Kristy & Adam - South America Adventures

Hola Guys!

Hope you are all well!! Well we`ve done some seriously bus travelling since I last wrote....We travelled from RAINY Baraloche to RAINY San Martin on the Argentine side of the lakes district, then back across to the Chilean border again, and onto a little township called Valdivia for a few days then another little town called Chillan. We couldn`t do a thing on the Argentine side of the lakes district, We experienced rain for about 2 weeks straight! Guess we can`t get too annoyed though, as its the only time we`ve had bad weather in the last 5 months!

Valdivia was a fun little town, we visited some old forts, and their fish markets in the centre of town, there is a small market on the waterfront lined with loads of really overgrown huge sea lions and fisherman selling their best catch. The seafood is very cheap, so we couldn`t resist a cheeky seafood lunch
We also went out to the Kunstmann Ceveceria (Brewery) for a look. Of course I didn`t try any beer, Adam had a sample or two.

In Chillan the weather is devine, back to the high 20`s. We might have to rip out the thongs and t-shirts and get some tanning oil and try and get our tans back before we fly home!!
We met some Chilean people in Baraloche from this little township, so we met with one of them yesterday and she took us on a mini tour of Chillan showing us the local sites, the local market, churches and plaza`s. We were treated to a Chilean BBQ last night with her family which was a really nice experience although we never ate dinner till midnight!!

Anyhow we`re heading to our last two stops after this. Valparisio and Santiago, then we have our flight home.

Can`t wait to see all you fellow Aussies!!!
Keep in touch
Kristy & Adam

Hola guys!

Hope you`re all well! Well not much has changed over here...we`ve just been relaxing in the lakes district. We travelled from Puerto Varas to Puerto Octay to arrive in a very small township surrounded by volcano´s and lakes. We stayed in a family farm house for 2 nights which was really lovely. We couldn`t do a lot as the weather turned sour, it was raining for about a week straight throughout the lakes district, we were meant to be able to see wonderful views of the mountains and Orsono volcano from the farm house, but instead all we could see was rain and clouds!! Nevermind we`ve had good weather for about 4 1/2 months now so can`t really complain!

We just went for walks by the lake each day, and stopped in german cafes for coffee in the afternoons On the second night of the stay we decided to lash out and let someone else do the cooking for a change, So we opted for the home cooked meal by the Swiss and Chillean owners...We were treated to farm fresh veggie soup, salads, and oven baked salmon. It was beautiful!

The weather didn´t look like changing, so we decided to head to the border to the Argentine side of the lakes. We are now in Baraloche. Its stunning here, we´re surrounded by more snow capped mountains and lakes. We´ve decided to stay here for 5 days as its so nice, and much cheaper! We went out for big steaks again the other night for our welcome back to Argentina, they weren´t as good as Buenos Aires, but still nice!

We´re really just chilling out now and not up to much as we´re heading home in 19 days, not doing too many more touristy activity things, trying to save SOME money to take home, However today we did go on a gondala ride which went above the mountains and lakes, up to a revolving restaurant where we had a really nice lunch for about 3 quid each!

Keep in touch!
& Seeya Soon to all those fellow Aussies at home!
Kristy & Adam

Hola from Chile!

Hope you are all well. Since our last update we have travelled further south into more of the lakes district. We made our way from Pucon down to Puerto Montt. Puerto Montt wasnt really what we expected, it was a small city with lots of big malls and nothing really going on, it seemed to lack in the character or charm that we were expecting from the lakes district, so we just stayed 2 nights and caught up on washing and relaxing.

We then made our way to the Island of Chiloe, where we spent two nights in a township called Ancud. It was sensational. The hostel we stayed in was the best on our travels so far and was just what we were looking for. It was brand new and situatied right in front of the townships lake, every room had a lake view, and the afternoon sunset was right over the front decking, so we indulged in some Chilean vino and watched the sun go down.

Apart from walking around the small town, we went on a half day hike and penguin colony tour. The hike was through the farming area, over rolling hills and through bush land, then along the coastal area to beach lookouts, it was really beautiful, we stopped for a picnic lunch, then went onto the penguin colony. There werent as many penguins as I thought there would be, but we still got to see some, and also spotted some sea otters.

Today we travelled by bus to a small place called Puerto Varas, its also situatied on a lake and surrounded by snow capped mountains, it is full of german cake shops and has a large german influence.
We will spend a few days here before heading over to see what Argentina has to offer on their side of the lakes district, and we might just have to have one more of those juicy steaks! YUM!!

Keep in touch
Kristy and Adam

Hola from Chile!

Over the past few weeks we have travelled from La Serena's little beach side township to the bustling capital of Chile, Santiago. We only spent one night there as its a typically big city with not a lot going on and we will spend a few days there at the end of our trip.

We jumped on another overnight bus straight away and headed for the lakes district. We stopped in the lovely snow capped mountainous village of Pucon. On our first day we relaxed and organised some tours.

We spent some time out at the national park here hiking, we got half way through our hike, then Adam was quite ill so we turned back. Yesterday we spent some time at the hot springs relaxing, and today hired mountain bikes and rode about 10kms on a bike track through the snow capped mountains, and over rivers. We stopped for a nice picnic in the sun. The weather here is fantastic.

We´re off further south tommorrow to Puerto Montt which is meant to be very similar to here, then off to an Island called Chiloe, where we are hoping to go on a tour to see the penguin colonys.

Keep in touch
Kristy & Adam

Hola from Chile!

Hope you`re all well!! We`re finally into our last month of travel, I can`t believe its nearly over!! Over the past few days we travelled down from San Pedro Atacama to Antofagasta and then onto La Serena.

Antofagasta was a real culture shock after coming from San Pedro Atacama and Bolivia. We read somewhere that the `South American Culture` would dissapear when arriving in Chile and it certainly has, there is no more traditional dressed women, no more artesian market stalls and no more real culture in the streets. Antofagasta is on the coastline and had a big city like feeling with large malls and supermarkets and not a real lot going on. It was strange to see proper supermarkets again after all this time we ended up spending a few hours walking around the mall!

After a day in Antofagasta we decided to move on and head down the coast to La Serena, after our rough ride through Bolivia we decided to upgrade our bus tickets to `Salon Cama` style. The bus trip was better than economy class in an aeroplane!! The seats were huge, leather and reclined 65 degrees. The staff came around and put pillows behind our heads and blankets on our laps and we managed to get about 7 hours sleep (The journey was about 12 hours)
We arrived early in the morning so we found a really nice hostel and then roamed around the city streets for a few hours.

The afternoon was horrible, we took our memory cards into a shop to get put onto disk and to cut a long story short the women operating the machine really had no idea what she was doing, and they were coming up with errors and corrupt and basically the machine wasn`t reading the photos. We took then to a second place and the photos weren`t even showing up anymore. I checked them in my camera and half of them were gone! Needless to say I was very upset as we had lost 3 countries worth of photos. We ran back to the first shop to check their computer again, and when we put the memory cards into their machine again they reappeared!! HEART FAILURE!! I feel really sorry for Adam yesterday, luckily he`s so patient
We decided to not put Adam`s pictures onto a disc yet but we will in the next few days then we will put some online

Today we had a late breakfast then hired some bikes from the hostel and rode down along the beach front then stopped for a picnic lunch.
Tomorrow we are having a relaxing day again, then heading further south down to the countries capital Santiago.

Keep in touch
Kristy & Adam