Up to date Update

I don´t really feel like playing catch up anymore, or maybe just right now, and really I just want to describe the beauty that is Santiago, Chile.




We arrived yesterday morning after the bus ride from hell (12 wide-eyed overnight hours next to Señor Sleep Apnea) and navigated our way through the bus station and metro transfers, even got a metro passcard since we plan to stay a while, and lugged our excessive amount of stuff to what has turned out to be quite possibly the best hostel of the trip so far.

Though our room wasn´t ready at 11am, we were invited to hang out upstairs and help ourselves to the breakfast spead in the airy lounge. The windows were open over the quite side street and I´m reminded of Nice or Rome, breezy, 75, low humidity, simply gorgeous.




We took a long walk in the afternoon to find the climbing gym we´d heard about from fellow climbers in Cochamó and headed east towards the towering mountains that ring the city but remain almost invisible due to smog. It was a looong sunny stroll but we eventually found the gym, got excited to return on Monday, and hopped a bus back to our neighborhood (thank god for good breaks cause that driver... I felt like I was going to end up plastered on the windshield as we slid forward in our plastic chairs everytime he stopped for a new rider!).




After some reading and a nap with the french doors open to the courtyard, we cooked a quick dinner and passed out for the night, experiencing what we both agreed was our best night´s sleep in about 2 months.




Today we woke, ate a light breakfast and headed out to walk the avenues of quiet Sunday Santiago. We caught the end of a marathon, the awards presentation and a sea of happy, healthy faces, wandered past the Museum of Bella Artes and into the Mercado Central, bustling aisles packed with every sea creature imaginable!







After a couple of lattes in a relaxed cafe in the Bellavista neighborhood, we returned to the hostel, passing a sign for Santiago´s Lollapalooza Music Festival, which happens next weekend and headlines about every current artist we could possibly want to see... we might have to make that happen.




We may be coming to the end of our time here in South America, having just rounded the corner into our last month, but we´re going to keep enjoying what will hopefully be many more days like this one.

Head South, Young Vagabonds!

After the relaxation of Bariloche, we were worn out and decided to head south, way south, 120 whole kilometers south! Whoa. Jay and Jake decided to bike the ~60 odd miles while I hopped a bus and we met up in El Bolson, hippie haven of South America!




You think you've seen handicraft markets, trinkets and jewelry, scarves and carved maté bowls elsewhere? Not on THIS scale! The town has a half-moon shaped park that hosts the Feria Artesanal every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Crafts, crafts, crafts!!

We enjoyed the helado and delicious fair food (waaaaaffles!) but even this tiny town quickly began to feel too "busy" for us so we went just a bit further south to Lago Puelo, on the shores of ... Lago Puelo.







Much more laid back, we rest at a place fondly called "The Farm" by Israeli backpackers all over South America... Rey Sol. Founded by an amazingly laid-back Italian woman, Gila is more focused on inquiring if you'd like to join her for morning resonance meditation or sing to the moon in all it's glorious fullness than making sure you pay up front or keep the kitchen clean... The most relaxed place we've ever been.



















We more than enjoyed our few days there and took advantage of the nearby Rio Azul as much as possible.






















Other than all the exhausting relaxation we put ourselves through in those two weeks, we also found time to enjoy food, drink and some of the best café con leche in the country.



















Ahhhhhhh.....

Bariloche Bums

While Jay was braving the barren road, fighting off windmills and the call of roadside sirens, Jake and I were bumming around beautiful, blustery Bariloche.


Previewing the desolate desert into which Jay is heading!

ready to get off this bus

Snow? No, ashiness just north of Bariloche

The day we arrived was sunny and 70, if a bit windy, and we gazed around in awe at the towering mountains and white-capped waves of the lake.


Beautiful views of the lake and mountains from right downtown

We fondue, do you?

But it's good that we got a look around, because the next day a storm rolled in and it POURED rain for two days straight! Straight down, straight sideways, maybe even straight back up, the wind and rain did not let up at all for a good 48+ hours, so we had a forced indoor recuperation time after the 23hour bus ride into town.







Just when we were getting antsy, two fellow hostel guests, Nestor and Monica, graciously offered us a tour of the area in their van, since it had just been repaired and they wanted to take it for a test drive before they left the following day for the coast. We drove out of town to the Hotel Llao Llao, pretty much the fanciest, most expensive hotel in the country, if not the continent. Done in a European hunting lodge / Canadian mountain retreat style, it reminded me of the photos of Fairmont Hotels in Banff and Lake Louise or Whistler, complete with the impeccably dressed staff and stunning scenery complemented by the rustically grandiose architecture. Wow.




We also drove through a soggy Colonia Suiza, a (you guessed it) Swiss settlement of quaint chalet-style houses and dirt roads famous for it's Curanto, meat cooked while buried underground. We didn't get to sample it that day, but as we're only a hundred kilometers south for the next month or two, we can always go back!

When the rain finally cleared the next day, we took Nestor and Monica's advice and hiked up the mountain just to the west of town, Cerro Otto, to check out the views from the rotating restaurant on top.




And we thought the scenery was pretty from IN town!!













The hike was fantastic, and we were famished by the time we reached the top, only to spend our last bit of cash on the tickets for the gondola/funicular and entrance to the cafe/museum/scenic overlook and discover they only accept MasterCard at the restaurant!! Isn't VISA everywhere you want to be?!?!





Fine, we'll check out the view, but we're hungry and not happy.



Hungrily, we rode the gondola back down the mountain, where we found an ATM and extracted cash, but discovered we were now in a restaurant wasteland and had to hoof it 4km back into town before we could find food! Talk about working up an appetite!





these are our gondola hunger faces!!!

Great, beautiful day overall :)

Other than that, we pretty much just hung around town, twiddling our thumbs and lounging at the hostel while Jay continued his epic ride from desert to hill to ashy lakes* to us!


Best artesanal beer so far (I wouldn't know. Bleh, beer)

First Argentine helado of many!

Bandurria!

First time making spaghetti sauce from scratch! Never going back!

Red sky at night = Jay's unexpected arrival mañana!

* last summer, around June, a volcano just inside the border of Chile began spewing ash and it has been drifting and settling and causing general ashiness all over the region around and to the north of Bariloche, including Villa Angostura and the seven lakes district Jay biked through.