Chiloe, Chile

After the 14-hour bus ride from Viña del Mar we arrived to our sponteaous destination, Puerto Montt. It´s a fishing town next to a bay, and made me feel like I was in an old version of Seattle. We found a hostel which was more like a family home with rooms to rent, and went to walk through Puerto Montt after getting situated. A friendly guy on the street told us of a good place to eat lunch called El Balcon, so we decided to check it out. It was a bit more expensive then expected but had a good vibe with awesome decor. After lunch we hung out by the water then headed back to the hostel where we prepped for the next day's trip to Chiloe.

Late the next morning we took a bus from the terminal to Castro, the main town of the Chiloé archipelago. The bus went on a ferry over to the island, and then through Ancud making multiple stops until we finally arrived to Castro 3 hours later. When we got off the bus we were on the search for a hostel that our guide book said was warmly recommended. We found it but it was a bit out if our budget so Marcela ran across the street to inquire about pricing of another hostel from our book while I waited with the bags. Here is where I met Justin, whom we travelled with the following 3 days. We ended up staying across the street at Molo Hostel in a room that had an amazing view of the water. After settling in we met up with Justin to get lunch at a restaurant on stilts over the water which was next to an artisan market. Justin ordered this crazy seafood dish that had every shellfish imaginable. Later that night we got ready to go salsa dancing with a couple Aussies Justin made friends with on his travels. We had an interesting salsa session, and then ventured to a bar with live music.

The next morning after we had breakfast we headed to Dalchue. There was a fairly large Sunday street fair that we browsed through, then we took some pictures, had some ceviche for lunch, and headed back to Castro. Later that evening we grabbed dinner with Justin and Reanna (Aussie friend) who had mentioned they were going camping for the next couple days. We decided to join them!

We met up the next day in the early afternoon, went grocery shopping, grabbed our packs and headed to the National Park of Chiloe. Taking a local bus, we arrived 2 hours later, found a place to camp, and set up our tents. The following two days were full of short hikes, great food, amazing bonfires, and a ton of ass-kicking in the card game Spades. 

Once the two nights camping were up, we returned for one last night in Castro. We made dinner, played more spades, and eventually went to bed late. The next day we had time to work on the blog, finish up a third game of spades, and have lunch before catching buses in our own directions that evening. We said our goodbyes and come visits, and parted ways. Little did we know that before long we would see both Justin and Reanna again. Reanna on the ferry for a brief moment, and Justin once we arrived in Santaigo. 

Viña del Mar / Valparaiso, Chile

We arrived in Viña del Mar at 5am after a 7-hour bus ride from Mendoza, and took a cab to our airbnb hosts apartment. Luckily, she was kind enough to accomodate our early arrival, and even came outside and walked down the block looking for us. As we were fairly unrested, we decided to sleep immediately after entering the apartment.

After waking up past noon walked to the beach, only 4 blocks away. We had sandwiches leftover from our bus ride, and had a little picnic with a stray dog on the boardwalk while reading our books. Now we have both finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, and recommend it highly. We then walked back toward the apartment and around the enormous mall next door, finishing our rounds with a bottle of wine and some chocolate in hand.

The following day we took a cab to the downtown area of Viña del Mar, walked around for a bit, and then hopped on the metro towards Valparaiso which has a small downtown with beautiful historic buildings surrounded by dozens of steep hills. We took a lift to the top of a Cerro Alegre (cerro = hill) and went into the Museo de Bellas Artes which is housed inside El Palacio Baburizza. After exploring the museum, we took the lift back down and decided to eat at a nearby cafe that had a delicious seafood soup. We then opted to head back to Viña on the metro, avoiding the areas our airbnb host told us were a little sketchy.

Once back in Viña, we walked to the tourist hotspots along the coast, which consist of a functional Flower Clock, a sweet Castle, a Casino, and of course stopping to get a beer by the beach. It was a great day to be walking around, and once the daylight started to fade we had an urge to see a movie. We walked over to the mall, ate a quick dinner, and went to watch Captain America 2. In all it was a successful day full of activities.

The next morning we woke up, packed and headed to Reñaca for one last siteseeing in Viña. We took a bus right outside the apartment that took us a couple blocks from the Reñaca beach, where we drank a bit of wine while watching pelicans dive for fish.

We hurried back to get our packs from the apartment, said our goodbyes to our sweet hosts and jumped into a cab to the bus terminal. The night before we had planned to go 10 hours north to venture around Caldera and Copiapo despite the earthquake and tsnuami warnings. We had the camping and hostel locations as well as buses figured out for our stay in the north, but when we arrived at the bus station, something overcame us and we spontaneously ended up with two tickets to Puerto Montt, 14 hours south of Viña. We planned our next move before falling asleep on the bus.