Beaches, Vineyards, and Volcanos ...

Hola amigos,

We hope you're all enjoying the holiday season! We're thinking of home and miss everyone! 

Here's what we've been up to for the past week, heading south through Chile.  From the last post we were in La Serena and bused south to the funky city of Valparaiso, where we spent a few days exploring the city.  The city is on the ocean and built haphazardly into the surrounding hills. It's a fun town with lots of hand-painted buildings, fresh seafood, and a big export harbor.    

A view of Valparaiso

The artist at work on our hostel

Musical Stairs

 We decided to take a day trip from Valparaiso to celebrate Christmukah in a small town called Quintay about an hour south.  We showed up at an absolutely stunning beach that we had all to ourselves.  The ocean is too cold to swim and the waves were huge but we really enjoyed the scenery.  After soaking in the sun, we walked to the little marina cove in town for a delicious fresh seafood dinner.  A lovely day!

Gorgeous beach all to ourselves in Quintay

Christmukah dinner of fresh seafood and beautiful views

From Valparaiso, we took a short 1.5 h bus inland to Santiago, the capital of Chile.  Expectations were low (the big cities have not wowed us to date), but they were greatly surpassed!  It is such a clean, modern and well planned city.  It was easy to get around and there are several hills you can climb up (or take a funicular) for nice views of the city.  We explored the city, did some shopping (bought some camping gear for Patagonia), and celebrated Christmas at our hostel by cooking up a delicious meal (of roasted chicken and vegetables, potatoes au gratin, and salad) with 3 French guys we met.

Santiago sprawl and smoggy Andes - but it's really nice!

After Santiago, we headed to one of the many wine producing valleys in central Chile. We stayed in a town called Santa Cruz and visited the Viu Manent vineyard in the Colchagua Valley.  It was beautiful.  Rows and rows of vineyards (20 varieties!) and soft green mountains. We had lunch after our tour and tasting at the cute little cafe on site. 

Touring the vineyards by horse and carriage - how sweet

Best cafe location!

Next we took a long 11 hour bus ride further south to Pucon, the Banff of Chile, but with active volcanoes!  There are enormous cottages along the crystal clear lake; the town is full of resto-bars, cafes and shops; and the surrounding area is full of national parks and nature reserves.  We're spending 4 days here.  Day 1 was today and what a day it was! We woke up at 3:15am to be at the base of the Villarrica volcano by around 5:30am. The volcano is active and has hot gas coming out the top all the time. The glacier at the top of the volcano has ice year round as well. We climbed up to the peak (~2850 m) in about 4 hours and enjoyed gorgeous views of surrounding volcanoes and parks.  The 'fog' in the photos is actually volcanic ash from a nearby volcano!  

View halfway up the volcano at sunrise

The gas-spewing top (you can see the path on the left)

View looking south from the peak

Our group at the volcano peak

The inside of the volcano!

We endorsed the Chilean propaganda :)

Although the climb and the views were amazing, the best part of the climb was the way down. We were outfitted with duct-tape bums and mini-flying-sauce-type toboggans and slid all the way down the volcano!! The best (and longest) toboggan ride of our lives! It took about 1 hour of sledding.  What a blast!

Marsh sledding down on the last run

Us at the bottom of the volcano after sledding down - SO much fun! (you can see the peak of the volcano in the top right)

To top it all off, after sledding on a glacier in the morning, we could walk to the beach in the afternoon and enjoy the almost 30 degree temperature! Tomorrow we'll have a proper beach day and a New Years Eve BBQ and beach party. Then we'll head back out to the parks for an overnight trek and test out our new camping gear.  We'll let you know how it all goes!

Have a very Happy New Years and see you all in 2012!

xoxo Marsh and Shaina