A beautiful place, but a very sad at the same time. We started looking for a couchsurfing host a while ago in Santiago and came across a very interesting profile of Dima and Vaini. Dima is from Russia and Vaini from China, both of them living in Pucon. Three days before we were due to leave Santiago, Vaini contacted us saying that Dima and two of the couchsurfers left to climb the Volcano and haven’t come back yet. Three days had passed already and she said that she probably won’t be able to host us and we should look for a different place to stay. We responded to her that we understand and if she needs any help she can count on us. We have been following the news about the boys for all of the following days but no positive news came. A day before we were going to leave Santiago for Pucon, another message from Vaini came saying that she is feeling positive and we should come and stay with her if we still need a place.

On the 13^th of November we took a night bus down to Pucon. The journey took us 10 hours, during which I slept amazingly well. We arrived in Pucon at 9 am and just as we got out of the bus we started talking to a German guy who came on the same bus. Just as the bus left the station, I asked Alex to give me the wallet to get some money for the bathroom at the station, and guess what, the wallet wasn’t there. We were terrified; we really didn’t look forward to going back to the situation in Cuba, even worse, this time we would have had to block the cards as well. After the minute of shock has passed I run into the bus station to find out if it is possible to contact the bus company or the bus itself and they told me that the bus is still in Pucon, across the road from the station. I ran there and to my relief it was still there! Luckily the driver had found it already.

After the money issue was resolved we left our luggage at the station and went to explore the town and search for food. We found a great bakery on the main street and had a nice coffee with cake and never failing empanadas.

Not to waste any time we decided to rent bikes for the day, together with Paul (the German guy we met earlier. The centre of Pucon was really easy to navigate and we soon managed to find a hostel for Paul and also a bike rental.

We decided that our first stop is going to be the famous waterfalls Ojos del Caburgua. The road to the falls was not an easy one, a lot of ups and downs, but extremely beautiful. I think it was about 15 km ride.

The falls were definitely worth it, probably the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen (I haven’t seen many). They were not tall, but it seemed like the crystal clear water is coming from all directions. The water was freezing, but still my crazy boyfriend decided to dive in.

Now, we had a choice either to return back to Pucon or continue further to the lake, which would have been another 10 km. We decided that the idea of the lake was great and set on to cycle again. That was a mission! I think about 5 km of the journey was a gradual uphill, I really felt like quitting and going back, but eventually we made it there. The sight was absolutely beautiful, huge lake surrounded by mountains! Completely drenched with sweat I ran for the water, cold but hey it was worth it!

The day was amazing so far, but we couldn’t forget that tonight we are staying with the girl who lost her boyfriend, possibly forever. We really didn’t know how she is gonna be and if it was a good idea to stay there, if we are going to be a help or a burden… Earlier that day we spoke on the phone and it seemed like she was happy to hear from us and is looking forward to meeting up. But you never know, until you meet in person.

But back to our biking trip. We had a nice picnic by the side of the lake and decided it is time to embark on a cycle back, another 25 km to go…The first 5 km of the journey was great, all downhill, I don’t think I have ever ridden a bike that fast. But there were still 20 km to go, the only way to finish it was to look at the amazing views and try not to think of how much was left to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, we made it, really proud of myself, 50 km ride after a night on a bus. We returned the bikes and had a rewarding beer together with Paul. Meanwhile we were waiting for Vaini to join us, without really knowing what to expect. She joined us in about half an hour and indeed it seemed like she is feeling positive, extremely talkative and even able to laugh at things. Vaini told us a lot about Dima and how we will have lots of fun together when he is back… I wish I had a character like this, if I were her I would have been all over the place.

After the beer we met a friend of Vaini with a daughter and went over to the house. We had a great dinner together and a well-deserved rest.

The guys had a room for couchsurfers with one single bed and a bunk bed. The freaky thing was that the belongings and backpacks of the guys lost on the volcano were still there. Despite the strange atmosphere we fell asleep really quickly, I guess the night bus and 50 km bike ride took their toll.

The following day we woke up later than planned, got hold of Paul and headed off for the national park Huerquehue. We managed to catch the bus out of Pucon and got to the park around lunchtime. We were told that we can only walk up to the waterfalls, but do not have time to walk to the lakes and catch the last bus. This was a bit upsetting as we really wanted to see the lagunas.

We started tracking through the forest, which really looked like it belongs to a fairy tale with its humongous trees and little streams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We reached the first waterfall and started talking about how it would be a shame coming all this way to miss the lagunas. I suggested we hitch-hike back (our first experience). I think Paul wasn’t too convinced with the idea but the desire to explore won and we all continued for the lakes. The exhausting walk was definitely worth it. The pictures speak for themselves.

We had lunch on the second lake and continued to the third and the last one. There we heard another couple speaking English. It was quite late by then and we thought that there might be a chance that the guys came by car. We started a conversation with them, but somehow I don’t think they were too pleased about it, nonetheless we continued pursuing the goal of getting a ride back. Soon we found out that the couple indeed had a car and we asked them if they could give us a ride and I suppose they didn’t have much of a choice as to say ok. They were in a rush and we nearly ran down the path back to the entrance. As we reached the waterfalls, which we hadn’t seen yet we asked the guys if we could have a few minutes to take a quick look. They didn’t seem to mind that much and we literally ran 500m down and 500m back up, taking a few pics on the way. The visit was short but beautiful nonetheless.

We safely returned to Pucon and decided that it is time to have a drink, strangely enough the guys who gave us a ride refused a drink even though we were having it outside of their hostel. In the meantime we got some news from Vaini saying that the police is there and also the parents of one of the boys, so the obvious choice for us was to stay out. We went over to Paul’s hostel to eat and they were serving amazing vegetarian food there. Somehow it got pretty late by the time we made it back to the house and I think we slightly pissed off Vaini for getting back so late. This made us feel really bad, as the last thing we wanted to do is to upset her.

The following day was pretty relaxing; we went for a walk around town, used internet in one the hostels and headed back to cook a nice lunch for Vaini. We opted for making vegetarian wraps. When we came back to the house we were surprised to find a bunch of kids who were learning Chinese songs and dancing while Vaini was cooking a Chinese meal for us all.

We ate together with the kids, who were very keen on learning Chinese. How odd to see this in a small town in Chile. After that we took a rest as Alex was not feeling hundred percent. Later in the evening we got the chance to cook our wraps and also some other people came along to support Vaini. One of the guests was a Brazilian traveller, who was cycling his way through South America. He also contributed to the communal meal by cooking a beef-stroganof which I thought was a Russian dish, but was rather modified in its Brazilian version. Basically it was chicken cooked with loads of mustard sauce and mushrooms. We all had a feast and a good time despite the circumstances.

The next day we had a bit of a shock as we discovered that the wallet somehow magically disappeared again! We looked everywhere but it was nowhere to be seen. We tried to remember what we did the day before and the only place we thought we could have left the wallet was the hostel where we used the internet. We headed down there and oh my god it was there. People working in the hostel found it lying on one of the benches and even looked inside and found a business card of Alex’s dad and send him an e-mail asking what to do with the wallet. How amazing was that!!! We had all the credit cards there, practically everything!!! Very very happy! Twice in the same place we managed to lose our wallet and twice it has been returned to us. You start believing in the good of people after this. The rest of the day was rather uneventful as Alex was still feeling rough. We went for a short walk down to the lake and chilled out afterwards. In the evening the French Ambassador with the dad of the French guy turned up to talk to Vaini, so we stuck to our room not to disturb. After the visitors left a few other people came along for moral support. Vaini was on Skype with Dima’s dad and she asked me to talk with him in Russian. I wish there were some good news to tell, but unfortunately all I could do is relay the information I managed to gather from everyone else.

On our last day in Pucon we decided to visit one of the famous thermal baths. All of the baths were kind of awkward to get to, so we opted for hitch-hiking and it was stupidly easy! We got two rides within 15 minutes each and the second guy even offered us to stay over at his house. We got to the baths and they were extremely overpriced for what they were but hey we still enjoyed ourselves.

In the evening we caught a bus back to Pucon to spend the last night with Vaini and her friends.

 

Our stay in Pucon was really wonderful and sad at the same time. Vaini asked me to translate the book Dima was writing in Russian and it was really good. I so wish we could have met him in person and share experiences. We tried to support Vaini as best as we could. Cooked some Russian pancakes she was so fond of and in general tried our best to keep her happy. I hope we succeeded at least a bit. Until now, there was no new information about the three missing guys.

 

We met our first couchsurfing host Felipe at the last station of the metro line heading south, where he very kindly picked us up. We drove to his two bed house in Las Vizcachas, that was surrounded by high walls and two rather large entrances. Security is a big deal in Chile and this was no exception! We thought that the couch would be located in San José de Maipo as that is what his profile said, however he was just in the process of moving as we arrived. The first evening we spent sharing stories, drinking beer and watching an amazing HD sports documentary on the Andes showing the whole stretch of South America and natural beauty.

The next day we planned to go up into the mountains and so we took our time getting ready and eventually we got going. We arrived first in San José de Maipo where Felipe showed us where he works. He is an architect working for the local council, who’s job is to verify building plans of new construction in and around San José de Maipo. He would assess building plans and if there are any conflicts with the local environment or regulations, he would have the ability to delay or cancel the proposal. Quite an interesting and responsible job I think.

When we got to San José de Maipo, Filipe had to sort some stuff out at his old apartment for a bit, so we decided to look around town and check it out. It’s quite a small but charming town with a few restaurants  hostels and a large square where on this particular day there was a small arts and crafts market. We bought a present there for Felipe and for lunch we went to a cheap take away to share a portion of roasted chicken and chips, yummy it was :) We also bumped into an interesting school fair which happened to have its own money system for the day. In order to buy anything, you have to exchange your money for pieces of paper with numbers on! Not sure why this was done as the notes they were using were pretty easy to forge! But anyway, we managed to get some seriously tasty cake and freshly squeezed juice for desert.

After receiving a phone call from Felipe and meeting him, we quickly got on our way as the last entrance up the mountain was around 15:00 thought Felipe  Most of the way after San José de Maipo was unpaved road so the car Felipe had (4×4 Suzuki Vitara) was a good car for the job! We arrived at the entrance to the park at 14:30 and to our surprise  the park rangers were not letting people up the mountain anymore. What a bum! They stop letting people in after 13:00! We were all a bit disappointed as we got up early that day, drove for 1h 45m and got turned away.

Oh well, but we did go to a nearby refuge that Felipe recommended. It was the first of it’s kind built in the Andes! Guess who built it? German pioneers. Above the entrance “Deutscher Andenverein”. This is really quite a special and fascinating place, decorated in what I would say from my experience, a traditional German style with old artifacts and pictures from around the Andes. It was a really beautiful place set in a very nice location on the foot of a mountain. Outside were picnic benches, deck-chairs and a wonderful garden. We had some peanuts and beer with us so we dug straight into them while admiring the views and soaking up the occasional spot of sunlight.

We went inside the refuge to find a welcoming, cosy, wooden interior and a friendly staff member. We ordered coffee and “kuchen” as they call it. A German word meaning Cake in English. Interestingly, due to early German immigrants arriving in Chile shortly after the second world war, the word kuchen is commonly used in the south of Chile. The goods were spot on and both the kuchen and coffee was excellent! It’s not easy to find a good coffee in Chile as most of the time, instant coffee would be served, even in some restaurants. Later in the evening we went back to Felipe’s place where we were greeted by many people in the surrounding area trying to get into the rock festival that just happened to be on this weekend. The festival was called Maquinaria and featured the band Kiss and my favorite, The Prodigy! I so wanted to just jump that fence and get involved but security was tight. Such a coincidence that we just happened to be staying right next to where my favorite was playing! Gutted, but I did hear them from afar.

The next morning, Felipe kindly gave us a lift to San José de Maipo where we took the bus up to Baños Morales and then from there, we started the trek up to Languna Morales where we planned to go the day before. The valley leads up to a glacier called San Francisco where we found many natural springs and beautiful landscapes along the way. The springs generally had rusty-red coloured minerals surrounding them. I assume this is from the high iron content in the water. In contrast with it’s environment, the springs, the green grass, multi-coloured mountains, good visibility and blue sky made for some incredible vistas! See the gallery for more pictures.

After descending down the valley and dipping into a nice lukewarm spring bath, we took to long and bumpy bus ride all the way back to Las Vizcachas. When we got back to the apartment, we had to wait for Felipe to get back from town in order to let us in. It was worth the wait as he brought a tasty Domino’s pizza and bottle of wine with him for dinner. This was our last meal at Felipe’s house before heading off in the morning back to busy Santiago.

We will spend one more day in Santiago with Nelson and then head south on an overnight bus to beautiful Pucon!

Valparaiso is a nice seaside town littered with amazing graffiti, funky old-school elevators, chorianas, completos and fairly cheap beer. Our first destination was the port where we saw an old peer like object in the sea occupied by sea lions, sea gulls and pelicans. What initially wondered me was how the sea lions got up there as it was about two meters out of the water. If you look carefully in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, you will find a sea lion making a giant leap up onto the angled concrete side of the old peer. It was quite incredible to see such a giant animal fly like that!

We later look a popular boat ride to have a look around the harbor and nearby naval ships. The journey took about 40 mins and we took quite a few pictures of this area, so if you’re interested in seeing what kind of fleet the Armarda de Chile has, you can find the rest of the pictures in our gallery section. It was by chance that there were a few Korean naval ships docked in the harbor  They must have been on a world diplomatic tour of some sort. A Korean guy on the boat even waved to us which was nice. These pictures can also be seen in the gallery section.

In the evening we went to a really cool choriana restaurant when we had a phat portion of, you guessed it, choriana. It’s basically a huge plate of French fries with various sorts of meat on top, topped with a thick layer of cheese and to accompany, a beer of course. Its fatty food but just like in most cases, very yummy! After filling ourselves to the brim, we were so tired at that point that we took the train back to Valeria’s auntie’s apartment that she kindly allowed us to stay in while she was in Santiago.

 

The next day we went to the main beach attraction next to Valparaiso called Viña del Mar. It’s a nice place fueled with many nice apartments and wealthy citizens from Santiago to fill them. It’s needless to say that eating out here comes with a hefty price. Most of the time we would prepare sandwiches to go or get some empanadas from a bakery. The beach was clean, the weather was hot and the beaches were fairly full. This was our first experience next to the Pacific and a nice one at that. Only minus is the freezing cold water that I just had to test! I was wondering too why not many people were swimming. I decided to find out that hard way. I thought, it can’t be that much colder than the sea in the UK, but I must say, I only stayed in for about five minutes which I thought was long enough to warm up, but once again I was wrong. It was the coldest sea I’ve ever been in!

For dinner we went to the local market in Valparaiso that Valeria recommended. We had a selection of fresh fish that we got stuck into on the first floor where the restaurants were located. One dish that we shared was a mixed mussel soup served cold with freshly chopped herbs, lemon juice and buttered bread. I settled for an excellent cod and chips. After our meal we went to have a look around the upper parts of the town where we took an old school elevator called an “ascensor” to reach the top of the steep incline.

 

This was notably the old and charismatic part of Valparaiso. Filled with amazing artwork on the walls and rough edges it added real character to the place. Nice hidden away restaurants, art studios and a varied inclines made it really pleasant to walk around. Every corner had some other surprise waiting behind it. The people around here were not rich, but filled with artists, students and tourists, although we didn’t really see that many tourists here in December. The evening for me was great as I decided to stay home on the computer and work on the new WordPress version of the TZM Chapter Frankfurt website. For me it’s like therapy, as good as drawing a picture on canvas! The ladies planned to meet up with some of Valeria’s old friends, while I got my QT, nice.

After a long night and sleep-in we went back into Valparaiso for another day of exploring the town and its parts. We started by having some lunch. Completo’s and Escudo beer to be precise. A perfect lunch in my eyes. We later had a look around the port and found a great beach with a Tsunami Hazard Zone sign marking the entrance to have a small nap. Though the nap was good, there are often fears floating in one’s head, like “where would I go if a tsunami occurred?” Luckily there are signs showing evacuation routes all along the coast, from the top of Chile way down to the south, following the ridge.

4th November is a special day for Victoria and I, it’s our anniversary! On that day we had been together for seven years and still going strong. After exploring the east side of town and taking pictures of the local artwork (see gallery), we met up with Valeria’s parents for a meal that her dad had recommended. So we all went together with her parents and little sister. It was a small, old and interesting place that was covered with some amazing memorabilia from around the world and tables covered with messages or tags that people had left. This is where I left a mark, a milestone to mark our seven years being together.

Our last day took us on the train back to Valparaiso, as Valeria’s auntie’s apartment where we were staying was about a 20 min train ride away. From there we took a two hour bus journey back to Santiago. We got back and plunged straight into the newly filled pool!