Too busy to be working!

FINALLY - the blog!
We have just been SO busy it has been hard to find time to catch up!
Before I blog
A quick - Happy B-day to Lance - hope you & Shelly are having a great time on your road trip:)
And a CONGRATS to Suze on her engagement to Phil - we're so happy for you guys:)

And now... few more Bariloche pictures from other people’s cameras before I move on….

Robin & Paul showing off their steak at a great restaurant in Bariloche
Cooked just perfectly
Murray and I playing accountant (gotta keep those brains cells firing once & awhile)!
The chef even posed for a picture on our way out (I dare say those were the best steaks we have had yet in South America)!

The next evening we went off for some Mexican food at a great local restaurant called Zapatos.
Lance finally took his penalty shot of Tequila (for shaving his beard off – obviously this happened awhile ago… since it is starting to grow back in this photo)
It was a BIG shot!
Yummy (not)
Us out at dinner: Robin, Murray, Me, Steve, Shelly & Lance
And later that evening…. Murray & I outside our favorite chocolate store – Mamushka’s (they seriously have THE best chocolate - I think we went there like 5 times!)

And a few more New Year’s eve photos….

Murray ‘The Wall’ showing off his ping pong skills
Happy 2008!
Cheers on the beach in Puerto Varas, Chile
Me, Shelly, Lance & Robin

Later that night…. Steve & Lance looking a bit worse for wear!

How’s that wine Steve? Ha ha

Now – back to the most recent blog

Day 65 – January 2

The bus to Pucon took most of the day and then finally we arrived and checked into ‘Hostel Willy.’ Murray and I got a great room – one double and one single bed – which was fab cause we could use the single for easy access to our bags. We all popped out for a nice Arabian meal and checked out the town in the afternoon. Stocked up on groceries (for the next day’s trek) and got an OH so yummy Bailey’s flavored ice cream cone! When we got back to the hostel the hiking company was there with gear for us to try on to make sure everything was the right size – pretty exciting! They set us all up with waterproof trousers and jackets, gloves, scarves, heavy duty boots, crampons (for climbing on ice), gators (those boot covers that kinda look like leg warmers) and of course – helmets.


The lovely sunset over the mountain viewed from central Pucon

Day 66 – January 3

Up early for breakfast at 6:30 so we could get picked up for our Volcano Climb at 7!

Shelly, Murray & I all suited up and ready to go!

The drive up to Volcan Villarrica was gorgeous!

Volcan Villarrica is 8 km from the town at the north-eastern extreme of the 610 sq km Parque Nacional Villarrica. It’s the main attraction in Pucon, and is one of Chile’s most active volcanoes spewing out molten ten times during the 20th century. It’s part of a chain of 5 active volcanoes forming the Chilean front row of the Pacific Fire Rim.


Murray points out though that the danger level at the moment is only medium


For the first part of the trek you could either take this ski lift up or walk an hour uphill

We decided to walk

It was pretty darn steep!

Harder work than we thought it would be (only about half of our 15 person group walked – the others waved from the lift and took pictures of us! nice huh?)

It was worth it though – a nice warm up for the legs – and a sense of accomplishment before we even started up onto the snow and ice.

Once we got to the top of the lift (took about an hour) we had to take a few layers off (HOT from all the exertion) – then the REAL trek started!

Me with my ice pick

We had to follow our guide closely and keep a close eye on every step to make sure we didn’t slip. That’s what the ice picks were for. He demonstrated to us that if we fell and started to slide down the mountain we had to throw our pick into the ice and hold on!! Scary.


The group at our first stop – about an hour in. We lost 3 people at this stop (they decided to go back down). This is the group who skipped the ski lift and walked the first bit….the rest of our group was way ahead by this time.
From left: Adam, Michelle, Jackie, Jordan, Shannon, Me, Murray & Robin


After a quick stop we had a REALLY steep bit to hike up!

I was in need of a quick rest after that!

Me & Murray posing for a pic at the mid way point – what a view!!

We were lucky enough to be there just a few days after a nearby (about 90 km away) volcano erupted – it was still going while we were there! Look in the distance behind me in this picture and you can see it smoking! During our lunch break half way up we watched puffs of smoke coming up and even saw some hot liquid magma coming out of it!! Pretty amazing to see!

The next bit was pretty darn steep as well!

So we followed closely behind our guide (check out our volcano steaming away)!

And we kept a close eye on the imprints in the snow since it apparently wasn’t bad enough conditions for us to use our crampons! That mean just digging in your boot with every step and using your ice pick to help steady yourself (that’s me! Well, my legs anyway)

As we were just about to get to the top the other half of our group at the top got some photos of us! That is Murray at the front, I'm behind him in the blue shirt

YAY almost there!!!
We were glad to see the rest of the group when we finally got to the top!
Lance & Shelly

I was happy to sit down and have some lunch! It was such an exhausting climb!! It took us about 5 hours to get to the top!

Our group taking a bit of a rest
Shelly, Anne, Steve, Paul & one of the guides

Lance got a bit Crazy with his ice pick!

The views were stunning from the top

We seemed to be even higher than the clouds (Volcan Villarrica is 2,840 meters high – about 9,318 feet)

It was steaming away while we were up there – we couldn’t see any magma thoughL

But I thought the view was amazing!!
Me & Murray on top of the volcano

Murray posing by the rim of the volcano

Llaima Volcano puffing away in the distance

Shelly, Lance & Steve playing around with their ice picks!

But what goes up…. Must go down
Thankfully they had these awesome ‘slides’ dug into the snow!!! Some of them were like luge’s – whipping you down the mountain in a tight fitting ice slide (I had to get my ice pick out once and awhile just to slow down). It was great fun though – a really really fun way to get to the bottom! We finished the hike at 4pm – 7 ½ hours in total!
Murray sliding
It was SO fun - you could really get going fast!
But sometimes if you gathered up too much snow you would slide to a stop:( (that's me)
We had these great 'nappy (diaper) like bum protectors' which consisted of a thick piece of material that you strapped around your waist and legs to protect you a bit from the bumps and the wet snow!

We all still got soaked though - here's Steve crashing down the hill!

That evening we all went into town for a BBQ put on by the owner of the volcano hike company – and the restaurant had a great view of what we had conquered that day! (beer on your burger anyone?)
Me & Shelly relaxing at the restaurant (oh and yes – I have new sunglasses – unfortunately. Left mine on the bus to Chiloe – very disappointing!)

Day 67 – January 4

Today – we did not very much. We just relaxed our sore muscles from the hike, used the wifi in the hostel, and went out for a lovely burger for lunch.

We still managed to go out for a bit of a walk though – and Murray got this photo of the local church and the volcano – a pic we both really love!

Then we met Lance, Steve, Paul and Robin down by the water for a beer to watch the sunset over Lago Villarrica.

Pretty sunset over the volcano too

Murray & I down by the water

Day 68 – January 5

Today we took it easy in the morning…

I even managed to finally figure out skype and called home!

Later that morning we walked down to the beach – lovely view and bizarre black rocks instead of sand

It’s actually quite a cute beach! Cold water though!!


That afternoon we joined a few people in our group for a rafting excursion

Me & Murray in our oh so lovely wetsuits

After a very brief (and hard to understand cause of the strong accents) we headed out down the grade 4 rapids From left – Murray, Michelle, Me, Jordan, Shannon and our guide Felipe

Some bits were quite rough (which we LOVED)!

When it got Really rough Felipe yelled at us to ‘get down’ inside the raft

Can you tell by Murray’s face that he’s having fun?

We did get stuck on a rock at one point though!

Overall it was a great trip! We had to get out of the rafts at one point so that Felipe could guide the raft over a section much to rough for us to ride on. We walked through the forest for a bit, and then jumped off a high cliff into the cold water! As soon as you popped up you had to quickly look for the raft, swim over and jump in before you went over the scary nearby falls! That jump, and the one time our raft nearly flipped were the highlights. When we got to the end the owner was waiting for us with our dry clothes bags, cookies and the favorite drink of Chileans – Pisco Sours! Yummm!

It was a great view on the way back to town as well

After we got back we quickly went down to the high street for one more great burger before getting on the night bus which would take us to Santiago.

Day 69 – January 6

We arrived in Santiago after another long night bus ride at 8am SO hungry! The hotel had the usual ‘just bread’ breakfast, so after we checked in the 5 of us set off in search of some real food. We finally managed to find a place that made omelettes and started to plan out the one day we had in Santiago.

This was our last official day on the ‘gap’ trip – so first we had some administration to do in prep for being guideless the next day onwards. Lance and Steve went to the bus station to pick up the bus tickets that we needed for the next day to get to Mendoza, we booked our accomodation and then it was time for us to get out and see the city!


We had a nice lunch in the Barrio Bellavista area (I THINK Lance liked the salsa they brought with the bread….)
And then we went to the Cerro San Cristobal – a mountain that towers above Santiago and is the site of Parque Metropolitano – the capital’s largest open space.


But first…. some ice cream while we waited in the VERY hot line


We took the funicular (which was like a very slow moving very steep train) to San Cristobal’s summit

There is a nice statue of Mary right at the top as well

Murray and I with a very smoggy Santiago and the Andes (the second highest mountain range in the world) in the background

Shelly & Me


Then we also went on the teleferico which is 2000 meters long and runs over to the other end of the park (That’s Murray and I in the car)

Ahhhhh Steve got his own super hot car – lucky!

It was hot in there (we rode all the way down and then back up to take the funicular back down to where we started) but wow what great views of the city!

Great view of Santiago

Us getting out

That evening Paul booked a place for our last group dinner

Me & Murray enjoying our Volcanes beer

A few of the guys had the venison (which we also tried a bite of– really really good)

But because I thought I wouldn’t like the venison… we ordered the boar to share instead.
It was recommended to us to get it well done – um ya – bad, bad, bad. It was so chewy and tough and terrible – we didn’t even finish it.

Lance and Steve sorting out the final bill

There are dogs Everywhere in this city!! (like most South American cities actually…) but we thought these two were hilarious. Then barked like crazy as we walked past – just poking their heads and legs out the bars on the windows.

That evening we had a few drinks back at the hotel for the last hurrah with a great group – our leader Paul who we had been with for 4 weeks, new friends that had been on the tour for just 2 weeks, and of course the great group of people we had traveled with for the full 10 weeks!

Day 70 – January 7

Our first day on our own without a guide – eeeeek! Scary, kinda exciting - mixed emotions really!
The five of us (Lance, Shelly, Me, Murray & Steve) left the hotel at 6:30 am after a quick bread breakfast (yuck, as usual - gosh I miss Brasil where they gave us FRUIT!) to get to the bus station nice and early for our bus to Mendoza. Of course our bus was late!! First bus on our own, and the first bus that was over an hour late to arrive! Oh well.

The ride to the Argentinean border took a few hours – it was quite a stunning ride through the mountains!

Rolling gorgeous hills

Cool looking cloud hovering over the mountain

Finally we arrived at the border which took AGES! Over an hour for our whole bus to go through the Chile ‘check out’ line, and then through the Argentina ‘check in’ line.

It took us 6 ½ hours to get to Mendoza – a long day trip – but worth it for the views on the way.

One of the random dogs who roamed in front of our hostel – on the prowl! (Cameron - this photo is for you..... one of those random Brasillian dogs - what are they called again???) Murray took a big chance getting close to it for this photo!!

Unfortunately we had to stay in a hostel dorm – NOT our first, second or really third choice (Lance spent hours on Skype trying to find something else) – but everything else in town seemed to be booked solid! So we had 2 nights in a 12 bed dorm room. It was clean and fine, but just way too many people in one space! Thankfully the hostel also had a lovely pool – so we took a refreshing dip, played a bit of ping pong, and then headed into town to book our tours.

Murray wasn’t happy with me when I said I had thrown away my pocket full of papers (which I thought was just hotel info)…

But it turned out he needed one of those pieces of paper – so went back to the bin to look for it – which the boys thought was hilarious!

We found a tour company and got all the info about the two day rafting expedition we were interested in doing, then went for a glass of wine at a nearby restaurant with a great view called Decimo. The guy who worked at the tour office gave us the great tip on how to find the place – which we never would have found on our own since you had to go to the 10th floor of a very plain looking building to find it! Shelly and I shared a gorgeous bottle of rose, and the boys had lovely drinks – as we watched the sunset over the city go down on a VERY hot and steamy day!

Day 71 – January 8

Today we slept into 10am (such a restless night with people coming in at all hours.. and of course our room window faced the street and the bar…). OH and of course they don’t switch on the air conditioning until 2am (a guy literally came in – turned on the light – used the remote to turn on the air con – turned off the light – and then left). Cheapos! He shut it off again at 7. They even came in the middle of the night to show people the dorm room – to try and sell the rest of the beds!!! My first time in a big dorm – can you tell? It was ok – it was fine – better than camping for sure – but geez – not great.

Eventually we headed into town to confirm and pay for our rafting trip, and try to find accommodation for our two other nights in Mendoza after the rafting (none of us wanted to stay in that 12 person dorm again). We walked around for ages, popping into hotels and hostels asking if anyone had room. Most places were booked solid, or just way out of our budget price range. Eventually we came to a hotel with a very helpful receptionist (from what Spanish we could understand). She said she had no room – but that she has a friend who manages a place that may be free. She called the lady up – and she said it was free! Bizarrely enough she picked us up in her station wagon…. and took us to a residential area nearby… where the apartment she rents out is!!! We were beyond thrilled. We would pay the SAME as we paid for each night in the hostel, but we would have a whole apartment to ourselves – with two rooms, two bathrooms, living room, kitchen and even a back yard and BBQ! Fab – we reserved it straight away! The lovely lady even said we could bring our big bags over later that night to store them until after our rafting trip!!!

So we went back to the hostel to have another swim (it is SO hot in Mendoza!! literally is a desert) and pack up our bags. We just kept one small bag each for the rafting trip, and Murray and Steve took everything else in a taxi over to our next accommodation. She let us lock everything up in one of the bedrooms, and we took the key with us – perfect!

That evening we decided to first stop by the hostel ‘bar/restaurant’ which was actually pretty nice.

Me, Shelly, Steve & Murray

We had an AMAZING appetizer platter, and enjoyed a great bottle of local wine given to us by Fausto – the owner of the restaurant and manager of the hostel.
The group!!! Me, Shelly, Steve, Murray & Lance

Afterwards we ended up in a yummy Italian restaurant – which obviously Steve & Shelly enjoyed!

Murray’s meal was SO yummy – bizarrely had caramelized sugar on the top – but the stuffed pasta was amazing!

Day 72 – January 9

Today we got picked up at our hostel at 9am to start our 2 day rafting adventure! They took us to rafting headquarters in Portrerillos where waited around for ages until we finally met our guide – Mario, from Mendoza. Then he took us down to meet our safety kayaker Dario, from Italy, who took us through all the safety information we needed to know. They kitted us out in sleeveless wetsuits, quick dry jackets, helmets and of course life jackets before heading out in the van to our starting point. Amazingly they told us that they there hasn’t been a two day rafting tour in over a year!! I think they were almost as excited as we were!!

The first bit was pretty calm, then we caught some great rapids and got very wet and VERY cold (it's melted glacier water)! After 2 ½ hours we stopped at an abandoned village and had lunch. Mario and Dario whipped us up a great sandwich feast – which was much better than we expected! It was fabulous until the wind started blowing and everything got coated in sand!! The wind was so fierce we ended up moving to another room in an abandoned house so that we could lay down for a rest from the wind and the sun.

After a nice little nap, it was back to the raft and on to our first grade 4 rapid! It was scary, and fun (we nearly flipped at one point)! We rafted for about 45 more minutes – most of which Shelly and I spent at the front (the boys pressured us to move up there – we said ok but ONLY after we had passed the grade 4’s). Wow was that a different experience – we laughed and screamed our heads off! Quite a different view from the front!!!


Then we arrived at our mountain lodge – where we would spend the night called the Pueblo del Rio Resort



After a quick swim we all settled down in the great lodge for a relaxing evening (it was only the 5 of us and Mario and Dario staying there).

Dario thanked us like 100 times for booking our tour – since that meant he got to spend the night in the lodge (he usually camps) and he got some great meals (even though they prepared them all). We were happy to oblige! They are great guys – the tour was great fun – and they aren’t bad at cooking either! The fridge was fully stocked when we arrived (by one on the company’s owners) so we dug right in to the wine, beer, and great food!


The views from the lodge were really stunning

Steve invading our photo on the patio– ha ha

Our lodge balcony was right by the river – with a great view of the mountains
Enjoying the lovely evening with our guide Mario


While Mario and Dario cooked up a great piece of steak on the Asado (like a BBQ – but what they do is burn a bunch of wood to one side – and then move the hot coals under the grill as they are needed to keep the heat consistent)….

....Lance and Steve pulled funny faces on the balcony

Yeah Baby

But we still had time for a group picture over appetizers!
Lance, Shelly, Me, Steve, Murray, Mario & Dario

Stunning clouds during the sunset

Lance, Mario, Murray & Me enjoying a beer on the balcony

Such a fun night! We even went back out to the balcony after eating inside (it was pretty windy and chilly by then) and enjoyed the sky full of millions of stars. The boys even had a competition counting how many satellites went by.

Day 73 – January 10

After a lovely breakfast courtesy of Mario & Dario, we went down to have a bit of time relaxing at the pool.

Me at the pool

Lovely View of the river

And the mountains

And Murray’s feet

Before heading off again for a bit more rafting!!! We started off where we had had lunch the day before – with the boys at the front again. Mario took us down the rougher bits this time though and we got soaked!


We thought the water looked like a chocolate milkshake. It has a lot of silt in it from the surrounding mountains – and the water is Freezing since it is melted glacier water.

I learned very quickly to not even smile after a big wave – or you would get sooty water in your mouth - gross!
Paddle Paddle Paddle!


Mario had us stand up just once at the end for a photo

Us on the river – we had SUCH an amazing time!!!!!!!

Shelly and I rode in the front for most of the second day as well. We got completely soaked, and our feet froze into ice blocks – but it was still awesome! One big wave threw Shelly across the boat onto me (luckily I was hanging on to the side so we didn’t fall out) and Steve actually got thrown out! I didn’t realize what had happened until I saw Murray reach over and grab Steve to pull him back in! Great fun.


Back at headquarters Murray got a bit of puppy affection (cute!)

And Steve showed us how he had mutilated his team t-shirt!!

That evening we had a nice relaxing dinner at our little apartment and got to bed early! Lovely.

Day 74 – January 11

We spent the morning relaxing (up to the point where we couldn’t find our ATM card…..)! After phone calls around it was determined it was gone – not sure if it was stolen from our bag at the hostel or what – but at least nothing was charged on it and we have a spare.

So we decided to move on and not over stress and go out to visit some wineries! The Mendoza region produces 70% of Argentinean wine, and apparently is just getting better and better (and consequently starting to attract international attention).

We got a local bus out to the town of Maipu, and then caught taxis from there. We were surprised at the first winery we visited when they told us it was 10 pesos per person for a tasting (every winery we have ever been to doesn’t charge….). But we paid anyhow, and tried 3 nice wines. Every taste after that was 2 or 3 pesos – such an odd system! The wines were lovely though and we ended up buying a lovely white wine called Torrents. El Galgo Torrents vino blanco 2006 to be precise! That purchase ended up negating the per person charge for the two of us – so that was kinda nice as well! After that we popped across the road to check out the store at an olive farm. Then it was the long (3 km) walk to the next winery.
The road was really beautiful though – lined with trees

Fields of vines everywhere you looked

The next winery (bodega) we visited was called Familia Di Tommaso. Again we paid our 10 pesos each and had a great tour (in English!!) in which we were shown how they used to make wine (brick and cement vats, ageing barrels in the basement, etc etc). One interesting fact we learned was that French Oak barrels give the flavor of vanilla and chocolate to the wine, where American Oak gives off a smokey burnt flavor! Interesting

The tour was followed by a great tasting session which included one white, three reds (including the Argentinean specialty Malbec) and one delicious dessert wine. Murray and I bought a bottle of the dessert wine called Albina Di Tommaso Amabile – it was FAB!

By then we were all tired – and not really up for walking another 3 km in the hot sun to the next bodega (plus it was nearly 5pm by then and they all close at 5) and we had 6 bottles of wine between us already!! So instead we walked a few kilometers down to the bus station (all taxis were booked up – so we had no choice) and caught that back to Mendoza with our bounty of wine.

After getting back (and eating a few bags of microwave popcorn...), the boys ran out to the grocery store for food, and then we made our own Asado in the back yard (in a proper Asado stove of course)!

HEre's to great friends and great wine!

Someone got the focus wrong on this one…. A bit too much wine perhaps?
Shelly chopping, Murray scooping and Lance wine contemplating

Our backyard had a ‘roof’ of grape vines which we thought was really cool

Our Asado hard at work

Steve helping Murray to pick some grapes

I wanted some too!

YAY fresh grapes!!

And finally – eating time!

A cute group photo

And one more….

Too funny!!!

Some more of those great cigars they bought on the Uruguay – Argentina ferry

Some back yard dancing

And some boys REALLY missing work in London!

Ahhhhhhh our last night together – too sad:(
We had SUCH a great time getting to know Lance and Shelly – and now consider them great friends. We are gonna miss them tons now that they are back to South Africa – bummer. But of course we wish them ALL the best! They are great travel companions and fabulous friends:)

Day 75 – January 12

After a nice sleep in, Murray and I popped into the center of town one more time for a bit of mountain gear shopping. We didn’t buy anything though since for some reason all that kind of gear is SO expensive in Mendoza! Plus it doesn’t help that nearly every shop closes for siesta from 1pm to 5pm – prime shopping time if you ask me! Oh well.

We had to check out at 4, then walked down the street with out bags to flag down some cabs.

Me waiting with our bags

Finally we all made it to the bus station. Lance, Shelly and Steve were to head off to Buenos Aires at 6:30… but our bus wasn’t til 8! (Steve had to make a stop off there to pick up his credit card which was sent from London for him).

We had a nice chat in a café while waiting for our buses

And Lance showed off his ‘angry kangaroo’ finger puppet (one of my secret santa xmas gifts to him – he LOVES it – can’t you tell?)

When 6 came around we said our teary goodbyes, and they were off! Gosh I’m gonna miss them (Lance and Shelly that is – Steve was coming back to meet us in a day or so after he collected his card).

Those three got the ‘super cama’ which we had heard was amazing. It has seats that actually go FLAT like a bed, wine, champagne, good food, etc etc. Unfortunately they didn’t have that option for our route (Mendoza to Bariloche) so instead we got cama. This was still one step up from every other bus we have been on in South America though (always semi-cama) so we were still excited.
The seats looked nice! Leather, reclined a bit more than usual, etc.
However, unfortunately, they were not as good as we were hoping. The ‘cama’ seats were nearly double the price of the ‘semi-cama’ seats for our 19 hour bus ride – but there was NO leg room! Thinking it would be nice for the passenger, they extended the leather seat down to a leather foot rest – BUT that meant you could not extend your legs and feet under the seat in front of you! So anyone with long legs ended up like Murray with his knees up to his chest – NOT nice! The only way he could really be comfortable was to turn sideways and put his legs across me – and even that didn’t work very well. Oh well – now we know!

We went to Bariloche again because that is where my lovely aunt Joni sent the replacement camera that we bought in the states (for that one that died on us weeks ago!)– so we thought we’d just pop by on our way down to Patagonia to pick it up!

This is where the blog will have to end for the moment, since we havne't organised the rest of the pictures after that point yet.

Right now we are in El Calafate with Steve enjoying the amazing glaciers. Saturday we start our 5 day trek in Torres del Paine - so I'm not quite sure when the next blog will be. Hopefully after the trek:)

Now..... back to my glass of leche con jugo de manzana (milk with apple juice) ODD I know!! But surprisingly yummy!