Valparaiso

After a quick bus ride from Santiago we arrived in Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a gorgeous city built above a harbor and features whimsical winding streets lined with multi colored homes. Pablo Neruda had a home in Valparaiso which we visited. Its worth a visit and is filled with a unique collection of art and furniture collected by Neruda during his travels.




Ascendors were built to help citizens climb the steep cliffs from the city center back to their homes in the hills. They are sprinkled throughout and are still operational.


Getting lost in a random alley above the city.


We took a day trip from Valparaiso to Vina Del Mar. Vina Del Mar is a crappy tourist town filled with casinos and condominiums. Don´t bother going. We continued on up the coast past Vina to the town of Con-Con were we enjoyed a meal with friends from the hostel.

Pucon

After leaving Chiloe and passing through Puerto Varas we decided to spend some time in Pucon, Chile. Pucon sits between two National Parks and is at the foot of the Villarica Volcano. Villarica is a snow capped volcano where tourists can climb and look in the caldera. We were pretty excited to climb the volcano until we learned that due to the earthquake the Volcano would be closed.

The town of Pucon.

So instead we went to the Cani reserve. Cani is a privately owned nature reserve that was purchased by environmentalists in Pucon to preserve an area of land that was going to be logged. At Cani we got a chance to climb to an elevation high enough to view three surrounding volcanoes and see the "Monkey Puzzle Tree".



Monkey Puzzle Trees at Cani.

Due to geothermal activity created by the volcano, Pucon has a number of thermal pools. We visited one, Therma Pozones, at night and had a great time. But on the van ride back Alexi´s digital camera was stolen by a family sitting behind us.

We also had our first encounter with bed bugs in Pucon. The hostel where we were staying was great, it seemed cleaned and the owners were really friendly and helpful. However, they failed to tell us that the room we were staying in had bed bugs. It became apparent that they knew about the bed bugs because after a few days, unprompted by us, they had the exterminator visit our room.


We stayed in Pucon much longer than anticipated due to uncertainty about how to proceed through areas in Chile that had been affected by the earthquake. So we ended up wandering around town a lot. In Pucon there were an alarming number of stray dogs, and number of which took a liking to us. We took them to the beach and played fetch, etc. We ended up accumulating a roving pack of dogs that would follow us everywhere and patiently wait outside whatever store or restaurant we were at. It was pretty strange walking down the sidewalk with 6 dogs following our every move.

Chiloe

After finishing up a fantastic few days in Bariloche we headed off across the Chilean border and to the coast. Our destination was Chiloe, a quaint island off the coast of Chile that feels far less modern and far more enchanting than the mainland. Chiloe only has a few large towns and is mostly covered by farmlands and parks on the interior and small fishing villages lining the coast.

After taking a bus and ferry to reach the island we headed to meet up with my friend Daniel from college was staying nearby with his siblings and we wanted to go to the national park together to do some hiking. Our plans were interupted however when an enormous earthquake hit central Chile around 4:30am. We were over 600km from the epicenter but the quake was strong enough to wake me up. The next day I forgot about the earthquake and it took a few hours for me to realize that the reason why the power was out was due to the quake. Chiloe was unaffected by the earthquake besides the power outage however much of central Chile suffered major damage.

Ducks being sold at a Ferria


The day after the eaerthquake, despite fears of a tsunami we went to the pacific coast to enjoy the beach.

Torres Del Paine

Torres Del Paine, Chile, the jaw-dropping Unesco World Biosphere Reserve is an amazing National Park visited by 200,000 visitors a year. The granite peaks that make TDP famous reach an altitude of over 3000m. We decided to hike the "W", a popular four to five day trek in TDP.

The park was really busy and the campsites were crowded. And not everyone was even camping. The park allows private companies to establish "Refugios" which are basically hostels within the park. Campers who use Refugios get warm showers and cooked meals, however, they pay outrageous prices for such luxuries. Campers who opt to sleep in tents get to feel high and mighty because they know that other hikers are staying in the Refugios while they are toughing it out.


View from the boat ride into Torres Del Paine.


On Sunday the Super Bowl was happening back in the States. Nick was pretty keen on watching it live so we made sure that we were camping at the only Refugio with a bar and TV. A few hours before sunset this was the view from our campsite.


A festive welcome to the camp at the base of Valley Frances.


A view of surrounding walls in Valley Frances. We stood around for a bit and watched ice fall into the deep ravine below.


A view of the Torres from Valley Frances. This was the only clear view we got of the Torres because the weather during the rest of the hike was crap.


On our fifth and final morning in the park we woke up at 4am and hiked in the snow for one hour to reach the summit.


Just behind me is where the Torres should be.


Back in Puerto Natales we took a full day to recover from backpacking after the hike. Here is a statue of the Giant Mylodon that was discovered near Puerto Natales. The Mylodon was a huge sloth that ate vegetation.