chile:final.days.

our last two days in chile. how did this come so quickly? yesterday we woke up, had breakfast and went out and found andy somewhere to get his hair cut. guess i didn’t do well enough on the mohawk.

the ladies at the salon were fans of his, they said they loved his hair color and then they loved him. i think chileans are fans of redheads, i guess they don’t see them too much.

after that we had a very strange pizza for lunch. it had barbeque sauce, onion, olive, and pineapple. can’t say i was a huge fan but it was definitely interesting. after lunch we hopped on a little bus to niebla which is a little town on the coast where there are ruins from a fort. it was a really foggy day but i think it added to the kind of eeriness of the place.

it was so beautiful out by the ocean though.

there was also a little museum with very creepy paper mâché dummies. here are some natives i managed to snap a photo of before being scolded. oops.

we also found an underground dungeon

the bus ride back to Valdivia went right past the famous kuntsmann brewery which was somewhere we wanted to see before we left town, so we stopped there for dinner. andy and i had delicious veggie lasanga and truckee got probably the biggest burger i have ever seen. very yummy beer too.

we stayed in for the night when we got back to the hostel and just watched movies and listened to music. this morning we had to rise and shine to check out of the hostel. there was a minor mishap where the payment was cash only so andy covered us because he thankfully had enough. weirdly though NO atms we tried to use to pay him back would work so we just settled on we would send him the money when we got home. we felt so bad but he didn’t mind. what a nice boy. trucks and i left our luggage at the hostel for storage for the day while we took andy to the bus station. we had a quick lunch and said goodbye, and truckee and i waited in the bus station for our night ride to santiago. it was a long day of people watching: kids chasing pigeons, dropping ice cream, people falling asleep sitting up on the benches around us. pretty entertaining.

with that, our journey home has started, and our time in chile is finished. both of us aren’t ready to leave yet but duty calls and we have to get back to real life. i can definitely say that this was an amazing trip. i learned so much, saw so much beauty, made new friends, and will have memories to last me a very long time. already can’t wait to go back.

chile:andy.visits.

andy came to visit today! just like i predicted he didn’t make the 8am bus…but to his credit it was just because the buses to take him into pucón were all full and wouldn’t pick him up. he was only a couple hours later so we just hung out in the hostel while we waited and had a nice chill morning. we went to grab him from the bus station, he checked into the hostel, and then we decided to spend the day wandering around the university. it was cool comparing their college to ours, it was definitely different but there were also a lot of similarities. i think young people everywhere, no matter what country or language, could get along pretty easily. we found the botanical garden on campus and that was cool. so GREEN.

and we walked back along the river so andy could see the huge sea lions by the fish market

we got back to the hostel and then went out for the most delicious sushi dinner. they do this thing in chile where they wrap their rolls in avocado on the outside, very thinly sliced. it’s so good, they call it “palta” rolls which is the chilean spanish word for avocado. different than mexican spanish, where avocado is “aguacate”. interesting how different some of the words, phrases, and pronunciation is here.

chile:puerto.varas.

today we hopped on over to Puerto varas for the day. it was about a three hour bus ride but it breezed by with comfy seats and a movie! puerto varas is the second most desirable tourist destination in chile. the first is…pucón! but anways we got to the city and first things first needed to get some food. we ended up deciding on crepes and french fries. (truckee and i agreed that we have the weirdest cravings on this trip). then we spent the rest of the day wandering around and doing our souvenir/gift shopping. unfortunately, as is pretty standard luck for us we ended up being out and about right in the middle of siesta time which is anywhere from 1-4. all the stores close and all the people go home so we felt kind of like loners wandering the streets but thankfully there was a bunch to look at outside of all the shops! puerto varas is beautiful, even though it was a cloudy, rainy day.

and of course we had to snap some photos of the local doggies. this one looked annoyed that we were photographing her during her nap but then she got up and hung out with us the rest of the day. guess she decided we weren’t too bad.

and we saw this sign for a missing dachshund which of course is terrible but the word they use in spanish for it is so funny. they call them “salchichas” or sausages. and this one is name oskar. so cute. hope he found his people!

we got our bus back to valdivia and made quesadillas and guacamole for dinner in the kitchen. some of the other people staying here were making mulled wine and shared with us, it was so good! nice and hot with fresh squeezed orange juice and cinnamon. andy is coming to visit us tomorrow, and supposedly he is catching the 8am train but he isn’t very good at waking up early so we’ll se about that.    

chile:exploring.valdivia.

after a very temperamental shower, we grabbed a yummy breakfast of fruit and yogurt and toast at the hostel and set off to wander valdivia. one funny thing we’ve noticed here is the abundance of dulce de leche, which is like really soft spreadable caramel. they put it on their breakfast toast!

anyways we set off to walk along the river since it is the draw of valdivia. it was super neat.

we once again found some cool street art, this one on the bridge

and then took a break for a lunch of Chinese food! it was surprisingly good, but the one annoying thing is that since we’re in the city we can’t drink the tap water. paying for these tiny glass bottles of water is annoying.

after lunch we were off again. we came across some of those funny playground workout structures i mentioned a long time ago when we were in temuco.

we made it down to the fish market where we saw some cool boats

and the german-influenced section of town. it was charming.

we saw mcdonald’s and couldn’t resist so we got twix mcflurries. which were SO much better than mcflurries here. look at that hot fudge.

there is a little island across a bridge where the university is located, it is called isla teja and the view of the riverfront from the island was so cool.

we went into a couple of museums, this cool wall was outside of the contemporary art museum but unfortunately it was closed for the afternoon so we didn’t get to see it.

 one museum we went into was kind of strange. it was in an old german family’s house and it had a lot of their belongings but then it also had some mapuche artifacts (mapuche are the native people of chile) and then in one room there were photographs from students of the college. i don’t know, we saw some cool stuff though.

we walked back through town and saw a huge mob of people up ahead gathered around the school. as we got closer we saw desks piled up blocking the entrance and police in riot gear and stuff. there was a huge protest going on! we decided we didn’t want to be in the middle of that so we turned around and went the other way. it was neat to see though.

in the evening we got our laundry done at the big grocery store (and thank goodness because we didn’t have ANY clean clothes left) and picked up some stuff for mac and cheese and quesadillas/guacamole. we made dinner in the kitchen and hung out with our new roommate named julia who arrived earlier that day. she’s from germany and she’ll be working in valdivia for the next six months. she’s been traveling around south america all by herself the past couple of weeks! cool girl, but we’re glad we aren’t alone, we make a pretty good travel team i think.

chile:goodbye.pucón.

we woke up the next morning at 5 to catch our bus back to pucón. unfortunately they don't plan the bus schedule very well because when we got to the chile/argentina border we had to wait a whole hour to go through because it wasn't even open yet! so silly. the bus gave us tea and cookies though so that made up for it. we got delicious breakfast at ecole when we got back into town, but tracy couldn't pick us up and bring us back to her place afterwards so we had to make the long trek up the hill on foot. at least we got to leave our bags at the store and she brought them to us later that night. 

truckee, andy and i did our last chores on the farm and then just hung out and enjoyed the rest of the day. i gave andy a mohawk in the kitchen. i think i should start a haircutting business.

we made some comfort food pasta for dinner with broccoli and parmesan, so good, and made one last gigantic apple crisp. we watched a scary movie before bed which strangely made me dream about evil…lemons? terrifying.

we woke up for the last time in the cabin the next morning and made some pancakes and eggs for breakfast. andy drove us into town to catch our bus but we went early so we could do some shopping and wandering. andy just hung out with us because he didn’t want to go back up to tracy’s just yet. shhh…don’t tell. truckee and i both got very cool alpaca sweaters, and we hung out down by the water for a bit. made friends with a chief.

finally it was time to go and we waited in the bus station with cookies and a puppy.

we caught our bus to valdivia and arrived just as it was getting dark. our hostel was only a 5 minute walk, and we only got lost for like 2 blocks but we found it right after. i think that is a record for us. our hostel is so cute and artsy, with a kitchen and patio and a pet duck named gardel. 

we made friends with some guys there on business from santiago and got some dinner in town. we were tired though and had plans to tour the city the next day so we headed off to bed and had the very first warm night of sleep the whole trip! what a treat.

chile:san.martín.

we woke up early yesterday and set off to san martin. tracy was in a hurry to drop us off and get back on the road because the border closes at 7 and she needed to make it back to pucón. we drove on the seven lakes road which wound around along…you guessed it, seven lakes! it was such a nice drive, minus the windy part and my poor stomach was not pleased with me. when we got to san martín, tracy had to sell one of her ecofans so we stopped by and did that, then we talked to the tourism people and found out where to stay, rent snow gear, and how to get to the mountain in the morning. we checked into our hostel, took care of our boards/skis and boots and lift tickets and then wandered around town.

san martín is very cute, it kind of looks like pucón in that all the buildings are wood and it has the feel of a little ski town but it was a bit more upscale. we wandered through a tent selling crafts and souvenirs and found a bigger version of rooney.

then we got the best ice cream ever, after sampling about fifty flavors. thankfully the man working there was very nice and wanted to practice his English so it was all good. he said “spanglish is the best way to communicate” and i have to say i agree.

we got back to our hostel and found out it was full of young people looking to spend a day or two on the mountain, just like us.

there was a big common area and people were playing music and singing so we hung out and made some friends names juan and lucia from Buenos aires who were actually our roommates. we were the only ones not from argentina there so we got a lot of attention, but it was fun to just hang out and talk to everyone.

the next morning we woke up and got ready to get to the mountain (chapelco is what it was called). we accidentally missed the bus…but we caught a shuttle and it all worked out. it was such a gorgeous day. it was really crowded near the bottom of the mountain but we went to the top and it was perfect. truckee skied of course, and andy was on the ski team in college but he decided to switch things up and snowboard with me.

we had one mishap where i lost my board and it slid a long long way down the mountain. i hiked down and got lectured and warned that i could have decapitated a little kid. a bit grim but oops. truckee and i went up a t-bar lift together and that was pretty funny because she had to kind of sit on it while i straddled it. but it was a really fun day! and we look pretty cool up there don’t you think?

we got back to the hostel and cleaned up and then had the most delicious mexican food for dinner. we ended up just relaxing and hanging out the rest of the night, we were wiped out. 

chile:hidden.waterfall.

we went on an amazing hike today! there is tons of hiking around el bolson, as you can probably imagine with all the mountains surrounding it. but augustin told us about a hidden trail that leads to a waterfall. of course we had to do it. he gave us a funny hand-drawn map and we were off. our first obstacle was this indiana jones bridge.

it was fine and held up though. then we came across a really cool looking cemetery

and the rest of the trail after that was trudging through mud, ducking under branches, scrambling over mossy boulders, and rock-hopping across the river.

it was so worth it though because look what we saw!

the rest of the hike looped through a campground (slides and swingset included, so naturally we had to take a break to be little kids for 10 minutes)

and then around through the woods and back down to town. the woods we went through were duende infested as told to us by the trail sign, but unfortunately we didn’t catch any. the view from the top was once again beautiful.

we got some snacks at a funny flea market by the river which seemed to just consist of people throwing the contents of their closets on the curb and trying to sell their clothes. then we had veggie burgers for dinner, and headed back into town to see what was going on for the night.

apparently no one gets out and about in argentina until about midnight but we were way too sleepy so we got some ice cream and walked back home. andy realized he left his debit card in the atm earlier that day and for a bit we were scared he wouldn’t be able to come to san martín with us to ski but then he remembered it expired the very next day anyways so it all worked out!

we packed up all our stuff when we got back to the hostel because we're leaving really early in the morning. we said goodbye to nina, the little cat that kept invading our cabin, and this funny crazy little puppy that also lived there. to san martín!