Charlie and Steve's Excellent Adventure

January 11, 2015

While you were working – Cows, plonk and very big hills

Farewell team Poland, Farewell Chile; the next chapter begins after the tail lights of the taxi have faded into the distance leaving this band a duet once again. As out of tune as we sing, this duet can do some things in perfect harmony, such as get on with a holiday so get on with it we must. The anticipated next step is into Argentina which we’ve barely visited before but will spend more of our South American time than any other. This time a whole new tacit promise has been framed with the journey into Argentina from Santiago meant to be one of the most picturesque bus rides in South America. Combine this with our first stop being Mendoza, Argentinas famed wine region and the ever present spectre of Argentinian meat it seems we’re ticking a few major boxes for this duet. Thinking of what we could possibly want from a journey we might think of mountains of course, wine of course and delicious culturally true food; of course. Safe to say it’s not a challenge to jump into this stew of Cows, Wine and very big hills with wide eyes to the fore. Argentina: what have you got?

Good question it seems, Chile and Argentina combine forces to dish up a bus ride that confuses the very concept of tour bus and transport bus, we’ve paid for a transport bus but we have a tour bus. I wonder if they’ll ever catch on? We plunge into the Andes in unmistakable fashion, these hills are very big. This pass through the mountains is flanked by mountains as imposing as just about any I’ve seen before, and they’re quite up close to the bus giving a view that is very little outward and a whole lot of upward. Visually the view from the window is quite disorienting at many points with a high peak acting as just a facade for another peak further distant to tower over the top of it. And at some points a third range again, wow. Lets not get into the parallax error of viewing things from and angle and imagining just how high the further ones might be, lets just all agree that size of this scale requires a gape-mouthed stare. Of course we all know that big is nearly always better, proof is just out the window.

Another feature of the Andes that I’m sure to bang on about throughout this trip is the geology of the Andes. Now don’t doze off dear reader, I’ll make this brief. The Andes are geologically very young mountains so they aren’t eroded to smoother more passive shapes; they’re sharp, twisted and craggy. Add to that the sedimentary lines that have been folded like an airy meringue and these big boys are anything but passive sleeping giants. What all this lends is a common theme of aggression, violence and power. The Andes are alive and screaming, no wonder this area has an earthquake nearly every day. Now that wasn’t too laborious was it?

The ride continues up the best set of switchbacks I’ve ever been on and into the border checkpoint. This is all pretty customary except for two greek yayas waiting in another queue; it’s team Melbourne from our time in Valparaiso, looks like we have travel buddies for Mendoza. Border control is all bark and no bite here, I even tick ‘yes’ to all the stuff I shouldn’t have but not a peep. However the real laugh is Charlie’s lack of entry documentation into Chile, a small piece of paper which should have been in his passport. We do have our certificado de viaje (certificate of travel) but it’s in my name with my passport number. We pass it off as Charlie’s buying our tickets and we got a ‘perfecto’ at the bus station but the border is the real deal. To our relief it seems the guy at the border is just as lax, that’s three checkpoints with essentially a falsified official document. Go South America, all bureaucracy and no action. Or is that more or less the unofficial definition of bureaucracy?

We arrive into Mendoza with more than just a little bit of pre-wine excitement and filthy heat, apparently 37 degrees. The hostel turns out to be a bit of a winner, no complaints at all so we bunker down here to escape the heat. We have air conditioning to go along with a shower that works with hot water and everything so this equates to traveller heaven. But the laziness can’t continue, we need meat, we need lots of it and we need it cooked over a massive log fire; we are in Argentina after all. Mendoza is a pretty enough town with wide streets, plenty of trees and a distinct lack of dead animal in shop windows, not happy and starting to fret. At this point we’re faced with that other South American oddity, going out really late. It’s common here for families to go out to dinner at 11pm and for clubs to kick off at 2am, but after a long bus ride we’re not keen to wait too long. We eventually find a meat fire to reinforce the Andean premise that big is better, it’s proportional to the mountains of earlier today and we’re in. Not open for another 40 minutes. Is it shameful for a grown man to lay prostrate in public, punch the ground with his fists and scream ‘it’s not fair’? The soggy pasta and chicken at our hostel is; unsatisfactory. But we don’t revisit that difficult time, it’s too soon.

So it’s a wow of a day into Argentina but we’re not really here yet. We’ve seen big mountains but there’s a depressing lack of wine and dead animal despite seeing plenty of both on offer. We’re standing on the precipice staring at grand indulgence; Argentina is so close we can literally smell it but just out of reach, it’s tantalising and torturous. Indeed this is a land where bigger is definitely better and when it comes to wine, cows and big hills, it’s most definitely our kind of place. Argentina has answered the call and shown us what it’s got; we drift to sleep on dreams of promises delivered, mooo.

January 10, 2015

What you’d rather be seeing – Chile

We loved Chile. It is a fun, outdoor focused and friendly country that I really enjoyed getting my camera out in. Below are some of my favourite images from our time there, I hope you enjoy them. Note please view on an iPad or larger screen.

Arica

San Pedro de Atacarma

Parque Huerquehue

Valparaiso

Santiago

January 9, 2015

Top 10 – Chile

With a huge amount of highlights not in this list it’s fair to say that Chile was very good to us. We have travelled in the south of Chile before, this time the north laid out such a differing array of cards it’s hard to believe they could be in the same deck. Notably Salar de Atacama will forever remain a place too wild for the most eccentric of imaginations, but it’s right here in Chile.

This long skinny strip of a country bursts with natural wonders far more grand and diverse than its size should allow. While the natural wonders are always dearest to our hearts this trip has shown a cultural development in the towns and cities that sets Chile apart from many of its latino companions. In a continent known for danger, corruption, drug trafficking, political unrest and social turmoil Chile breaks shackles and cycles alike. The most likely counterpart to this most admirable quality is possibly Argentina, our next stop. For now though we celebrate a country with a rare presence of man-made in our top ten, bravo Chilenos.

10 – Parque Lauca:
Scraping into number ten in the most contested Top 10 yet, Parque Lauca fights for a well deserved place. The park would possibly have been higher in the list if we weren’t seeing it from a tour bus but for first sights into a new country we could’ve done a lot worse. It was our first view into how a desert can be beautiful which was to set the tone for some of the more amazing sights in Chile.

9 – Tatio Geysers:
Tatio geysers are the first of three entries for the regions around San Pedro in Salar De Atacama. It’s impossible to lump this region into one place given its diversity and pure wow factor. The Geysers are the highest of their kind in the world at 4500m and offered a dazzling glimpse into just one of the otherworldly spaces that the areas around San Pedro offer; powerful, immense and strangely somewhat inviting.

8 – Valle de Elquie:
It’s a vineyard Charlie, but not as we know it. This famed valley is all romantic wine region wedged into sharp aggressive desert mountains. This valley produces Pisco instead of wine though, Chiles national drink. Gaining information about our new favourite vice Pisco set in such a dramatic and beautiful valley was a day out to be remembered, Salud.

7 – Laguna Cejar:
San Pedro does it again. Laguna Cejar is a small cluster of lakes and salt flat that made up an afternoon of equally childlike and romantic wonder. The saline water providing buoyancy that is out of this world, in a setting that is out of this world. Topping it off was a pisco sour watching the sunset over the salt lakes of the Atacama. Yes, out of this world and we wanted the rocket ship to just keep on going.

6 – Pucon Christmas:
It’s not just the canyon, the beach, the pretty little town and it’s even more than the breathtaking Volcan Villarica that makes our Christmas in Pucon so memorable. For the first time in this trip we met up with Aussies and Kiwis, and we loved it. It was a trip back home for the time of year you most need to be there. Cricket, drinks, food and laughs (thanks Charlie) made for a cracker of a Christmas in a cracker of a town.

5 – Parque Huerquehue:
Disclaimer time, jaunting into nature is always ranks highly with us, so it’s not surprising that the three day hike into Parque Huerquehue rockets into the top 5. It was a harder walk than expected and a much needed detox. Strangely the mountains weren’t the stars of the show, the forests and trees were a real highlight not to be missed proving yet again that the Andes are uncontainable into an imagination, they need to be seen to be believed.

4 – Lastarria, Santiago:
Shock horror, an urban setting high in our Top-10, Lastarria will be so fondly remembered for a couple of major reasons. It takes the mantle as the first place we could possibly live which is a big call and it also represents an amazing development in Santiago and Chile as we know it. It’s cool, edgey, artistic, current and progressive but moreso it stands out as a great statement on a great country.

3 – Valle de la Luna:
San Pedro, again. The short time in San Pedro and the Atacama was a whirlwind as much as it was amazing. We could nearly do a top 10 of this town and its surrounds but the love needs to be shared. And so, Valle de le Luna is the top of the pops in the Atacama for us. If the Atacama is a trip out of this world you hand in your boarding pass and farewell the planet through Valle de la Luna. Check the previous post on Valle de la Luna, there’s too much to say just here.

2 – Valparaiso:
Wow, what a town. So rare it is that an urban place can inspire so succinctly. Valparaiso is one such place. It’s in all the vagaries and things we can’t put our fingers on that Valpo sings out to anyone who cares to see it. How exactly is it that an inanimate place can summon and donate ever so animated energy and activity to a person? To begin attempting to answer this question, begin in Valpo.

1 – Bocanariz:
Again another tangent here. We had a great dinner matched with great wine at a restaurant named Bocanariz, a memorable experience in itself. However the restaurant is barely part of the story, Bocanariz is where we went to clink glasses and celebrate our tenth anniversary. Our first major holiday was to Chile so the symbolic aspect of ten years, back in a place that feels like it has grown as we have and celebrating all things positive after some travel challenges, Bocanariz is it. So it’s more of the event rather than the location, fantastic as it was, but we touched glasses with familiar eyes locked on the top experience from a country bursting with memories; ten years of them in fact.

January 7, 2015

While you were working – Farewell Polska Drużyna

The last of the embers have settled into the Valparaiso harbour along with the banished haze of a new years bender not to be forgotten; the former far sooner than the latter. Even this is questionable of team Poland, or as they say in central Europe, Polska Drużyna. Valparaiso seems a long way away now in the most current and refined of latin cities we’ve seen so far, Santiago. We met team Poland in Quito Ecuador what seems like a lifetime ago and indeed it is now that they depart our company for some other life, Piotr particularly looking like a little kid terrified of a first day at school. It’s a warm and mixed farewell, fittingly we wave at the departing cab with beer glasses still yet to be collected from our street side table too small for five. But close mates don’t need the space of strangers, our wobbly little table all the room we need. We’re all of a sudden just two once more standing on the kerb of the suave alternative streets of Lastarria outside a small microbrewery crowded by girls with fierce haircuts, street art and a fashionable lack of fashion, yes it’s our type of place. We become aware that we run the risk of becoming anti-fashion hipsters. Terrifying.

And it’s this sense of what we define as social cool that has Santiago leaping up the ladder of favoured cities to visit. Through the eclectic vibe and artistic trendiness remains enough latin sass to avoid the very possible feeling of gentrification that Santiago runs the risk of. We’re constantly warned to watch our bags in a bizarrely contrasting circumstance, the over-the-top friendliness of Chileans a stark opposition to the warnings they give. We even have a car stop suddenly in the street to call something out to us, is something wrong? Not at all, they stopped for fear of driving into a photo Charlie was preparing to take, immeasurable politeness bordering absurdity. It’s all relative though, Santiago is none the less a South American major city which means there’s danger, but in relation to its peers it’s an oasis of safety and security.

This sense of civility is particularly notable in the areas we’ve been staying, the alternative gay student hippie pinko centre-lefty area as far as we can tell. Here we do find coffee that is a strong contender for the best coffee in South America so far, a small cafe cheekily named Wonderful. Yes we needed to have wonderful Wonderful coffee at least twice a day, maybe we are becoming ‘those’ people. Throw in trendy bars, pedestrian markets, public music, street performers and we have the social sophistication that Bogota failed at, Quito did in its own way, Lima can’t dream of and Cancun; poor Cancun. Trust the gay area to have all the trimmings, I bet the property prices are too high as well.

In our visit here nine years ago we saw slices of all these things emerging but Santiago has come a long way since then. One thing we noticed then is that there was a disproportionate amount of PDA’s, public displays of affection. Well it was disproportionate then, it’s positively rampant now with parks becoming the favoured place for getting your love into gear and now it’s gay boys and girls too, you go Santiago. Not to mention that this isn’t confined to the discreet wedges of public spaces, it’s everywhere, out there and unrestrained. However we have been told that after dark it takes on a whole new level, the less articulated here the better; yes mum, I reckon they kiss with tongues after dark; scandalous.

Yes Santiago walks the fine line between clean sanitation and edgey pulse alarmingly well. Grown up is the semi cool city we saw then into a maturity that doesn’t need overt downsides to feel unbleached. Santiago is clean, relatively safe, packed with all the things we love without the boring sterility that often accompanies these positives. Danger, dirt, grit and decay have been replaced with edge, personality, vibrance and soul. Beyond all the amazing places we’ve experienced Santiago is possibly the only place that we could live, a bold call but one as undeniable as the wonderful coffee.

But it’s not all macchiatos and craft beers, a visit to Cajon de Maipo just 90 minutes South of the city for a spot of white water rafting gives us that little bit of adventure that we so crave. It’s in this valley that we spent Christmas those years ago, the sense of cycle just keeps on recurring. Geared up with a life vest bulky enough to raise the titanic we venture off into the pumping water of the rapids. We both jump to the front of course flanking ‘El Capitan’ a bubbly girl that can’t swim perched at the front to cling to the ropes for dear life. Safe to say she gets obliterated by every wave and loves it; those ropes have never been gripped so tight. The rapids aren’t the most aggressive ever, nor are they too tame, being tossed overboard I manage to barely hang on by one foot and a hand grabbing a rope somehow, great fun. The dude behind me contributed precisely sweet nothing to the paddling effort all day so was appropriately thrown to the water. We’re not in Lastarria now yet Santiago just keeps ticking boxes.

Fitting it is then that we farewell team Poland here in Santiago, close mates leave us in a place that feels so much like home. Travelling relationships are an intense and isolated beast but whether we visit Poland or the band gets back together in Australia we all somehow know it will happen; somewhere. It’s only a fleeting visit to Santiago this time, we now add it to the growing list of places that we need to visit again. Tomorrow we go to Mendoza in Argentina leaving friends that complete our social circle here and a place that feels like home. Four months into this trip it feels like we’re leaving home over again. Farewell Polska Drużyna, we now cut the cords of security all over again.

January 6, 2015

What you’d rather be seeing – Valparaiso, Chile

We spent a wonderful four days over New Years in the Chilean party city of Valpo. Steve has already summed it up so well however it has been such a photogenic city that I wanted to put my favourites in its own “what you’d rather be seeing”. I hope you like a couple of them and I’d also love it if you let me know which ones you do or don’t like.

The City

The alternative life, Chile style

The Arty shots

January 5, 2015

While you were working – Sing it again Valpo

There are rare times when things become or simply are, more than they ought. Be it a person achieving beyond expectations, an event with outcomes out shining its station or indeed a place that lives bigger than its borders. Welcome to Valparaiso, or as only seems appropriate given the irreverent disregard to the norm here, the common affective: Valpo.

There’s so much to say about Valpo and all of it defies words. The ebb, flow and surge of what makes Valpo is wedged in those spaces between the words, those spaces where imagination is disturbed to motion for lack of constraining dictation. Pablo Neruda, Chiles nobel prize winning poet once said of Valpo:

How absurd you are…
You never combed your hair,
you never had time to get dressed,
Life has always surprised you.

It takes the barest emergence from the bus terminal to appreciate all that Pablo has said in between what he said. For us Valpo conjures a relationship, one of distant admiration the like of which one might have with a vintage star of the cabaret stage. Distant only because the flighty artistic nature of Valparaiso won’t stay still, but floats about the room never quite bogged in a single one of the conversations it’s having with everyone who wants to be that only one. Indeed Valpo has forgotten to comb her hair and is constantly surprised by the inferior trends that have overtaken her, but still she plays on. She plays on to an adoring crowd that cherishes lines on her face, skin that speaks of a busy life, that waning voice that dances every tone and the stories that make her show more than it ever ought to be. And they cheer, we all cheer through the smoky room into the dim lights of a dame in the mended gown who will always have one encore for the stage that is her home. To the audience that is her world. The way it used; ought to be.

The papers write of the mystique, the charm, everything that is this yesteryear star shining brightest in the sky for only those that care to come to the show. Those that care to see the spaces in between what the papers put into words. The applauds come, the tributes continue but she will never leave her small stage for a large; the lights can shine brighter upon the new, her brightest lights are reserved for her audience. May the show always go on and those spaces in between ever be greater than the words that confine them.

Play it again Valpo. We’ll have that conversation that you only reserve for us without a word spoken. You give us everything that can’t be put into words, those spaces expanded to a universe you designed; your stage. And we listen. We know you’ll never stop but we ask anyway; play it just one more time.

January 4, 2015

While you were working – Skies ablaze, New Years, Valparaiso

A home cooked breakfast has the team in fine fettle, we’re bursting to get out and about into this city that seems like it’s always alive on the one day of the year it truly kicks into overdrive. All of the warm romanticism of our first impressions yesterday seem alive and possibly even enhanced. We’d noticed a lot of street art yesterday but the magnitude, scope and quality is what is really capturing our attention. This is no random happenstance, art clambers to every available space with a completeness that overshoots the actions of any small niche group. This whole city seems to embrace art and indeed covers itself in it like tattoos on skin, indelible and expressive.

There’s also an eclectic nature to the architecture here. Port side colonial grandeur all imperious stone and severity give way to adjacent hills of wonkiness and chaos clad in corrugated iron. This rickety mass of buildings take on a somewhat organic feel as they cling to the hillsides using each other for support like a vine growing on lattice, a patchwork created by years. It is in these hills that the most commanding harbour views accompany the edgey urban and gritty perspectives of the city. This theme of contrast and clash continues to remove any sense of being able to put your finger on a pulse, the cliche notion of having to feel Valparaiso rather than see it feels not so cliche here at all.

The only thing we can say for sure so far is that the attractiveness of this city is held within the intangible. To describe Valparaiso is only possible through more vague terms like energy, buzz, vibe and feel. Words can draw the lines but it’s the unspoken in between that paints the colours.

Positively bursting with excitement generously donated by this city our group of five becomes ten with a few additions to the team. Both us and team Poland have other travellers we’ve met along the way joining us with two girls from Melbourne that are staying across the hall. We now have Australia, Poland, France, Germany and Iceland represented in a type of culture clash that now seems necessary for any travel celebration. Churning through food, Pisco and team Polands christmas gift, what else but polish vodka, the merry crew as hodge-podge as Valpo itself are elevated to merriment. The big decision now is to go out or stay in for the fireworks? If we poke our heads out of the windows we have a pretty good view of the harbour, even better if we climb through the bathtub, out the window and onto the roof; not the safest option. That decision can wait though, the party is in our apartment, of that there is no doubt so it seems we’ll stay in for the show.

Nearly midnight and the cautions of before are out the window, literally. We all launch ourselves drinks in hand to tromp on the roof for one of the best views in the city, and it’s all ours. It does seem appropriate in this town to have an irreverence to convention, we embrace all of the flare and fire of Valparaiso to witness exactly that over the harbour. Flare and fire indeed, it’s a great show of fireworks on the stage with the grandstand of the cities hills glowing with an attentive audience. All of the energy that we have soaked up from Valpo flies forth unrestrained, every one of us yells, whistles and howls in wickedly juvenile revelry. Swilling sparkling wine from the bottle it feels a little like we’re calling in the year 2000 all over again such is the shameless enthusiasm with which we shout to the world, kids all over again.

Yes it’s the company, the alcohol and definitely being new years, but some credit must go to this crazy-cool town. In such a short time we’ve all been elevated by this place, so it’s time to get in and have a closer look. The merry crew somehow make it out into the night air and down the steep hill unbelievably all staying together. The streets are heaving with a street party to rival anywhere else, the throw-away line that half of Chile goes to Valparaiso for new years doesn’t seem to be throw-away at all. To say that the streets are heaving is an understatement. Not just the main plazas overflow with revellers, every available nook and crevice bursts with a surge of people that has to be seen to be believed. Not being terribly lucid at this stage it’s again those intangibles that surround us; energy, passion and raucous cheer hang thick in the air.

To say that the remaining night is a blur is a little bit of an understatement. We have no notion of how late the night is but we don’t believe it’s particularly late, the swirling world ending with faces into pillows sometime well before sunrise.

Box ticked. In the midst of the festive season it has to be said that Chile has delivered a sensational christmas and now new-years. Where christmas took us all the way back home, new years took us away from it, to the world. Sadly this time Charlie contributes sweet nothing in comedic drunken behaviour terms, this partying more an uncomplicated slice of revelry. The fireworks have finished and the music winds to a gentle hum on this bold city and its annual shout to the world. Only in such an unrestrained city with such a brash rebellious streak could we have experienced such a global border-free celebration. Not only half of Chile came to party with Valparaiso, more like most of the world has a place here drinking up the type of unshackled free attitude that so few places can truly offer.

January 3, 2015

While you were working – Valparaiso, Chile

Christmas is done and we’re thoroughly detoxed from our nature bender in Parque Huerquehue so there’s only one thing to be done; meet up with team Poland and re-saturate on alcohol. So it’s off to Valparaiso, or ‘Valpo’, the well renowned party spot for Chileans and indeed anyone worth their salt on new years eve it seems. It’s party time combined with the anticipated reunion with team Poland, the question remains; what sort of cyclone defence systems does Valparaiso have in place because Ola and her backup band are on approach.

The overnight bus could be, and indeed has been a damn sight worse, we’re completely getting the hang of these jaunts smashing out six or seven hours sleep. That’s not to say we’re not a bit tired, the three days hiking straight onto a night bus are a cake mix from which only flavours of hate can emerge. We’re loaded up with packs and trudging step by step we soak up the sights sounds and indeed smells of Valparaiso. On first impression it’s safe to say that Valpo has edge, grit and more than its fair share of fading glamour. Passing grand buildings that have all seen better days mixed with a relentless array of street art there’s an abandonment to any pretence of pretty exactness. Flair, flavour and a hearty dose of fabulousness have won the day here and there’s no sign of them letting go any time soon.

Of course it’s sometime soon after 7am, who really knows, so this means that the very South American phenomenon of closing cafes when you most want coffee is in full swing. There’s a very real risk of middle-class first world tourist meltdown on the horizon. We’ve made it the ten or so blocks on the flat ground but our path to the hostel now draws us upward. We were hoping for a stop before making the climb; tantrum cannons at the ready. Sadly there’s no potential you-tube sensation style public embarrassment, the steep hills that Valparaiso clings to can’t be avoided or delayed it seems.

Dragging ourselves up a winding cobbled street flanked by street art covered buildings that pile ramshackle atop one another we escalate into alternative hipster heaven. Every bend in the road reveals more steep ascent and impossibly placed buildings; Valparaiso is a town reminiscent of a collection of building blocks all from different sets but shoved together anyway. The result is a wild deviation from the conformity, organisation and gentrification that often sets Chile apart from other Latin countries. The reputation for party time in Valpo is passively on show everywhere, the black sheep in Chile’s studious diligent family is cheeky, irreverent and romantically stylish in a manner that many will try to replicate and all will fail. Right now it seems all too easy to overlook the liberal smear of dirt and grime, it seems part of the city and something it could not do without.

Our invigorating first date with the irreverent personality of Valparaiso has not only been interesting, it’s ended any chance of tantrum. We now have coffee for our wait till check in time and the reunion with team alcohol/ Poland. After dropping bags and showering we are warned of the Valparaiso ghettos which even Chileans don’t go to after dark, another reinforcement to this cities deviation from Chiles reputed stability. Grabbing a small bus we wind along an art laden road clinging to the hillside before our rocketing little shitbox bus barrels down plummeting streets too windy to be considered safe. Disregarding regulation is a local pastime here it seems. Spat out at a market that is far too crammed for words we load up on bags full of food and settle in for a local meal soaking up a buzzing life that is as infectious as it is unavoidable. The paila and fish soup aren’t as top shelf as in Santiago but a steaming bowl of fresh local seafood cooked in traditional methods simply can’t go wrong. This place is going to be fun and exhausting, we just don’t know which will be more.

Arriving back to the long awaited reunion we launch into stories, laughs as the team gets back together. And they’ve multiplied, Paulina has joined team Poland so we’re outnumbered now, this could be dangerous. Not surprisingly a celebratory beer goes down well from a balcony overlooking this most fabulous of towns and it’s famous harbour. The love just keeps coming, Poitr has scored big points with the whole team booking an awesome apartment. A great little kitchen provides the platform for a home cooked fish curry, pisco sours and they type of homely evening that is so rarely on offer for nomadic travellers.

Valparaiso was once the richest and most important port on the west coast of South America until the Panama canal undermined it’s necessity. That status is on show for all to see but those glory days have been penned to a history long past and unlikely to return. Instead of slipping into simple disrepair Valpo has let loose an artistic explosion all too happy to let go of the trappings of riches in favour of a less tangible currency. Valparaiso you’re super cool, we want to be your friend.

January 2, 2015

While you were working – The long march, Huerquehue

Today is the day we drop tent and venture back to humanity, suitably relieved of any alcohol in readiness for the reunion with team Poland. The two days walking thus far has been harder than expected, partly due to the terrain and partly due to our waning fitness. Just how much of each factor remains uncertain. What is certain though is that there is a bus at 2:10pm today back to Pucon, the Chilean bus network with a trick or two to show Swiss watchmakers on punctuality is not to be second guessed. So for the first time in a couple of days we have a deadline more refined than a vague preference for arrival before sunset. With plans to be walking by 8am we rise at 7am for breakfast and pack up. The bags are a damn sight lighter and we’re dropping one sore foot after another only a little after schedule. We’ll declare that a success.

As with every day so far there’s a hefty ascent first up so it’s light on for conversation and heavy on determined trudging. It’s amazing what managing expectations can do, we make it to the top of the main ascent in less than an hour more than making up any lost time from setting off a touch late. Unlike day one however we can’t linger to praise ourselves too much time, that crudest of contrivances is an ever present and unwelcome guest. Gone are the clear skies and the beaming sun, the clouds are no longer high overhead, now blanketing us in mood to enclose our journey to a far smaller world.

With the ever preset mist we venture through the same forests that struck such definite awe in us just two days ago. While the awe remains the views do not, our ever upward gazes now obscured are drawn down to the atmospheric world we now inhabit. We make good time on this journey out which affords us very welcome opportunities to pause and appreciate. Spotting two Aguilas (large birds of prey) on a bare branch of a Monkey Puzzle we pause to gawk and take photos. We’re at the parks namesake, lake Huerquehue when the Aguilas take to wing. They skirt the mist shrouded lake, the only movement disappearing into the invisible vanishing point that lazily disappears beyond somewhere we can’t quite see. It seems we aren’t done with postcard shots just yet.

Happy with our timing and feeling far less pressure we take a longer route back to take in Lago Verde, Green lake. We descend from our small ridge of impressive trees to the lake shore and, you won’t believe it, this lake is visually pretty nice too. It’s just crazy up here, we felt on day one that it was just a postcard at every corner and that trend is continuing unabated. And on, we are keen to get the top of the rise that was the cause for all our pain the first day, yet reluctant to rush anything here. It’s a strange trap when hiking that we often fall into; we’re often pushing ourselves to reach a goal and this can often lead to us rushing through the very places we go to the effort to be within. So slowly we go, with time seemingly well in hand we stop to do what we came to do, appreciate being in a beautiful place. It’s no more complicated than that.

We do eventually reach that watershed and the descent is accompanied by the inevitable transition from appreciation to end goal, we just want to get there now. The views return that we remember from day one and with the weather coming in and feet rapidly blistering we’re fixated on finishing, our time of gracious wonder draws to a close. As is often the case the sense of accomplishment on reaching the park exit delivers a hateful realisation that there’s the better part of an hour to go on an all too boring road. A layer of icing that this cake really didn’t need. But eventually we do make it in, high fives and two minute noodles all around.

What a few days. We have a night bus tonight which is just about the last thing we could want, for now it’s back to the hostel to repack and have some food. The boring logistics afternoon an all too rapid rush back into civilisation, everything that we relished being so far from. It’s only when crammed into the bus seats for the inevitable fitful attempt at sleep that the whole point of venturing into wilderness returns to mind. We can romanticise escape from life’s demands but for us it’s only ever a temporary flight. Right now we drift off accompanied by the intangible wealth that can be held in places of no monetary value. May we always have the capacity to apportion value to that wealth and never value the goal beyond appreciating the wealth before us.

January 1, 2015

While you were working – Bath time, Parque Huerquehue

With the big walking day done in this Bear Grylls but-not-fake journey we wake to a blissful morning in our new tent, new sleeping bags and new everything. Ok so we’re not exactly in survival mode; has Charlie made the green tea and granola yet? It’s so hard to get good help out here. Today we plan to walk out the other side of the national park to Rio Blanco to where we will, we hope, find hot thermal springs to add a little bit of icing on this cake. For now though walking can wait, where’s my tea?

Saddled up we venture out of the valley depths to begin an ascent all over again. Having left behind our entire campsite but for chocolate and water we veritably bound up the sharply eroded pathway to wind our way ever upwards, again. In the lower reaches of the valley the dense brush encloses us in the space left by the grander trees retreated to higher perches. Surrounding us on all sides are precipitous ridges of jagged stone dotted only intermittently by large monkey puzzle trees and small slivers of snow. The silhouette of the trees with bare straight trunks reminiscent of marching soldiers along the highest road, alone. Altitude here determined which plants grow where, the monkey puzzle trees the undisputed kings of this forest land.

But before long we begin our descent again farewelling the domain of the big trees and exiting the confines of the park borders. Tall straight trees dominate our vistas still albeit not quite like in the upper regions yet it’s worth the occasional stop-and-look all the same. Down and down we go through ever evolving landscape, it seems to change every ten minutes or so. Outside of the park boundary the relatively limited range or flora gives way to a wider range of introduced plants, or should I say weeds. The weeds are guiltily a little nice I have to say, the forest stops and we are in a relatively open field littered with wild rose. With two old farm buildings long since left to ruin it’s clear that ready human activity in this space is a notion long forgotten. The expression ‘beaten track’ comes to mind, here the track is not beaten any longer, nature has reclaimed the fight.

Walking through our time capsule of a farmhouse it’s clear by the derelict road leading in that there’s not likely to be anything but walkers in this area for some time. We’re passing gates and walking over makeshift bridges to the waning influence of the national park, before long we’re winding down a very functional road to Rio Blanco and the much anticipated hot springs. The energetic bound of earlier today is as distant as the national park flora, we plod into the grounds of the hot springs to the sight of Germany one and two from the Pucon hostel. It seems the embarrassment of that evening will hang about us for a little longer yet. A quick chat and we’re off, these tired unfit legs need a rest.

I think our bodies just passed away and we’re now in heaven. The hot springs here are fed by a small trickle of blisteringly hot water and fed through intermittent natural pools, each one getting a little bit more moderating cold water. So it’s a game of pick your temperature from scorching to hot, and here I was fearing that it might be a little bit of a lame tepid warmth, couldn’t be more wrong. We settle in for the second coolest and soak away the tiredness in a landscape designed for relaxation. A broad alpine stream rollicks along beside us and we’re flanked by grand mountains. Not a sound invades our peace beyond what nature and just a few other campers deliver, the warmth of the water slowly ebbing its way beyond the limitations of our skin and slowly unwinding our entire bodies, bliss. Yes it’s sounding like a day spa brochure and if not for the pristine natural surrounds we’d feel a tad guilty, but the uncontrived surrounds permit indulgence.

But all good things must come to an end, we have a campsite waiting back beyond the other side of the mountain pass. We have dropped elevation quite a bit today so the walk back offers more uphill fun meaning that we can’t stay as long as we would like to; but are we ever going to want to leave this place? I think not. One last lay down on the soft grass beside the springs shaded by a tree goes a little longer than planned; just a minute more.

The uphill commences, and it passes; the hot springs seemingly more restorative than we’d have ever thought. In the open fields of wild rose and lush grass we are assailed with the popular images of the Von Trapp family in The Sound Of Music, fresh air is so often underrated. With the majority of the uphills done by now we take our opportunities to dawdle, appreciate the views and soak up being back in the borders of the park. Unlike the Von Trapps, our journey is not a one-way event, we gladly return to our little home in the wilderness, a sanctuary in unlikely blazing orange

Unlike our first day here there’s no tent to set up and we’re not as nearly tired so no need for a nap, instead we layer relaxation and peace atop this detoxing wilderness cake. We also get back into a more usual routine, launching into a debate about what food must be eaten. It’s a short debate scouring over the limited ingredients we have, soup starters with noodles and tuna will serve for tonight. Some meals are more defined by the experience than the cuisine, in this case our tasty yet simple noodles are fit for a royal dining hall. Who said two minute noodles can’t be fine dining? To the setting sun we wonder how an editors cut of The Sound Of Music might finish; right now it seems that there’s only one possibility. The family escape all the evils of the world at the park border for an ever-after of bliss in the mountains, the happiest of ever afters ever penned, elegant and indelible.