W is for Wow

After a few day hikes in Chile and Argentina in preparation, it was finally time for the real thing - the W circuit in Torres del Paine, Chile. We arrived in Puerto Natales at about 11pm on a Monday night, and we gave ourselves all day Tuesday to get everything sorted. We'd read a lot of blogs and everyone had said if you're doing the W hike you have to go to a hostel called Erratic Rock as they give a free information session everyday at 3pm. That talk saved our asses, as if we'd been left to our own devices we probably would have done it a totally different, and much crappier way. We also rented all the gear we needed from the hostel - tent, sleeping mats, mess kit, gas and hiking poles. Then we just needed to buy all our food and we were set. Except for the fun part of packing everything and realising how much we had to carry for the next 5 days. 

Day 1
There are two times the buses go out to the National Park and we took the early one at 7:30am so we could get to our first camp at a reasonable hour.  It was mainly a long dusty gravel road which, combined with the fact it was like an oven in the bus, made for an interesting ride. After paying our entrance fee for the park we had another short ride to the catamaran which took us to the starting point to do the circuit west-east, which is the recommended way to get the best views. Then shit got real. Just to make it a bit easier for you all to see, here's a map of the park - just click on 'Circuito W' and you'll see the hike we did (minus the last hour of day 1 up to Campamento Los Guardas). 

We started hiking from Refugio and Camping Paine Grande, and it was a pretty tough 3.5 hours to start with. It was made even harder by the fact that the trail was pretty much all uneven rock, and a steady uphill hike. It was also bloody windy which made it interesting at times. Once we got to the top of the lookout and could see Glacier Grey we had renewed motivation as it didn't look far. Yeah right.

We soon found out how wrong we were on that one. Once we got to Refugio Grey it was another hour up to Campamento Guardas, which was recommended as being better (and free) as it's right by the glacier. What we didn't know was that that final hour would be one of the hardest hours of the whole circuit. It was a neverending uphill battle, and if we thought our packs were already heavy, they felt a million times heavier going up that nightmare hill. All we could do was keep our heads down and put one foot in front of the other, and then finally, we got to the top.  Hallefuckinglujah. We've never been so happy to see a deserted campsite in the woods. 

So after 5 hours our first day was done. Not a bad effort and we were pretty proud of ourselves. Our reward was to walk another 2 minutes to watch the sun set over the glacier. Absolutely stunning. What more could you ask for? After a gourmet dinner of instant mashed potatoes with onion, garlic and chorizo, it was lights out.

Day 2
The alarm went off at 6:30am to get us up and going for another day, but by the time we cooked breakfast, cleaned up and packed up, it was a bit after 9am. We then had to hike right back to where we started the day before, but despite a few uphill parts it was a bit easier. However, the last 2.5 hours from Paine Grande to Campamento Italiano was when the aches and pains set in and it was a killer. Sore feet and shoulders and the beating sun made a pretty moderate hike into a struggle every step we took. It wasn't made any easier by all the day hikers staying in their plush refugio beds and 3 cooked meals coming back from their nice easy jaunt with just a bottle of water or a tiny daypack saying it was an easy hike.  Fuck you all you cheating bastards. Needless to say, by the time we got to Italiano we were totally knackered. On the menu that night was instant rice with onion, garlic and chorizo.

Day 3
Up nice and early again for a morning hike up to a lookout point just past Campamento Britanico. All we can say is thank god for the guy at the information session telling us we should leave all our stuff in our tent then pack up when we got back, because it was another killer climb that would've been the hardest of the whole hike with our packs on. We only saw 2 people with full packs on that had obviously camped at Britanico, so either they didn't get the memo or they were just masochists. Despite losing the track once (only briefly) we made it up to the top in 2.5 hours and were rewarded with 360 degree views of the most beautiful scenery. Totally worth it.

Then it was back down to pack up camp and hike to the next stop which was another 2 hours to Los Cuernos, which was the only camping site where we had to pay, and surprisingly the worst camping site. It was also the only place we could have a shower, which was amazing, although kind of pointless considering we had to put the same clothes back on. But hey, getting rid of even a fraction of the stink was worth it. Dinner for day 3 was again instant mashed potatoes with onion, garlic and chorizo. Noticing a trend here...?


Day 4
Up at 6am to get started on our second to last day, we headed off for Campamento Torres, by way of a shortcut to bypass the massive hotel Las Torres. It was yet again a lot of up and down, and then mainly up for a fair bit, with a few treacherous and raging rivers (slight exaggeration) to cross. I (Keryn) would like to go back and slap an Aussie couple in the face for their comment that the shortcut was 'easy, pretty flat' because it SO FUCKING WASN'T! It was only easy for them because they came DOWN the bastard! 

Never mind, we made it to Refugio Chileno in 4 hours so we were pretty happy with that. An American guy, Justin, we'd met along the hike was there waiting, so we all headed on up to Campamento Torres so we'd get set up nice and early with the rest of the afternoon to chill out. It was a nice camping area and we got a good spot, then cooked our final dinner of packet pasta with, you guessed it, onion, garlic and chorizo. We were getting up ridiculously early to hike up to the lookout to watch the sun rise over the Torres del Paine the next day, so we were tucked up by 10pm. But then a group of about 20 Israelis thought it would be a perfect time to arrive at camp and set up 4 tents in a circle around ours. Seriously, there's a whole camping area to choose from and you set up less than 2 metres from us? They then proceeded to yell at each other and keep us awake until 2am. Seriously, fuck off you disrespectful, inconsiderate wankers. 

Day 5
So, after 2 hours sleep we were up by 4am to hike up to the lookout in the dark, and that was a whole new level of hard. It was just under an hour, but with only mildly effective head lamps to light the way and rocky track turning into loose sand/gravel, it was a mission to say the least. Just when we thought we were almost there we looked up and saw tiny pinpoints of light moving waaaaay above us, and thought to ourselves, "Do we seriously have to go up there??".  Yes, yes we do. We made it to the top just after 5am and saw the first rays of sun colouring the sky, so we settled into a good spot to watch and wait. 

It was pretty damn cold so some people had brought sleeping bags and gas stoves to cook breakfast. We weren't that hard core. The funniest thing of the morning though, was when an American girl we'd met at the beginning, Sam, appeared at the top with a rubbish bag full of shit. It hadn't occurred to her at that time of the morning to use her backpack so she'd just chucked everything (and I mean everything) into a black plastic rubbish bag and hiked on up. She's a classic though and we got a lot of laughs out of that, because everything's so much funnier at ridiculous o'clock. The only disappointment was that the towers (Torres del Paine) themselves were covered in cloud for pretty much the whole hour and a half we were up there, so we didn't get a perfect view of all three.  Still, it was an impressive sight being so close to them and the sunrise was beautiful. When we were sufficiently frozen we headed back down to pack up and hike the final leg of the circuit. It took us about 3 hours to get down and while downhill is easier on the lungs, it's hard on the knees. Yet again, we passed shitloads of day hikers coming up from the hotel at the bottom, and we were marvelling at how fresh and clean they smelled as they passed us. God knows what they thought as they got a whiff of us, but I imagine there was some gagging and dry retching involved. Fair enough too. We got down the bottom at about 11am and thought we had a couple of hours to wait for the shuttle to take us to the bus back to the bus to town, but it turned out we had 3 hours to wait. Good excuse to lie down and chill out and congratulate ourselves on making it to the end. Justin decided to walk the final 7kms instead of waiting and paying for the shuttle, and when we saw him later he said it was the worst 1.5 hours of the whole hike. High fives to us for forking out $5 each for the shuttle! We made it just in time for our 2:30pm bus back to town and all we could think about was 3 things: shower, meat and beer. We had to take our rented gear back to Erratic Rock, but we had to get some empanadas on the way. Who can wait for such delicacies after packet carbs and chorizo for 4 nights? After some long showers washing away the dirt and stink (there was a LOT) we felt like new people in clean clothes. We had all good (and sensible) intentions of going to get food straight away, but we got sidetracked by a few beers first. But hey, we deserved a few celebratory drinks for our efforts. We spent the rest of the night with Justin, Sam and Kayla, 3 Americans we met on the hike and had a great night eating real food and drinking lots of beers. Keryn had a hamburger the size of her head, and Kurt had a plate full of the most succulent and delicious lamb either of us have ever tasted. The beer and conversation flowed and it was the perfect end to one of the most amazing and challenging experiences we've ever had.

Blown away by El Chalten

So, up early again this morning (5:45am) which seems to be a bloody reoccurring theme.  We are continually told to be there 15mins before the bus, but the bus isn’t even there 15mins early!  But that’s cool.  It’s only a 3 hour bus trip to El Chalten from El Calafate and Kurt manages to sleep most of the way even though the bus is bloody freezing.  The driver stops at the national park information centre on the way into El Chalten, and we all get off to get maps and told about the park and the various tracks we can hike.  We venture to the hostel nearest to the bus station that the English couple recommended, and get beds in one of the dorms.  It’s a tiny little place with only 10 beds (another 4 or 6 to come), but it has everything we need and is nice and cheap ($10 a night each), the cheapest place we’ve stayed so far.  We walked around town then out to the waterfall which was a nice easy hour’s stroll, but we didn’t have a camera as we were charging the battery.  It was a beautiful little waterfall and would be a perfect place to swim and spend the day chilling out if only the weather ever got warm enough.  The average highest temperature is about 19°C and it’s always ridiculously windy, so I doubt that ever happens.  In the afternoon we went for another shortish walk (3 hours) up to some good viewpoints over the town and lake.  One of the lookouts is called the Condor Lookout, but alas, no condor sightings for us. El Chalten is a tiny mountain village on the disputed border with Chile, and was only built in 1985 making it the youngest town in Argentina.

The next day we went on a hike out to Torre Lagoon and Glacier Grande which took about 4 hours one way.  It was a beautiful hike with plenty of lookout points and we were pretty lucky with the weather as it only started to sleet/snow when we got right to the top of the ridge above the glacier.  It was an impressive view, but a pretty hectic walk back down the rocky ridge because of the wind and weather.  

On the way back we passed the French couple we’d met while hiking in Pucon, Chile, and they confirmed that Ushuaia wasn’t worth going to, so it’s been officially scratched off our list.  After 7 hours of hiking we were pretty knackered, so hot showers and hot food were top of the list.  That night another French couple we’d met briefly in El Calafate arrived at our hostel, so we got chatting to them.  It was kind of strange because they’re at the end of their 2 year jaunt around the world, and we’re just beginning ours.  They were also the same age as us when they started, so it was really good to strike up a friendship with them as they had so much great advice for us.  We spend hours talking with them over 2 nights, and they’ve already invited us to stay with them in Paris when we get there.  Thanks Philippe and Fadia.  They confirmed what we thought about WWOOFING, so we’re going to get started on that as soon as possible.  We’d also thought about couchsurfing before we left but didn’t do much more than think about it, but again, they confirmed it’s one of the best things they’ve done on their trip.  So, we’ll be getting our profile set up immediately so we can get some great local experiences.  Once again, thanks to Philippe and Fadia we’ll hopefully see a whole new side to the countries we travel in instead of just staying in hostels and meeting travellers.  We’ll get to meet locals and see how they live, what they eat and what they think, which is what we want to do as much as possible. 

For our last hike in preparation for the ‘W’ (the 5 day hike we’re going to do in Torres del Paine, Chile) we headed out to Laguna de los Tres hoping to see Mt Fitz Roy.  After about 5mins we came across a woodpecker going for gold and got some awesome close up shots.  

The next 1.5 hours were pretty tough as it was all uphill, so the lungs and muscles got another good workout.  By the time we got to the viewpoint for Mt Fitz Roy, the weather was pretty shit – freezing cold, windy and lightly snowing (sideways).  And good old Fitz Roy was nowhere to be seen as it was completely covered by cloud.  So we continued on to the end point to see Laguna de los Tres, but along the way we saw a couple who had camped overnight and were told the track was knee deep in snow and too dangerous to continue right to the end.  We carried on as far as the campsite then had to turn back due to the weather conditions.  As we were heading back the weather seemed to clear up, but we still wouldn’t have been able to make it to the end so we decided to walk back out to the waterfall so we could take some pictures.  It was a great spot for lunch and a bit of a rest.  That night we had some well earned beers with the other people at the hostel.  There was a 56 year old Aussie bloke who was a larger than life character, and he had a million and one stories about his 40 years of backpacking around the world.  There wouldn’t be many languages he doesn’t speak at least a few words of, so we were pretty amazed.  We had a great night and this is one of the reasons we backpack – to meet interesting people like this.  After sampling many of Argentina’s finest, we had a sleep in before our bus back to El Calafate.

Glaciers are pretty damn COOL!

Surprisingly, the epic bus ride from Bariloche to El Calafate wasn’t that bad.  And thanks to the miracle of drugs (sleeping pills) Keryn even managed to get some sleep.  Fucken a!  We got the big comfy seats again that recline a fair way back, and we got fed lunch, dinner and breakfast, and entertained by a few movies that were actually in English.  Except for Ice Age 3 dammit!  We arrived in El Calafate at about 1pm and found a cheap hostel, then wandered around town.  It’s pretty tiny so there wasn’t much to see, but it’s pretty touristy.  We thought there were heaps of good hikes to do, however after asking at the information centre and the national park centre we found out we were completely wrong.  Well, there were a couple of walks in the national park, but it was expensive to get the bus out there and it just didn’t seem worth it.  So we decided to visit the Perito Moreno glacier and then re-assess our plans.  While we were eating dinner that night, we got talking to an English couple who helped us decide where to go next (and later on in our travels).  They recommended going to El Chalten, which is where we were initially going to go to do some hiking.  And since there wasn’t much else to do in El Calafate apart from the glacier, we decided to go to El Chalten after visiting the glacier.

We’d booked transport to the glacier through our hostel so it was another early start to get out there.  After about 1.5hrs drive we arrived at the Los Glaciares National Park then drove a bit further to the wharf where we got a boat out to the glacier.  We were a bit sceptical about getting the boat, but it was worth it as we got up quite close and spent an hour out there.  Then we drove up to a lookout point, where there were plenty of walkways to get different views of the glacier.  It was amazing, as you could see the entire glacier and get a better idea of just how massive it is.  And despite the fact that it’s one of only 2 glaciers in the world that are actually advancing, not retreating, there were regularly chunks that would fall off into the lake with a thunderous noise.  Annoyingly we never had the camera out at the right time to capture one.  We had a couple of hours at the lookout, and it’s the kind of thing that no matter how long you stand and stare at it, you still can’t get your head around the size and beauty of it.  Amazing.

Even though it's only about 7 weeks since we got to see some live rugby, we went to see the local 7's rugby tournament.  It was good to see grass roots rugby live and well in southern Argentina, and good to be the only gringo's somewhere in El Calafate for the day.

Like sands through the hourglass...these were our days in Bariloche

Despite the unpleasantly early start after our day of drinking, we managed to pack up and make it to the bus station in time for our bus to cross over into Bariloche, Argentina. However, just as it was pulling up, Kurt discovered he didn’t have his passport. Cue frantic searching through all our bags, then a mad sprint for Kurt back to the hostel while I tried to stall the bus leaving. Thankfully everyone else took their time in getting their bags on board, and just when I thought it’d leave without us, Kurt came running back, passport in hand. Thank fuck for that. The bus ride itself wasn’t too bad as we had nice big comfy seats and even got fed lunch. The border crossings were painless and pretty quick and in between the two borders there was an eerie landscape. It took us a few moments to work out what it was then we realised it was the volcanic ash from the volcanic eruption in Chile earlier in the year. Everything was grey and looked like a moonscape. 

Our first full day we didn’t do much, just walked around town and checked things out.

The next day we decided to go for a walk along the lake, and ended up walking a 20km round trip. Unfortunately we couldn’t actually walk by the lake so it was along the road instead and very dusty. There are heaps of stray dogs in South America (thankfully not aggressive) and one decided to befriend us and followed us the 10kms back to town, right to our hostel. It was a big walk so we took it easy for the rest of the afternoon until we had to walk another 5kms or so out to the bus station to buy our tickets to the next place (El Calafate).

Bariloche has been hit pretty bad by a shitload of dust/sand from the Chilean volcanic explosion, which covers the streets and often clouds the views around town. Keryn’s hay fever has been really bad lately and the dust made it even worse so she couldn’t even go outside on the 3rd day.

The day before we left we headed out to Llao Llao National Park for a walk. It was a nice easy walk compared to the two we did in Pucon’s national park, and went around a lake which had good views. However, the view from the top of a lookout over the lake back towards town was obscured by dust which was unfortunate. It was a nice walk though, and heaps of people were hiring bikes and cycling a route around which would have been good too.

We were up at 6am the next morning (see, travelling isn’t all beaches and cocktails) to get the bus south to El Calafate which was going to be a 28hr trip. O for awesome!

Hiking and Drinking

Well that wasn’t too bad – our first 10 hour overnight bus ride in South America.  We arrived in Pucon at about 10am on a rainy, cold day so we had to bust out our jackets for the first time.  Luckily it’s a small town so we didn’t have to walk far to find the tourist information centre and the hostel we’d read about.  As it was a horrible day and we hadn’t had much sleep on the bus, we stocked up on food then chilled out for the rest of the day.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to head out to the Huerquehue National Park for our first hike.  We’d never done anything like this before and weren’t quite sure what to expect, especially since they didn’t have any maps for us to take.  However, the ranger said the track was well marked so off we trudged.  After a relatively easy 30mins we started to go uphill, and this continued for the next 2.5 hours.  At the bottom it was a nice spring day of about 20 degrees, but as we neared the top we found ourselves walking in snow.  It was very picturesque at the top with lakes, streams and stunning native forest, so it made all the panting and sweating worthwhile.

  

 

 

 

 

But this was when things got a bit difficult.  We had planned to do a loop track, however due to the amount of snow the track was nowhere to be seen.  There was a group of other hikers that were caught at the same junction, and luckily they had a map.  Not that it made the path magically appear.  One keen French dude blazed ahead trying to find the track under the knee deep snow, while us and some German girls weighed up the options.  We ended up following the French couple along what we thought was the path, but was actually a stream bed, so we altered course slightly and successfully made our way across to the lake.  No idea where the actual path was, but we made it in one piece.  After our little 6 hour adventure we made our descent down the now very slushy and muddy path, and had a well earned break for lunch by the lake.  It was an interesting and challenging foray into the hiking world, but enjoyable.

We decided to give ourselves a break and explore the town of Pucon the next day.  It’s a very beautiful little town, nestled in between mountains and volcanoes and next to a lake, and is obviously pumping in high season.  We walked around almost every street in town as we felt guilty for not doing anything.  Despite being a small place, we covered about 10km winding our way around all the streets.

  

 

 

 

Day 3 saw us getting up early again to head back out to the National Park to hike another track.  This one was a shorter one (4 hours and 4kms), but was a steeper climb up.  Thankfully there was no snow on the climb up this one, and it was much warmer.  We also appeared to be the only ones doing this particular walk.  Once again, when we got to the top there was snow covering the ground, and once again the track was nowhere to be seen.  But Kurt, doing his best Bear Grylls impersonation, navigated our way around the side of the mountain successfully.  And we didn’t even have to drink our own urine to survive!  After our knee popping descent, once again we had lunch by the lake and lay in the sun until our bus back to town.

After 4 days in Pucon we decided to move onto the next town, Valdivia, which was only 3 hours away.  We didn’t really know much about the place, but our walking tour guide in Santiago had recommended it as she was from there and Kurt wanted to go to a brewery he’d read about online.  The first afternoon we just walked around town to get our bearings and checked out the main attraction in town – the sea lions.  Tick.

 

Day 2 was the main reason for coming to Valdivia – checking out the local breweries.  We caught a local bus about 15kms out of town to a little fishing village, as we’d read that there were about 4 breweries along this stretch of road, and we thought we might as well earn the beer by walking.  We thought they’d be a little more spaced out along the road; however we had to walk 10km to reach the first one, Salzburg Cerveceria.  And of course it was closed.  Thankfully it was only another couple of km’s to the next one – Kunstmann Cerveceria.  Upon our arrival, we were asked if we wanted to see the museum, to which we replied, no thanks, we’re here to drink.  And by that, I mean we mimed drinking.  First we ordered a tasting tray to sample 6 of their beers, which helped us choose the one we liked best.  Then, purely for economic reasons, we ordered a ‘column’ of the Torobayo (an ale), which was over 2.5 litres.  To accompany this much beer we sensibly ordered a starter dish which consisted of various meats and chips.  We ordered the small which was more than enough for both of us.  After all good intentions of walking back into town, we instead opted to get the bus to another pub for yet more beers.  But only because the Salzburg brewery was closed and we had to sample their product.  It would have been rude not to.  And then it would have been rude not to sample a pisco sour or two, which is the claimed national drink of Chile (pisco is actually from Peru).  We weren’t looking to forward to our sore heads and the 8 hour bus ride early the next morning.  But it was worth it.

 

Bienvenidos a Chile!

What a relief to finally arrive at our first scheduled destination.  Caught the metro into town which was easy enough.  It’s clean and efficient and they have a ‘bip’ card which is similar to the Oyster card in London that you can use on both the metro and buses.  If Santiago can have a system like that, why the hell can’t Sydney?  We actually haven’t used our ‘bip’ cards much as we’ve mainly been walking for miles each day, but it’s a convenient and easy system.

When we arrived at our pre-booked hostel, The Green House, we were greeted by our friendly host who was a lovely old man.  He had minimal English, we had even more minimal Spanish, but we all managed to understand each other.  The hostel was nice and cosy and quiet, and in a great central location.  Exactly what we needed after two days travel to get there.  Didn’t do much our first afternoon, just wandered around to have a look and had our first Chilean hotdog.  A very unexpected thing to be popular here, but the Chileans are mad for them.  The basic one is fairly standard, just a regular hotdog in a bun with mustard and tomato sauce, but you can go all out with others that have fresh chopped tomato plus shitloads of avocado and mayonnaise and varying combinations of these.  Then we grabbed a 6 pack of the local Escudo beer for AU$6 and chilled out.

After all good intentions of saying we’d get up at 8am the next day, we slept in til almost 11am.  Clearly we were feeling the effects of travel and caught up on some much needed sleep.  But we didn’t just laze around all day, as we spent the next 5 hours or so walking around the city.  We went to find the central market which was fresh seafood, fruit and veges so that was an assault on the senses.  We wandered the streets checking out some awesome street art and were impressed with how good it is.  At Cerro San Cristobal (San Cristobal Hill), we caught the funicular up to the statue of the Virgin Mary, which had a perfect panoramic view of the city of 6.6 million people.  It’s quite a smoggy city but that’s because it’s in a valley in the middle of the Andes.  We were then on a mission to find a particular restaurant that Anthony Bourdain went to in his show ‘No Reservations’, to sample a lomito.  After about an hour of wrong turns and back tracking (we were determined not to give up), Kurt finally spotted it down a side street.  With a bit of help and patience from our friendly waitress, we managed to order our own tailored lomito’s.  It’s basically a pork sandwich with various toppings.  Keryn had avocado and mayonnaise, and Kurt had the same but with sauerkraut as well.  We’ve posted a picture on Facebook (as well as other photos from Santiago and Valparaiso) which actually doesn’t do it justice.  The cost of two lomito’s, one coke and one beer was about AU$22.  While this is hopefully the dearest lunch we have in quite some time, it was worth the money and the many kilometres walked to find it.  We rewarded ourselves with a few more beers that night and chatted to a Dutch couple who had just arrived at the hostel.  They were at the end of their 6 months travelling around to see the 7 World Wonders, with the last one being Christ the Redeemer in Brazil.  They said Macchu Picchu in Peru was one of their highlights, so it’s made us look forward to that even more.

On our last full day in Santiago we decided to do one of the free walking tours, which wasn’t so free as our guide told us the average tip is AU$10-$20 per person.  It was good though, as we saw a lot of the city that we hadn’t already been to, including the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace and coffee with legs which are coffee shops where coffee is served by women in short, tight dresses to (mainly) men standing at counters.  We also walked around Barrio Bella Vista which is the student area and location of Pablo Neruda’s house, who was a famous Chilean poet.  One thing we’ve noticed while walking around is the diversity in Chileans – Chinese, people of middle eastern appearance, Africans, blondes, redheads, native Mapuches.  It’s brilliant, and we’ve both been wrong more than once in assuming someone was a European tourist when they’re locals.  Kinda strange to hear a curly haired ginga/ranga speaking Spanish.

The next day we got a bus to Valparaiso, which is a city on the coast about 90mins from Santiago.  The population here is about 265,000 people, so it’s noticeably smaller and much more chilled out which is exactly what we were after for a few days.  Most of the city is on steep hills, accessed by funiculars which are all about 100 years old.  They still work fine though!   

We stayed on Cerro Alegre (Alegre Hill) which was the main area for tourists.  We stayed for 3 nights and spent our days walking around the city, and went for a longer walk to the next city around, Vina del Mar.  We were there on a Sunday so not much was open but it was a beautiful seaside walk and we got our first local bus back to Valparaiso.  Oh, we did see a moai (human figure carved from rock) from Easter Island outside the musem in Vina del Mar.  It wasn’t as big as we were expecting, but still quite cool as it’s the closest we’ll get to Easter Island.  Again, there’s a lot of impressive street art in Valparaiso, and there seems to be quite an arty community.  If you ever find yourself in Valparaiso, DO NOT stay in a place called Hostal Color as we had our first, and hopefully last, experience of bed bugs.  Not cool at all, and we’re still experiencing the psychological effects, thinking we can feel things crawling and biting us. Needless to say we were happy to leave that hostel, but we still really enjoyed Valparaiso.  It’s a great place to spend a few days just walking around and doing not much.  We then caught the bus back to Santiago and killed a few hours walking around, and we’re currently waiting for our overnight bus to Pucon, which is a small town of 21,000 about 10 hours south.  We’ll let you know what it’s like!