We say good by to Chile in 3 days so I thought I better do a Chile wrap up. I'm writing this from Pucon, chile which is the further South (in Chile) that we traveled. It's just across the Andes from Bariloche, Argentina where we saw the glaciers and only 62km from the Argentina border.
Pucon is a really beautiful town at the base of the active Villarica Volcano (and two other volcanoes which names I can't recall). It also sits on Lake Villarica. We stayed here for a week and it was great. Beautiful weather (except for 2 mornings of rain which we used as days to stay in bed late and read without feeling guilty). We also hiked in Huerquehue National Park, mountain biked to another lake, river rafted, celebrated my birthday, ate delicious food (finally they had good vegetarian food here), laughed as lot (as per usual)and spent a few days on the beach/lake. Oh...and a really wonderful, lazy day at a hot springs.
Tonight at 9pm we are taking a 10 hour overnight bus to Santiago. ***Important note here...so many of you may have read my last post and might be a little worried about me. But here are a few reasons/facts that my help put you at ease:
1. We have now started to bus more luxuriously. We are buying the 'cama' seats (cama = bed). The seats are about the same size as first class on a plane, but much more leg room (I felt like a chile because my legs didn't hit the ground) and the seats recline pretty far...further than in the picture).
2. Because of our new luxury bus strategy, the ride has been much more enjoyable. We slept almost the whole way from Santiago to Pucon. We actually arrived an hour before we expected. So when the bus stopped we thought we were in the town 1 hour from our destination. So we stayed on the bus and made ourselves comfortable (I even had my sleeping eye mask on my head...you know those things that block the light so you can sleep). And the bus driver had to come and let us know we had in fact arrived.
3. I have a brand new supply of anti-motion sickness pills.
Iqueque: Ok, so the rest of Chile...in chronological order. I already wrote about and posted pictures of San Pedro de Atacama. After the desert we headed a bit North to Iqueque. Finally we arrived at the beach. But for us, Iqueque was too big, too dirty and seemed to make no sense. So after 2 days, we headed further South to La Serena. Best part of Iqueque...our hotel served breakfast to our room in the morning...so breakfast in bed!
La Serena: Ahhhh, such a nice Pacific beach town. Well city I guess. We stayed there 5 or 6 days. Each day we to the beach (10 km) there and back. The beaches streatched wide and were pretty...but the water was cold and full of jellyfish. So our swimming was limited but we loved it there. We also went to the movies! Which we treat ourselves to in the bigger cities. Also breakfast in bed here. :)
Viña del Mar: We spent a few days further South in Viña, another beach city before headed down to Pucon (details above).
So there it is folks...my summary of my time in Chile. A lot of details left out...but check out the pictures too.
Photos: LA SERENA, VIÑA, PUCON & BIRTHDAY
Photos: MORE PUCON
Pucon is a really beautiful town at the base of the active Villarica Volcano (and two other volcanoes which names I can't recall). It also sits on Lake Villarica. We stayed here for a week and it was great. Beautiful weather (except for 2 mornings of rain which we used as days to stay in bed late and read without feeling guilty). We also hiked in Huerquehue National Park, mountain biked to another lake, river rafted, celebrated my birthday, ate delicious food (finally they had good vegetarian food here), laughed as lot (as per usual)and spent a few days on the beach/lake. Oh...and a really wonderful, lazy day at a hot springs.Tonight at 9pm we are taking a 10 hour overnight bus to Santiago. ***Important note here...so many of you may have read my last post and might be a little worried about me. But here are a few reasons/facts that my help put you at ease:
1. We have now started to bus more luxuriously. We are buying the 'cama' seats (cama = bed). The seats are about the same size as first class on a plane, but much more leg room (I felt like a chile because my legs didn't hit the ground) and the seats recline pretty far...further than in the picture).2. Because of our new luxury bus strategy, the ride has been much more enjoyable. We slept almost the whole way from Santiago to Pucon. We actually arrived an hour before we expected. So when the bus stopped we thought we were in the town 1 hour from our destination. So we stayed on the bus and made ourselves comfortable (I even had my sleeping eye mask on my head...you know those things that block the light so you can sleep). And the bus driver had to come and let us know we had in fact arrived.
3. I have a brand new supply of anti-motion sickness pills.
Iqueque: Ok, so the rest of Chile...in chronological order. I already wrote about and posted pictures of San Pedro de Atacama. After the desert we headed a bit North to Iqueque. Finally we arrived at the beach. But for us, Iqueque was too big, too dirty and seemed to make no sense. So after 2 days, we headed further South to La Serena. Best part of Iqueque...our hotel served breakfast to our room in the morning...so breakfast in bed!
La Serena: Ahhhh, such a nice Pacific beach town. Well city I guess. We stayed there 5 or 6 days. Each day we to the beach (10 km) there and back. The beaches streatched wide and were pretty...but the water was cold and full of jellyfish. So our swimming was limited but we loved it there. We also went to the movies! Which we treat ourselves to in the bigger cities. Also breakfast in bed here. :)
Viña del Mar: We spent a few days further South in Viña, another beach city before headed down to Pucon (details above).So there it is folks...my summary of my time in Chile. A lot of details left out...but check out the pictures too.
Photos: LA SERENA, VIÑA, PUCON & BIRTHDAY
Photos: MORE PUCON
BIRTHDAY HUG!!!
