| Pucon to Santiago |
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| Mendoza, 24 April 2005 Hey everybody, How is life in Belgium or elsewhere? No spectacular news like pregnancies, marriages, new romances, earthquakes,...? Nothing we should be aware of to plan our next trip? Just kidding! Here we try to escape from the rain (had some sunny days too) but the rain seems to follow us so maybe we skip a major part of Bolivia (just go to the Salar of Uyuni) and then head up to Brazil and Venezuela, up to the real heat and sun! We will let you know! Pucon (Chile) is a nice little town and everybody who arrives there seems to have the same goal: climbing volcan Villarrica (2847m), a volcano that is still active and where from time to time you can see some lava coming up the crater. The thing is that the weather conditions must be OK to do the climb so we had to wait a day before going up (because of fog and heavy rainfall)! Apparently we were very lucky because some Americans that stayed in our hostel, waited for almost a week and when the perfect weather showed up their guide appeared to be sick! The climb was quite hard but OK; I think in the meantime I had some exercises ;-)! The last part we had to wear crampons to reach the summit. And surprisingly enough it was not only for me a new experience but also Joris never had crampons on his feet before (normally he is the one that has 'been there, done that'!). From the summit, the view was not very good (there were lots of clouds beneath us) but the smoke from the volcano wasn't too bad and we were able to see lava coming up from the crater: We expected a giant crater but it was not that big although still impressive! Red, boiling fluid reaching the surface of the earth! While walking down again we were even treated on a lava-shower! No big stones but small pieces of still sizzling gold shining lava (see picture)! The same evening we drove to the thermal baths of Los Pozones to relax in some natural hot pools in open air surrounded by mountains (although we could not see them because it was already dark when we arrived). Every country in the world should have them (to relax after a day of hard work :-) ) Santiago, the capital of Chile with 4.5 millions inhabitants, was totally different. A very big city with lots of noise and pollution. Every 5 seconds a bus is driving by! We explored the different 'barrios' (neighborhoods) from the city, experienced a very small particle of Santiago's nightlife and of course tasted wine in one of the most famous wineries from the Maipo valley, Concha y Toro. We learned a bit about the wine-making process, visited the cellars, ate grapes from the vineyard and last but not least, tasted different kinds of wine. Excellent and I'm sure we will have another try in Argentina! They try to take advantage of the foreigners in Santiago. We went for a drink in one of the more prestigious barrios and did not only pay almost twice as much as elsewhere but the waitress also found that a tip is something you do not add on the bill but take at once from the change (even more then the usual 10%)! We tried to argue about that (tip is voluntary and bla bla bla) but in the end we gave up! No other pub or restaurant did the same! From the pollution of the big city we tried to escape to the fresh-air of the seaside but Valparaiso did not seem to match our expectations. Another city with a harbor, lots of traffic and a million buses! It looks like summertime is over here. In the evening most of the restaurants were closed and the temperature dropped. No sunbathing on the beach yet and no Cuba Libre at night :-( ! Still Valparaiso has some charming 'cerros' with colorful houses and some tiny little craft shops. A city with 46 hills which can be reached by staircase or by taking one of the many ancient elevators. We stayed in a small but cozy hospedaje owned by a Frenchman and his Chilean wife. For the penguins the summer is not completely over yet; we thought they were all gone up north (way ahead of us) but we still found some on a tiny little island just before the coast of a small village called 'Cachagua'. Some hundreds of Humboldt penguins are sharing the island with pelicans and giant cactus's! Now we are in Mendoza (Argentina again) and are looking forward to go rafting and horseback riding! It seems like all the backpackers travel in Argentina and far more less in Chile and I can understand why. Argentina is cheaper, people are more friendly and they have better accommodation!!!!! Salute, Domi and Joris |