It´s been a while since the last story, lot`s to write about again!! Probably will have to come back and finish this story properly though!

Easter Island was next on the list after our week in Santiago and as most travel books will tell you, it´s quite a mysterious place! A strange landscape, inactive vulcanos, a facinating birdman culture and the gigantic “moai” statues top it off! And it isn´t just the cheer size of the statues that make you wonder!

We were not perticulary lucky with the weather… not strange, as May turned out to be the wettest month… after my eye problems I just rebooked the trip and didn´t do enough research to get a “better” month… Still, the temperature wasn´t that bad with around 20 degrees. Plus we did got quite lucky with the weather when we did a tour to see the most important sites on the south coast of the Island. Only one “hard” day when we said off for a 5 hour hike and ended up walking over 4 hours in the rain… pooring rain I may add!

After Easter Island we flew back to Santiago and after one night there, we started slowly going south… South where the cold is. Bit by bit we are getting further. Now in Valdivia and the day after tomorrow we will go to the southest point we will go in Chile, Puerto Varas. From there we will take buses and boats to Argentina and continue to travel up towards warmer weather!

So far it´s all been fun travels! No horrible stories just yet! *knock, knock on wood* From Santiago we travelled to Talca for wine tasting and visited an amazing national park (name will follow!). We did a 7 hour (!) hike, through a gorgeous forrest along big mountains and ended up (half way after 3,5 hours) on a view-point out on the Andes! Oh my… gigantic would be the only word to describe it! Just amazing! What a sight! Not sure if the pictures will give the correct view, when I get time to upload them, but either way, it was a very special experience! Not to mention the busride back to Talca! 2 hours in a little bus, smelling off diesel and oil, with a frontdoor that won´t close, with high speeds on gravel roads through the hills with thick mist, crappy seats, etc. Just another fun experience!

After Talca we took an 8 hour busride to Pucon. Pucon is a weird European (Swiss/Austrian/Southern German) looking town. Very different from the rest of Chile we have seen so far. The town lies in the shadow of an active and amazing vulcano, Vulcan Villarica. We saw it glowing in the dark when we arrived and saw the cheer size of it the next morning! Very impressive. We read in the Lonely Planet that it`s possible to climb it and look down into the cartor and see the lava! So we checked with the girl at the hostel and a couple of hours later we booked the climb for the next day. 5 hours up, 2 hours down… Well, that was if we would have made it to the top… as you understand, we didn´t. Not because we didn´t wanted, or couldn´t… well… having that said, it was very hard going! We started at 1400 meters and got to 2200 (3 hours later!). The top is at 2847, so we had still somewhat to go, but the decent would have been to dangerous because the top of the vulcano was covered in ice… Sad, but it was definitely another interesting experience! Sal couldn´t be more happy that the adventure ended a bit early. After the first hour she already had enough, but still made it through the next two! Amazing! Talking about determination!!!

The day after the vulcano climb we decided to take a well deserved Spa day! As there is so much vulcanic activity in the Pucon area, there are also a lot of natural “hot” springs. Warmed up by mother earth itself! Never having been to one it turned out to be a very relaxing experience!

Oh, never got to finish writing that post to the blog, but before I left I got the final diagnoses from the doctor, confirming I have Bechterew`s disease. Not a big shot when the news came, but still not all that nice. Knowing there is no cure for the disease, it`s now all about dealing with it. The way to deal with it is taking medication every day (one little pil, travelling with A LOT now!) and stretch excersizes to keep my back flexible.

All going well on that part so far! *knock, knock again* In Santiago we had a somewhat challaging effort to find me a yoga-mat to do my 26 different exercises (takes 45 minutes each morning, all are a lot like pilates kind of exercises) as some places have either rock hard floors, or rocks on the floor! So I now travel around South America with my yoga-mat. Sometimes the exercises prove a real challange, mainly when we have to get up really early, as I have to deduct a least 45 minutes, plus shower, getting dressed, packing up, etc. So for example, when we did the hike around Talca, we had to take the 07:15 bus… taxi to the busstation left at 06:45, … yes… that`s means a very early morning! But, proud to report I haven´t missed a single mornings exercise just yet!!!

Often doing the exercises also means moving bedside tables, other furniture or sometimes just moving the entire bed to make room for my mat! Interesting. Tonight our room is so small that I won´t be able to do my exercises in the room… so for the first time during the trip I will make an early morning public appearence in the hallway of the hostel!

That´s all for now! Hopefully I will be able to upload some more pictures soon! The “South America collection” has all the pictures so far! Click here!

Take care and miss you all! X

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 01:22 and is filed under Chile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.