Dear friends, unfortunately my adventure in Latin America has ended a bit over three weeks ago. I really enjoyed it and already feel like going back, but I will have to find a job first. Anyway, I would like to thank you all for reading my blog. I had never expected it to be such a succes but as the statistics below show, it was. I have added a lot of pictures recently, especially in the Costa Rican, Panamanian and Peruvian sections, so feel free to watch them again.
Thanks for all the reactions, too, it is so nice to get e-mails and reactions to your blog from friends and family when travelling.

Stats

Visits: 25191
Page Views: 32749
Most Viewed Entries

Las Cataratas de Iguazu: 7040
Ciudad del Este y Asunción: 6374
Montevideo, Pireápolis, Punta del Este, Colonia: 5498

Those of you I have not seen yet, hope to see you soon!

Que les vaya bien

Abrazos y besitos

Muchas gracias a todos! remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Buenos Aires has the same grandeur as Paris, London or Saint-Petersburg. You can walk around Bs As for hours and hours, boca abierta, admiring the beautiful buildings, they reminded me of Paris all the time, squares, statues, avenues, parks and, of course, muchachas muy lindas! Bs As lives, it is open 24/7, there is always something to do and it has a magnificent night life.

Buenos Aires has quite a few barrios, amongst others:

Puerto Madero

San Telmo with its famous feria

Retiro

Of course, La Boca

Recoleta

Palermo

And Microcentro with its Plaza de Mayo

Buenos Aires is music, too. Tango dancing and street musicians playing in the streets, loads of very cheap cd-shops etc. Argentinian bands I can recommend: Los Rodriguez, Andrés Calamaro, Los Palmeras, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Dancing Mood, Mercedes Sosa,... Elektro-Tango is very popular nowadays in Buenos Aires, you can hear it at any time in the centre of Bs As. Best groups: Otros Aires, Bajofondo Tango Club and Gotan Project. Go and watch them en vivo, they are amazing!

I spent the first night in The Tango-Inn HI Hostel but did not like it one bit because it is too big hence too unpersonal and it is dominated by English-speakers.
I found a much better hostel, Mantengase Hostel, also in San Telmo. It is much smaller and the majority of the guests is Spannish-speaking. I shared a dorm with four Colombians and one Argentinian, lovely people, we had a few good nights out.
So, that's about it, really, wish I can go back soon to this lovely continent called Latina América. Soy loco por ti América.

Que les vaya bien amigos!

Buenos Aires, Ultima Estación remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Coming from Asunción, Montevideo is bliss, bearable temperatures and people in the streets. Hospedaje Che Lagarto is right on Plaza Independencia, a cool square with very interesting buildings and close to Avenida 18 de Julio, the main street, as well as close to Sarandí, the pedestrian street and close to the Ciudad Vieja where all the sight-seeing is to be done.

Interesting city, Montevideo as thought Bryan Adams who was supposed to do a concert there but canceled it and went to a bar. Luckily, I did not go out with the people from the hostel because I was to tired. They bumped into him! Maybe next picture has got something to do with it.

Pireápolis is a little beach resort at about two hours to the east of Montevideo, nice and quiet as the tourist season was just finished. We stayed in a hostel that looked a bit like a prison but we had good fun anyway. Unfortunately, the second day was quite rainy so we could not really go out to the beach or for a swim.

Punta del Este is crowded with old people during the day and quite dead at night but our lovely hostel was at about twenty minutes from Punta, in Manantiales, only a 15-minute walk from the famous surfingbeach Playa Bikini. I thought I would give it a go and try some surfing for the second time in my life, but did not get further than some paddling and got washed away several times by the powerful waves.

I only had one day in Colonia de Sacramento, a little Portuguese settlement, back in time used for smuggling goods into Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily all day which made me spend hours in a cyber cafe. But by the time the sun set, it stopped raining, so I could still enjoy the old, quiet streets, squares and the sunset over the sea, all this under a very special light.

Montevideo, Pireápolis, Punta del Este, Colonia remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anyway, the Itaipú hydroelectric power plant, with the Panama Canal and others one of the seven wonders of the modern world and by far the world's biggest in its sort, is something worth visiting from Ciudad del Este. It was constructed on the Paraná River where Brasil borders with Paraguay. To give a bit of an idea, the amount of iron used in the project is enough to build 380 Eiffel Towers and the volume of concreet used in Itaipú is fifteen times more than the amount used in the Chunnel between France and the U.K.! The plant produces about 90% of all Paraguayan electricity and some 25% of Brasil's. After an introduction movie free bus-tours around and on the dam are offered with a visit to the powerhouse. It is all very impressive, though, in my opinion, a bit short. I could have spent much more time there.

Asunción was not what I had expected. With its 1.3 million inhabitants it is more or less the same size as Montevideo, but compared to Montevideo it is almost dead. There was very few people in the streets and in bars, restaurants etc., although it was weekend when I was there. There is no hostels in Asunción but very cheap hotels and there is hardly any tourists. Moreover it is too warm. There are a few nice buildings and squares to visit, but that is about it. On Sunday, I walked six kilometres in the baking heat to the Botanical Garden which was quite nice but nothing special. There is a little zoo there as well, with two lions, a hippo and an elephant, not quite like the zoo in Antwerp! After 22 hours of bus, I was happy to arrive in the cool Montevideo! Next time in Paraguay, I will visit its nationals parks but they are very difficult to reach at times and you need a permision to pay them a visit.

Hejda!

Ciudad del Este y Asunción remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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When I walked from the upper circuit to the lower circuit, there was not too many people around yet, I was lucky enough to spot this little, but apparently very poisonous, snake:

I was rewarded for walking to the Garganta del Diablo instead of taking the train, very few people walk by the way. On the way there, I saw this beauty:

And on the way back, there was a huge leguan, at least I think it was a leguan, having its lunch just a few meters from where I was standing!

There is millions of mariposas (butterflies) all over the park, they sit on your arms and drink from your sweat, it is quite funny and a bit ticklish at times.

If you are a bit patient, you can spot the rather shy capuchin monkeys

or even tapirs,

water snakes and crocodiles

on the way to the Garganta del Diablo

To finish of with, I took the camino Macuco, a six-kilometre walk (one way) through tropical forest, with quite little people on it but some animals, like spiders and enormous ants that can cause more damage than a wasp can when they bite you.

Tata

Las Cataratas de Iguazu remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Although the national park has much of an amusement park and it is packed with tourists, well, too many tourists except for me, it is a must for everyone travelling to the northeast of Argentina, the south of Brazil or to Paraguay. Not only are there the spectacular waterfalls, but if you keep your eyes open a little bit and if you have a bit of luck, you will see a bunch of tropical animals.

The most spectacular part of the national park, 'La Garganta del Diablo (the devil's throat)':

Os Foz do Iguazu remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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But, Puerto Madryn is the perfect base for daytrips to Península Valdes where loads of sea animals spend the summer. Unfortunately, we were a bit too early to see killer wales and it was not the wale season at all, but we saw a lot of seals, sea-lions, birds, ñandus, guanacos and sea-cows. Although the tour was very touristic and we spent too much time in the bus, I enjoyed it because of the amount of animals we saw and because I met Sònia, a lovely girl from Barcelona. Next day we went to the beach and for lunch together before we left in different directions.

Bueno, next day I took the bus to Trelew, one of the Welsh towns just south to Puerto Madryn. I went to a hotel that was in the Rough Guide and I have to say maybe I should inform David Lynch about it, although it did not have any ironing rabbits in it. Trelew depressed me a bit at first, but the people playing percussion and dancing in a park just in front of the hotel at night and the fact that I had a room to my own, so I slept a lot, made up a bit.
In Trelew, another tour was arranged, to Punta Tombo, the biggest penguin colony in the American continent. Although I asked for the tour just to Punta Tombo, the bus took a detour to Rawson and its picturesque, that is what the guide said at least, harbour and to finish with we were dropped of at a 'typical Welsh tea-house' in Gayman where we could enjoy a tea-session for a ridiculous price. I went for a walk instead, not much to sea. But Punta Tombo was nice! There are between 1.5 and 2 million penguins and you get about two hours to walk between them. You can really approach them very close and when you stick your camera in their face to take a picture, they really start looking at it and moving their head around in a ridiculous way, quite funny!

Los pingüinos kwekwekwek

Puerto Madryn, Península Valdes, Trelew y Punta Tombo remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ushuaia is very touristic with loads of souvenir shops, restaurants, pubs and coffee shops on its main streets but the surroundings are just stunning, all snow-capped mountains and than the Beagle Channel, which makes up the border with Chili. The first day, I did not do much, strolled around the centre a bit, bumped into Lelia, an Irish girl I had met in Torres, went for a few pints with her and we were soon joined by Bernd, a German I had met on the boat from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales in Chile. Lilia had to catch a flight back to Buenos Aires at 8.50 pm and we were chatting and drinking away, when she asked Bernd what time it was. Bernd looked at his watch and went: 'it's 8.10!'. I saw Lilia getting up and she was getting a bit white in the face. Afterwards, I got an e-mail saying that everything went fine and she had taken a later flight to BA, via Calafate. That night, I cooked for Bernd, Beatrice, Doris and Andy, two Swiss girls and a Briton that were on the bus to Ushuaia, too. It was quite late when we finished and we finished all the wine, too. As a result, next day was another easy day. Doris, Beatrice and me walked to the city centre, half-an-hour-walk from the hostel, and went to visit the massive Museo Marítimo, the former prison. It was quite interesting and you can walk around for hours in it.
Next day, I went to the beautiful Parque Nacional de Tierra del Fuego for the first time. I took an easy but beautiful 12-kilometer-walk near the Beagle Channel. It seemed like a beautiful place for camping as well but after about ten days of camping in the cold and sitting on buses, I was relieved to be in a hostel again and to sleep in a bed, to be able to take a shower, to cook in a kitchen and to sit at a table.

Next day, I did the most amazing walk in the National Park: Cerro Guanaco. The walk is quite though and steep, 970 metres up on a five-kilometer-trail, sometimes through mud and over very slippery tree roots, I almost fell a few times. At the beginning of the trail, there is a sign saying you should not walk it alone, nor when the weather is bad nor without suitable clothing. Once you get above the treeline, the steepest part begins, with the actual Cerro Guanaco. But getting at the top is oh so rewarding! The view over Ushuaia, the Beagle Channel, the National Park, the forests and the surrounding mountains is indescribably breathtaking! I was very lucky with the weather, no clouds, hence a very far view, sunny but windy and cold on the top.

The last day in Ushuaia, I walked up the hill just behind Ushuaia to get to the glacier. People had recommended it to me saying it was an easy walk, not very long, and with a beautiful view on Ushuaia. I am sure those people had taken the bus and the lift up the hill and had only than started walking to the glacier. After half an hour from the hostel, I got to a path where a sign said it would take 2 hours to walk up. After two hours, there was another sign, for yet another path that would take fourty minutes. I met an English couple on their way back down because it was too mudy further up. At the end of the path, it started raining and of course, for the first time in Ushuaia, I had not taken my rain coat because I had been lucky all the other days and the weather looked good that morning. I found shelter under the little building where people arrived by lift. When it had more or less stopped raining, I went on with the final part, which was quite steep. After a while, it started raining heavily again and even hailing. The view on Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel was beautiful, yes, but not as beautiful as from Cerro Guanaco and on the way back down, it had become so cloudy that I could not see a thing and it rained all the time, so I got soaked.

It was such a relief to get back to the city centre after hours of walking! I had a nice Completo de Milanesa, a very big sandwich with a thick escalope (Milanesa), a fried egg, cheese, ham, tomato and salad, lovely and very filling. They come with a wide range of sauces you can put on yourself. In the evening I walked from the hostel to the airport to catch a flight to Trelew. Honestly, how many times can you say you have walked to the airport? Although I could have got a lift of somebody from the hostel, I found it a cool idea to walk to the airport and I had the chance to have a last look at Ushuaia and its surroundings.

Hasta prontito, amigos!

Ushuaia, el Fin del Mundo remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Back in El Chaltén again, I went over to Leo's and Zoe's house, well, room and joined them for a wonderful dinner in their shared kitchen. There was about eight people and the Italian cook had made a very tasty sauce of butter, cream, anchoas and garlic (eight teeth a head!) where we could all dip vegetables and potatoes in. After diner, we went to a very nice pub to have some more beers, it was all very cozy.
Next day, I could get a lift of Zoe to get to the far entrance of the park, and I had put my alarm clock at 7am, but when I woke up, it was raining cats and dogs and so I decided to stay in my warm and comfortable sleeping bag, till the rain would stop, sorry for that again, Zoe! When it actually stopped raining, I got up, took my time to have breakfast and pack my tent and then head off for the path guiding to Cerro Torre, another attraction in the National Park. By the time I got to the path, it started pissing out of heavens again and I got soaking wet, but by the time I had reached Campamento De Agostini, it had stopped raining. After putting up my tent, I head off for Laguna Torre and walked to Mirador Maestri, where a beautiful view on Laguna Torre, the glacier just next to it and on Cerro Torre can be enjoyed. Unfortunately, the clouds did not want to reveal Cerro Terro that night, so I went back to the campamento and got into my sleeping bag, it was quite cold when one was not walking.

That night, it was snowing in the Nacional Park, so in the morning, again, I waited in my warm sleeping bag until all the snow had fallen from the trees onto my little tent. After breakfast, I walked to Mirador Maestri for the second time, and again, Cerro Torres was covered in clouds. I stayed up there quite a while because, although Torres could not be seen, it was still very beautiful up there. In the afternoon, I did the long walk from campamento De Agostini to Campamento Poincenot, put my tent up again, had lunch and dinner together and walked another hour to the Mirador Piedras Blancas and back. When I got back to the campsite, it started snowing again and the temperature had dropped very much so after coffee, I decided to get back into my sleeping bag and read a bit.

The last day in El Chaltén was really relaxed. I walked back to the village, passing by lovely laguna Capri, in two hours and than went to the campsite I was staying at before to get the stuff I had left there and to take a nice shower. After a few hours in a cyber-café and a nice café con leche, I was ready for the four-hour bus ride back to El Calafate. Around 7pm, we left Chaltén and from the bus, we had a last look on beautiful Fitzroy and as the sun set, the sky changed from one beautiful colour into another.

El Chaltén y Parque Nacional Los Glaciares remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I feel like almost every new entry starts like what I am going to write next, but in El Calafate itself, there is not much to see. It is a little village with some restaurants, shops, hotels, etc. and above all a lot of tourists. The reason for that is that El Calafate is the starting point to get to the Perito Moreno Glaciar, one of very few moving glaciars on this earth, at about eighty kilometres from El Calafate. Although there is some bigger glaciers in the same Parque Nacional Los Glaciares that Perito Moreno is in, Perito Moreno is star attraction number one. In the village there is a lot of travel agencies offering all kinds of trips to the glaciar but the agencies I have compared offered exactly the same excursions for exactly the same price.

The excursion I took, the mini-trekking, was a bit expensive, but very good. They picked me up at the hostel at 9 am and we drove to a first view point where everyone could take pictures. Than we drove closer by and we had about two hours to walk to different view points, ever so close to this wonder of nature, and to have lunch. The glaciar is just breathtaking and when the sun shines, you can hear and see parts falling of the front every now and then and you can hear the water from the lake lying above it making tunnels to get its way through the glaciar, it sounds like explosions. Next part was a boat trip to the other side of the lake, again, with a good view on the glaciar of course. Once back on the shore, everyone got crampons and we started a two-hour-walk on the glaciar! It was gorgeous, it looks so blue. The tour was finished with a glass of whisky with glaciar ice. Another unique experience!

Hasta banana!

El Calafate y Perito Moreno remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cathérine, a woman from Ghent I had met on the boat, and me decided to do the W in the National Park together, so we could share food, cooking material etc. On Friday afternoon, we left and arrived at the park's entrance around 6pm. By taking the wrong way, we lost half an hour, good way to start! Once we got on the right track again, we could enjoy the beautiful landscapes, climbing a fair bit, and we got to Refugio El Chileno before we knew it. From there, we got to Campamento Los Torres, the base camp and free camping to go and see the peaks the park is named after. It was quite late when I set off for the Torres, Cathérine was too tired to join me, but it was well worth it. After a steep half-hour-climb over small and big rocks I found myself looking at the Torres, not a cloud in the sky. Moreover, I was the only one up there, it was beautiful!

The second day, we got up at 4 am and walked up to the Torres for the second time, to see them shine with the early morning sun. Again, there were no clouds. The fact that we were so lucky was proved by a man who was up there for the seventh! time and it was the first time he could catch a glimpse of the Torres. Around 7 am, we got back down and I got back in the tent for a little sleep. When I woke up again, Cathérine was setting off for the Torres and I used the time I waited for her to have breakfast, to pack my stuff and to break up Cathérine's tent. By 12.15, we could finally leave. At Refugio El Chileno, I caught up with Diederik and Pieter, two Dutch blokes I had met on the boat, and we started walking together, Cathérine prefered to walk at her own tempo. We walked for a few hours, down to a lake where we could take water to cook our lunch and by the time we had finished eating, Cathérine arrived there, too. After about an hour more, we took a wrong path and walked all the way down to the lake and only there, we found out we took the wrong way. There were two options: either to walk all the way back up the steep path with loose sand or to climb an almost vertical rock wall to continue our way. We chose for the last option which was quite dangerous, seen we were wearing our rucksacks and all, but nobody fell and so we survived. Our detour took a lot of time, though, and a lot of our forces, too. We only arrived at Refugio Los Cuernos around 8 pm and Pieter and Diederik decided to stay there for the night. Because of our little detour, I was not sure any more whether Cathérine was in front of us or behind us and since we were going to meet at Campamento Italiano, I had to continue. After about 1.5 hours, I arrived, completely dead. I heated up the rest of the pasta from lunch, lying down in my tent and fell asleep before 11pm, I think I even was a bit feaverish, my forehead was glowing like crazy.

I slept for over 11 hours, but still felt like crap. Anyway, I dragged myself out of my tent, had breakfast and started walking up the Valle del Francés. I walked very slow and felt like I would not make it to the top, but I caught up with Jasik, one of my cabin mates on the boat, and started walking with him, which gave me a bit more strength. I was feeling better and better and when we got to Campamento Británico, I met up with three English and one Irish girls I had met in Bariloche. We walked to the mirador, with a beautiful view on the Valle del Francés and decided not to walk up the final bit as all the people who came back down told us it was not really worth it. So, back down to Campamento Italiano we went, I had some noodles and some coffee with Diederik and Pieter who had made it to Italiano, too, and then went to sleep.

On the fourth day, I felt quite well again and decided I wanted to finish the W that day and get back to Puerto Natales. At 5.30 am, Diederik, Pieter and me got up, had a good breakfast, packed and started walking around 7.15 am. It took us 1h45 to get to Refugio Péhoe, where Pieter and Diederik decided to take the 10 am catamaran back. I decided to walk on to the Glaciar, 11 kms from Péhoe. I had blisters on my feet, from the first day on, but really wanted to make it. They hurted very much when starting to walk, but after a while, you do not feel them that much any more, you get used to them I suppose. Anyway, just before half way, after a good climb, you can have a first look at Glaciar Grey and that is a very good stimulation, you just want to get there as soon as possible! I walked past Refugio Grey to the mirador, very close to the glaciar, the view was excellent! Everything was even better when two Chinese (twee Chineskes) appeared on a rock just above me and started doing poses and taking pictures of each other, they made me smile, yes, even laugh! The way back was marked by wind, downpours of rain and sun. The wind was in my back, so I arrived at Péhoe, completely wet from behind and dry in front, thirty kilometres later. Finally some of the Patagonian cold, rainy and windy weather I had expected. Luckily, there was a free and warm kitchen at campsite Péhoe, because I still had to wait for three hours before the catamaran would sail of at 6.30pm and take me to the bus. I had a nice pack of rice with already-made-sauce, four portions it said on the back.

Conclusion: although the W-circuit in the National Park is very touristic, it is very beautiful and at times quite though but oh so rewarding. The 80 kilometres can be done in four days, or five days if you want to take it easy. Take loads of food and if you can, take a tent to camp as prices in the park are unbelievable. Some examples: US$33 for a night in a refugio's dormitory (and take your sleeping bag, or you pay extra!), $15 for dinner and $8 for breakfast. To check your e-mails at Refugio Péhoe, you pay 1,000 Chilean pesos ($2) per fifteen minutes, in Puerto Natales, you pay 600 pesos for an hour! And from what I have heard the profits go to private investors in Santiago. A final warning, do not wear shoes that are too big or too small.

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The only problem was that I had forgotten to buy my ticket to do so the night before and there was no possible way I could still go, I asked about every single person in the crew, there was nothing to do about it. Though luck, so I spent an hour on an almost empty ship, which had its charms though. At night, there was a bingo night in the bar! No cruise without a bingo night of course, so I was in the first row, trying my luck. I was never lucky, but my cabin mate Walter won about every time: one line, two lines, three lines, etc. After the bingo, the couches were put aside and it was time for some dancing.
The fourth day, we arrived in Puerto Natales just after lunch and for me, it had been enough, it was good to be on land again.

Puerto Natales is nothing special in itself but is is quiet and has some good restaurants and pubs, very touristic though. If you are going to Puerto Natales, you should pay a visit to Hotel Remota. Walk in and ask the personnel if you can take a look, they will let you and it is well worth it, take a look at the top floor as well, it is unbelievable. Puerto Natales, above all, is the ideal jumping point for the gorgeous Parque Nacional Torres del Paine! More about that next entry.

Puerto Montt-Puerto Natales remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Puerto Montt depressed me a little bit. I don't know, it is just the atmosphere that I do not like here and there is not a lot to see, so I took the bus to Puerto Varas, which is nicer, but still not half as nice as la Isla de Chiloé. You do not miss anything if you just pass by Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, I think.
Phew, that's it, for the first time in my blog history I can write in the present as I am in Puerto Montt right now and will take the ferry to Puerto Natales mañana por la mañana, which also means that I will leave all of you in peace for the next four days! Finally I hear you thinking...

Besitos, que les vaya bien!

Isla de Chiloé, Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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At night, we had a good party with a huge pan of paella cooked in the hostel and two famous Argentinian artists playing flamenco, it was lovely. In the end, there was only some Argentinians, some Brasileros and me left. The DJ was asked to play some Brasilian music and so he did. That is how I got my first Samba and Forró lessons from Amanda. It is al very simple: Samba is um, dos, tres and Forró is um, dos, um, dos but if they speed up the rhythm of the dance, than I do not see the um, dos, tres any more! Anyway, we ended up with Amanda taking the leading role, so I just had to let me guide, which is a lot more easy, I can tell you! It was after four when we went to bed.
Next day, the alarm clock went of at 8 am. At 8.30, Amanda and Alessandra had still not appeared at breakfast so I went to their room to ask what was going on. Of course, they were still sleeping and they asked me to take the bus at 10 am and so we did. The bus went to cerro Catedral, a hill with a beautiful view on the lake that Bariloche is next to. We took two lifts up, lifts that are used for skiing in winter. It was very strange to take a skilift without snowboard attached to my feet, I hardly knew what to do to get of. Anyway, at the top of the cerro, there was snow and that was the main reason for our trip. Alessandra and Amanda had never seen let along touched snow in their lifes! So, to celebrate them touching snow for the first time, we had a little snow fight and it showed they had never done it before. Later that day, we had to say goodbye because unfortunately they left for Buenos Aires.
At night, Gabriella, the girl I had met in Salta and who is doing voluntary work in Bariloche at the mo, went to have a Swiss cheese fondue and then sadly we had to say goodbye as well, cause I had a bus to catch early in the morning.

That's all, folks, byebye

San Carlos de Bariloche remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The first day, I took it easy because I had not slept very well on the night bus and I knew I had to get up very early next day. I strolled around the streets of Pucón a bit, up to the lake, where they were windsurfing! Well depending on what you call windsurfing though... In the afternoon, I took the bus to Lago Cabargua and walked to the Ojos de Cabargua, a set of nice waterfalls hidden in the forest. At night, Amanda, Alessandra (the Brasileras I had met in Valpo), two other Brasilians and myself went for some pints on a terrace on Calle O'Higgins, the main street.
Next day, my alarm clock went off at 4.15 am because at 5.00 am we had to start our mission of climbing the Villarica. After about one hour by car, we arrived at the point where we would have started walking but unfortunately, the wind was so strong that we gave up and returned to Pucón after a few hundred meters of walking. In the afternoon, I went to el Parque Nacional de Huerquehue, walked about 9 km to two nice waterfalls and to the first of the lakes, 550 meters up a hill and back. It was all very beautiful and the views on the volcán Villarica and the Laguna Grande were magnificant. I wish I would have had some more time to explore the park, but helas, I had to take the last bus back to Pucón. I had the time to take a dip into the ice cold lake though. Parque Nacional Huerquehue is an excellent place to do a few days of trekking by tent by the way, there are very nice and quiet camping sites.

The day after, same story with the alarm clock, and this time it was bingo, the weather was beautiful and the wind had calmed down. With all our equipment (helmet, boots, trunchons, pickel and special trousers and jacket) we started the mission at about 6.15 am. We were the only group who started that early, so we, two Swiss people, one Austrian, one German, two Chilean guides and me, had the volcano to ourselves. We climbed up 1.400 metres, one hour in the sand and almost four hours in the snow, to the crater where we arrived at 11.00 am. The view there was just gorgeous! The lake, Pucón, all the surrounding mountains and the crater, beautiful! The only annoying thing was that there was quite some sulfer fumes coming out of the crater and I can tell you it is not exactly a nice smell! Anyway, to get back down, we slided on our back and walked when it was not steep enough, or to icy for sliding. It was so good to meet all the other groups, there was quite a few, about half way down!

So, back in Pucón, we had a bit of a celebration on the terrace of our hostel with quite a few beers under the ever present sun. The celebration went on about the whole afternoon and then by 8 pm we left for the Termas Los Pozones, lovely hot springs at a one-hour-drive from Pucón. They are open 24 hours and you can take your own drinks and snacks inside! The springs are all a bit too warm for me, but luckily there is a cold river flowing just next to them, so you can go and cool down a bit at any time.

Saude! Que nunca nos falte!

Pucón remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Again, there is a Pablo Neruda house, in Bellavista, the bohemian barrio in Santiago. The house named La Chascona (tangle-haired woman) after Matilde Urrutia, Neruda's last wife, is now an interesting museum that can only be visited by means of guided tours. Like the other two Neruda houses I can recommend La Chascona very much, there is this nice atmosphere about it and I can only conclude that the man must have had a very good taste.
Next to the two hills, there is also the Parque Forestal to escape from the stress and the heat.

Santiago must be the fast-food capital of the world. It seems like everyone is eating fast-food. Empanadas, hot-dogs, hamburgers and other unhealthy food is to be found on every street corner. The Spanish name for hot-dogs, by the way, changes from country to country in Latin-America. Whereas in Argentina they call them panchos, they are called italianos in Chile, perros calientes or just hot-dogs (Spanish pronunciation) yet in other countries.
Did you know that Santiago has more taxis than New York?

Saudo!

Santiago de Chile remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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For the first two nights Katrien and myself stayed in a private house with a very good breakfast included in the price. When Katrien left, I went to Hospedaje Maria Antonieta, a good hostel with very friendly people, where I met Amanda and Alessandra, two lovely and very enthousiastic girls from Santos, Brasil.
Valpo, as locals call it, is without any doubt the most picturesque Chilean city. It is at the sea and has very colourful houses built on the hills that make the city. There are quite some antique lifts to take you up the steep hills for half a euro or so.
A must in Valpo is the Pablo Neruda house called Casa Sebastiana, named after the architect that designed it. It is a wonderful house with a breathtaking view on Valpo and the Pacific. A little piece from one of his poems that was quite nice reading in his house, looking at the pacific:
'El Océano Pacifico salía del mapa. No había dondé ponerle. Era tan grande, desordonado y azul que no cabía en ninguna parte. Por eso le dejaron en frente de mi ventana.'
The Pacific Ocean dropped of the map. There was nowhere to put it. It was so big, disordened and blue that it did not fit anywhere. That is why they put it in front of my window.
You can walk around forever and keep on taking pictures in Valpo's beautiful barrios high up the hills. The centre of the city is less interesting and much busier, although it has got its charms too. There is the Avenida Brazil, a wide avenue with a broath path for pedestrians, boarded by palm trees, in the middle. There are some nice buildings and some markets, a flea market behind the Congreso Nacional and a fruit-, vegetable- and flea market on Avenida Argentina on weekend days. Another thing not to miss is the Mercado Central where you can have wonderful pescado (fish) and mariscas (shellfish), it is not cheap though!

Viña del Mar is probably the most mondain bathing city in Chile. It is only a ten-minute metro drive from Valpo and it is much more expensive to spend the night or to eat, so you better stay in Valpo and visit Viña from there. It is nice to spend an afternoon on the beach, the water in the ocean is ice cold though, or to stroll around the main streets with their fancy restaurants, watching people.
About one hour and a half from Valpo is another Pablo Neruda house which looks very nice from the outside. Do not go there on Monday, though, cause than you are confronted with a sign saying: 'Cerrado los lunes, por favor no inciste'. I had not checked the opening times of course!

'Hoy es hoy, ayer se fue, no hay dudas.'

Valparaiso y Viña del Mar remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The region there is gorgeous, definetly good for a few days of trekking. We hitchhiked (hacer el dedo in Spanish) back to Uspallata and were picked up by a lovely couple from Buenos Aires, on their way back from holidays in Chile. Back in Upsallata, we, that is Katrien, a girl from Ghent I had met in Mendosa and me, tried to arrange a bus to Chile, but everything seemed to be booked, so we had to spend another night in Argentina. Next day, we tried to hitchike again with a paper saying 'Chile' in our hands and were taken by a little bus on its way to Santiago. We had to pay though! From Santiago, we took the bus straight to Valparaiso. Yet, another country, very exciting!
Chile seems even richer and more western than Argentina. As a consequence, living is more expensive than in Argentina. If accomodation prices doubled from about 2-3 US dollars per night in a dorm in Bolivia to 5-6 in Argentina, they have doubled again to 10-12 dollars in Chile! The prices of food have risen in the same proportion. There are some friendly people here, but a thing that strikes me is that people in shops are very unfriendly. Like yesterday, for example, when I went to buy a ferry ticket in Puerto Montt, the woman who was 'helping' me was so scarce on information I literally had to ask everything, very bizarre. The same story when I went buying camping material in Bariloche. But than, on the other hand, in Santiago, I went looking for an envelope that fitted an LP to send it home and I found one in a shop with a lovely girl serving me and giving me the envelope for free because there was a little cut in it.

El Puente del Inca y Uspallata remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ciao ciao!

Mendosa remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The landscapes and rock formations and their colours in the north of Argentina and the south of Bolivia are absolutely gorgeous.

Next morning, we took the bus to Córdoba, a student city, the second city of Argentina. Actually, it was quite a disappointment, a part from the very small historic centre and some beautiful women, there is not very much to see. Salta and Mendosa seemed much nicer to me.

Ciao ciao

Córdoba y Cafayate remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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My plan is to get to Ushuaia by the way!

Two night buses later, we finally arrived in Salta where it was baking hot. The difference between Bolivia and Argentina is striking. I felt like being in Spain ten or fifteen years ago. In a way, it reminded me of Belgium a bit, too, people eat out a lot, there is a lot of restaurants and pubs that put tables and chairs on the pavement, you can find people sitting at a terrace sipping at an ice cold beer as early as 10 in the morning etc. Argentinians are bon-vivants. There are supermarkets and traffic lights again, blokes look like Italian football players in the 80's, mullets included, no traditional clothes nore poverty to be seen any more, everything is more expensive and I feel like I do not speak any Spanish any more! The difference between Argentinian and Bolivian or Peruvian Spanish is enormous!

Anyway, Salta is an okay city with a cerro (hill) with a beautiful view. We celebrated Christmas Evening in the hostel with hot weather, an incredible downpour around 11 pm and an asado (BBQ) with an unbelievable amount of meat and wine. To make up for our unhealthy behaviour, we had another asado on Christmas Day on the roof terrace and shared five kilos of meat among eight people. Man, those Argentinians are the worst carnivores ever!

Salta remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Luckily, the landscapes made up very much for the horseriding and we felt like we were in an old Western, without weapons though.

¡Hasta pronto!

Tupiza remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It is an enormous stretch of salt and everywhere you can see is just white from the salt, blue from the sky and some mountains in the background. It is like nothing I had ever seen before and definetely one of the heights of the trip so far. Then, appearing from nowhere, there is this big island, Isla Pescado, with huge cactuses on it, over ten metres high I would estimate, amazing. We had a beautiful alpaca and rice lunch there. Then, we drove out of the actual Salar, visited some caves and an archeological museum and went to sleep in a little village.

The second day took us to some gorgeous lagunas with thousands of flamingos in them and to the arbol de piedra. The landscape was still amazing. At night, when we arrived at our sleeping place, we took a very nice walk through the strong wind up to a lagoon with unbelievable colours and hundreds of flamingos, beautiful!

The little pink dots you can see in the left of the picture are all flamingos!

The third day, we got up very very early to see the geishers, amazing, bubbling and steam-producing hot holes in the ground. By the way, in Spanish a word exists for getting up very early: madrugar. After the geishers, we took a wonderful dip in the hot springs just next to a laguna and then we had breakfast. Next was a visit to the beautiful Laguna Verde and most of the rest of the day, we were driving. The landscape was so gorgeous that our eyes were actually very tired at night from watching all day long. We spent the night in a lovely little village, very far away from all the other tourists and played some hackey-sack with the very talented local children at night.

The fourth day, we drove almost all day, apart from a lunch break in a very small village with some drunk men and beautiful little children, and a lot of picture- and pee-brakes. As far as the landscape is concerned, this was probably the most rewarding day. In the afternoon, we were very high up on a mountain, it felt like being in an airplane, the view was so cool! The shapes and colours of those rock formations! The nearer we got to Tupiza, the more beautiful it all got. Unfortunately, to every fairy-tale comes an end and so we got to Tupiza and had to say goodbye to Benjamín, Himez and Eunise. Muchas gracias otra vez, amigos.

Moido

Uyuni remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Koala Den, the hostel I was staying in, was wonderful. You pay about 2.5 euros for a dorm, breakfast included. There is a tv-room with a DVD-collection, a sitting room with travel guides from all around Latin-America, a book exchange and a kitchen.

Ciao!

Potosí remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The only anoying thing in Sucre was that I was followed by a bunch of ten, twelve little children, the ones that shine your shoes. I picked them up at the main square. First there was one and then soon, all the others came. I was just reading a bit on a bench and said politely that I did not needed my shoes polished when they asked. But they just kept on insisting, so after a while, I stood up and left. I walked all around the city and into a post office, but they just kept on following me. Then, I went to a cyber café for almost two hours and they just walked in there as well and started playing games. When I left the cyber café, there was only a few left and I got rid of those last ones by hiding behind a car!

Peace out!

Sucre remains copyright of the author Gitan Jean, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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