Mum & Matt the cook!

The girls with a kiwi singer

Madison & Jayde

Brodie

Tanya & Karl

Our big excitement for the week was going to Tree Adventures. It’s a place where there is a series of courses that are erected between trees and you have to go over the obstacles to make it to the flying fox at the end of each course that gets you back on the ground. We were harnessed in at all times, starting low to the ground on the first course, ending up about eighteen metres above the ground on course nine. Pete had to stop on the fourth one- his height was restricting his movements with the safety wire and he hurt his arm, so he was on camera duty. Jayde and Madison made it to the highest course for them, course eight, even doing some of the courses twice. For ten year olds they were amazing, and every time I freaked out I looked at them swinging between trees up high and thought myself silly. It was a little scary, hard work, but great fun. My body hurt the next day, but it was worth it.

Gorgeous little Sabina

The day was hot with not a cloud in the sky, perfect conditions to indulge in fine wine. The vineyard was so very grand. Our tour guide, Philippe explained that the big colonial building on the vineyard grounds was the ‘summer house’ of the founders. If this was their ‘summer house’ I would have liked to have seen the size of their other seasonal digs. The ‘summer house’, overlooked a beautiful park that occupied sheep, horses with its deliciously green grass, and the adjacent fields played host to giant trees that lined dusty well warn paths. Philippe informed us that we weren’t allow to enter any building as they were now used as offices so we couldn’t go inside for disturbing the workers.

The stunning grounds.

Can you make out the devil at the end?

Little Renzo!

Check the chips that we got!

Our first ramble we went on was to the information centre to find out about the places that interested us, which were: the great murals that ‘represented Chile’s cultural maturity‘, a huge weekend market, and beautiful waterfalls that were a bus ride away but rumoured to be well worth the discomfort.

The broken musuem

Disillusioned, we opted to go out for some afternoon drinks when we were invited into another room in the hostel by a bunch of Chilean guys who were in a band. We ended up spending the afternoon playing music with them and speaking very broken english. They were a lively, friendly bunch with big personalities and amazing musical talents that played traditional Chilean music. We received free cd’s and Pete even had them playing along to his music as well! Merrier from meeting the guys we headed off out for dinner where we ended up in a quiet restaurant that had wi-fi. It didn’t want to work on our computer so they gave us their computer to use. They also used the computer for translating so they could explain the menu to us. We were given free nibbles, our glass was never empty long and our waitress tried so hard to have conversations with us. Then, when we decided to leave after midnight, they offered us a ride home. The hospitality we received from this family which owned the restaurant, and the fact it was pretty much the first place where we had people go out-of- their- way for us was another bonus to our otherwise boring evening.

Pete and the band

Chillan. A funny little place where even the tumbleweeds grind to a holt. At least when we were mind numbingly bored we could always count on counting dogs.

Check out the dogs nose!

The church

Wednesday.

Markets!

Our weird little friend

Thursday.

Concepcion University

We had been told the university was quiet impressive and went for a walk through the grounds to check it out. We weren’t disappointed. There were lush grass areas, statues, big murals and even little ponds where swans and students hung out and mutually contemplate how the uni survived the devastating earthquake without much damaged? Pete was very taken aback by it, especially since the rest of the city was nothing to look at.

We made our way to the most exciting looking thing ever-Plaza Jurasica. It was park that had big plastic dinosaurs through it. We saw it in the cab on the way into Conception, and were excited about going there. The dinosaurs were huge and you were allowed to climb over them and do poser photos. There only ended up being about five Dinos though much to our disappointment. Still, we took our photos and it was the first of its kind on our trip, which is always good!

We started walking down the street toward the centre again in slight desperation when from the ether a fashionably-bearded man in a vehicle pulled over. Okay, so he only poked at a brochure and slightly informed us that he had budget apartments available, but we had ‘tango nada’. He told us his apartments were even more affordable than the last hostal we presumed to be affordable, this time we believed the hype and the spanglish. We went along for the ride and were again sold on his proposition after seeing that own kitchen, bathroom and lounge was on offer. Even our pockets agreed.

Sunday.

Our mossy bed

We made it back to Valdivia and despite our overall disappointment that we had with sights and lack of action at this late stage, we were impressed with Valdivia and what it had to offer. Isla Teja and Valdiva’s waterfront was quiet pretty, and to be honest we understand that all complaints must fall- on- deaf- ears when the sun shines on holiday makers who moan too much; especially those who have had the comfort of spending lazy afternoons sleeping their lives away on soft beds of moss! Really, despite all our set-backs, who has a comeback for that?

Wednesday.

We followed a ‘heritage’ walk around the town, which gave us a good look of Puerto Varas, it´s lovely catheral and took us past ye’olde German houses and any other old shite that the town’s maintainers thought to slap a ‘heritage’ sticker on to. We also had the privilege of watching a bitch on-heat being followed and harassed by about five other horny dogs. It was a little surreal, the dogs would gingerly walk down a street and in the middle of the road making cars stop and wait for the dogs to move. There were fights between the males and the female would get the shits and have a go at males that would be trying to mount her as she was walking. All this while avoiding being hit by on-coming traffic. Who said that us bitches can’t multi-task? I think it was the dizzying pinnacle of the Dog Game for us, and perhaps its strange end. We’ve not seen anything like it. Counting dogs is one thing, but being witness to pack rape is another charge.

Thursday.

After a couple of different beers, we decided to go and try our luck at the Casino. It’s the biggest casino in the area and was either conveniently, or stupidly, right next to the beer tent. We had to pay to get in, something I’m not used to, but it gave a free Pisco Sours- yuck! We aren’t really fans, but I got one to sip on anyway and Pete tried his first (and last) Martini. We looked at the blackjack and roulette tables and decided on the ’safer’ bet of the pokies. We chose only the corniest and funniest to play. We bet $1000 pescos on at a time (about $2AUD) and proceeded to quickly lose about $10. Was the most boring time yet.

Friday
That morning we were feeling extremely sorry for ourselves. Don’t think we needed the second bottle of wine. I walked very slowly back to the restaurant to pay and take some photos, stopped in at the supermarket to get supplies and hopped straight back into bed. That was pretty much our day. I managed to get out of the bedroom later in the evening for a nice walk along the lake, and Pete managed later on with me to get pizza, then it was straight back to bed.

Saturday.

We were booked on an afternoon bus to take us to Valdivia, three hours up Chile. We decided to go to a museum in the morning that I had spotted on my walk the day before. It was a quirky little building, set up by a man of German descent and a wonderful artist who had small trinkets and antiques covering the small three level house. Where there wasn’t things of the old days there were his pictures, so many that some of them were even on the ceiling. After having a look there we headed back to the town centre for a hot chocolate before grabbing our stuff and hopping on the bus. Puerto Varas was a lovely little place, defiantly one that was pleasant on the eyes, ears, but not sure on the head when Beerfest is in town. It was our wettest town yet, with the most rainfall we have been witness to thus far, but that was still menial to what we have be seeing in Queensland! You can exchange sunshine for beer tents and bedridden hangovers quite easily so it seems.

written by  Pete+Rochelle on January 29, 2011 from Puerto Varas, Chile
from the travel blog: Round the world!!!
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We had to walk into town to catch a bus. On our page of instructions from Peter were the names of the different buses that could take us to our out-of-the-way destination. I asked a man what time the bus was, and he told us that we had about an hour to wait. We sat on a plank of wood that doubled as a seat and a luggage storage unit that was located at the bus stop/back entrance to the adjoined supermarket and waited. The man in the know tried to have a conversation with me in Spanish which is always amusing which seemed to passed the time. We finally got on a little bus, filled with locals and asked the driver to let us know when to get off. Well, in all honesty I asked and he nodded , so we did what we normally do which was to pray and hope for the best mutual understanding there was or wasn’t.

Pete's loving it!!

We started the walk, and as we did the weather turned nasty. There was a strong wind coming off the adjacent lake and a light rain to boot. It was cold and grey and so desolate. I was actually quite enjoying the walk, we would occasionally be passed by cars, and trudged passed a couple of tents, but besides that there was nothing else to see. With the ominous weather it really made me feel that we were on an adventure. I think this pissed Pete off even more- joyfulness in the face of tedious discomfort. We finally made it to the town, only to discover it was the smallest town ever imagined, and the only two restaurants we passed didn’t make hot chocolate. One of them didn’t even have a menu, the waitress in a foul mood just started rattling off food items in Spanish so we didn’t stand a chance. We decided that instead of waiting the hour and a half that was left until the bus arrived, we would start walking in the direction of Ancud and try to hitch a ride; we had previous been assured by Mirta that this would be of no risk at all to our persons or our person’s personal possessions. We walked along the road and were passed by a couple of cars, then ended up being picked up by the most obliging car of all….a taxi! Not quite hitching-a-ride, but a lift all the same, and it cost the same as the bus.

We made it to Ancud and settled for hot soup as even there we couldn’t find hot chocolate. Pete was happy to be there, but happier knowing that we were leaving the next day. At least I got to see the museum, and yes, okay, cough, Pete was right, it was pretty much literally rubbish, but a day we will remember all the same.

Us with Pete and Mirta

Some of Castro’s attractions we saw were: Iglesia Francisco de Castro, the towns main church, was nothing to look at from the outside, but once inside you could appreciate its beautiful wooden architecture; the Palafitos, old houses on stilts that line the water front, and of course, there were more markets and dogs than we could count. There was also a port where fishing boats leave from, and charters that take you to several other smaller islands in the area, a main square which really had nothing in it, only an information centre, and the most supermarkets we have seen in Chiloe yet.

We then walked in the opposite direction towards the beach. It was a bit of a hike to get there, and once there the wind was blowing so hard that we were instantly covered in cold black sand and began to freeze. We did the sensible thing and turned around and went to a warm café. Along the way we said hello to some cows in between our dance with the monstrous flies.

Killer hot dog.

from the supermarket

The saint to help catch fish!

Wednesday.

!!!!!!!!!!