Chile

The Last Supper (& afternoon & evening) In Santiago

On our last day in Santiago, we lorded it up with the crazy Swiss & had our farewell drinks in the picturesque town square. We were quite sad to see them go (or us go whatever way I mean), L as they were the most normal and fun people we’ve met on our travels. But we are defo going to invite ourselves over to Swizterland for some fondo when we return. :J

So after all that excitement, we decided to drive back up north. We stopped at a really cool place run by another crazy Swiss. It was kind of like a farm house, with plenty of animals and happy chickens. We know they were happy because we had the best eggs ever the next morning. The yolks of the eggs were really really orange and we were pondering their colour, when we were told that they were happy chickens and that’s why they were orange. J They were the best eggs in the land. We spent the night before the best breakfast in the land, chatting to the swiss lady in front of the fire, with some cheap wine, about how she came to be in Chile. She was very interesting and was cracking jokes along with the other two crazy swiss.
The next day she gave us some advice on what to see on our last day. We headed for a really cool lake that she recommended. The view of the lake from the look out point was amazing. We saw lots of little swans and other beautiful scenery before we stopped on the side of the road for our last (we hoped) lunch of sandwiches!

On we went northwards, where we stopped at a beautiful beach along the way to go for a stroll. Then we continued on up in the car to Pichilemu. A small surfing/seaside town along the coast. We booked into this cosy, wooden cabana that cost us a total of 12000 for the night. We couldn’t believe it. We kept saying “12000?”. “For the cabana?”, “or each?”. I think your woman who was showing us around probably thought we were retards on parade.. Finally she managed to convince us, that it was in fact only 12,000 for the ENTIRE cabana for the WHOLE night and we were delighted.

We shopped for grub and beer and went down to the beach to watch the sunset with some small plastic cups and a bottle of beer. It was gorgeous. (See the million pictures – we probably only put a few up though).

Then we all did what we crazy irish & them crazy swiss do best – drank. We also forced them to watch Family Guy – we have some new converts as they loved it! Our plan to convert the world to FG is working!!
The next day we had to drop the car back as rental time/ road trip was up. Boo. L
However we still a night left in Santiago. More drinking time!! YAY.

After trekking around town for a bit, looking for a place to stay, we settled in the Barrio Londres area..(we think)…(we can’t remember the name of it already – how pathetic is that?) Then the four of us headed out for a ginourmous lunch. We trekked off on the metro to visit a large statue of The Virgin Mary, that overlooks the entire city of Santiago and the Andes. It had an amazing view! We then headed on a mission to; A) scare the pants of Jimbob, by bringing him on a cable car ride over some of Santiago (his little scared face – he is no friend of heights), and B) Find this Irish pub that we had read about in the bible!

We scared the pants of Jim and found the Irish pub in no time at all, where we commenced drinking. J All the staff were wearing Liverpool jerseys despite there being no Liverpool (or any other match on) that day. We treated ourselves to a large platter of olives and cheese (the crazy swiss love ze cheese.. ) and then headed off on the metro before it closed for the night.

The next day it was back on the road and on towards the south. We muddled on to try to find somewhere to stay. On the way we stopped at a garage for some eats. I bought what I thought was an egg sandwich, but it was mushed up chicken. It was alright though and beggars can’t be choosers. He he.

We tried to book into some cabanas (mini houses to you and me), but the lady there had some very weird rules – come back at seven – then I charge you for only 12 hours – if you stay now – no you can’t stay now.. etc etc (obviously As Espanol). So again we headed off but the only problem was, it started to rain. Eekazoids – and boy did it rain. We kept going and going to see if it would clear until eventually we decided to call it quits in Laja Del Salta.

We stopped at these cute little wooden cabanas and rented one for the night. A very old man (who reminded us of Lurch from the Adam’s Family) put some wood on our fire in the house and withing a couple of hours, the gaf was roasting. Then the power went, me & Jim went to the shop for numerous candles and all was swell again in the cabin – mucho cosy – that is until the water went! Ah for crying out loud. So the crazy swiss went off to fill some buckets with water. Then We decided to make some warm food for a change and Manuel & Priska whipped us up some delicious pasta. We played some board games (we finally learnt how to play Ludo) and headed to bed, hoping the rain would have stopped by morning.

After much rain that night, and scary dreams of Lurch coming to chop us up we awoke to find it was still bloody raining. We packed up all our stuff again and admitted defeat. We would have to go all the way back north again without actually seeing the fantastic waterfall – the biggest one in Chile – we had come to see.

But lo and behold, by the time we had packed up the car – it had STOPPED raining! YAY. (well kindof – it was spitting). We drove up to the look out point and jumped out of the car, cameras poised. We finally got to go and look at the falls and take some pictures. Poor Jimbob slipped and fell and we nearly lost him, but thankfully he survived with just a mucky pair of pants.

And off we went again continuing South – we stopped to have a picnic of more tuna & meat sandwiches – tastefully arranged on the bonnet of our swish car! He he. We drove on and finally came to a very nice backpacker lodge. The little dorms/rooms were so cosy that we all decided to stay for maybe two nights. We shared a dorm between the four of us and headed to the supermarket to stock up on more ingredients for sandwiches! We had one of our great evenings of chit chat, beer, wine & sandwiches. The next morning we went off gallivanting to try to find a fantastic lake (it was on the map) for our picnic (of more sandwiches! )

We had a bit of difficulty finding it though but we drove through some incredible scenery, stopping for picture opportunities and little strolls & wee breaks.
We finally found what was the lake. Only it had dried out a bit, the lake was substantially smaller than what it usually is. We abandoned the car and carried our picnic over to the edge of the lake. But as we got nearer, the ground was getting muddier and muddier and places to sit were becoming sparse! We were all covered in mud, so we trekked back to the car and tried to eat lunch on the wall. But it was invaded by wasps. Loads of them!

We escaped them and bundled back into the car. We decided to head back to our backpacker haven and have a few drinks and play some competitive ping pong. We had a great night.

Well we managed to hangover it into Santiago, Chile, whereupon we hopped on a bus and headed out to some ‘very fancy’ hostel .. snarf! He he. It was the only one with any room in it and it was not the nicest gaf we have ever seen to say the least. Howanever it was just a stop off point so we could meet up with the crazy swiss and lay our heads down for the evening. We finally bumped into Priska & Manuel in the hostel and we quickly set about drinking their beer and boring them to death with TALES OF INNNNTERRRESTtt.. Tee hee. It was great to catch up and have a great auld laugh with the lads. They had decided to rent a car for the next week and tour a bit around central Chile. They kindly asked us if we would like to join them and we were only delighted – a) to have a bit of a laugh, b) they are NEARLY as good as us at drinking (he he) and c) anything to avoid bus journeys! So first of all they gave us a mini tour of one part of Santiago, we got some eats and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

The next day we all hightailed it to the airport where we rented a very swish silver car! La Dee DaH!. I was very excited at the prospect of a ROAD TRIP!! Hee hee. Woohoo.
So off we headed into the unknown.. with no agenda and no worries. J We decided after a while to head to somewhere where they was some vineyards and so we headed to San Fernando. But once we arrived, the only thing in town was a bouncing castle.. (woohoo I hear some of you add) but it was not to be – it was for the kids and we didn’t want to lose face in front of the Swiss either. So we piled back into the car and headed on to Santa Cruz. Upon arriving in Santa Cruz – a very sweet little town – popular with weekend & vacationing wineheads – basked in the evening sunlight. We booked into our most expensive hostel/hotel (since New York) at 50 bucks a night! We were a little worried (as this was our first day in Chile and we had already spent nearly 270 dollars), but we were consoled with the following news that this price indeed included breakfast – and you could get it delivered to your room! Sweet As.
So we did the first thing the four of us do when we arrive anywhere – head for the beer! We settled in for the night on the balcony of a very nice pub/restaurant for some very expensive beer & wine. Then when we went to look for eats, we discovered there was not really much choice – so seeing as we had all went over budget - we decided to buy some bread, meat, tuna & beer and have some tuna / meat sandwiches back in the hotel. And what a roaring success it was. J
The next day, we were somewhat disappointed with our “Breakfast in Bed”. We kept waiting for yer woman to come back with more food but it was not to be… what a let down.
But it was a gorgeous day and there were vineyards to explore so off we went to the Viu Manent Vineyard near Santa Cruz. The vineyard surroundings were gorgeous – very meditteranean and rustic and really impressive. We were just in time for the next vineyard tour so we bundled onto a horse & cart and were given the grand tour. Our guide was very nice, if a little muddled and we were brought into the VAT rooms, and the wine process was explained in detail to us all (and just as quickly forgotten) and then the tasting began! Woohooo! However, when we were brought back to the wine tasting room, SHOCK, HORROR – the others in the group (Americans) started pouring the rest of their wine out!! ( Now I know this is the proper way it’s done, but when it’s your first time in a vineyard, coupled with the fact that you’re Irish, seeing this type of behaviour is unacceptable.) James & Manuel were both plotting to steal the pouring/slops bucket. We just said ‘feck it’, we paid 16 dollars (or whatever) and we were bloody well drinking as much as we could. I did feel a bit of a greedy alcoholic however, so I reluctantly poured out the one I didn’t like. The rest of them we drank (except the driver) and to make me look a bit better I pretended to throw out the last few drops.. he he he – fooled her! I also bought a bottle of my favourite (cheapy) wine so as to fool her into thinking I was a grown up.