Posts By Laura
Photo of the Day: Out and about in Patagonia
Pottering in Pucón
I’m not sure if I’ve ever looked so stylish
After a few exhausting days of massive hikes and long bus journeys, we decided to stay put for a while. Luckily, we’ve landed in a fab little town, dubbed the ‘Queenstown of Chile,’ called Pucon. It was amazing- as soon as we stepped off the bus, we heard English for the first time in weeks! This is a proper little tourist town, with loads of outdoor adventure places, great restaurants and seemingly hundreds of hostels.
Luckily, we’d already booked ahead- a couple we met at the bus station hadn’t and ended up walking around for 5 hours trying to find somewhere to stay. It’s Chilean holiday season as well as high season for tourists so everywhere in Chile is extremely busy- we’re now all booked up until the Inca trail in March! We don’t like having to book ahead as it limits us in terms of extending somewhere however it’s a necessity for February in South America.
We’ve been super fortunate with most of the places we’ve stayed in Chile and this is probably our favourite yet. We’re at ‘Chili Kiwi Hostel,’ a typical hostel but with loads of quirks like treehouses (where we stayed for 3 nights,) glamping vans (smaller versions of Vanatar) and tents with proper beds in them (where we’re currently at.) The only downside of this place is the noise- in the treehouse we were right above the assembly point for the 6am trip to the volcano- 12 people talking full pelt for 40 mins is not fun. Last night at our tent, 2 foxes decided to start screaming right outside.
Oh, and apples from the apple tree above the tent sporadically drop onto us and wake us up. Lovely.
However, we are having a really great time here- everyone is so friendly, there’s loads of outdoor hammocks, comfy seats and swings to hang out on, so many bathrooms (this becomes important when you’re sharing with 40 other people) and a killer view of the lake.
One day we hiked out to a waterfall, about an hour and a half out of town- we had just started the last mega hill up when some lovely people pulled over and gave us a lift up. RESULT! After a few wrong turns and scrambling over rocks, we made it to this:
Stunning!
It was freezing cold glacial water, which meant we couldn’t swim in it, as much as we wanted to in 35 degree heat.
One afternoon we decided to take kayaks out on the lake and paddle over to a nearby beach. When will we learn that WE CANNOT KAYAK TOGETHER?! It just doesn’t work. The beach was black sand and really lovely, apart from the hundreds of Chilean tourists and many many wasps. It was no Fiji beach, but hey, at least it was hot and Sam could paddle!
Today we took a local bus to the Parque Nacional Huerquehue and did a stunning 4 hour hike to the 3 lakes. We managed to motor on past all of the dawdlers and make it to the lakes when they were completely empty- so beautiful and serene.
The highlight for both us though, throughout the whole of Chile trip so far, has been this, hiking to the top of the most active volcano (last eruption was March 2015) in South America, Villarica:
This was an intense day. We woke up at 5.30am for a 6am start, got kitted up in heavy duty hiking boots and some weird leg things we had to wear. We then drove around 30mins out of town upto 1000m above sea level, the base of the volcano. Here, we took a ski lift up another 400m (we had the option to walk this but as it was on volcanic ash and our experience of this in NZ wasn’t pleasant, we decided to shell out for the ride.) Almost everyone in our group of 12 chose the ski lift and mocked those who decided to walk up. From here, we were already above the clouds.
Our walk began with putting on crampons and grabbing an ice pick. Trepidation set in. It was bitterly cold as we hiked up in zig zag lines through ice and rock for 5 hours, with occasional 5 minute breaks. The breaks were supposed to be longer but it was so cold we couldn’t sit down for long. We wanted to eat and drink but doing that would have involved taking off the industrial sized gloves we’d been given. No thanks, I’d rather go hungry.
I suffered quite badly with altitude sickness around 2000m, (slightly worried about the Inca trail now) but slowed down to catch my breath, which put me right at the back of our group. Finally we saw the top of the crater and were told to put on our gas masks (absolutely hideous) as the fumes were too sulphurous. Standing at the top of the crater and looking into see the lava was amazing.
The top!
However the view down below was even better.
Then came the best bit. We put on waterproof trousers, attached a plastic ‘seat’ to ourselves and slid down the mountain! We followed tracks that had already been carved (think a luge-bobsleigh type track but far less sophisticated) and used our ice picks to slow ourselves down- Sam did not quite master this and kept crashing into me, which pushed me into the slow coach tortoise in front of me. The snow was quite soft in places which meant we could stop and take the plastic seat away (not the most comfortable thing in the world- I have bruises to prove it.)
It took 5 hours to walk up to 2874m and only 1.5 hours to come back down. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
Tomorrow we leave Pucon and travel 4 hours south to Puetro Varas for 1 night only. From here, we’ll go to Puetro Montt airport and fly down to Patagonia- yippee! We’ll be down there for around a week, hiking and (presumably) feeling cold. Then we’ll make our way back up north past Santiago- the desert and salt plains await!
Excelente vino en Chile!
So here we are in the Colchagua Valley, Central Chile. On Friday we left Vina (along with our certificates for having completed our Espanol classes) but perhaps unsurprisingly, we’re not fluent in Espanol yet. We are much much better than we were, to the point we can get by and have a conversation with someone but a lot of the time we have to pick out key words/phrases and try to figure out from that.
After a quick 1 night stopover in Santiago, we took a bus to Santa Cruz, a sleepy town 3 and a half hours south, in the Central Valley. This is famous wine country area and we were eager to get going!
After wandering around aimlessly looking for another bus (seemingly being the only tourists in town,) we eventually found a bus station with a bus that could take us to the tiny village of Chomadahue, where we’re staying in a lovely casa, with a pool and bbq. The owners don’t speak any Ingles, but luckily their daughter was nearby and could translate-ish. After some google translating, we managed to ask them where we could rent bikes to visit the vineyards in the area. Un problemo- no bike hire. Taxi then? Ah, no. Oh dear. But then…..the owner’s son offered to take us wherever we needed to go for half the price of a taxi. Yippee! The only reason we’ve come here is to visit the vineyards and so if we hadn’t have been able to go, we would have been gutted.
Visiting a vineyard here is much more of an event than in NZ. We had to reserve a week in advance and it’s also much pricier, but for that you do get a lot for your money.The vineyards are MASSIVE so getting from one to another would probably have been a bit of a nightmare on bikes in the heat.
First we visited ‘Montes,’ where we were taken on a private hike an hour and a half up through the vineyards to the top of a mountain. Well, almost. We realised quickly why noone else was on the hike with us. It was so hot we couldn’t make it to the top- around 37 degrees. Amazing views though.
Halfway up…..
The view from Montes looking out over its vineyards
We then had a visit to the barrel room, which was incredible. Weirdly, they play gregorian chanting constantly in there as Montes believes the vibrations ‘change the wine on a molecular level.’ Hhhmm. Really? Well whatever the reason, the wine was excellent and came with a cheeseboard- that’s a way to win us over for sure.
1st year French oak barrels.
We also took a trip to Clos Apalta, which was visually STUNNING. It’s owned by the same people who own Gran Marnier. The attention to detail on the architecture was amazing- everything had been built for a specific reason and had a function. It felt like something from 007.
Each level leads to a different part of the process- fermenting room, 1st year barrels, 2nd year barrels and tasting room/cellar at the bottom. The central staircase is supposed to resemble the swirling of wine in your glass!
The tour was excellent and we got to see exactly how they make their premium wine. I think for both of us though, the highlight here was the tasting room, which also doubles up as the second year barrel room. Once we got to the tasting table, we could see steps leading down under it. It turns out that this leads to the owner’s PRIVATE CELLAR- how cool is that?! Over 6000 bottles down there- unsurprisingly we weren’t allowed down to see it properly.
The final vineyard we went to was MontGras- one of the more well known in Chile. Here, we had a private tour of the vineyard followed by a trip into see how the wine is mass produced as well as tasting the wine straight from the vat- very cool. The only reason we got this private tour is because we seem to be some of the only people who need a Ingles speaking guide- all of the other tours in Espanol had at least 10 people on them!
We then got to the really fun part- making our own wine. As the Colchagua Valley has a very hot climate, every vineyard specialises in red wine so we were given the Reserve Merlot, Cabanet Sauvignon and a chilean special the Carmenere. We had to blend them together to create our own wine, which we then bottled, corked and brought home! At each vineyard, we could have as much wine as we wanted- we had to restrain ourselves for fear of keeling over mid afternoon!
Which blend will he go for?
Tomorrow we (begrudgingly) leave vino central to head down to San Clemente, another tiny town. We’re going to spend a couple days hiking in the Reserva Nacional Altos del Lircay (a big national park) before hopefully heading down to the Lakes District and onto Pucon, apparently the adventure capital of Chile. From there we’ll head down towards Puetro Montt to catch our flight to Patagonia (woohoooooo!) VERY VERY excited about this.
A weekend jaunt to Valparaiso
Hola from jet lag central!
My healthy Fiji glow has been replaced with exhaustion. Wine is helping.
On Friday we left the busyness of Santiago and took a bus 1.5 hrs towards the coast, to the vibrant UNESCO world heritage site of Valparaiso. I’m not sure what we were expecting with the scenery, and it was very nice (lots of mountains) but it doesn’t compare to travelling through NZ- at least not yet. We did pass through the vineyards of the Casablanca Valley wine region, which we’d absolutely love to visit, but we just don’t have time to do everything we’d like to. The bus was really nice- we were envisaging something similar to Laos/Vietnam, but the bus was super fancy, left on time and only cost 5000CLP each (around 5 gbp.)
We’re staying in a gorgeous street, next to one of the cerros (hills.) Everything around here is very mediterranean- lots of brightly coloured buildings, amazing artwork and cute little bars and cafes tucked away into tiny alleys. It’s a shame that some of the murals on the walls are now being graffitied over- this might be a sign of things to come as Valparaiso becomes even more popular than it already is.
We spent an afternoon wandering around, taking funiculars up the VERY steep hills and exploring the different areas. As the city is built on hills, funiculars are one of the main ways to get from the residential areas down into the town- I think there’s 15 in total. They’re very cheap, between 100 and 300 CLP per person and a really cool way to gain perspective over how sprawling the city is. Not the safest we’ve ever felt though. It felt like the ropes could snap any second.
We decided to take one of the trolley buses (Sam was very excited about these) and explore the new part of town.
There’s a huge contrast between the gorgeous rambling old calles (streets) of the old town and down here in the new part. It feels very run down, lots of poverty and there’s stray dogs everywhere! Not such a fan of this part. There’s also a few dodgy areas we’ve been told not to go to- there’s quite a lot of petty crime here, I guess because there’s a lot of tourists, both Chilean and foreign.
Today we took a boat tour around the bay- big mistake. It was like cattle being herded. Hated it. Was only 3000CLP each but would not advise anyone to do it. We did see some naval and container ships though, so at least someone was happy!.
So far on our trip we’ve had some awesome local food and Chilean wine- it’s SOOOOO much cheaper than NZ. We’re paying 2000CLP for a glass of excellent locally made wine and there’s some amazing set menu deals. Last night we ended up going to a fantastic restaurant and having 3 courses and 3 drinks each for under 30 gbp. This was unheard of for us in Fiji and NZ!
We’re off to Vina del Mar tomorrow, a short metro ride down the road, where we’ll be doing a language course for the next week. Then the journey south towards Patagonia begins with wine tasting and hiking in the central valley (if we can ever figure out how to get there.)
Shark phobia? What shark phobia?!
It seems like such a long time since the nightmare of Suva and the very expensive internal flights we had to take. After a couple of days in a not-so-great- hotel in Savusavu, we moved to ‘Naveria Heights Lodge,’ a beatufiul hilltop lodge, where, for 4 out of our 5 nights there, we were the only guests (which was awesome.) This place would usually be so far out of our normal budget, but Sam found a stay and dive deal on their website- 5 nights and 3 days of double dives. No brainer.
View from the lodge
To reach the lodge we had to endure a gruelling 20 minute vertical hike up the hill, usually in temperatures of 32-34 (well, either that or pay $10 for pick up. No thanks!) It did mean we did a serious amount of exercise over the 5 days though, together with some exhausting dives.
Sam straight after up close and personal encounters with giant turtles
We dived with ‘KoroSun Dive’ and they were amazing. I can’t quite figure out how to put our experiences there into words, but I’ll give it a good go. Depending on the amount of air you have in your tank, you can be down for anywhere from 35-55 minutes. There were only a few other divers with us on each day and the owners dived with us, as well as giving us loads of tasty snacks and info on what we would probably see. All of the dives we did were amazing, so much better than in the Yasawa Islands, but it was on day 2 when we came across a whole school of Scalloped Hammerhead sharks- there were about 80 of them swimming all around us for about 15 minutes- a truly breathtaking experience that we’ll both never forget. They were curious about us and swam right past us, looking straight at us. We saw giant turtles, whole schools of barracuda, giant tuna and groupas, as well as incredible reefs. We don’t have a Gopro but to give you a visual, here’s a photo of the Hammerhead site we visited that others took:
After 5 relaxing days at Naveria, we took a very early morning bus and ferry to Taveuni island, aka The Garden Isle. This place is seriously stunning- green everywhere, incredible scenery and home to the world famous Rainbow Reef (famous for its soft coral.) After saying we were definitely not doing any more diving, because it works out at about 90 quid per double dive for each of us, we immediately signed up for a double dive over Rainbow Reef. Why not?! This might tell you why (this is the top of the reef in Rainbow passage, one of our dive sites:)
It was a complete sensory overload- everywhere we looked there were more amazing things to see. The reef is huge, with a strong current running through it (this attracts a huge variety of sealife as the current brings food along with it) and around 20 dive sites. It was hard to orientate ourselves during the first dive because we literally had no control of where we were going- the current just pulled us along, even when we were trying to swim into it. On our second dive though, we could drift along and stop to watch everything on the reef. There were giant turtles, white tip and grey tip reef sharks, beautiful coral, hundreds of variety of fish, giant eels and sea snakes- the list goes on! We feel really spoilt to have seen so much underwater- today we were talking to a girl on the bus who had dived the Hammerhead site in Savusavu twice and seen nothing. That would have been so disappointing, especially if you’re only diving for 1 or 2 days.
We’ve now definitely finished our Fiji diving (although I was trying to get Sam to agree to another day of it) On Thursday, we took a local bus to Tavoro Waterfalls, which were incredible! We hiked around an hour to the bottom of the second waterfall and swam for ages. So lovely and so quiet, there was hardlys anyone else there.
On Friday it was another early start as we took a bus to Lavena, to do the coastal walk. Again, stunning waterfalls we could swim under and a lovely walk, but there were hundreds of flies and it kind of ruined the walk for us a little.
It was then back to Nadi, after taking a 2 hr ferry, 4 hr bus, 2 taxis, a 40 minute flight and a long, hot wait in Labasa airport. Today we flew back to NZ for one night only with my awesome friend Nicola and then tomorrow it’s onwards to Chile, yippee!
Note: We were feeling super relaxed until we landed in Auckland and got ready to get off the plane, only to be told that the plane had parked 5 ft short of the target line so the walkway couldn’t reach the plane. After 20 minutes of waiting, we were all told to sit back down, buckle up, bags away and then we were towed forward the required 5 ft. So from landing to getting off the plane, it was about an hour. I’m fairly sure that parking in the right place is a perquisite for a pilot.