Archive for April, 2012

Pucon/Santiago/Valparaiso/Vina del Mar/San Pedro de Atacama

Posted: April 27, 2012 in South America, Uncategorized
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I arrived to Pucon very late (11 pm), and went straight to the hostel called El Refugio where Bea (Hungarian girl, I mentioned how we met first in Buenos Aires and then in Torres del Paine) stayed.

We met immediately and jumped into each other’s arms of the joy again. She climbed the Villarica volcano (main attraction in the area) on that day because the weather was nice, and since the next day it was forecasted similar weather I begged the hostel to book me in for a tour. (You can only do this climb with guides –advance booking just as in the case of any tours is essential and usually at 11pm there is not much chance to be able to book anything, tears always help though 😉

So next day after a 6am wake up we started the tour. 2 guides picked us up (a girl and a guy), and took us to the volcano in minibus (6 people is the standard group size). We saw the sunrise from the bottom of the volcano:

The starting point of climbing was 1800m.

You had 2 options to start the first 400m with:

Chairlift or walking. 5 people including me took the chairlift and 1 warrior walked.

The first hour after the chairlift was ok..on volcanic sand, then we had the ice bit where we had to put on special ice walking gear like this:

By the way the tour company provided boots, jacket, ice walking gear, gloves and sliding gear for the way back..yes, sliding, I will explain later..

My boots were brand new so I had to stop to cover the fresh blister caused. After the ice bit we had the hardest part, climbing on moving volcanic rocks..very steep climb, one bad move and you are down…

Saying that, about 2 month ago 2 people fell off at this point..bodies were found only after 2 days..they fell about 500m.

I was a bit worried therefore very cautious of my steps. We were on the top around 1ish, but the wind was very strong so the fume of the volcano let us stay there only 10-15 minutes. (incredibly horrible feeling to inhale that toxic fume, it gives you headache and coughs)

But the crater looked amazing:

The view from here was well worth it though:

On the way down, my knees were suffering from all those downhill but then we got to the first sliding bit..Imagine a snow slide like this

We put our sliding gears on and the fun started

http://youtu.be/x_20t_CTRVY

http://youtu.be/PezTaL72ZWg

There were 2 more of these. You had to listen to the guide on how to slide because the snow was very icy and full of rocks underneath. One of the girls on the 3rd slide couldn’t slow down and literally flew away in the end landing off the slide. Since she wasn’t moving for a bit everyone got scared but in the end she was fine just hit a little bit her hip. The tour finished at 5pm, I went back to the hostel, met Bea, decided to cook together, but first she had to meet a friend in another hostel, so I walked with her..where I bumped into Iain, Chris and Katherine (Navimag)..small world.  And on the way we also bumped into our tour guide, Emir, who invited us for an asado (barbecue) in the evening, and since we were starving, we accepted the invitation 🙂

Pucon Tours was the host, so we were the only travellers there. To give you an idea about the amount of meat on the grill:

A few beers later the Spanish seemed to be our mother tongue 😛 Then the cherry on top of the cake was Tal who turned up at the asado a few hours later…she lived there!! I was supposed to give her back her driving licence that she left in my wallet in Bariloche a month ago..so this fact eased the meeting:)

We got a bit tipsy and went home around 1-2..

The next day we woke up 10ish, did some admin , bought the tickets to Santiago for that night, and then went to the hot springs to release our tired muscles. After a month of hiking this seemed to be a fab idea.

I wanted to stay a bit longer in Pucon, but since Bea got super excited about the Sensation White 2012 in Santiago, even though the tickets were sold out, we decided to go there and try to buy tickets on the spot. The journey took 10 hours- we took a night bus.

Arrived to Santiago at 6am, then we were hanging out at the station a bit, as I didn’t want to call Carmen very early (she is my amazing Spanish friend whom I met on the W trek..she straight away offered me without even knowing me that I can stay in her flat..so sweet), so we went to a hostel to book Bea in and she discovered a free city tour starting at 10am..so after the vague sleep on the bus we did a 4 hour walking tour…my brain was a sponge..in the end we lost our tour as we were busy taking pictures of a couple of lama-like animals on the street.

We met Carmen after and went to the Mercado central to eat amazing sea food..I just cannot have enough of the fresh Chilean sea food..I love it!

It turned out that the venue where the highly sought Sensation took place was just next to the Central market. So we went there at 5pm, as we saw already a few people around..tickets were gone, and since it’s illegal to sell tickets on the spot we had to hunt for them..after 2 hours of waiting/negotiation on prices we managed to get 2 tickets for 50.000 pesos which is about £60 (original price was: 55.000 CHP). We were super happy!!! Carmen stayed there as she met Cora (the other lovely girl I met on the W, Carmen’s friend), and me and Bea went back to the hostel to get ready, pick up my stuff and make out way after to Carmen’s house, and then to Cora’s house for pre-drinks. It’s a shame that we didn’t get the chance to go altogether but the girls didn’t have budget for it (me neither in theory but I just couldn’t say no to an event like this!!!!).

This was our outfit:

We had a really fun taxi ride with my favourite salsa, La vida es un Carnaval, and upon arrival (midnightish) we got interviewed by CNN Chile…I would love to see this shot but probably they cut out from the production as it was scandalous:)

By this time we were fairly drunk (almost had a litre of vodka, just the 2 of us).

The party was SENSATIONAL!!!! OMG! Total euphoria! Check out a short video:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150662871937681

The party finished at 6am, so we went home. The next day was a bit rough…when am I going to learn that Redbull gives the worst hangover ever?? Malta should have taught it to me.

Anyway, I spent the afternoon with Carmen and Bea, cooked spaghetti Bolognese, chilled in the afternoon and in the evening went to Valparaiso.

It’s a little town 1.5 hours away from Santiago. Colourful houses, antique, authentic. We got there eat 9pm, so we didn’t want to spend too much time with searching for hostels. Through a weird sales guy we reached our destination, a nice old family house with a beautiful baby. Chilean babies are sooooo nice!!!

Next day we decided to make our lives easier and we took a tour for 10.000 pesos with minibus. It was a great idea as the city is quite big and we could save some time by going by car.

‘The colonial city of Valparaíso presents an excellent example of late 19th-century urban and architectural development in Latin America. In its natural amphitheatre-like setting, the city is characterized by a vernacular urban fabric adapted to the hillsides that are dotted with a great variety of church spires. It contrasts with the geometrical layout utilized in the plain. The city has well-preserved its interesting early industrial infrastructures, such as the numerous ‘elevators’ on the steep hillsides.’

PICTURES:

The tour was fun, with 2 Brazilian ladies, one from Rio, the other one from Belo Horizonte..oh all the Brazilian memories came back during the day..Such happy people!

Our guide Mario was very good and funny so all of us enjoyed the tour. We also went to Vina del Mar, which is much more modern.

We got back into town at 6pm.The hostel we stayed in was full for the upcoming night so i went to another hostel (family house rather) and that’s where the fun started.

Bea left in the evening for Mendoza and I sat down in the living room to do some admin. An old guy (Jorge) who lived there came up to me to chit chat. I wanted to focus on what I was doing but then I gave up as he sat down and just talked to me. So very quickly turned out that my birthday was coming up, he brought beers, wine and we had a drink together. Then the son of the landlady (Jose) came home from uni (20 years old) and joined us in the drinks. By the time we finished 2 litres of beer we wanted to have more so i went out with Jose to buy some more. Unfortunately Jorge came out after us and while he left the house a lady who went up to collect the rubbish in the house nicked my precious Maltese metal lighter..I loved that lighter but oh well..so they felt bad about it but I told them not to worry…considering that my credit card, dslr camera and laptop were on the table too and they stayed untouched I felt quite lucky. But the atmosphere was going down after this…in the end we decided to go to sleep, when….the house started to be shaking…more and more and more. I freaked out…we all knew that it’s an earthquake. I wanted to run out, but they said it’s safer in the house so apart from a few plates and bit falling nothing major happened. Turned out it was 6.8 strong, it lasted about a minute. It was followed by 2 smaller ones…first time I experienced something like this..I calmed down after a while and went to sleep.

The day after I met Hannah, she was on the Navimag too and she stayed in Valparaiso too. We decided to take it easy and just go to Vina del Mar to chill on the beach.

In the evening I went back to Santiago and we just chilled with Carmen, didn’t go out.

The day after (Wednesday, on my birthday) she went to school in the morning, and I happily stayed in. I needed some rest and catch up with my things. Went to buy my bus ticket for Thursday to San Pedro de Atacama, then she came back home and cooked very yummy Spanish tortilla with original salsa from Andalucía.

In the evening both Jessica and Pat (flatmates of Carmen) were ready to have a few drinks with us on my birthday. I bought a bottle of Pisco, and some food to cook them Rakott kel, a typical Hungarian dish. They were so sweet, prepared a little surprise cake for me..the candles were quite powerful, so we almost lit up the house:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150763463824171

We had a power nap before and we woke up super late so the whole night was a bit delayed. We were meant to meet Mariona and Xavi and Hannah too, but we had no time unfortunately.

So we managed to get ready by 2am, which was too late for me..I couldn’t face all those drunken students at the club, so I went home after an hour.

Next morning we spent together with Carmen, packed and caught the 12.20 bus to San Pedro de Atacama. It was a 24 hour bus ride, I was travelling with Julia, a German girl. In Calama during our 10 minutes stop I met the German couple from Navimag whom I met also in Chiloe and Pucon. So funny that you keep bumping into people.

We arrived on the 20th April at 12pm to Atacama. As usual, hostel sellers were waiting for us at the bus station. So we went to La casa sol de naciente, but Julia didn’t like it. I stayed.

It turned out that it was worth doing 2 very good tours, one is sand boarding and watching the sunset in Valle de la Luna and the other was star-gazing in the desert.

So I booked the sand boarding tour for 3pm on the day of arrival. It was a lot of fun. I never tried any board whether it’s skate or snow…but I assume sand boarding is the easiest and softest terrain.

After the 2 hour long fun we went to Valle de la Luna to check the salt caves..Incredible, San Pedro de Atacama was under the ocean millions of years ago and you could see all the salt on the clays.

We had to rush to see the sunset on top of a beautiful clay mountain where you had a perfect view on the volcanos and Los Andes..Unbelievable views..

We celebrated the end of a fun day with a few Pisco sour..the last ones I had in Chile..then went back to the hostel and I slept.

The second day in Atacama I hired a bike and went to Pukara Quitor.

I met Rene and his daughter on the hill and continued the day with them.. Around 3pm I went back to the hostel, returned the bike and wanted the collect the video on sand boarding but it wasn’t ready.

I also wanted to book the stargazing for the night but I was too late..no more spaces were left but they suggested me to go back at 8pm in case some people cancel. It did happen, so at 9.30pm i went to the desert where a Chilean lady did a 2 hour explanation on the constellation of the stars, the zodiac, and the rest. It’s incredible how limited things we see in Europe. Chile and Australia are the 2 best places to see the amazing galaxy.

I went back to the hostel at 12.30, packed for next morning when I started a tour to Uyuni crossing to Bolivia. This is the topic of my next blog.

Isla Chiloe’, Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas, Frutillar

Posted: April 13, 2012 in South America
Tags: , , , , ,
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Isla Chiloe’..magical little island..well not that little but I am comparing now everything to the size of Brazil/Argentina.

1st stop: Ancud. Surprisingly there was free wifi on the 15 minutes ferry journey that we did to arrive to the island. This is the size  ferry:

The weather was not great..rain, misty..so we found a hostel with Benny went to eat fabulous seafood on the fish market and early night. The first surprise with Benny was during the night….I was up late doing some admin (after 4 days of no access to wifi on Navimag kinda made me keen on catching up with the world), when Benny after 5 mins of going to bed started snoring in a way that the Aussie guy coming in to the dorm to sleep could only say: This is selvage!

Apparently people heard him downstairs…so..I hoped i would get some sleep which I did but I kept waking up to the incredibly loud snoring melodie…The Aussie guy had enough at some point and climbed up to Benny’s bed to hit him 🙂 Now if I think back to this action, I am still pissing myself of laughing.

Next day Benny had pokerface..maybe I should have told him something but I didn’t..So we are at Easter Saturday now…everything was closed. The main reason I wanted to check Ancud out was the penguin community living very close to it along with sea lions, but 2 problems occurred..

  1. I just missed them by a week
  2. National holiday …life completely stops

So in the afternoon I grabbed Benny to go to Castro (Capital of Isla Chiloe;) I used the word ‘grabbed’ deliberately as the poor guy had no clue( and interest) in where we are going, what we are doing, he just tagged along because ‘I speak Spanish and he doesn’t so it’s good for him’ I kinda quoted him here…At the beginning I kinda enjoyed his company..learnt a few things about him, such as him working as a rescue man (not sure if it’s ambulance or fireman but one of the 2..I needed a lot of patience to his English), him having a family back home but he decided to go travelling at the age of 50+ before pension, that he eats rice with every meal and many other things. But then he started to annoy me big time..simply with his uselessness..and his inability to choose between 2 suggestions of mine that was coming from his lack of interest I think…or I don’t know.

Anyway..after arriving to Castro i made our way to Palafito area which is little houses built on poles

There was a hostel which was recommended by Lonely Planet but sadly it was full. Luckily I popped into the Tourist info before where they gave me a kinda ‘underground’ cheap hostel (not advertised as a hostel- called Hostel Mirador, Palafito), which was managed by a 14-15 year old little guy who kindly showed us the room. It was a private room with 2 single beds…As soon as I saw it I remembered last night and the snoring so the first thing coming out of my backpack were the earplugs..I think these were the last ones so whoever laughed at me at the beginning on taking 40 pairs of earplugs on my trip and making me uncertain on my decision (followed by reducing quantity) can admit here that it wasn’t a bad idea in the end considering taking large amount of this helpful tool! The person knows exactly that he made a mistake therefore I am expecting a comment to this post from him/her.

I planned to stay in the hostel 2 nights, so the afternoon when we arrived we visited Castro..very nice little town with all the Palafitos, restaurants and hidden gems like this for example:

Next day early rise: Plan was to go to Isla de Quinchao. Since our hostel didn’t offer breakie and the whole city was closed at 9.30 am we went to a hostel where some Navimag folks stayed (oh we kept bumping into people from the boat, it was funny) and i begged for some breakfast to us obviously with payment..aaaaand who was having breakfast there?? My favourite couple on the boat from Barcelona: Xavi and Mariona!!

I briefed the story to them on Benny. They were about to go on my second day plan to the National park, so I asked them if we can come with them.

So we spent the day together in the green, then finished the walk with a nice meal in Parador Darwin restaurant. In the evening I sat in a cafe, did some admin and decided to send off Benny that night..(giving him a day notice). He didn’t seem to bother  too much..

In the morning we went to the little island and to Achao (capital). I lost Benny pretty early, and couldn’t find him anymore in that little island (ok.. ok i was mean and didn’t put a 100% into his research)

I went to a few places on the island, then returned to Castro, got a sim card (along with a phone- paid about £18 which was a full credit) then took the bus back to Puerto Montt, as there were 2 more little towns I wanted to visit. I decided that I will try to couchsurf.(whoever is not familiar with the term can look it up here: www.couchsurfing.org)

I had one guest back in the time in London but I never stayed at anyone’s house. Luckily Ricardo replied to my request but said that we wasn’t going to be at home as he is working during the night, and his parents are away too, so he said he would leave the keys under the doormat…PEOPLE, I DON’T KNOW WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS BUT I FIND IT QUITE INCREDIBLE!

Let’s see the risk factors for me:

-keys are not going to be under the doormat and i would need to look for accommodation in the middle of the night

For him:

–          Considering that i had no feedback on my couchsurfing profile and even thought he heard my charming voice over the phone I could have been a psycho murderer, thief, robber…i could have put his house on fire or do whatever the f…ck I wanted!

He took the risk and left the keys for me under the doormat….Thank you so much again Ricky, if you are reading it.

So I spent 2 night at his house. It was so nice to have a lie in and not to worry about check out before 11am, living in a family house with a cute dog, having amazing meal that Jeanette cooked (she works in the house every day) Please meet Ric, Pitufo and Jeanette:

I visited the 2 little towns I wanted: Puerto Varas

And Futillar:

You can see the German influence here.

The next post is going to be Pucon, Santiago and Valparaiso.

Laters!

Patagonia-last stop (Chile): Puerto Natales, Torres del Paine-W trek, NAVIMAG

Posted: April 7, 2012 in South America
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After the beautiful Argentina and the first 3 stops of Patagonia I jumped on a bus and crossed the border to Chile. The bus ride is 5 hours from El Calafate to Puerto Natales and leaves usually at 8 in the morning. I had heaps of things to do on that day (27th), like find out more about the W trek and the Torres del Paine National Park, hire a tent, sleeping bag and all the necessary equipment for 5 days of camping. I was a bit scared of this adventure since I knew I was going to do it alone but when I got to the town and found an excellent hostel (Dos Lagunas), Alejandro (the owner of the hostel) explained me the trek and the park very well and also there is a session every day in a place called Erratic Rock where you can meet people and hire gear too.

So I went there, met a lot of people and got to know the following info:

So the W trek was named after the shape of the hike you need to do in order to accomplish. Here is a map:

The easier (and therefore the most popular) way of doing it is from West to East. So from the Glacier Grey to the Torres del Paine. Obviously the highlight is the Torres, but you need to calculate a few other factors such as weather for example.

The weather in Patagonia is changing hourly and also the end of March is pretty much the end of the season. Autumn, cold nights, stronger wind, more rain. But you can always get lucky. I had no clue until the first day where shall I start, west or east so I relied on the weather of the first day which was nice and sunny when I entered the park.

So the gear I hired:

-1 tent

-1 sleeping bag (with temperature of up to -5 degrees)

-1 matt

-1 cooking kit (gas, head, pot)

Renting price for 5 days: 45.000 CHP (around £60)

I wanted to start fresh and relaxed but after a random decision of going out for a meal with the people in the hostel and Alejandro I managed to down a half bottle of wine that actually woke me up and made me want to discover a bit more the bars in Puerto Natales. Bed at 1am.

Day 1:

Bus left Puerto Natales at 8am. The park is about 100km from the town so we enjoyed the picturesque landscape for 2 hours hoping that the weather will be superb. Most of the people I was in the Eratic Rock with started from west to east. Since I sensed a good weather I started from East to West with 15 kg on my back and 5 on the front in the small backpack.

The first part of the W is the most difficult part…UP UP UP…for 3 hours…until you reach the free camping place: Campamento Las Torres. I took a little video on my way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFcpO0obv2Y&context=C4054ae1ADvjVQa1PpcFNCTI4Oj0rFdqKxDuuLe41zWtwc0UQBGQ4=

Once I reached the camping, I registered, built the tent and went up to the Torres (it’s another 45 minutes of killing hike uphill-on rough rocks- but without the heavy backpack). The wind was very strong but I had a perfect view in sunshine on the Torres. I have to say it was amazing..but if I wanted to be completely honest, I preferred Fitz Roy in El Chalten. These towers were impressive but just 3 piece of stones with no glaciers and snowy top..and maybe I was missing the company of Greg and Marzena as well.

After careful examination of the view I went back to the camping and a few sips of Palinka helped me crash at 6pm..until…I heard someone outside my tent saying: Kip Kop, kip kop. This is a Hungarian way of knocking on a door…it was Bea, who I met in Buenos Aires!!!!! She saw me on the list of registered people in the camping and found me! Such a nice surprise! We both jumped of joy to see each other and spent the rest of the night together gazing stars and chatting to other pple. It was her last day..and my first one.(she started a few days earlier from west to east that’s why we managed to bump into each other)

We agreed that even though I had a long long way to go on the second day to the camping site, we would go up to the Torres again for sunrise. So we left at 6.30 am, arrived at 7.20 and hoped to see those burning red colours on the Torres that the sun paints on them but unfortunately it wasn’t a sunny day so we ‘just saw this’:

I took a video too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTbRwXyq5yI&feature=relmfu

So carrying on with Day 2:

I packed my tent and the full backpack and made my way down to do the U turn..

Unfortunately turned out later there was a shortcut (which wasn’t very obvious as the trail is designed to be made from west to east) so I earned myself another 6 km more by going back to the starting point and doing the U as per shown on the map. The map unfortunately didn’t say that there would not be an obvious trail to go on, so I ended up walking with my heavy stuff 4 hours long without meeting anyone and without being sure that I am on the right way..Here is a little taster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl19z05UihM

Around 3pm I managed to get on the right track and I met a person finally who said that it was another 4 hours to reach the camp…I thought I would die…honestly..the exhaustion and the wind against me almost broke me. I had to stop a lot..I was crying swearing, I was surprised and enchanted by the view..I was laughing and happy to suffer. It was weird J Eventually after 5 hours I reached the Campamento Cuernos around 8pm (6000 CHP for the possibility to camp, but having a hot shower really helped me recover). I had no problem falling asleep:)

Day 3.

In the Cuernos I met Tasha and Denise (OZ and Swiss girls). They were both very nice, and were similarly exhausted and with full of blisters and back/shoulder pain, like me.

At 10am I made my way to Campamento Italiano (free camp 2 hours away). I got there at 12.30 and decided to have a quick lunch and go up to the French valley which was meant to be the second highlight of the W. I didn’t tell you but despite all the sufferance and physical challenge the landscape on these 5-6 hours walks since I started was absolutely stunning. On the first day when I saw the valley that lead up to the towers almost made me cry (of joy)…check this:

Also the tough second day was quite impressive scenery:

So back to day 3..lunch in Campamento Italiano. A group of Spanish speaking people invited me to sit with them so I did and we had lunch together. Was amazing, I could practice my inexistent Spanish…I have to say Italian helps a lot in South America. Around 2pm (sunshine, no sign of rain) the camping guard (Roberto) joined us and offered to take us somewhere off the beaten track. So the 6 of us went very close to the glacier in the French valley through rivers, climbing big rock..a great experience. After that we made our way to the normal track towards the first view point (Mirador).  Unfortunately it started raining..and the route was very steep and slippery too, plus you didn’t get to enjoy the view because of the rain. So I didn’t go up to the second view point . Went back to the camping, met Iain there (I have been travelling with him since Lencois in Brazil but I was always 1 day ahead of him since Buenos Aires!) We had a little evening reunion in Roberto’s house (cooked together and had a nice chat there in the warm while outside it was raining constantly). Around 1 I went to my tent hoping that the rain would stop by the morning. It didn’t. Cold and wet night…that’s all you need 🙂

A few pics on the 3rd day:

So on the 4th day I washed the tent in the river and we continued with Cora and Carmen (2 girls from the group, the other 2 guys went opposite direction) towards the Lago and Glacier Grey.

This is the route that made me sad…4 month ago a group of Izraeli people decided to have a little cooking party on the trail (strictly forbidden! You can only cook in the camping), and they left the fire on after moving on…a massive part got completely burnt down. It was so sad to see all those black trees…check this:

The rain stopped and the sun came out but the wind was incredibly strong. It took 2 hours to arrive to the Refugio Paine Grande where until 31st of March (the day we were there) there were 2 catamarans to take the passengers back to the point from where the bus left the National Park. At 12.30 and 6pm. We got there after 1pm, so the question was to go up to the glacier Grey and sleep one more night in the park, or go back to Puerto Natales and celebrate our hard work with a beer and a nice meal. To be honest with you I had a lot of reasons to opt for the 2nd choice..

  1. I did an amazing job on my own completing the rest of the W starting with the most difficult and most beautiful part…
  2. I didn’t feel like sleeping in a wet tent
  3. After Perito Moreno glacier (El Calafate) it would be hard to find a more beautiful glacier…so Grey didn’t appeal too much.

So we took the 6pm boat, and went back to Puerto Natales, had the great meal and crashed IN A BED, IN WARM BLANKET in a hostel we found with the girls.

The next day I went back to Dos Lagunas (where I stayed the first day, since I paid it already and Alejandro was very sweet) and spent the afternoon there uploading pictures and doing some planning (outside it was raining so i didn’t feel too bad staying indoors..I know i shouldn’t have even if it wasn’t raining as since I started my trip I had only 1 day off in BA when I was sick, and sometimes you need to rest but I am incapable to do so)

Did you notice my friends that for the first time I didn’t make any April fool joke? 😛 Surely you did…that’s how tired I was after the W.

On Monday (2nd April) I checked into the Navimag, and boarded to the ship. After a few drinks on board and Salsa with Rodrigo (one of the coolest people who works on the ship) I went to sleep and set the alarm to see the sunrise. It was great:

On the first day the weather is pretty shit..rain and therefore not great view on the glaciers and fjords of Chile..It’s a pretty chilling trip..I bought 2 bottles of red and a few beers..Iain and Roberto are here and other cool people so I am studying Spanish, resting, playing cards etc. The meal is nice..it’s a full board with breakie, lunch and dinner.

Well the night was absolutely amazing..a lot of dancing..(salsa, merengue, baciata and the rest)..I don’t know but the people on the boat are not massive party faces…only a little part of the people were there so i had the whole dance floor and dancers for myself.:) Loved every minute.

On the second day the weather was slightly better..until 3pm when we arrived to Golf of Penas and had a very rough 12 hours..lots of people throw up and were lying in their beds sick. I started to feel a bit weird too but it was more of a cold coming than seasickness. After an hour of chilling I was fine, had dinner and watched ‘Into the Wild’. No party was available after so I just went to bed.

Last day on the boat..usual breakfast, presentations on flora and mammals of Patagonia. Everyone started to feel that this was the last day/night together, people got to know each other by then, groups were formed. Really nice group of people..In the afternoon Benny, my friend from Hong Kong gave me a beer so I started drinking in the pub. Later on I joined the second Capitan (Enso) who was sitting by the bar. We had a very nice chat, and as the beer started to kick off I felt like climbing up on the highest point of the ship but it was closed, so Enso opened it for me if I promised not to tell anyone. After this he invited me to join the Official’s table (Capitan, second Capitan and all the VIP staff)…I didn’t believe what I heard so ladies and gentleman, I had my last supper with them, in their cabin at the principal table (because there were 2 for the slightly lower level staff- and here we are not talking about the people working in the kitchen), stylish with a glass of Chilean red. What an experience. My Spanish is pretty good by now so I could converse with them easily. They were all above 50 so obviously they also enjoyed the company of a young Hungarian girl travelling alone….

After dinner, we had bingo at 21.30…how funny..my first real bingo game after working in the industry for so long..I didn’t win   🙂

Bingo was followed by other fun games like limbo, apple game and finally salsa..Rodrigo was far the best dancer so I made the most out of the night. Everyone was pretty drunk..couples were formed by the end of the night so by 1am the pub was pretty empty. Since we arrived to Puerto Montt at 4am and we had to leave the boat by 8 I decided to stop drinking and go to sleep.

Breakfast at 7, and we left. First time it was so weird to leave a group of people that you were stuck with on a boat..I got half of the people’s details..And we will probably bumb into each other in the area.

So Benny decided to come with me for a while to discover Chile. We are on the bus now to Isla Chileo after a few hours of walking in Puerto Montt (very nice fishmarket with delicious seafood empanadas).  I love Chile so far!