Cerro Catedral

So today I headed to Cerro Catedral which is a big ski resort. The guys at the hostel told me the bus to get out there, but it didn´t go all the way, so while I was waiting for the proper bus I started walking up to Villa Catedral. I don´t know how often that bus was meant to run, but by the time it turned up, I only had 500m left to the village of the 10km from where the other bus dumped me.

So once I got to Villa Catedral, I caught the cable car and then a chairlift up to the top of Cerro Catedral. I arrived to the top and trekked along the ridge for a few hours towards the next refugio where a few other people were walking to spend the night there. Had great views over to Volcan Tronador, the biggest one around here (about 3400m) and could just see a bigger volcano on the northern horizon (about 3770m). Would be great to be up there with my snowboard for winter.

Booked a few bus trips before the Easter rush starts. Off to El Bolson for the weekend, and then will spend the Easter weekend doing a 19 hour bus trip to Buenos Aires.

Circuito Chico

With the plan to give my legs a rest for a day after all the trekking of the last couple of days, I caught the bus 20km out of town to the Circuito Chico and found the bike hire shop. But in all their wisdom they didn´t have any bikes to hire out. So it was back to walking for another day.
Nearby was Cerro Campanario, so I walked up there quick, again meeting all the tourists catching the chairlift up to the restaurant up the top.
I got back down the bottom again, and caught the bus further out to the fancy Hotel Llau Llau. From there I walked around the lake further and eventually found a walking track that went to the summit of Cerro Llau Llau. Had a great view of all the mountains around and the lakes. Trekked back to the bus in Llau Llau and made it back to Bariloche.
The plan for the next few days is to hike up Cerro Catedral tomorrow, then spend the weekend in El Bolson, back to Bariloche on Sunday evening for Spanish Lessons at La Montana Spanish School for 4 days. Then I´ll go to Neuquen on the Friday for easter, and then take an overnight bus to Buenos Aires on Saturday night.

Lago Nahuel Huapi

A more relaxing day today with a walk along the lake towards the West. No path so was slow going over the rocks on the foreshore. Found a supermarket that had a pile of raspberries that went down well for lunch. Checked out some chocolate shops in Bariloche, but will have to stock up for Easter.

By popular demand, some info about the local beveriges:
Argentina is now officially the place to go if you want to drink. Of course, like Chile it is another big wine region, with a good drop of red mandatory consumption with dinner. An cheap bottle goes for AR$2 (A$0.80). The beer is ok, but certainly nothing special. I think everyone just sticks to the wine. The spirits are surprisingly cheap. At the supermarket today they had 1L bottles of any spirit you can think of for AR$9 (under A$4) and that wasn´t the ones on special.
Drink up kids!

Cerro Otto

Packed my bag with lunch and walked out of town, eventually found a path that headed towards the summit of Cerro Otto (relatively small at 1405m). Wound back and forth up the front of the mountains, with good views over Lago Nahuel Huapi towards Chile. Checked out the local military trying to practice their rock climbing skills, then called past the Alpine Club´s Refugio Berghof which was quite flash and even served up a cold beer for all the hikers heading to the top.
Made it to the summit to meet up with all the old tourists that came up on the gondola. Went to the revolving restaurant for a few revolutions. Some weird yank bought me a drink so he could tell me that he didn´t like Australians since his last Australian girlfriend was a nazi and didn´t put out.
I left the tourists and found a trail that headed below the summit of Cerro Otto towards Piedro de Habsburgo where I had lunch looking over Lago Gutierres. Made it down to the lake and then the search was on for a bus. Trekked for a few km´s to a supermarket in the middle of nowhere, and waited an hour with some old local guy for the bus back into town.
Staying at Ruca Hueney Hostel and hopefully getting a different room away from the obnoxious poms.

San Carlos de Bariloche

I have arrived to Bariloche after a fantastic bus trip through the Andes. Left Puerto Montt and went through a few small towns on the way to Osorno, then headed towards the mountains. After the Chilean border post we continued over the pass. Had terrific views of the mountains all around, nice forests, running mountain streams and blue lakes.
Bariloche is a nice enough town. Too touristy but appears to be a good place to use as a base to get into the mountains. Have been checking out some treks into the Andes and to stay at a Alpine Club hut for a night or two. Will see how it goes and if I can pack enough food in my pack.

Volcan Osorno

Saturday I booked in a tour to Petrahue. Left Puerto Montt at a late 11:00am with a few Chileans, a swedish guy and a few french guys. First stop was at Mirador Manuel Montt for a view over the city. We then headed to Puerto Vares to see the casino and lake. We then followed the lake around for several kilometers and stopped for a boat cruise on the ´green lake´which was only good to stretch the legs. Lunch was had just before Ensenado, by the windy lake, but good views up to the Osorno Volano that was towering above. We then unexpectadely drove towards the top of the volcano, stopping just above the tree line, and then continuing to the ski resort just below the glacial ice. We didn´t have the hour spare to head up the chairlift to the snow, but had a walk up the mountain a bit further. Interesting rocks that were full of air and a great view down to the clouds below, the lake and out to the ocean past Puerto Montt.

We made our way back down and to the National Park to see some huge rapids, and then continued to the lake where we could see through to the Argentinian border. By this time it was getting dark and so couldn´t see much of the lake so we headed home.

Today the weather wasnt great, with rain coming and going. Met up with the university students again for a few hours, then checked out the local mall and booked my bus ticket to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina for 8:30am mañana (tomorrow).

Puerto Montt

Had a good flight down from Santiago to Puerto Montt yesterday. Apparently they didnt have the flight I was booked on, so I jumped on one leaving an hour later and made it down here. Got into Puerto Montt and found it full of first year uni students walking around begging for pesos while carrying fish heads, fruit rubbed into their clothes and eggs cracked in their hair, just as in Santiago. Apparently is quite a tradition here in Chile. So I got 2 of these uni students to ditch their fish heads and give me a tour of the town which is nicely perched on the end of the fjord and has some snow-capped volcanoes peering over from the east.


Met up with Mauricio and Claudio (HC caipe) just 15 minutes bus ride out of town and had a good Chilean dinner and got tips on all the national parks worth trekking to.
This morning I moved to a hostel in Puerto Montt and saw the rest of the sights in town.
Still trying to get the damn hot water working in this hostel though!

Easter Island

After an early start in Santiago i flew out to Easter Island (or Rapa Nui, or Isla de Pascua) and got there around lunch time on Saturday, 17 Mar. Dropped my bags off at a small hostel just 5 minutes from the centre of town, but it was on the coast. Checked out local Hanga Roa where not much happens. A local surf competition was underway which provided some entertainment for the afternoon, but not quite a complete replacement for St Pats Day which hasn´t yet penetrated to this isolated island.


Sunday I packed a few sangers and hiked up the volcano crater just outside town. This trek was a killer with the stinking hot sun beaming down and no shade to take shelter under all day. Getting to the top I was rewarded with great views over Hanga Roa and the entire island. The inside of the crater was extremely steep with a patchwork of reeds and fresh water lining the bottom. Up here there was also Orongo, which is the site of the bird-man ceremonies. They had some cool little stone houses with flat grass roofs, although these guys must have been midgets to fit in the tiny doors.
Most of Monday was spend swimming in the local bay, and in the arvo I walked out to Ahu Tahai were there were several restored maoi, and one with painted eyes that looked great with the sunset behind.

With nothing happening on the island after dark it was an early night after eating yet another meal of pasta and tomato sauce. This seems to be the only food that is not exorbidently priced (dont know why they cant catch some local fish given they´re in the middle of the ocean!).
Tuesday i jumped on a tour with all the old poms and germans. Saw plenty of amazing maoi. First stop was Ahu Vaihu where several of them were fallen over from the islander war. Then to Ahu Akahanga which is where the first king was buried (apparently the statues are headstones for the graves of the islander kings). Walked around Rano Raraku (maoi quarry) which is littered with maoi. After lunch we went to Tongariki where there are 15 maoi lined up, and also Te Pito Kura which at 12m tall is the biggest one they managed to get standing on an ahu.
Great views of maoi at Anakena with the white sand. Nice swim before heading back. Sunset again at Ahu Tahai where there was a local wedding underway complete with the local witch-doctor out in full dress.

Viña Del Mar

Jumped on the metro this morning for about 15 minutes north to the next city of Viña del Mar. Travelled for the day with a bloke James from South Africa. Visited the old palace of a rich chilean and the surrounding gardens. The house has been changed into a museum now but was fairly uninteresting apart from the ugg-boots we had to wear.

Had a completos for lunch. These are everywhere and seem to be the chilean national food. They are basically a hotdog, with some diced tomatos on top, smothered in quocamole and a huge helping of mayo. Tomato sauce or mustard is usually squeezed on top in a quantity that is reflected on the general populations waist-line.

Walked up the beach for a while, then caught the metro back to Valparaiso.

Exploring Valparaiso

Spent the day trekking around Valparaiso. Walked up some steep hill to the La Sebastian museum which had some cool paintings of Easter Island and a great view over town. Then explored further round the town. Saw the fernicular elevators that run up all the hills around the centre. Eventually figured out that half the streets on the map are actually not streets at all, but usually just a tiny staircase going down between buildings.

Finally also finished buying everything i need... including the electrical converter so i can charge my camera, and some cheap sunnies so i can see something again.

Off to Vina Del Mar tomorrow for the day to check out the beaches... but apparently the water is freezing.

Valparaiso

Over in Valparaiso now on the coast. Got the bus from Pajaritos straight over which was actually comfortable - a nice change after the busses in Asia. Was a nice 2hr drive through the vineyards. Valpo is interesting with the bright coloured houses going up the hills until they disappear in the clouds. Staying at the YoYo Hostel close to the centre of town. Plan to stay here for 3 nights to have some time to explore town, and nearby Vina del Mar which has usable beaches (its all ports and naval installations along the foreshores here).

Cajun Del Maipo

Domingo headed back to La Serena for the weekend, so I crashed at the hostel La Casa Roja in barrio brazil for Friday night. Almost couldnt find the place it was that hidden in amongst the old buildings. Got up at the crack of dawn, caught the metro right down to Bellavista de la Florida at the end of the green line. Found a local bus that went right up to Baños Morales which had a few Chilean climbers aboard, so though that looked like the go.

We left at 8:30 and got up there by midday. Everyone headed straight for the hills, so i found the closest hostel, dumped the bags, bought a few bananas, and headed into the National Park.

Headed up the steep first bit which took a few hours, had a quick bite to eat at the little lake where everyone was setting up there tents to stay the night with a great view of El Morado (5060m). Then the San Francisco glacier was only a few kilometers up the valley so i got back on the trail.

It was getting late in the arvo, with just a few couples at the bottom of the glacier, and a group of serious climbers preparing to head further up for a few days. I got up to the start of where the real glacier begins, when we had to dash out of the path of a 1m diameter boulder that was cruizing down the glacier besides us.

The climbers decided to get further up the mountain, and i decided it was time to get back to town before it got dark.

Got back to town about 6 (5 hours trekking), but the town was dissapointingly dead. Ate a few chocolate biscuits i still had from santiago and called it a night.

Sunday i was expecting the bus to leave about midday again like it did on Saturday. Had a chat to the driver and it turned out it wasnt leaving till 6pm. So the only thing left to do was rest my weary legs in the local mineral-rich termal boaths (22 degrees) for the rest of the day.

Got the bus back to Santiago but not in time to see the Placido Domingo concert in Plaza de Armas (he must have gone straight from Stephs concert in UAE to Santiago, maybe Moruya next!)

Staying again at La Casa Roja for 2 nights, then heading to Valparaiso and Viña Del Mar.

Santiago

Arrived safely in Santiago after a long flight. Quick stopover for 40mins in Auckland was nice to stretch the legs. Plane seemed to be full of other backpackers.
Arrived in Santiago at lunchtime and just as i was about to resort to catching a bus into town, I bumped into Jose (HC jopepecar) so we jumped on the bus and transferred to the Metro to Providencia to meet Domingo (HC disandov). Stayed at Domingos apartment with 2 other HCers, a swiss bloke Andreas, and an American girl Eve. Domingo was off to a ski patrol meeting, so the rest of us cooked up a feed and then had a beer in one of the many street side bars and cafes in Providencia.
Next day the other HCers were off to other parts of the continent, so i wandered around town and saw all the sights... Plaza de Armas, cerro San Lucia which had a good view over town in the morning but was too much fog to see the surrounding mountains. But by 5pm it had cleared up again so i ran back up and could see the mountains surrounding the city. On the furthest mountain (apparently over 6000m) the snow was clearly visible, and must desired in the head of Santiago.
Went to an small club with Domingo that night but it didnt get cranking until 2pm so we were pretty tired by this stage.
In the morning, Domingo was off to La Serena for the weekend so i transferred over to the La Casa Roja hostel. I then caught the fernicular up cerro San Cristobel and walked to the virgin mary statue which was perched on the summit. Trekked along underneath the cable car towards the swimming pools, but for $12 these were given a miss dispite having a spectacular view.
Got to the bottom of the mountain to Providencia. While walking to the metro station i was impressed by 4 girls that left the window washers along Northbourne Avenue for shame. They were dressed in skimpy bikinis, and proceeded to do fairly amazing acrobatics with throwing one of the girls up in the air and catching her again just centemeters from the concrete. Dont know if our mate in Dickson would be up for this though.

Waiting to leave sydney

In Sydney airport now - just transferred across from domestic to internation terminals. Already made it through customs and security so just waiting to board the plane and then im virtually in Chile! The plane's already here so only a few minutes to go.
Had a great send off at Canberra airport by mum, dad and han. Cant wait to see you all again soon in europe.