Pucon to Santiago (and La Serena it seems...)

sorry Ive been bad at keeping up with this recently, I hope everyone had a great christmas?? It was a wierd one here, but I need to catch up on my behind updates before I can get onto christmas.

Im sat in this awesome internet cafe at the moment, I think it doubles as a rock club at night, its got lots of strange gothic stuff, flames, pictures of the grim reaper etc etc and its blasting out heavy metal music, but its an internet cafe in the day! Brilliant!

So, Pucon... I loved Pucon! It was ace! Its a pretty little place with this bloody great volcano overlooking it. We got there in the afternoon and it was nice to get some washing done, check emails etc etc so a nice relaxing afternoon. I was SO grateful to find a washing machine - I had forgotton what it felt like to have clean clothes! In the evening we had a briefing about the volcano climb the next day and had to try on all of our mountain equipment that they provided - these rather fetching luminous yellow boiler suit type things, shoes, gloves, hats, helmets etc. I seem to have trouble finding shoes that fit me here, I had to have childrens crampons when I did the vertical ice climbing and they couldnt find me any big boots either, Im only a size 4, its not that small!!!

Anyway, when we were all kitted out, it was an early night ready for the 4.30am start the next day. We had to start off early for 2 reasons, 1, so we would be the first people up there and see the volcano crater without loads of other people up there and 2, so it wouldnt be too hot climbing.

We had a 30minute transfer to the start of the walk which was at about 1400m and began walking. The start of the walk was on volcanic ash, similar to the stuff I walked up in lanzarote, but it didnt last long before it was covered in snow and we had to put our crampons on. They said in the briefing that we would get to see the sunrise when we were walking, I was expecting to see it properly but it was behind the volcano but it was still really nice to see themountains around slowly lighting up.

The treck up the mountain itself was fine, I didnt find it too bad at all, just slow and steady pace zig-zagging up the mountain. The ascent took about 5 hours. The top was pretty impressie, a perfect cone that was so steep and deep that I couldnt see the bottom of the crater, and I couldnt lean over too far as the drop was steep and I would have probably fallen in. There was some sulphur dioxide coming from the crater which was nasty stuff, made everyone cough and splutter, but only for one bit round the crater (where the wind was blowing it). We had our lunch at the top (I say lunch, it was still only about 11am) and had a few more landmarks pointed out to us, some other volcanos and lakes and Pucon town.

then came the descent - this was AMAZING! There were some trenches dug in the snow and we sat in them and slid down on our bums - it was so much fun!! We went really quick in places and if you couldnt slow down well enough, you crashed into the person in front of you, it was great!! The descent only took an hour! Our lovely luminous trousers were supposed to be waterproof, but everyone was drenched by the end of the descent, but it was such great fun!!

As we got back relatively early, the rest of the day was spent relaxing which was nice, then we found a nice vegetarian restaurant for the evening.

The next day we started the drive up to Santiago. We spent the night at Salta de Laja which is a little waterfall place. We camped right at the side of the river and the waterfall which was really nice. You could see rainbows through the spray which was a really nice effect. There were a few market stalls around the place and I think thats the most tacky and touristy place Ive seen for selling rubbish to people. In the evening we had our last cooked meal together as a group as it was our last night camping. The cooking group made fajitas which were lovely, followed by a tequila shot or two... nasty stuff!

(Ah, now the internet cafe is playing Metallica, I like this place!!)

So the next day we carried on up to Santiago. It would have been a long drive, but we broke it up by visiting a vineyard - yay! We went to a wine producer called Miguel Torres who makes very nice wine! We had a tour of the site and then got to taste a few bottles, then we decided we hadnt tasted enough of a selection so we bought a few more bottles to taste! Yum!

We got to Santiago in the evening and went out for a last meal together as a group which was nice. Well, it would have been if we had managed to get some food at the hotel! The waiter bought us menus out, we ordered our drinks, they took about an hour to be made with the 20 of us, then he took the menus off us! We said we wanted food but they werent serving!! So the group split up and we ended up going to a fast food joint in the main square! We didnt really care what we ate at that point as it was nearly 11pm!

The next day, the group said their goodbyes and we went our seperate ways. My hostel was a little bit out of the city centre which was a shame, especially since it said ´central location´ on hostelworld, but nevermind! I checked in and then went back to explore the city a bit. The main square, Plaza del Armas, was all set up for a performance I saw the night before and went back to read more about it. I was glad I did because it was set up for a free performance of the nutcracker ballet that evening! I went that night and it was really lovely, sitting out watching the dance. It almost put me in a christmassy mood (but not quite because its just so wrong that its hot and the shops arent playing band aid and there arent decorations everywhere).

The next day I was due to meet Rosario (my friend from Warwick who lives in Santiago) at midday. She very kindly offered for me to stay with her and her family for a few days so I took her up on her offer and went off to suburbia for a few days which was a really nice break to be back to semi normality for a few days and not break my neck seeing everything there is to see. I saw lots of things over the next few days, craft fairs, the main hill in Santiago city centre and a University campus and I just really enjoyed looking round, chilling out and reading my book!

So those few days passed very pleasantly, I met her friends and ate lots of nice food! Then on the 23rd my GAP tour began.

We all met on the evening of the first day and got given the itinerary and went out for a meal. They seem like a really nice bunch of people which is good. The hotel was much better located as well, really close to Cerra Santa Lucia (a small hill in Santiago city centre) so I had a nice walk up that one afternoon.

As it was nearly christmas, the group decided to do a secret santa for each other so the next day (24th) was spend looking for some cheap, cheesy presents to give each other, I got my roommate, Stephanie (a very nice girl from Germany) so that was nice.

South America celebrates Christmas on the 24th in the evening so we tried to all go out for a meal, but we couldnt find a restaurant within our budget that wasnt full, so we ended up eating at the hotel and had a christmas dinner of turkey, chips and potato balls!

Christmas day was spent driving to La Serena. We got there at about 3pm so we had the afternoon to explore. Its a beach town, but the sea is about 4k walk away. We did that (I had my santa hat with me) which was nice to walk to the beach on christmas day, but it was quite cloudy and chilly so we only stayed there for 5 minutes for some quick pictures before heading back! The evening, we wanted to go out for a meal, but most of La Serena was shut, but we eventually found a chinese that was open so we had a very traditional south American christmas meal!!

The next day me and Steph went to the beach again, the weather was much nicer this time and we took a bus further along the beach (about 4k down it) and had a nice couple of hours sunbathing, then walked along the beach back to La Serena. There were loads of bits of jellyfish on the beach on the way back, it was wierd! Looks like a shoal of them had been in the way of a boat with a propeller or something because they were all hacked up into little pieces, I cant think what else would have caused it. Noone else on the beach seemed concerned though... Strange!

Last night we went to the Observatory which was absolutely incredible. It was in the mountains, about an hours drive out of La Serena. The observatory is up in the
mountains and the high pressure around that area ensures clear skies for most of the year. We got to look through a couple of huge telescopes and I saw Jupiter and its 4 main moons, as well as the red stripe accross it - it was really amazing! then we looked at Regis (a star thats part of Orien - I think) which was really cool.

Then the guide took us outside and showed us all the constellations. Its strange being in the southern hemisphere because all the constallations we know in the UK are upside down here! Orion was upside down, poor thing! So was his dog!

Then we looked through another telescope and saw a closed cluster of stars (thousands of them!!) they looked like a cloud they were so far away and close together) and compared them to an open cluster of stars (only about a hundred of those, much more spread out...) Then we looked at the moon which was amazing, we could see the craters of it really clearly. We were allowed to take pictures of the moon through the telescope lens and I got some amazing ones on my camera - Ill put them up on the blog as soon as I can!

And that takes me up to today! I went on a tour of the valley today but Ill write about that another time as Ive nearly run out of time in this fab internet cafe so Ill say bye for now! Hope everyone had a fab christmas and happy new year if I dont get to write again (Ill be staying in the Salt Hotel on the salt flats for NYE - how exciting!!!)