -crazy bike ride around town and through the mountain. For sure it wasn´t a ´real´ bike track...or else for advanced all-terrain cyclists....but we pulled through all the way to this lake on the other side of the hills, where we passed out for an hour. Back in town, we treated ourselves with jugo & cafe frappe (see pic)!

Our last evening there, we went for happy hour for some pisco sours...followed by a late meal (well 11pm is actually normal here)...fun night just observing local habits....a group of 8 argentinian women going for coffee at midnight to catch up and gossip, an elderly couple going for an ice coffee on a date, a group of dutch bikers grabbing a snack, and the two of us with our pasta and salad (for me, of course!). The Argentinians are very different than Chileans...to be expected of course...it´s like saying the French and Italians are different...of course. Argentinians are more European looking and definitively concerned about their looks (sorry for the generalizations here), and more in touch with US & Europe than Chile was (technology, music, cars, etc). However, be it Argentinian or Chiliean, they still are way behind in customer service and efficiency! I cannot tell you how many mistakes hostals make with their bills (to our advantage!). Even the more upscale hotel we went to in Mendoza forgot to charge our food and phone charges. No attention to details. Not complaining of course....just wonder how business owners will ever progress.

Bariloche remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As soon as my brother took off, my friend Charlotte arrived to spend 3 weeks with me to explore the lake districts of Chile and Argentina. I took her through the classic day tour of Santiago (3rd time now...might start charging if I do it one more time!) and off we were on a night bus to Pucon, no time to rest...too many adventures ahead. And indeed, as soon as we got there we toured the town (feels like being in a mountain town in Switzerland or Germany with all the wooden chalet structures and wurst menus), walked along the lake, and booked 'activities' for the next fews days. First was rafting...super fun...big rapids....lousy co-rafters though (the 3 guys on the boat were useless...one was scared of every big wave and the other two couldn't paddle!)...our guide was not impressed and even got pissed when we got stuck on a rock... very funny...note, it's actually quite hard to remember all the instructions in Spanish...which side to duck, when to go backwards...with 2 sec to react, it was quite comical!... but great fun... all that in freezing water too!
Second day was the volcano climb. Pucon is indeed set on a lake at the foot of the Villarica volcano, an active volcano BTW, which is now a huge tourist attraction and ultimately put the town on the map. In any case, the tour starts at 7am....so up at 6am...and off we go in a short bus ride to the volcano's 1st base camp at 1,400m. The agency provides you with all this equipment from special shoes, pants, wind brakers, crampons, piolet, etc. All of a sudden you feel like you're off to hike with Edmun Hillary. That day was quite windy, so we couldn't use the chair lift for the first part of the climb. No big deal really, but adds 1 hr to the hike. Once we got to the snow part, the hike became quite an expedition...there are over 300 tourists climbing the mountain every day... you end up being in little groups from 4 to 12 (we were only 4 with one guide...so that was better) and follow each other in indian files up the mountain in zig zags. The wind kept increasing and at times, I thought we'd get blown over. The minute you stopped hiking, you lost balance...and let me tell you that the site of the steep slope beneath you wasn't a pleasant picture....just the thought of sliding down the whole mountain and falling in a crevasse kept us going up and up. Every 30min or so we took 5 min breaks... the view is indeed spectacular... but I just wanted to keep going and get to somewhere relatively flat. After 4hrs, we got to the top, 2,450m, where you can peak inside the crater. The fumes were so strong though that day, that we could only stay 10min at the very top, as the sulfur and other toxic fumes burned your throat. Sounds like fun yet??? All worth it though...got great pics. Now the way down was the real treat: sliding down on our butts. We had these sort of diappers on to protect us, but honestly they didn't help much and we were soaking wet when we got to the bottom. There are already tracks on the mountain, so you just run and jump in, using your piolet to guide you and brake. Charlotte forgot to stop at one point and ended up going downhill another 200m, tried to brake with her piolet but with her speed, she couldn't hold the grip and ended up going freestyle down the volcano... i seriously thought we were in trouble, but somehow she managed to stop and climb back up to the path...phew! All in all, a fun adventure for a monday!

Finally, we went on a horse ride up the hills to a magnificient view point of the valley. We then trekked on foot to a beautiful cascade for a little dip. It was Charlotte's first time on a horse and she did just fine...not an ounce of fear!

All in all good fun in Pucon...many activities to do...a beach on the lake to relax...bars and restaurants galore... but after 4 nights, we were ready to keep exploring. Mostly because our hostal was a disaster...couldn't sleep... between people coming in a 3 or 4 am after partying and people waking up at 6 to go on the volcano climb, we averaged 4hrs a night... so happy to be off on a bus where we could sleep a few hours.

Next was Valdivia on the coast....a cute little town in the middle of a delta. We ended going to a local feria with food, singing and dancing... very fun...and cultural for a change...and as long as food is involved, i'm in! The hostal was very cute...an old mansion...felt like Psychose, the movie... all crooked... the couple running it were very welcoming (such characters!) and I got to practice my spanish some more. Slept great until 6am when the rooster started waking the entire hood up... still impossible to get more than 6hrs sleep!!! ahhhhh

Next, we crossed the border to Bariloche, an 8hr bus ride through mountains and lakes...very scenic! Bariloche is another of those Swiss-German towns on a lake. All the architecture is chalet-like and restaurants offer fondues and sauerkraut!! the town is also famous for its chocolate...huge big stores with that disney-ish feel ....but the chocolate is honestly disgusting...cheap milk chocolate if you ask me...so sweet too... but again, the taste buds of people here (especially Chileans who tend to snack ALL the time) are very much on the sweet side. And I can talk, with my sweet tooth, but no way i'm eating another piece of this chocolate. Ok, you get the point. The first night at the hostal was yet again another disaster....girls coming in late from the discos...and then this older woman traveling alone who had to wake up at 5:30 to catch a bus and ended up talking as if we were all awake...she missed the bus (wrong meeting point) and woke us up again at 8am and kept talking the whole time. I wanted to strangle her. So that shot the next day... we tried to sleep in some more...and ended up having a late breakfast at this cute coffee place (finally real coffee!!) and tons of pastries (yeah, finally croissants and brioches!!). Also booked ourselves in a different hostal for tomorrow.

Our next adventures are also booked... off to El Bolson (2hrs south of here, a hippie town in a magical setting according to the guide) tomorrow for the day to a feria (more local foods), then on a big day hike, and finally on a boat trip to visit the other lakes.

But first, off to eat some good argentinian steak and ice cream!!! yum (and maybe a taste of Malbec too)

PS: on the first night, we did splurge for a cultural event: a tango show!!! it was a small theater, which was great...more intimate... great dancing, singing, and guitar trios. Great way to celebrate our arrival in Argentina!

Pucon remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The 3am bus was half the adventure to get to the end of the world. We had a big meal around 10pm to try and kill as much time as possible leading up to the bus ride. Went to a Tenador Libre...local buffet style restaurant with all you can eat meat....surprisingly it was pretty good! A cow body stretched open is hanging off these picks in the window when you walk in, next to a huge BBQ where the cook can grill all sorts of meat, sausages and co. Quite a feast...but as you can imagine we were about to hit food coma with 2hrs to kill at the bus station...not a good idea as you want to stay awake to guard your bags...and not miss the bus! we were lucky to get a bench, most everyone else was sleeping on the floor. Long story short, we got on the bus at 3am, switched to another one at about 9am after a 2 hr wait in another bus terminal, and finally made it to Ushuaia around 11pm. We had to cross so many borders, not even funny....first out of Argentina, then into Chile, then out of Chile, and back into Argentina...my passport is already full of stamps. No comment on the efficiency of the border crossings...took 1 or 2 hour each time. Also no comment on the bus stops....so many missed opportunities to sell snacks to hungry travelers. The problem is you can't bring vegetables, cheese, meat and co into Chile. So J and I packed bread and Dulce de Leche (caramel paste...equivalent to peanut butter in the US or Nutella in france) as our food... breakfast, lunch and dinner. If anyone ever dares to offer me dulce de leche for a snack from now on, I think I'll just throw it back in their face. Yes, i feel that strongly about it.

So finally we get to Ushuaia...thankfully we had reserved a hostal because everything was full and other travelers were struggling to find a bed at 11pm. J and I had to walk up the hill 10 blocks or so which we made me nervous at first but we walked by a police station and our hostal was only 3 blocks further: a huge house with cozy living room, big TV, big kitchen, and a balcony overlooking the town. The house was full of Israeli travelers... quite a loud crew... J and I ended up meeting 2 young Argentians from Buenos Aires who were sharing our room....we got to practice some Spanish at last! One guy was so sweet and gave us a CD with his favorite Argentinian tunes...that made up for his snooring at night...couldn't sleep the first night...J barely believed me....but the second night, he was up too....i can't wait to have my own bedroom back at some point!

Ushuaia was quite a disappointment...the town caters to cruiseships...so it's full of souvenir shops and travel agencies....nothing attractive whatsoever. The street by the water is a mix of loading zones, parking areas, and gas stations, instead of a terraces and cafes! Our first day there was Sunday so all the travel agencies were closed...couldn't organize our bus out of there....which is tricky considering the amount of tourists around and the little transportation available. Nothing we could do, so we decided to go hike in the Terra del Fugeo park. After Torres del Paine and Fitz Roy, this park is a bit of a joke. You walk to the 'most southern point' but it doesn't feel like that much because you're in a channel and you can see land ahead of you...not like the world is ending!
That night, we cooked at the hostal...needed green stuff....made the biggest salad ever...and bought some Malbec alond the way too. Had our aperitivo on the balcony. Now we're talking.

The next day was a true extract from 'amazing race'. J and I went to a travel agency to get bus tickets...even though we were there for the opening, 10 other travelers were there before us! damn. That agency didn't have the tickets we needed, so we ran to the other side of town...people on the street were probably wondering who were those 2 crazy gringos running across town. Finally we get to the agency...4 other tourists made it before us... they got the last 2 bus tickets for wednesday...what a stress. This older french guy walked in and also needed a ticket...he tried to make all nice with us and thought he could jump ahead or join us in our requests...but J and I made it clear that we were booking our tickets first...every man for himself! Luckly, i don't know how, we got 2 tickets for the bus we wanted on Tuesday....leaving at 5hr30am. yeah! That french guy also got his ticket... sometimes, these french!!! they need to be reminded about 'lines'. That Monday, we ended up chilling... went for lunch...and did some internet...so slow though....to be expected at the end of the world.

Next am, we're off to Punta Arenas....ends up being a 12hr bus ride, with only 1 border crossing, phew! Argentina is a little more organized and we were able to get some food at the border crossing before heading into Chile. Sounds like details, but when you're traveling, food and finding a room are your biggest concerns!

Punta Arenas is probably the biggest town we've seen in a few weeks. Nothing very attractive, but that's where the airport is to head back north. In the bus up, we met an American couple who were also only staying 1 day in Punta Arenas. I figured we might as well split costs to visit the Penguin colony, the main attraction in the area, so they ended up camping at the hostal where we were staying and sharing a cab with us the next am to the penguin colony...worked out great. The penguins were so cute...you walk along this boardwalk and observe them in their natural habitat... very fun. The young ones were still shedding their feathers and looked pretty ugly. The parents took turns guarding their nest (more like a whole in the ground, ie like a fox) and going for a swim...they are like bullets in the water!

That night, we made it to Santiago....the flight was spectacular....you could see all these glaciers from up top...i'll post pics...so incredible...perfect way to leave Patagonia with these great images in mind. Arrived to 'my favorite hostal in Santiago, the casa roja' and didn't waste a minute to go out for our last aperitivo, pisco sour! We slept in the next am...but we couldn't wrap up J's trip with an idle afternoon, so we went to visit the Concha y Toro vineyard. Fun little tour with 3 tastings but you don't see the production side...just the caves. By the far the first well organized Chilean tourist attraction though!

And that's how J ended his trip in Chile... so sad to part with him...had such a great time....good laughs...and the best memories!

A new chapter begins...off to Pucon and the Lake districts....followed by Argentina!

Ushuaia remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After our Torres del Paine adventure, we continued on the hiking circuit and left Puerto Natales to El Calafate, Argentina. The town itself purely caters to tourists which makes it a little unattractive, not to mention all the new constructions going up with no codes whatsoever (you have swiss chalet type house next to brick houses next to ugly cement constructions....)....yet it was only a preview for the next town El Chalten, 4 hrs north from here...a town built in the last 10yrs and still in construction. The road to get there is not even finished so the last 1hr or so is just gravel. I´m getting ahead though.

From El Calafate, we went on a day tour to visit the Moreno Glacier...again, wao wao wao... the glacier just looks like a ´coulee de lave´, like lava just came down the mountain, except it´s all ice....from up close you can see all the crevasses and once and a while huge chunks crash into the water with a thundering noise... very cool.... we took a boat ride to go even closer and realize the sheer grandness of the glacier. We have so many pics... I´ll post them soon.

That evening we took the bus to El Chalten, the hiking mecca in the Argentinian Patagonia. As mentioned earlier, the town is still in construction...which makes the place look like a real mess....doesn´t seem to be a lot of order in how things are being built... demand is way too high...locals are renting every square meter to tourists...and everything is expensive since it has to be ´imported´ from El Calafate. The advantage of El Chalten is the hiking tracks start right in town, as opposed to Torres where you had to take a 3hr bus ride to get to it. J and I went on a day hike to see the famous Fitz Roy mountain, another set of granit pinacles and ´must hit´ spot for rock climbers (we saw so many going up with their equipment...their bags must have weighed 20kgs...wish i could´ve seen them rock climb!). The landscape here is much less interesting than in Torres....the weather is tough, windy and rainy most of the time, so only this steppe vegetation can survive. The last hour of the hike is another of those crazy hikes up vertical rocky hills (small rocks this time, almost harder than the boulders in Torres....or we were just really tired by then). The view from the top was again a postcard landscape, even though we hit some clouds. Wouldn´t you know it was blue sky the next day....but no way we were heading back. J and I figured that although some hiking was fun... it wasn´t our thing...we prefer hanging out at the beach with a margarita and going diving!!! So the second day, we moved our bus ticket up to head back to El Calafate and connect to our 3am bus for Ushuaia.

The second night in El Chalten, we ended up hanging out with 3 argentinians and 3 other foreigners staying at the hostal. The Argentinians tried to teach us how to play ´truco´, a card game that apparently every argentinian learns the minute they can walk...it´s so hard to grasp...the cards have swords and cups and coins... the whole point of the game is bluffing and lying...you can imagine how loud and intense it can gets in a latin kind of way... very fun.

That´s it for now... waiting for the 3 am bus...which gets in Ushuaia at 9pm... yes, we have good books with us...and just bought some snacks.... the movies better be decent...either way we´ll end up watching them!

Ushuaia, here we come!!!

Fitz Roy & Moreno glacier remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I guess I never really knew what hiking was all about. I´ve gone on day walks but never had to carry around a tent, duvet, food, and stuff for 4 days...and that´s the short version of the trek (the ´W´) in the famous Torres del Paine park in Patagonia, Chile. Torres means towers for all of you non-spanish speakers... The park consists indeed of huge granit towers with black granit tops...quite unique, especially if you can catch a sunrise when all the rocks turn orange-pink...but that´s probably twice a year, if you´re lucky! The park is apparently a ´must´ for avid hikers who go around the whole circuit for 8 to 10 days. J and I figured 4 days would give us a good feel of the place...plus we didn´t have all the special hiking gear (ie: clothes that dry super fast, light rain coats, etc..)... we used trash bags to protect our packs... i think we probably got some funny knicknames, but never heard them to our face...only though each time we talked to someone they said they had noticed us...hehe. The park is quite tricky...the weather changes all the time...4 seasons in day! We got rain the first two nights...which didn´t stop us from hiking or anything, but just made the nights a little less restful. Add that to the fatigue of carrying huge packs around (12kg or so)...let me tell you that we were glad to wrap it up after 4 days...glad but happy to have lived such an experience...seen so many great landscapes and met so many interesting people.

The scenery is so breathtaking....the first day we camped alongside this turquoise lake... the water felt like mercury...viscous almost...we hiked up the first arm of the W toward the Grey glacier... just wao... smalls icebergs were floating in the river leading up to the glacier...the blue ice is so unreal! We hiked for 4 hours but didn´t go all the way to the refuge from where you could see the glacier from the top...quite amazing from the pics we saw...but just as well we didn´t push ourselves considering what laid ahead. Also, even though it´s light out until 11pm, we didn´t want to hike past 8pm...especially with the tempermental weather.

The second day we hiked up the ´French Valley´up to a mirador for some great views of the mountain, but the hike got tricky...tons of rocks which got slippery in the rain...so we headed back...still hiked for a good 6-7hrs. The third day was the hardest...had to carry our big packs for the longest time...a good 6hr30m...with a hill for the last hour that just wouldn´t finish...the views were worth it... but that last hour was a nightmare....it wasn´t all though....we got to camp...set up for the night...and went up to ´the´ mirador to see the towers....another 1hr30 hike up rocks...just rocks...like a huge pile of rocks...what a killer for the legs... but we made it...saw the towers...well, almost all of them... a little cloudy... at the foot of the towers you could see a green lagoon which felt like a crater from another planet....the pure size of it all is mindboggling and makes you feel like a little ant in the world. The last day was just hiking back down to base...with a huge smile on your face as you pass all the hikers going up, sweating and puffing away!

All in all: a really fun adventure.... Jonathan is great to have around...always game for everything...so fun...and so thoughtful. Great bonding! And you definitively want to make sure you go hiking with the right person...just setting up the tent or preparing food on a tiny gas burner could be the source of so many fights!!! But for us it was good old fun all along.

Torres del Paine remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Jonathan arrived safe and sound and ready to tour Santiago after his red eye down to Chile. That night we took a night bus to Puerto Varas, where we recoup for 2 days before taking the Navimag boat down to Patagonia. When I say ´recoup´ i´m being a little laxist there. We toured around the lake Los Santos the first day and went canyoning the second day....ie: jumping in rivers and waterfalls up to 8m high. Jonathan had no fear, always jumping from the highest point and showing off ´fancy´dives. I just closed my eyes and pinched my nose and jumped. It was good fun though, especially sliding down natural tobogans. The water was cold but we had thick wetsuits on from head to toe. To wrap up the day, we had to repel down a 30m cliff alongside a waterfall, spectacular setting, but with my fear of heights, I was almost having a breakdown as i was hanging in mid-air. Talk about pushing your limits.

At the hostal we met 3 other fellow travellers who were also going on the Navimag....two surfer guys from California...and a swiss girl....we ended up hanging out with them quite a bit over the next 10 days. The boat trip was quite an experience...the boat is a reconverted cargo boat... reconverted is loosely used though, as it´s still quite a modest set up. The sleeping accommodations are fine...big dorms for 320 people separated in groups of 4. J and I ended up sharing our ´cabin´with a nice italian couple. My short critic of the boat would be: need more lounge space and need more fun entertainment (so many missed opportunities to make it a really amazing experience). The landscapes end up being quite repetitive over four days, but still it´s fun to walk around the deck and feel like you´re the only ones left on earth...it´s so peaceful...well, except when we had to sail into the ocean before heading back into the canals... most travellers took sea sick pills...J and I thought we could tough it out...we were in bed by 8 trying not to get sick...ended up sleeping 12hrs and felt great the next am. Overall, it was just fun hanging out, reading, playing cards, and meeting some of the other passengers. J and I made it a mission to have our meals next to new people each time. Funny to see how humans are such creatures of habits... people formed their own little groups and within a day started to have their routines. Actually the greatest benefit of the trip was meeting everyone again as we were hiking in Torres del Paine... we kept bumping into everyone from the boat...felt like a game...amazing race meets survivor. Even now, we still bump into the ´boat people´as we call them....so many germans...only a handleful of french....feels like you know someone everywhere you go!

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As mentioned in my previous entry, between xmas and New Year´s I went on this incredible 4 day horse trip adventure on the pioneer trail, 2 hours east of Puerto Varas, in the Cochamo valley, at the foot of the Andes close to the Argentina border.

I can´t begin to express how amazing the adventure was...i hope the pics come out Ok from the throw away camera. The gaucho cowboy who was the guide was such a character himself, I could write pages about him. He had trained the horses himself, extremely well by the way... I think he thought of himself as a horse whisperer type. He was on the quiet side, happy to take in the scenery and live with his animals. At night, he slept by the fire on the mats from his saddle, goat skins and various pieces of blankets...and a duvet of course...he would just lay it all down by the fire next to the cow and horse shit... i mean 10cm away...everything was ´10 cm away´ with him ...the fire, the knife, the cow shit... he would empty the bags practically shaking them upside down...camp was a mess.. not sure how he found anything... the whole time i was thinking of the Myers Briggs test (wink to my friends at CCSR) and how people have different personalities but can achieve the same thing... the camp looked like a hurricane went through it... he would hang food bags on trees, leave his knife on the ground, put the hot water kettle by where we sat... i mean, it was just an accident waiting to happen... the second day he pulled out a piece of meat out of his bag...and hung it to a tree: our dinner. After 2 days in the blazing heat, i was trying not to think how safe it would be to eat those ribs...ended up being a delicious asado. Packing up each morning was quite a show...somehow he found all the ropes and pieces he needed to saddle up... quite a routine. So not me!!! not that i want to sound like a neat freak, but there´s a minimum!!

Anyways, the riding was just incredible...we rode through flowers fields where farmers had little yellow, red, orange boxes to collect honey...cute little colored spots against the green valley, almost fluorescent green...it rains so much here. The off through the valley and up the mountain with huge rocks dominating all around us. We had to climb through the forest through huge tree roots and across rivers...i had to lift my feet to tell you how deep it was... not once did the horses complain... not sure how they could even see where they were stepping... also had to cross mud baths and rocky paths... at some points we were in tranches with mud walls on each side and either rocks or timber on the path... the horse could climb over those rocks, not sure how... if i looked at the horse in front of me, he looked like a new born trying to walk with his feet sliding all over the place... i was closing my eyes half the time... crossing rivers was fun...the water was crystal clear...from turquoise to green, depending on the reflection...felt like in a movie...even better. The first day was a 6 hr ride to a ´green plateau´in between these huge rocky mountains with pine trees up to 2/3 of the way up and cascades running down in a few creases...quite spectacular... the green plateau felt like a little paradise out of nowhere...an american bought the land there and built a summer house where he lives 3 months of the year... he has a young chilean boy looking over some cows... and built a refuge for other courageous riders and hikers to camp there... that night the stars were out full force...such a spectacle... i think there´s way more stars in the south hemisphere...i have to check online.

The next day we rode for another 4-5 hrs... went to this beautiful waterfall, that you couldn´t even make up it was so unique and fairytale like...there was a natural bridge coming out of it crossing 1/2 the waterfall...with a tree growing right in the middle... i can´t even describe it was so bizarre...and beautiful... we tied up the horses to some trees and went for a swim in the freezing water... such a dream...(also the only shower for the next few days!)... That night is when we cooked the meat... tasted wonderful...well deserved after the freezing swim.

The third day we started with a hike through a bamboo forest...the gaucho was literally cutting branches and bamboo with his machete to forge the trail... i was trying to keep up the best i can, crawling on all fours at times, balancing on tree trunks that we used as bridges to cross over rocks and bamboo shoots, rappelling with branches over the water trying not to step in the freezing water...eventually we had to cross the river, so we all had to undress to our underwear, carry our pants and shoes to cross over... not sure that a US tour would allow this...hmm... my feet were so red when we arrived to the other side, i couldn´t feel them... anyways, after an hour of playing Indiana Jones, we got to this beautiful water fall... worth every drop of sweat to get there... the way back was easier but still, had to plow through spider webs and mud patches... yuk... happy to get back on the horse and let him do all the hard work.

The 4th day we camped by this unusual waterfall, very wide bolders with water rushing over from all sides (see pic)...we actually went tobogganing on the rocks...so much fun...the rocks are so soft, you just sit with your feet in front, as breaks, and slide ride down to the pool area... freezing though... gets your adrenaline going for sure...and the shock of the cold water surprises you each time, no matter what... happy to get dressed and sit by the fire after that...

On the last day it rained as we made our way back... we had huge ponchos to protect ourselves...and actually in the forest, we weren´t getting too wet... didn´t bother me...made the trip even more unreal and memorable. This fog was hovering over us, made the whole scenery ghostly and fantastical (if that´s a word).

Got back to Cochamo in time for the 5pm bus back to Puerto Varas. Such an incredible trip. I couldn´t believe the horses made it back in one piece or that they didn´t just buck me off after all they went through. The ride itself was quite comfortable...big saddle...no problem there... what you had to be careful of was your legs, especially in the tranches, not to get squished against a rock ... the whole day you´re trying not to get your legs pancaked, your eyes poked by branches, and your body impaled by bamboo... what fun!! I don´t think there would be any travel insurance who would cover such a trip!

All is all, such a fun adventure, especially after reading Ines of my Soul from Isabel Allende where she describes how the pioneers discovered Chile and their adventures crossing the forests and meeting the local Andeans. Felt very similar!!

Will try to post pics as they will tell all.
Off to go canyoning this pm...with Jonathan....as if one crazy adventure wasn´t enough...now i´m going jumping off rocks 8m high into freezing water again (with a wet suit this time!)

The pioneer trail remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hola,
Back on line after a little running around up and down the southern part of Chile.

Spent Xmas in Chiloe, ended up bumping into the ´international´ friends I had made in Puerto Varas while at the xmas concert. (BTW, a soccer match just ended that pm and all the fans were celebrating in the streets...felt like a riot...people chanting, cars honking, kids hanging out car windows waving the team´s flag, drunk men jumping up and down and eventually breaking the fence into the park to take over the small outdoor stage... flares and drums... the whole 9 yards...the pics on the paper the next day were quite impressive.... all that while i was waiting to go to the xmas concert, keeping my distance from all these fanatics...such bad timing though... you can imagine ´silent night´ with drum beats and honking in the background... quite special!).

Dinner was fun as everyone cooked something from their country...german potato salad with pickles, italian meatballs, stir fry veggies from me (not very french but needed green stuff) and some chocolates (milk, but had to do for the occasion!)...the guy running the hostal treated us to the Chilean version of eggnog which resembles bailey´s but with pisco, no comment. Missed home of course.

I was lucky with the weather in Chiloe as it´s famous for all the rain it gets. I got to visit some of the small islands along the coast, quite spectacular views. Tons of salmon factories all around. Chileans advised me not to eat any as it´s stuffed with hormones...oh no! so much for my yummy lunch from 2 days ago!

Headed back to Puerto Varas to go on a horse trip of a life time. See separate entry for that. I´m continuing on with the holiday theme....with New Year´s.

Took the night bus from Puerto Varas up to Santiago and down to Pichilemu (no connections as bus drops people off on the highway...not sure how you´re expected to get to the bus station 2km away and find another bus to the coast, at 4am!!)...so 19hrs later, on Dec 31st, I got to Pichilemu, a little surf town with huge black sand beaches (see pic). I ended up getting adopted by the host family at the residential where i was staying. I was the only tourist there...i think it was a place geared towards locals traveling to the beach. The owner had her whole family over for a big dinner, so when they saw me eating alone they invited me to their table. Conversation was limited as I couldn´t understand what the older people were saying but a younger girl in her 20´s helped me out. So many uncles and aunts, i never figured out how they were all connected. We all walked over to the beach to watch the fireworks together. They shared their fake champagne with me (which included froth made of beat white egg...just great for digestion!) and red wine mixed with coke (i passed, thank you!). So sweet of them. They were parading me to all their friends and neighbors as the ´french girl´... i felt like a alien. People do stare at my blue eyes...something quite rare over here. Anyways, at midnight, they all started crying and hugging each other and me. Very touching. By 2am we made it back to the hostal...happy to go to bed after such a long day...a sweet long day.

Spent the next 2 days perfecting my tan. Had the beach to myself in the morning, quite a treat as it gets packed in the pm. Fun to watch the surfers, pros and beginners alike, and the whole folklore of the beach. One sad note is the lack of concept of what trash cans are for. And that´s true not only here at the beach but all over. People here tend to throw everything on the street, out the bus window, on the beach... you can imagine how dirty the beach was after a full day of families hanging out. Plus, people here (sorry, don´t want to sound like i´m making generalizations, but these are facts) snack a lot....i mean A LOT...all day long...kids are constantly eating chips or popsicles...adults too eat icecream all the time...and they love to drink fruit juices and chemical (ie: Fanta type) drinks... obesity will definitively be an issue in a few years! Meanwhile, it´s the trash all over that´s pretty disgusting.

Anyways, on a positive note... the tanning went well... I headed up to Santiago, got my new passport with the scariest pic ever (just need black lines in the background and it would be the perfect mug shot)...and met up with Jonathan, my younger brother, who will be traveling with me for the next 3 weeks as we go explore Patagonia.

The holidays remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Just spend 2 days in Puerto Varas, doing recon work for when I´ll be back with Jonathan. So much to do here, reminds me of Queenstown in New Zealand, with the rafting, horseriding, hiking, and canyoning (a must!).
Went for a hike to the Petrohue falls... although the word `falls` is a bit of a stretch...more like a big rapid...still, very cool view of the Orsano volcano & others in the background.
In the evening, I hung out with students (from Spain, Italy, Germany) at the hostal who were traveling around after a semester in Santiago. The fun thing was that we spoke Spanish to each other, instead of English. Great practice for me. Somehow I can undestand them whey they speak (must be the foreigner`s way of talking), but not so much when the old people talk to me in the bus (might be because they have no teeth!!).

Now, I´m in Chiloe, an island in the south part of Chile. The people here actually barely consider themselves Chilenos, but rather Chilotes. They´ve kept their own dialect and have a strong traditional culture mixed to mythology. It´s little quiet being a sunday and before the Holiday. Nevertheless, I´ll walk around and treat myself to seafood for lunch in the palafitas (those houses on stilts) and to a xmas concert in the Cathedral tonight. Off to the northern part tomorrow to check out a penguin colony.

That´s it for now. Note that I added pics in my previous entries.

Merry Xmas to everyone!

Puerto Varas remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anyways, since I can´t post pics for a while, I figured I´d share interesting facts and figures. Today: cost of life.

2kg of tomatoes = $ 1
1 kg of avocado = $ 1.40
1/2 kg of apricots = $1
2 little pieces of bread = $0.40
1 yoghurt = $0.60
Orbit gum = $0.70
1 L of water = $1.10
1 L of beer = $1.60
glass of wine at a bar = $2 to $4 (or much more of course!)
pisco sour (the national drink) at a bar = $4+ (for tourists only!!)
Bottle of wine from the store = $3 - $15 ( the $4-5 are just fine!)
Simple lunch menu (empanada, fried fish + rice, ice cream) = $5-8
A nice plate of fish (ie: not fried) for dinner = $8+
Typical backpacker´s lunch, ie: make-yourself sandwish (ham+cheese) and fruit = $3
´Yummy´completo (hot dogs) italian way (with avocado, mayo, ketchup) = $2.50
Empanadas de pollo = $1.60 - $2.00
Hostal night = $ 10-11 in the burbs, $ 12-14 in the cities
1 way ticket on the brand new Valparaiso train to Vina = $0.90
1 return ticket on the old micro bus = $0.90
1 way from Valpo to Santiago (1hr1/2) = $7
Banos = $0.30 (gotta pay everywhere)
1 Hr on Internet = $0.80
Jeans = $20 (yes, got a pair already!)
Sunglasses on the street = $2

Logistics part 2 remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Valparaiso remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Just spent 4 days in La Serena, a very cute little town 8hrs north of Santiago. Good to be back in civilization. I do want to point out that what I have been living & visiting in the past few weeks was mostly in the mountains and desert, not a full representation of Chile. If you´re thinking Chile is all mudbricks houses and dusty road, not true! La Serena is bustling little town on the water, with impressive colonial houses downtown, a modern plaza, and a cute harbor Coquimbo 10km away.
My hostal, la casa Maria, was the cutest little place so far....with an interior courtyard and garden. The host had so many stories to tell from the dictatorship, it was hard to keep up...really need to improve my Spanish.
Turns out that 3 french travellers on the bus with me from San Pedro were at the hostal too. We ended up touring the area for 2 days together. First we took a local bus up the Elqui Valley, where vineyards grow in between the arid mountains and dusty valley. It´s an impressive oasis where pisco comes from, the national drink...from 30 to 46 proof!! Toured the Capel distillerie, but it´s mostly a tourist trap...the taste is so minute, I tried to get a second... didn´t work. Ugh.
The second day, we opted for exercise...after all these bus rides, we all felt walking to Coquimbo was de rigueur, a 2hrs1/2 hike. Felt great. Along the beach. Not a beach where I´d go spend my holidays (cold water, tons of seaweed), but apparentely in a matter of weeks, it will be packed with Chileans on vacation. We toured the fist market, the biggest one I´ve seen so far, and settled in a restaurant overlooking the harbor and its cute yellow boats (similar to Arica´s) for a fish feast: seafood soup (a la Indiana Jones, better not look too closely what´s in the soup) and reineta fish. The fish is automatically fried here if you don´t ask for a la plancha (no wonder people´s waistlines are a little on the overweight side)...and fillet´d....impossbile to get a whole fish with head and tail, bummer.
Anyways, we wrapped up the day with some scrabble games on the harbor in the sun... a little fare niente.
On my last day, I toured Tongoy, another harbor 1h1/2 away, via local bus. Now that felt like an authentic fishermen´s town...back to dusty roads and brick houses, a grade up from shanti houses. Although there´s a beautiful road along the coast with fancy houses, must be vacation houses for the city dwellers. Everything was closed still....season starts in two weeks. So I ate alone at this beach restaurant overlooking the harbor...very pleasant...basic...and local... felt like the end of the world again, since I was the only soul around and the waiter only popped out of the kitchen every now and then to check on me. Perfect for some meditation...with a pisco sour!
On Saturday, got on a 7hr bus ride down to Valparaiso, a big harbor 1hr1/2 away from Santiago. The town covers 41 hills along the coast. There´s steps everywhere you look and elevators to take you to the top of each hill. Looking forward for some good workouts...who ever complained about a 6 storie walk-up in NYC! More later....time for a hot shower before the boiler goes off...things you have to worry about!

La Serena and surroundings remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Toilets:
You need to carry toilet paper at all times (at least anytime you leave a big city, so for me since Santiago!). It´s funny the first few times when you see people walking around with a roll, but you get used to it. What´s annoying is those who don´t plan and want to borrow your roll....it´s like gold!!...so you start to worry if you´ll have enough until you get back to civilization. Toilets usually consist of a tiny bowl, like the ones I had in primary school (size difference in the population!). You can´t flush of course, since you´re in areas with no running waters, so there´s a big barrel of water with a scoop to use as a flusher. Not to forget: put paper in trash not toilet! Honestly, it´s not bad at all. I was in Paris a few weeks ago & encountered a turk bathroom, not much better! My preference of course is to ´go´ outside, better view, and no smell!!

Shower, hygiene:
You´re lucky if you get hot water (again this is in the mountains & desert- and in hostals)...but in the end you get used to cold showers. Just makes me want to hit my stupid tenant on the head= he couldn´t deal with the water fluctuating a little bit and I had to install new pipes & valves before I left. Blew my budget, so now I´m taking cold showers because of him. But again, I´m used to it now...better cold water than none. As I´m typìng, it´s been 2 days since I showered and I´m getting on an overnight bus, so no shower until tomorrow. Not a big deal though, who said we had to shower everyday. All these chemicals we use can´t be good for us. I´m using one soap for my face, hair, body, and clothes, and it works great. Never had better skin! Plus makes my bag so much lighter...it is the smallest of all the travelers I´ve encountered...all of whom are jealous...I just tell them to downsize their toileterie kits!

Music:
Ok, here´s a funny story. As mentioned before during my trip in Putre, I was subjected to this really annoying Andean music, the same tape for hours and hours of driving. I was actually quite surprised at how bad the music was considering the good music I had heard in Santiago and at the concert in Putre. Turns out the driver in Iquique had the same tape...as well as my last driver in Bolivia. AHHHHH. This band must have been on concert recently and they all got the tape. I just couldn´t figure out why these ´manly guys´(sorry to sound sexist) would listen to this winy music, like Harajuku girls screaming. It all made sense when my last driver put in a tape with english music (bad 80´s, mind you) and I realized the tape and/or deck were overused and full of sand, so the music playing is all distorted. Just think back when you had a cassette player and you popped in a tape...if it sounded all screetchy and out of synch, you ejected it right away. Well, eject was not an option for me. The driver probably thinks english music is hideous, but I don´t understand how he puts up with his own music being all distorted...for hours, and HOURS. On Saturday, I played my ipod all day, we all did. On Sunday though, I started using it sparingly anticipating one more day of driving, so I just played it during the Andean music, and put up with distorted bad 80´s music. But this am, at 5am that is, I figured the hell with it, and played my ipod the whole time. My tolerance or will to adapt was just not strong enough. I mean is adaptation subjecting yourself to gremlins screaming all day? Turns out this Andean band is like the N´Sync of this side of the world...I saw the tape cover...nothing to do with harajuku girls!

Life:
Ok, this entry sounds a little deep and off topic, but not to worry. I´ve been enjoying a lot of thinking time during the drives these past few days- very ´therapeutic´! Nothing like blasting your music while driving 100km/hr across a desert, and letting your mind free flow. I highly recommend it. So I had this realization, while I got a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror: I have the same hair cut as when I was 5yrs old like in this black and white pic of me at the beach in Val Andre (forgot to mention earlier: i don´t bother with my hair...it´s flat all the time). So it hit me: life goes in circles. Jo/CK, remember that text we studied in german class all about circles? I think we even watched a movie...seemed like nonsense at the time...maybe some language barrier too. Anyways, now it´s making total sense. I´d thought about it before, but only a few days ago did I realize you don´t have to picture life as a straight line with crossroads, but instead picture it as a bunch of circles. Ok, I´ll publish this even if it makes me sound like a moron, but I was proud of my new visualization.

Logistics remains copyright of the author Fanny FCD, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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