desiree's Journals

Hello! Managed to get to a computer earlier than expected yay! So yes since our last entry Tom and I have left Pucon and travelled further down Chile. But will go into more details in a bit. Firstly, on the 12th of February we got up bright and early for the first time in a while to get back onto the Pachamama bus. Our new guide Jorge is an absolute mentalist hehe he talks really loud and is just really really enthusiastic about everything. He's really nice tho not like a weird mentalist or anything hehe:) Our driver is called Hymee.. thats really not how you spell it but thats how you'd say it hehe. And our new pachamama bus group is a lot smaller only 6 people not including us two. There is another couple from Denmark, Louise and Thomas, a guy from New York called Luke, there is an Aussie called Damien, a Swedish guy called Andres and a really funny wacky 60 year old lady from Italy called Rosanna. They are all really nice, and having a smaller group made it a lot easier to get to know all of them much more quickly. Anyways, yea so on our first day back on the bus we headed away from gorgeous Pucon down to Valdivia. Along the way we made a couple of stops for photos but more memorably we stopped at this place nearby Pucon for an empanada and a gorgeous raspberry tart type thing. Soooo nice! Sorry cant remember the name of the place at the moment argh! Will ask Jorge. Apart from that the drive down was amazing as we spotted foxes and a whole group of cute little piglets! Got a good photo will put that up when I can:) The fox I spotted was gorgeous tho it was a bright red with black tipped ears.. so pretty:) Made it to Valdivia quite early in the afternoon at about 2:30 so had a bit of a rest in the hostel then set off for luncheon with the whole pachamama bus crew. Lunch was not bad.. well hehe Jorge described this local dish to us called Paila Marina and it just sounded sooo nice with coriander, chilli, soup and a whole load of different seafoods all mixed together. Anyways both Tom and I got it and it was nice at first but after a while it just got way too fishy and it did not look to appetizing, not to mention the fact that we couldnt tell what half the weird tentacles that stuck out of the bowl belonged to hehe. After lunch Tom and I went out on a boat tour with Rosanna for half an hour around the Isla Teja. Was really relaxing and saw a lot of birds like swans and such. At the beginning of the boat ride we went past the fish market in Valdivia where sea lions actually go up on raised platforms just below the market to eat up the remains of fish that the fishmongers cut out etc.. so funny they were sooo fat and lazy and there were quite a lot of them as well very cool:) Following the boat trip we headed to the University nearby to check out its botanical garden. Not bad was nice to walk around and see all the different types of trees grown in different countries. Then following that we checked out the sea lions again. I got a drink called Mote Con Huesillos which basically consists of peach nectar with soaked barley husks in it. Very nice and refreshing. Later in the evening after a bit of a rest at the hostel we headed out for some drinks and dinner again with the whole pachamama crew. Had a gorgeous mexican kind of fajita platter for dinner with tom and then had lots of Pisco sours. Pisco is made from grapes.. kind of like a mega fortified wine. As for the sours part they add lemon juice and sugar to it. Again very nice hehe:) The danish couple, Tom and Rosanna left after dinner whilst I stayed on with Jorge, Andres, Luke and Damien as I had a drink on the way. Was really fun as they randomly put on karaoke! hehe:) they basically put on random songs and then whoever wanted to sing put their hand up! I have never seen so many people actually willing to sing without having drunk much alcohol hehe:)The karaoke dj put on an English song especially for us hehe but the guys were a bit nervous at first so I ended up singing Pretty Woman argh!! Damien had his turn singing Jailhouse rock and Luke was the best out of all of us as he sang a whoel song in spanish! show off hehe:) Jorge sang loads hehe as he seemed to know the words to every single song that was put up on the screen! After the karaoke, this lady went on stage and put on music in the background and sang loads of cool songs. She sang salsa songs, samba etc.. my favourite was reggaeton which is like a kid of hip hoppy rap latino type of music very cool. I told Jorge I kind of knwe how to salsa argh! bad move! I totally sucked hehe well compared to all the amazing dancers there! Seriously was so embarassed cause the guys were amazing hehe they just stood up and were like gyrating perfectly to the beat hehe. So anyways I got a good dance lesson from Jorge who taught me really well hehe he was really good! I was his dance partner for the night obviously as there were no other girls there but was fun! Finally after all of that we made it back to the hostel at 2:30.. was great knowing that we had to get up at 7:30 grose!! So onto the next day i.e. today! Yep woke up on time and got ready for breakfast at 8:00am. Felt fine which was great but Luke did not look too good.. not surprised as the ratio of alcohol to soft drink here seems to be the complete opposite to what you'd normally expect. Anyways after that we set off in the bus again stopping first at Puerto Montt. Had a great handicraft road there. Mum you would have loved it:) Didnt buy anythign tho:( oh well! Think I have to hone my spanish bartering skills first hehe. Had lunch in Puerto Montt after checking out the handicrafts road. Was absolutely gorgeous!! Was a bit apprehensive at first because I ordered what Jorge recommended, a Chiloen dish which is basically mussels, pork, sausage, chicken all cooked in a white wine soup with coriander. Was soo nice tho! Apparently, the proper way to make it is in the ground in a hole but obviously they couldnt do that there hehe. Set off again in the bus soon after lunch down to our night stop Puerto Varas. The hostel we are at is called Patiperros very nice and cute. Its quite new so its very clean and situated really close to everything you'd wanna see here which is great! Just his afternoon Tom and I actually took a long walk up this hill nearby to do some canopying! Very fun! Basically its where you make your way from tree to tree via a thick metal wire using the proper equipment obviously you know those special clips and harness thingys. hehe sorry not well explained there! Unfortunately the whole thing only took abotu 10minutes! We paid loads too but was kind of worth the experience as was really fun. Was kind of nervous at first because I dont really like heights but was fine. After the canopying we took a nice stroll down along the beach shore. Yep there is a lake beach here too sooo nice! You can see three volcanoes looking out onto it was well which is amazing, the prettiest one tho is called Volcan Osorno. It looks massive but aparently its not even as tall as the one we climbed. Having said that, it is a lot harder to climb as there is much more technical stuff involved i.e. there is proper ice climbing.Anyways so yep after that we walked past the casino here and had a quick peek through the window, looked good. Then after we visited this amazing church. Forgot to mention that Puerto Varas is majorly influenced by the germans because of its history and such and so a lot of the buildings are based on old style german architecture. The church is made in a similar style. It is gorgeous and just really bright with a cool red roof and inside I dunno cant really explain will put photos up asap promise hehe! Thought of you dad when I went in hehe:) Yep so well its about 7:30 now, gonna have dinner here at the hostel as the Danish couple have offered to cook a meal for us! We just have to buy our drinks yay! Then maybe out for a few? Will update again soon!

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