desiree's Journals

Right so I have a week.. even nearly two weeks to catch up on hehe sorry been so bad at updateing. Have had a bit of an issue with finding time to go on the internet! Monday 27th February// Today we caught our bus back into Chile to Puerto Varas so that we could get back onto the Pachamama tour bus. Randomly watched American band camp on the bus! Was in spanish tho so felt a bit sick at one point trying to read the subtitles hehe. At the border Tom and I got some tasty beef empanadas. What was funny tho was that don't know if you remember but the last time we went through the border the Argentinian immigration guy called Tom up by saying 'Red' followed by 'hot chilli peppers' hehe. Well basically it happened again!! Wonder if he actually remembered doing it last time. Anyways, were a bit worried when we arrived into Puerto Montt as the bus should have passed our stop Puerto Varas along the way.. so yes anyways the bus driver told us to get off but yea unsure as to whether we actually missed our stop or whether the bus did not stop at Puerto Varas at all.. we fell asleep you see so souldnt be sure. Never mind! In the evening we met our new guide caleld Prade (pronounced Pra-they kind of..) at the same hostel we stayed at when we were there before. We spent the rest of our time just relaxing, had dinner at this empty restaurant.. could have been a bad decision but luckily our lomo a lo pobres (beef with fried onions with a fried egg on top AND fries hehe yea I know healthy!!)and avocado salad were gorgeous:) Tuesday 28th February// Got back on the Pachamama bus today and met our new bus mates:) They were all really nice! No time to go ointo detail sbut our guide is seriously nice and chillaxed and there are these two girls Andrea (english lives in oz) and Danielle (English girl born and bred in Belgium) who are really fun and easy to get along with:) more about them later. Stopped for breakfast at this town called Frutillar. Was really good just had toast and jam and hot chocolate but did the trick. Straight after that we stopped off at Llanquihue lake which we have seen for a lot of the tour down but yea it was our last time to get a good picture. Later in the afternoon after a massive drive and a lunch stop we got to our night stop next to the Saltos del Laja. Very cool! Saltos means waterfall and the Laja part basically refers to this stone which appears quite alot around and in the waterfall. Was a really impressive waterfall, someone told us that it might not be so good as there was not as much water (compared to normal) but it was great! Tom got absolutely soaked when he went closer dont know how tho as i didnt get that wet hehe. Had a comedy moment as I took a picture of Danielle in front of the waterfall for her mum as this guy James came up behind her and grabbed her boobies!!! he obviously heard that it was meant for her mum and well yea took it from there hehe.. After we took a walk higher up to see the waterfall from above. Was really cool as we could see a rainbow coming out of the waterfall!! Another comedy moment ensued as I began to talk to the group about deciding to sleep on the floor in Castro for fear of touching Toms bits if we slept on the tiny bed together hehe... yea Andrea was confused for a moment and thought we must have a really strange relationship as she assumed we were together hehe very funny:) Anyways so yes later on we made it to our hostel. Was really nice! Had a double bed and a single in the room and a TV!! Sadly not cable but was still good:) Had a cute terrace outside with a view of the waterfall too! Was awesome when this family of peacocks decided to visit our balcony:) After a bit of a rest we had dinner which our guide cooked. COnsisted of pollo al pil pil (very spicy garlic chicken), gorgeous creamed vegetables and rice and potatoes! Soooo nice! Had a bottle of wine too which was nice:) Later on we all made our way outside for some fresh air and played this card game called 'Shithead'. Was really fun! Danielle was really funny because earlier in the day she asked everybody to tell her swear words in different languages (had some ladies from holland on the bus.. thats how it started). So anyways I wrote her out on a little piece of paper some filipino and chinese ones hehe and she loved it. By the end of the night everybody was saying them but in hilarious accents.. you had to be there:) Wednesday 1st March// Took the bus all the way back to Santiago today. Stopped for breakfast first then soon after we stopped at aparently one of the smallest wineries in Chile called Balduzzi winery. Would have been good except after the night before none of us really felt up for drinking wine.. what didnt help was the fact that it was before 12! Was interesting nonetheless and we had a chance to taste 4 different wines which was cool. Made one more main stop for lunch before arriving in Santiago. Was such a long day of driving tho as we arrived at about 6pm in front of our hostel La Casa Roja!!.. unfortunately Tom's ipod hadn't arrived argh!!! Later in the evening headed out with this NZ girl from our dorm called Sharyn and with Danielle and Andrea as well as they were in our dorm as well! very cool! Danielle left us a bit early as she went to meet this guy she met in Pichilemu during the tour and we ended up getting drinks from the supermarket to enjoy back at La Casa Roja as the bar we were at was too expensive. Danielle arrived back earlier than expected with a new scarf from her new beau Francisco hehe (guy from Pichilemu). Made my way to bed at one point as things got a bit quiet but ended up getting persuaded by Danielle to stay up for longer hehe so got out of my nighty and went out for more drinks hehe:) Thursday 2nd March// Got up late and had an amazing breakfast deal at La Casa Roja with like bacon, eggs, toast, jam, cereal, milk, tea and butter.. don't actually know how I managed to eat it all!! hehe argh! After Tom and I dropped off our laundry for cleaning then made a quick trip to the post office to send some postcards and for Tom to check up on his ipod but with little luck. Bumped into Andrea and Danielle in there which was good cause we were going to have lunch with them anyways and we had no idea where the restaurant was hehe. Lunch was gorgeous had a huge ass salad! Had literally everything you could think of in it.. well veggies that is. After lunch Tom and I went to the internet place. Was really cool as the place we went ot had a webcam! So had a bit of a chat with andy hehe and he could see me which was cool. Having not received his package yet again Tom wasnt in the mood to go out with the others so we ended up going to watch La Pantera Rosa hehe i.e the Pink Panther:)Not bad! After the movie we headed back to the hostel to find Danielle and Andrea there.. they decided not ot go out either and had somehow managed to receive a pizza from telepizza when they ordered it from DOminoes.. hmm.. Anyways met Danielles man Francisco.. she's decided he is stalker now tho as they have only known each other for like 3 days and he has already told his mum about her!! Plus he revealed that he has a 4 year old kid.. he's only 21!! Friday 3rd March// Had breakfast at McDonalds.. hehe yes I know very cultured.. did have hot cakes with Manjar tho.. so yea kind of still south american cuisine hehe yea.. Anyways checked post office again with no luck. Then Tom changed some monay and I went to get myself a spanish english dictionary in my quest to learn spanish!:) Later in the afternoon we headed to the Viña Concha y Toro! The tour was quite expensive but was good:) Got to see where the original owners of the vineyards used to live and had a taste of the actual grapes used to make cabernet sauvignon from the vineyard itself. After that we had a wine tasting of the Casillero del Diablo Camaere. Was really nice!! Tom drank way too much of his before she actually started showing us how to wine taste hehe. 3 steps remember guys! 1) Look at the colour, 2) Swirl around and wait a bit then smell to find the aromas then 3) Taste it!! I like the last step best hehe. We were then taken into the cellars and also the original Casillero del Diablo cellar which was named by the original owner in that way to scare off thieves hehe. Got excited at one point as we thought the guide was going to come out dressed up as the devil as she made a big deal of having to go and ask permission if we coudl all enter the cellar and she disappeared for a while but we were disappointed hehe as she simply went away to turn on this prerecorded deep booming voice telling us the story behind the winery. After the guide came back down and we were guided into this little room where we looked down into this caged off section where there was a shadow of a devil at the end.. kind of lame hehe. Anyways after that we had our last wine tasting of um.. think its called Dom.. something hehe sorry thats really bad!! But yea it costs 50USD for a bottle on special! So was happy to try that one hehe:) tasted kind of weird tho. Tom thought it smelt like worcestershire crisps.. hehe:) It did smell weird. After that we bought a couple of bottles and then headed back to the hostel to pack our bags up for our tour the next day. Didn't just do that tho stayed up a bit with the guys from our room and played loads of card games. Really fun:) Had some of my late harvest wine at the same time sooo good! Saturday 4th March// Woke up relatively early to set off on our new Pachamama bus tour up North! Have the same guide as on our last bus; Prade. Our driver is really nice too his name is Sergio, more on him later. Not a big group this time really just 3 english guys and a french couple and us! They are all a lot older than us tho.. they're al lin their 30's not a bad thing just strange. Anyways so yep on our first day we first stopped off at a small fishing village to have lunch. Had these gorgeous cheese empanadas. Some of the other dudes had these tasty looking seafood and cheese empanadas. Soon after we had a long drive up to La Serena. It had 29 churches!! Before going to the hostel we stopped off at the beach and Tom and I went and played minigolf! So fun! I was winning at the beginning but Tom caught up and won:( not by much tho the final score was 74-75:) hehe. After that we were taken to the hostel. Was really nice had a room to ourselves with private bathroom! It also had a double and a single bed:) I got the double this time cause Tom had it last time near the waterfall hehe. Anyways so yes headed out for a walk and checked out the local well known market called La Recova. Bought myself a very cool multicoloured sweater with a hood:) Love it! Cant wear it yet tho cause aparently some locals dont like it when gringos wear the local stuff.. Tom got himself a set of mini flutes.. hehe don't know why but he really wanted them. Later in the evening we headed out all together to get some din dins. Was really nice and had a football game in the background. Kept jumping out of fright whenever a team scored as all the men in the restaurant jumped up and shouted at the top of their voices hehe. When we got the bill had a bit of a shock as aparently our table had 8 pitchers of beer!! Argh! The English dudes were really nice and covered most of them for us hehe. After dinner Tom headed home with the French couple whilst I went out with the rest of the group including our guide and bus driver. Was a really good night and the bar we went to was really nice as we got to sit out in the beer garden. Was awesome because the English guys paid for pretty much all my drinks!! Had 3 pisco sours hehe:) and they're not cheap. They said they wanted to pay because they know what it was like to be proper backpackers before etc.. couldn't argue with that!:) The hostel owners son came out for a bit too with his friend who reminded me of Che Guevara cause of the had he was wearing and his long hair hehe. Yea they were a bit sleasy tho.. they asked me if I wanted to 'try a chilean man' was like um.. no thanks! hehe:) Then the hostel owners son called Carlos asked if I wanted to just 'check out his bedroom'... yea.. said I'd pass ewww.... Good night other wise hehe! Sunday 5th March// Very very long day today! Got up early and started to make our way properly into the desert as we could see a growing number of cacti. First stop I think.. was at the Punta de Choros a small fisherman village. From there we took a boat out to the National Reserve of the Humboldt Penguin to have a look at loads of animals. First place we saw wildlife was at the Isla Choros where we saw penguins, sea otters, a variety of sea birds like Pelicans (they were absolutely huge!) and Comorants and some sea lions. The sea lions absolutely stank and kept making funny noises hehe. After that unfortunately, I was starting to feel sick... not so great as the boat was taking us further out.. argh! Turned out there was a reason for this and that was to see loads of sea lions and dolphins!! Was amazing there must have been like 50 or more dolphins! According to our bus guide we were lucky to see so many as some people don't get to see any at all. Was even better when Prade called me up to the front of the boat and let me lean over the front to have a look at the dolphins speeding like bullets right next to the boat!!:) After all the excitement of the dolphins I felt even sicker hehe but luckily we soon made our way onto a gorgeous island with clear water and white sand. Had lunch there was really nice, then had a bit of a lie down as Tom went off to check out more of the island.. yea felt kind of hungover wasnt just being lazy!:) Headed back to where we started after an hour or so on the island. Got soaked hehe as the water splashed up into the boat! In the evening at about 11pm:( finally made it to Bahia Inglesa a holiday camping place with loads of cute little cabins. Oh by the way it is near Caldera which we actually do visit later on but yea couldn't put it down in my list of locations just so you know. We shared a cabin with the French couple and Sergio our driver. Had dinner when we got in then soon went to bed. Had issues with the toilet being about 50m away as I always have to go to the loo in the night argh!!!

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