Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

From Cafeyate we headed north, spent a night in Salta (which was singularly unimpressive) then headed further north to Humahuaca (also unimpressive and expensive to boot) where we stayed another night.  Finally, the next day we reached our intended destination of Iruya, a town of around 1400 people or so.

We were met at the bus station / large open part of the town by a woman with a hostel (sound familiar) we decided what the heck. It turned out to be an excellent place to stay, the people were nice, the bed comfy, it was quiet and we basically had the run of the place.  Not to mention the fact that the price was cheaper for both of us, with a private room than for one of us in the dorms in Humahuaca.

That afternoon we decided to walk to San Isidro which is an even smaller town of only 75 people.  The walk begins by skirting the side of the hill next to Iruya.

Then it follows the river down the valley, at this point we were a little lost.  We didn´t want to cross the river a million times and we couldn´t see any other trail.  It was just now that a local man, who lived in San Isidro started climbing a nearly invisible trail up the side of the valley, we decided to follow his lead.  The trail skipped past the river and dropped back down to the valley floor.

After several of these trails we reached a part where the valley narrows and the river continues, here there was a sign indicating the path up to San Isidro.  We climbed up a bit then looked back along the river.

There isn´t anything to do in San Isidro except climb to the graveyard and look back down on the town, so that´s what we did.

Then we headed back.  It´s gotta be boring for the dogs here, at least during the day, in the hot sun.  Nothing better to do than sleep I guess.

I decided to snap a few shots of the trail back as it was kinda impressive.

We passed a donkey, molting or something.  My guess is they do this at a certain age because the younger ones were much furrier than the older ones.

The river, and Erin´s smiling face.  She liked this walk much better than in Tafí once the old guy showed us where to go of course.

The next morning we had just enough time to do a short walk, before our bus left.  We climbed to the cross and then a bit higher to get a good view of the town and valleys.

Our hostel, and our pink travel towels.

Some more shots of the town.

And the graveyard.

While on the hill an eagle of some sort shot over my head, at first I wondered if it was going to try and eat me then I decided to take a photo.

Erin trying to decide if she can climb any further.

The sheer sides of the valley.

The highest point.

Erin decided to try climbing round the ridge, in her flip-flops, what a nutter!

Waiting for our bus.

Erin trying to get a reflection in my glasses.

The road from Iruya, switchbacks as far as the eye can see.

This cool shot is the result of the camera behind my sunglasses, behind the window of the bus shooting the sun behind the clouds, gnarly.

Hola,

After Quilmes we decided to do a walk.  Making this a very long day.

This walk is just what we had wanted to do in Tafí del Valle, but couldn´t find.  The woman at the hostel mentioned a guide was possible but said we could do it "solo" so that´s what we did. 

Without a guide you have to walk 6km to the start of the trek, and then 6km back again.  That part was a bit of a bore but otherwise it was an amazing walk/climb.

The walk begins at the end of a local road, near a school.  From here you start to follow the river up a valley/ravine, crossing several times and passing a few small waterfalls and at least two maybe three decent sized ones.

At about halfway along we met two other walkers who had also left it as late as we did (most people were walking back out, in the opposite direction about now).  They were sitting rather dejectedly on a rock due to the other walkers telling them it was too late to go.  We scoffed at this and convinced them to join us.

It was half a walk and half a climb over big rocks, trees and the river itself.  Luckily no-one fell in.  It was, in fact, great fun.  This has prompted Erin to say that we need to take up rock climbing, it seems we´d both enjoy it.  My mother is going to love that!

Finally we reached the largest waterfall where our friends took a photo of us.

Back at the base of the trek the sunset looked grand.

We started on our 6km return trip along the dusty road.

Hola,

For our 2nd day in Cafayate we decided to get up rediculously early and catch a bus (back the way we came) to Quilmes where there are ruins of an indigenous society.  These guys actually resisted the Inca, and the Spanish until finally moving to Buenos Aires to make beer.  Or so the official story goes...

The bus was an hour late leaving, which basically cut an hour off our time in the ruins (we had to catch a certain bus back in the afternoon) so we were a little pissed about that, but, it made good time and we were soon walking the last 5km to the ruins.  Despite trying to hitch a ride several cars just drove on past, which was ok because I spent most of the walk trying to get a decent photo of the little hampster like critters here.

We eventually arrived at the ruins and Erin needed a little break ;o)

Inside the museum we found a map which included walking times which all seemed quite long, more time than we had.  So, we hurried (due to our lack of time) up the hill and as it turned out the walk which was to take 2 and a half hours took us 30 minutes.  From the top you could see the restored city walls.

And the non-restored area, you´d barely know it was there.  Makes you wonder how much is restoration and how much is just plain guessing.

The walls are just plain cool though.

Here I am being artsy again.

Molineros, places for grinding stuff.

Some more wildlife, a bird, a lizard and this crazy beetle that runs around (seemingly randomly) with it´s front legs in the air like it´s hair is on fire or something.

Then, the 5km back to the main road.  This time a nice guy (and his wife) gave us a lift as far as the main road, on the back of their ute.  They were heading in the wrong direction for us otherwise they might have taken us further.

As we were waiting for the bus back a local stopped to chat.  Turns out he is descended from the Quilmes people and that not all of them went to make beer.  In fact there is some dispute over this with the government concerning the traditional lands and whether they still belong to the Quilmes people or not.

Us, back in Cafeyate sampling the Quilmes beer.  Had to be done.  Gave Erin a sore stomach, not doing that again!

Hola,

When we arrived in Cafeyate we were literally swamped by people pimpìng their hostel to us.  It appears we arrived at a time where there were more hostels than tourists, yay for us.  We eventually chose El Balcon (The Balcony) and yes, it had one, as well as a rooftop bar/party area and really good tourist information.

They also did tours and we decided to do the recommended tour of Quebrada de Las Conchas (literally "broken of the shells") which is an area of land which was once (millions of years ago) under the sea and is now interesting shapes, colours and contains fossils.

There were several stops along the way (we´ve forgotten the names of them but Erin wrote them down so we might update this later), the first included a brief description of the tour (like mine above) and a short walk to the highest point, which wasn´t very high.

A self-photo from the top, and the view back to the van/bus.

This little cactus looked kinda cute, I think it will make a cool wallpaper for my computer once we hit the UK.

The second, a longer walk which involved crossing a muddy river.  At which the guide tried to entice the girls into having mud packs on their faces, not many accepted.

The third, optional walking to the rocks you can see on the right hand side of the panorama.  Other than that there was a great big tower like rock and a man selling ash trays and mortar & pestle´s made from alabaster.  Erin bought one, of course, more rocks to carry around!

The fourth, this time we get a history lesson on the Inca.  The spanish once ransomed the life of the Inca (the king of the Inca people) for a huge amount of gold.  The Inca were transporting the gold over a nearby hill when they heard the Spanish had killed the Inca, so they hid the gold on the hill, somewhere, no-one knows exactly where.

The fifth, here we have "Loro´s" (Lorakeets?) which inhabit the rock face and nearby river and trees.

The sixth, the amphitheatre, a short walk into the hillside which opens into a natural space where sound echoes really well.  There was a mad, his son, their dog and their friend playing music as we arrived.  Our guide even got on the guitar and proved that he had a very good voice.

I built myself a pile of stones.  The locals build these and believe they house spirits, or simething like that.

The seventh, the Garganta del Diablo (Throat of the Devil).  Another path into the hillside which ends in a wall at approximately 45 degrees.  Of course we had to climb it.

The sunset as we left for home.

Hola,

From Mendoza we headed north again, this time to a small place called Tafí del Valle.  It´s south of Salta, north of Tucuman, on a windy road into the hills.

We came here hoping to find some good walking but ended up a bit dissappointed, at one point Erin even said she wanted to go home.  It all started when we asked the woman at the hostel about where we could go, she told us of several walks but all the good ones "required" a guide, so, in the end we decided to combine two short, guide-free walks into one longer day walk.

The walk started just up the hill from our hostel and the first stop was a nearby cross, on the cumbre (crest) of the hill.

Up here we decided a panorama would look cool.

As we sat down for some water and to figure out where we were supposed to go next I startled a very small lizard.  That´s the toe of my boot you can see there!

The walk supposedly (remember we got directions in Spanish) didn´t crest all the hills along the ridgeline, but, went around the sides of them.  However, we couldn´t see a path so we just decided to crest them all, for a better view.  Aside from the first climb the whole walk looked to be over this boring farmland.  Erin was not impressed.

We eventually came to a ravine (is that what you call this?) which ran down towards the river, and past a graveyard.  Our directions mentioned a graveyard but said we were to continue on.  As the way forward was more boring farmland we decided to head down the valley to the river.

The valley contained all these big piles of white stuff, no idea what it was.

It was here we finally got a shot of the giant grasshoppers, that´s Erin´s walking pole you can see in the background.  They are really bad fliers and their wings are a bright blue.

At the bottom of the valley, just before the river we arrived at the graveyard.  It was well decorated, another panorama was called for.

Back at the hostel for lunch and showers and to spend the afternoon reading and generally laying about.  The hostel had a couple of dogs, one mongrel of some sort and one chiahuahua crossed with something, maybe a doberman.

The next morning as we were leaving for Cafeyate we got this shot of the clouds, they´re really low, lower than the hills.  Cool.

Hola,

I finally found a nice small program for stitching my panaorama photos together and this is the first result.

Hola,

We decided to be lazy and booked a tour of Puente del Inca and various other destinations.  The non-lazy option was to take a bus there and then a different (later) bus back but it required we figure out when the buses ran and so on, plus the bus wouldn´t stop along the way.

The tour left at 8am (supposed to be 7:30 but hey this is South America) and our first stop was a man made lake with a dam at the far (right hand) end.  The lake water is a nice green but the river water running into it is a murky brown, strange.

There were several other stops along the way including a morning tea stop at a restaurant owned by some friends of our guide (of course). 

We also saw many interesting rock formations along the road none of which were really all that impressive (thus no photos).

We stopped at a popular ski location where on some days (this being the off season) the ski lifts are operating and you can ride to the top for a nice view.  Today was not our lucky day.

We stopped 40km from the base of Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America and the 17th highest peak in the world (the other 16 being in the Himalayas of course).  Erin plans to climb this beast at some stage.  I won`t be going!  Fortunately there wasn`t enough time to acclimatise on this trip, oh well.

The farthest point we reached on this trip was just over the western border with Chile where Erin bought some more rocks in the shape of bowls for making Pastel de Choclo.  Luckily for me she is carrying all her "rocks" in her day bag ;o)

On the way back we stopped for lunch at Puente del Inca (the star of the trip) a bridge formed initially by ice and the river water (which was warm due to the hot springs) carving the channel below.  Then over time the sulphurous minerals from the hot springs leeched into it creating a solid yellow bridge.

The rest of the ride back was just that, our guide who had been quite exhuberant on the way out was now dozing in the front of the bus, as were the rest of us.  We arrived back in Mendoza at around 7pm.

Hola,

We took an overnight bus from Bariloche to Mendoza, Regan having previously bought the tickets while I was flouncing round the countryside (Regan´s words). 

We went with the more expensive seats in the hope that Regan could sleep.  They were black leather and wider than normal.  This was a service included trip so we got dinner..... at about 11pm!  Mashed spuds and breaded chicken.  Great.

We arrived in Mendoza bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Okay, that´s a lie.  For once, Regan managed to sleep (a bit) while I tossed and turned, if you can say that about sleeping in what is essentially a reclining chair.

It was a good thing we had booked our accommodation as we heard that pretty much all the other hostels were full.  We were in a 4 bed dorm with Ash (Aussie we met in Bariloche) and Vivian (a lovely Canadian girl).

Mendoza is quite a hot place.  The streets are all tree-lined though which makes walking the 5000 blocks to the park a bit more pleasant.  The park is half the size of the city - absolutely massive!

These photos are of a much smaller plaza near our hostel. 

A tiled mosaic depicting something or other.....

The plaza itself was tiled too.

The cool water looked inviting.  The fountain on the right hand side must have had performance anxiety issues.

Hola,

The day after the seven lakes, two tyre escapade all of us, bar Regan, were feeling antsy and couldn´t sit round doing nothing (Regan could) so we decided to go and do a walk.

We ended up walking up Cerro Llao-Llao and then to Valle Tracul (a "beach" on one of the lakes).

It wasn´t a hard or long walk - just what we needed.

As you can see from the photos below it was picturesque.

Hola,

One of the things we had planned to do here was rent a car and drive the "Siete Lagos" (7 lakes).  We had heard it was best to get a group of four people together in order to split the costs.  We had mentioned it at Refugio Frey and Ewan and Katrin had both expressed interest.  We also had a note up in La Bolsa which I wrote when I booked the room before the trek.

Upon our return from the trek we found two names on the note, but Ewan and Katrin were both still keen to go with us.  Luckily the guys on the note had found three others and were going to go as a group of five.  So, no worries there.

We visited a few car rental places and found the prices all pretty similar.  We took the option that allowed all four of us to be registered as drivers for free (one place wanted to charge) and we confirmed there was a spare tire and tools to change it, you never know what can happen...

We picked the car up the next morning, after buying snacks for lunch (unsurprisingly much the same as lunch on the trek) and headed on our way.  Katrin was the first driver due to being the only person used to driving on the right hand side of the road.

The road was at first sealed, then there were road works, then gravel but nothing too bad so far.  Certainly nothing to be worried about.  Ewan took over driving at the road works as Katrin hadn´t had much experience on it.  We arrived at the first lake which was unimpressive.

We had been told by an Israeli we met at Refugio Frey that we shouldn´t miss one lake which was a short drive off the main road.  When we arrived we found a camping ground sort of place and pulled up for lunch only to discover they wanted us to pay for the priviledge.  I asked "why" ("Por Que") he replied "what do you meant why" ("Como Por Que").  Needless to say we drive the 20 meters or so down the road to a wide patch and pulled up close to the shoulder instead.

I just happened to notice something odd floating in the waves lapping at the shore and pulled it out with a stick.  It turned out to be a yaby (as Ewan reminded us, I had forgotten the name) and it was still alive and oddly not really keen to get back into the lake.

We visited a bunch more lakes, none of which rated too highly on the cool-factor.  I mean, a lake is a lake, once you´ve seen one...  Everything was fine until Ewan stopped the car, opened the door, looked at the front right tire and said "Bugger" (or something to that effect) "We´ve got a flat".

We jumped out and Ewan showed his practicl experience changing tires for his 28+ year old mates who hadn´t a clue.  I was happy enough to play tire changing assistant.  In record time we were back on the road, perhaps we should form a pit crew?

Eventually we came to a lake of some note due to it being fed by a waterfall, it was a bit cooler than your average lake.

Erin took over the driving and we took another short trip off the main road to Lago Hermoso (Beautiful Lake) which was only really a little better than average to be honest.

From there we arrived in San Martin a nice town on the shore of... you guessed it, a lake.  It was a cute place with fake wooden huts etc.  There was even a boat or two on the lake though not as many as you´d expect.  It was something that had been puzzling us, in NZ there would have been boats everywhere.

From San Martin it was time to head back to Bariloche by an alternate route through "Valle Hermoso" (Beautiful Valley) along another gravel road.  The countryside here was funky.

It was then that disaster struck for the 2nd time.  As Erin and I were changing places (for me to drive) I heard a strange hissing noise... as I bent to inspect the left rear tire Ewan guessed what was going on and I could hear muffled swearing from inside the car and phrases like "you´ve got to be joking" (you´ll have to imagine the Aussie accent).

As it was a slow leak and we thought we had only 30kms to go to the small town of Confluencia we quickly jumped back in and took off.  After perhaps 5km it was feeling pretty flat so I stopped on a straight stretch to check it and sure enough it was almost flat.  There was no way we were going any further.  At least the scenery was nice.

Lacking a 2nd spare we went over our options.  There was no cell phone coverege, but there was plenty of other tourists behind us so we figured we could get a lift to Confluencia.  There was also a small place a few ks behind us, there were no telephone lines but maybe they had a radio.

In the end Ewan and Katrin hitched a ride to Confluencia with two kind Israeli guys (a father and son, one of which was a photographer who had planned to take a bunch of photos on this stretch of road, sorry guys!) taking along one of the flat tires in case there was a place to get it repaired and also the phone number of the rental agency.

They left behind Erin and I, plus all the food and water.  One of the Israeli guys gave us another half bottle of water to keep us going.  We waited, flagging down each passing car and checking if they had a spare tire the correct size.  No such luck, they were either too large or had the holes in the wrong places.

Four hours later at approximately 11pm Ewan returned in the Automobile Club rescue truck with a new tire.  The guy quickly put the new tire on and then we were off.  It turned out there was a lot of road left, more than we had thought and the road was very windy, add to that the dark and our excessive care in case we got a 3rd flat and it was a very slow trip.

It was now that Ewan informed us that the countryside we weren´t seeing ("Valle Hermoso") was the most spectacular of the entire trip, great, just our luck.  This was the salt in the wounds of an otherwise average day.

We picked Katrin up at the service station in Confluencia where she had waited with the attendant (who also lived there) until she had finally convinced him he could leave her to wait alone.  The road from here was beautifully paved and we made good time eventually arriving back at La Bolsa at 1:30am in the morning.

As Ewan had checked out of his hostal he asked for a room only to discover the computer had him booked into a room since he left for the trek four days earlier and that he had in fact been the reason he missed out on a bed the day before.  We all had a good laugh at this before heading to bed for a well deserved rest.

Hola,

The next morning Erin had a sore leg so we decided to put off our walk till tomorrow.  We basically did nothing all day but wander the town, Erin wrote (a story she has been working on) and I went to "La Bolsa" a hostal we wanted to stay in (due to it having a wicked kitchen).  I made a reservation for the day we would get back from our 3 day trek and watched a football match with an Israeli guy who went crazy when Manchester United (his team) scored in the 90th minute.

The next day we got everything ready then caught the bus to the start of the trail, a ski lodge type area without any snow at this time of year.  The trail was at first a stroll round the base of a hill, alongside a lake and through a forest of scrubby trees some of which looked to be dead for some reason and some obviously burnt.

At one point we decided to stop for lunch, the bees in the area decided to join us much to our frustration.  We were having rice crackers (Erin can find food here!) tomatoes and cheese.

The trail climbed and descended the side of the hill a lot, sometimes we had to scramble over fallen trees or rock slides.  At this point a bridge was needed.

At the 3 hour mark the trail climbed into more dense forest.

Then proceeded to climb quite steeply for 45-60 minutes to Refugio Frey.

The refugio cost 25 pesos (NZ$12.50) each for the night (a bunk with matress) and included the use of the kitchen. We had brought rice, tuna, cheese and veges to fry up.  The local mountaneering club runs the refugio and you could also order meals here, though they were expensive (due to the cost of bringing the food in probably).

Our biggest surprise was the number of people staying here.  The area is full of great rock climbing spots and there were heaps of climbers either staying in the refugio or camping in tents nearby.  We met Ewan (Australia), an Irish couple, and an Argentinian girl travelling with an Israeli guy all with the same plan as us, to head to Jacob tomorrow.  We also met Katrin (Switzerland) who was heading back down to Bariloche tomorrow.

The next morning the weather didn´t look good.  There was fog/cloud around the peaks and it was a little cold.  We were told it was normal and usually cleared and so we decided to set out for the next stop Refugio Jacob (also called Refugio San Martin).

We walked past the lake and up the ridge to another smaller lake.

Then climbed (literally, the trail required us to clamber up steep rocks and round boulders etc) to a second ridge.  Ewan had left just before us and we eventually caught him here, waiting just below the second ridgeline hoping the weather would clear.  He joined us for the rest of the trip right back to Bariloche.  It turned out he was staying in La Bolsa too.

The view from the 2nd ridge was great.  This is the valley we have to walk down to the 3rd ridge.

We slid down the other side (Literally, there was a lot of fine sandlike stuff with larger rocks mixed in. Much like coming down from El Misti in Peru) and then walked down a stream bed (presumably where the snow melt flows) where a rock promptly gave way under me and I fell.  The rock then landed on me.  Luckily nothing more serious than a scrape or two and bruises you couldn´t even see.  Ewan gave me a hand up and I took it a little slower.  Meanwhile Erin with her walking poles was outdistancing the both of us, what a machine!

At the bottom we skirted the valley (it was a bog) to the 3rd ridge, at the base we decided to have lunch (same stuff as day one) without the bees this time, but with a spattering of rain instead.  After lunch it was up, up, up.

At the top we had a great view into the next valley where the refugio is located.

The refugio was run by a woman and her two daughters.  She is not here all year round but only for some months during the year.  The price was the same as the first and there was a kitchen and meals as before.  We had the same dinner and then at around 10pm three Israelis turned up, drenched and covered in mud.  They had come from Frey also but it had taken them twice as long to get here, apparently they had been lost and in the dark hadn´t seen the river crossing so had to wade up to their thighs.  Oh dear.

The next morning the weather was nicer and it was nowhere near as cold as yesterday.  We had a closer look at the lake then headed of for the longest day of the three (25km), but all downhill.

The last 7km is along gravel roads to the main road where we had a cold drink and I tried to get myself run over.  Then, it was back to Bariloche by bus and a nice hot shower.  Katrin had managed to get a room in La Bolsa but Ewan missed out (he forgot to book) so had to go across the road.  We all went to a local Parilla for huge steaks and huge plates of fries, mashed spuds and salad.

Hola,

We arrived in Bariloche quite late at night and proceeded to walk half the town looking for a place to stay, everywhere we found was either full or some exorbitant price.  We eventually found a place which was ok, cheap even for what it was, but it had no kitchen we could use.

The next morning it was up, and into town to check out the hiking club for information about treks and so on.  They had a booklet in Spanish describing the various treks, we grabbed that and then wandered around town a bit.  They have St Bernard rescue dogs in the main plaza for tourists to have their picture taken.  I wonder if they actually rescue people or if they´re just for show.  Perhaps they work the plaza on their days off?  There were puppies too, they were probably only a month or two old but still huge.

That afternoon we headed out for a half day walk to a place called Llao Llao (the double-L is pronounced "sh" here in Argentina).  Our booklet described the walk... unfortunately it wasn´t a very good description and we had to ask for some directions.  Unfortunately they gave us directions to a different walk, which while it was still good was not as good as the one we had planed to take (as Erin would discover when she did it later on).

The walk we ended up doing was a gentle stroll first through some largish trees, then through a long almost tunnel of bamboo like stuff.  It ran around the lake shore to a smaller lake where we stopped for some photos.

There was also a small bridge in the area, see if you can spot Erin.

On the way back we photographed the main lake.  The reflection of the hills on the lake surface is kinda cool.

Then it was back into town for dinner, bed and to plan our 3 day 2 night hike.

Hola,

We were met at the bus stop in Puerto Montt by a woman with a hostal, she seemed nice and our last experience had worked out well, plus the price was good and she had a kitchen we could use (we´ve decided that in these more expensive countries cooking for ourselves is definately worth the effort).

That said, we went to dinner this first night at a restaurant she recommended, just up the road.  It was a little more than we would normally pay but the food was excellent.  It appears that here in Chile if you order steak, fish or whatever thats exactly what you get, with nothing else, no salad, chips, anything.  Instead you have to order the chips, salad or even "a lo pobre" (chips, fried egg, and fried onion) as well.  A kind of build your own plate sort of meal.

That said, you can still order "Lomo a lo pobre" so thats what I did.  Erin had the Salmon, with a side order of papas fritas (french fries).  Both meals were excellent.

After dinner we walked down the shore of the bay and explored the town then headed back for a hot drink and bed.

The next morning it was off to Chiloé an island just off the coast.  To get there you hop in a bus which rides on a ferry (like in Bolivia, but more modern).

In Castro, the main city on Chiloé we had a hostal in mind, we just had to find it.  The guide book had no map for this place, it being quite small.  Luckily the guy who recommended the hostal, also drew us a map and so after a couple of questions we were on our way there.  On the way we were intercepted by a guy, with a hostal, which was on the way to the one we were heading to.  We decided to check it out and after a bit of bargaining it seemed a good deal and so we stayed.

That night we did a bit of exploring along the sea shore and town.

We also had to visit the Cathedral which is famous for being built entirely of wood (as are all the churches in this area), including the wooden pegs used for nails.  These days the outside of the building appears to be covered by metal similar to corrugated iron, presumably to protect it from the elements.  It´s still pretty impressive.

The next morning it was really cold, and raining.  Apparently they get 200 days of rain a year here, yikes!  We decided that we didn´t really want to spend our time down here in cold, wet, Chile and so we jumped on a bus back to Puerto Montt where we caught the next bus to Bariloche, Argentina.

Hola,

On one night in Valparaiso we were eating dinner at a local diner when a local, or perhaps a tourist from another South American country asked us if we wanted our photo taken, not sure why, perhaps he was testing his new camera.

In any case, he took my email address and has emailed the photo to us.  We never even knew his name.

Hola,

We landed in Santiago, changed our money and hopped on a bus to the city centre.  Just before leaving we met a taxi driver who recommended a hostal and even called ahead and reserved beds for us.

At the hostal we discovered the only rooms they had left were dorm rooms and they cost 7,700 pesos ($NZ22) each!  Lacking the will to hunt for a better offer (when we were unlikely to find one) we locked our bags away and went hunting for some food. 

A nearby diner style restaurant had "Lomo a lo pobre" AKA "poor mans steak" which is essentially steak, french fries, fried egg and cooked onions.  Erin got a healthier looking lunch of steak with some avocado, tomato and stuff.

Next stop was the mall down the road.  We tried to take the local buses but they required a card (which we didn´t have!).  We walked it; it was only 7-8 blocks or so, not too bad.  Along the way we found a store with MP3 players.  Since the theft of ours in Bolivia we have really been missing music.  We checked a few out but didn´t buy one, yet...

At the mall we found the post office and checked how much it would cost to send another package home, then we decided to see a movie and bought tickets for later that night.  Leaving the mall we decided to find a card for the buses.  Apparently it was a new system and you could only buy cards in the morning.  Luckily a local woman very kindly decided to lend us hers, provided we put some money on it, which we did.

We had a bit of time so we checked our email, and prices of MP3 players at home.  By now it was almost time for our movie, we had just enough time to get a coffee and some snacks for the movie.  Cappuccinos here all come with cream and a little glass of sparkling water.

After the movie we tried to use the card to catch a bus but there seemed to be no buses at this time of the night, or they didn´t stop outside the mall... crap.  We walked it... again... *sigh*

When we got back we found the other two occupants of our room already asleep, but one of them had decided to change beds which meant there was only one un-used bed.  We grabbed a fresh set of sheets and changed the other bed, waking them up (whose fault was that!).  Finally we could sleep.

The next morning we took our things to the post office, on the bus! (finally).  We posted the things, went back down the road and bought an MP3 player then headed back to the restaurant (on the bus!) for lunch.  We found a nearby internet place and killed some time before packing our bags, catching a bus back to the mall, giving the lady her card back and walking to the inter-city bus station out of here.

We arrived in Valparaiso that afternoon and were met at the station by a woman trawling for travellers to stay at her hostal.  We don´t normally accept these sorts of offers but the price was good - 8,000 pesos for both of us - and we didn´t really have another hostal in mind.

The hostal was a house run by her mother (71 years old) and her crazy cat (which tried to catch and eat our bags).  It was a fairly simple place but they were friendly and it had a kitchen, plus we could wash our laundry and it had a nice view of town and the harbour. It was also only a short walk downhill to town.

We walked in to town to find dinner.  I had Bife a lo Pobre this time - a thin beef steak, chips, eggs and onions.  Erin couldn´t decide on anything so we bought some fruit from the supermarket, plus veges to cook up tomorrow.  We did a bit more internet then headed to bed.

The next morning we headed back into town, to the information centre for a map and some ideas of things to do and see (Erin already had a few from the guide book).

The city is a lot like Wellington but it has really nice sunny weather.  It is full of acensores, they´re cable cars that take people up and down the hills of the city.  We decided to start by riding one of these to the top of a hill, walk around a bit and ride another one down.

The first ascensor:

At the top we saw this ingenious use of an old lightbulb.

Looking back down, and around the city from the top.

Walking around we stumbled across a local artist.  He showed us his pictures (all original works) and also pulled out an old National Geograpic (2003) which contained an article about Valparaiso, including a picture of him and his art.  We decided to buy a small one, small enough to fit in a book so it wouldn´t be ruined.

Along the way we spotted this.  It´s funny because "Mono" is both the opposite of stereo and the Spanish word for monkey.

At the second acensor there was a bunch of nice older buildings and trees.

Plus a view of a church and another acensor.

The inner workings include large wheels with thick cables.

The ride down...

Next stop a museum called Museo al Cielo Abierto.  It is a collection of 20 murals on the outside of buildings.  There is a map to follow, showing where the murals are.

This one is not an official mural but Erin quite liked it, probably because of the bees!

More murals, and a window with clothes drying (Erin liked this for some reason... apparently she has always liked clothes drying... weird!).

Most of South America is full of dogs, Valparaiso has a large number of cats too.  Now, I don´t want to let the cat out of the bag, but...

We headed up the hill to one of Pablo Neruda´s houses.  Erin visited.  I sat outside and read my book. 

The house was fascinating but you weren´t allowed to take photos inside (and for once I didn´t join everyone else and break the stupid rule that had no point - they didn´t even sell postcards with photos!).  Erin over.

That was enough walking for one day, it was back home for nachos and guacamole followed by roast veges, yum.  For anyone who hasn´t tried it you should add tomatoes to your roast veges.  And then melt cheese over the whole lot.  Yummy!

The next morning we decided to catch a bus to the nearby Viña del Mar where they have some beaches (not as nice as NZ, but still pretty good).  This looks like torture.

Not exactly dressed for the beach, but I don´t really like swimming and there were signs saying you couldn´t swim here anyway, dumb.

We (Regan) had some lunch (Burger King!) then we headed back to Valparaiso where Erin had a much healthier salad for lunch.  Later on Regan needed to swap his book so we went to a place we had found in our wanderings, a restaurant owned by a Canadian guy, and his Chilean wife, both of whom used to work on cruise ships.  He had a huge selection of books and allowed us to exchange one for one.  We also decided to have lunch here. 

Erin discovered her favourite dish, a sheppard´s pie made with choclo (sweet corn) instead of potato (which she hates, with a few minor exceptions and depending on her mood).  It´s called "Pastel de Choclo" which we thought odd because in Peru and Bolivia Pastel de Choclo is a cake made from choclo. 

We figured we might see a movie so headed into town to the cinema, bought some tickets and then... Erin decided she was hungry and didn´t really want anything in the restaurants, so we cashed in the ticket and headed home for dinner (very yummy roast veges and cheese) and bed.

The next morning we headed to the bus station to buy tickets for our next destination, Temuco (the start of the Lakes District down south).  On the trolley bus on the way there we saw this woman travelling with her pet dog.  It had "chopped off legs" we discovered when the woman got off shortly after taking this photo.

We also wanted to ride an acensor which starts by going horizontally through solid rock before rising vertically to the top of the hill.  Sadly this one was closed (had been for 5 months).  We decided to walk to the top to see the view anyway.  We signed the petition calling for it to be reopened too.

On the way back we bought some fruit from the market (including a watermelon) and we also had a coffee at Erin´s favourite little cafe.

We decided to go to the movies again, and this time we made it (with our watermelon in tow). 

These show the view from the hostal where we were staying.  The old lady invited us back to stay if we are ever over that way again!

Our bus arrived in Temuco at about 7am.  Regan was too tired to keep going as he couldn´t sleep on the bus (again!) so we got the taxi driver to take us to the cheapest hostal he knew of.  There were no good options in Temuco.  It cost us 9,000 each but we got a fat guy snoring next door for free.  It was a worse night´s sleep than in the dormitory in Santiago!

Erin did manage to find a nice cafe while Regan slept.  The late afternoon sun was glorious.

We only stayed in Temuco, which has about zero to do, long enough for Regan to sleep.  Then we went south to Puerto Montt.