The wheels on the bus go round and round..

So last Sunday we left El Bolsón for Bariloche, but were unable to get the forward ticket into Chile. So we wandered the town, not much to do, why oh why do we continually arrive places on SUNDAY!? Anywho, we ate lunch, hung out at the hostel, blahblah...movies on tv, beers, etc. Monday we left for Orsorno, in Chile. Thankfully no border problems! Arrived, and found out we couldn´t get our onward ticket to Pucón until the next day. We lucked out and found a hotel right around the corner from the station and grabbed a private room. Made pizza, and watched movies all night.

TUESDAY! Off to Pucón. Finally. Upon arrival we find that all the dorms and hostels are crazy expensive, so we scout the streets looking for a deal. We find one, in the shape of a dilapidated old house with creaky floor boards, peeling paint, and constant smoke from the wood powered stove downstairs pumping into our room. Niiiiiice. Hey, it was less than half the price of the other places! We scout the town and sign up for white water rafting class 4/5 for the next day. Woo! Do a little shopping, then its off to our humble abode for a night of dodgy pasta we made in the backyard, and multiple games of Kings in the Corner.

Woke up late, grabbed lunch around the corner- biggest burgers EVER. We took halves home for dins. Then we wandered off to wait for the trip to start!!! The bus was a bit late, and it turned out we were to be in one of 4 boats, each holding 6 rafters and a guide, as well as 2 safety men in kayaks. Awesome! The water was freezing. We had wetsuits, booties, grip shorts, windbreakers, lifejackets and helmets... we were prepared! We hopped in the raft with our guide Carlos, and down the river we went. Some people had never rafter before, including Oli, so there was lots of excitement as we went through some training. We practised balancing (Oli fell out. Blames it on me.. whatever helps him sleep at night :), high sides and low sides, as well at paddling in unison. I found the guiding of the raft quite different than the style back in the States, but it was still safe and effective. We hit awesome rapids, went over 10 foot waterfalls... AHHHH! Can´t wait to do it again while we are in Asia.

Photoooooos:

So after the rafting, we mellowed out at home, so so happy to be warm and dry again as the clouds opened up and it continued to pour after we exited the river. More cards, leftover lunch, vino, and bedtime. Woo!

The next evening we had an overnight bus to Santiago, so we spent the day napping and reading. The bus was long and uneventful... but then.... WE ARRIVED!

It is so nice to be in a big city after being in isolated tourist destinations for the majority of the past month. Immediately upon arrival, we hopped on the metro (!!!!) and dropped our bags off at the hostel and walked over to the Indian embassy. We arrived just before opening, but the people there were SO nice and let us in to talk about the process. We had to do a bank deposit down the street, fill our some applications, and hand over our passports for the weeklong process. It was so smooth and easy, and we are soooo happy we did this now instead of attempting to do it in London!!! Can´t imagine how bad the queues and processing time would have been.

After the visa thing was sorted, we wandered for miles to the outskirts of town to find The North Face for Oli to get new shoes. No luck on the shoes, but we did find outselves in an awesome mall and I came out like a bandit! I can finally donate some of my more... loved... clothing. We went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which we loved, then wandered back with too many bags and sore feet. Made tacos for dinner (finally a place with tortillas!) with fresh salsa and guacamole... drank some vino and relaxed in the awesome dorm before bedtime! Side note, one of our roomies in the dorm is Sam, the German girl we hung out with in El Bolsón when Oli lost his bag! Small world.

This morning we headed into the city center to explore the fish market. It is quite famous, and you can smell it from a few blocks away. As we wandered around the lifeless mariscos, lounging on a bed of ice, we were astounded at the variety and quality of the place. You could seriously buy any of little Nemos friends or enemies and cook them up fresh for dinner. Amazing!!

We crossed the road and over to the local fruit and veg market, where we witnessed our first petty crime of the trip! A sneaky teen grabbed the gold necklace off the guy in front of us and took off, tearing through the crowd. He was persued by the victim, but the nimble feet of the young are hard to compete with. We quickly grabbed tight holds on our bags and entered, only to emerge with what must be 15 kilos or more of veggies in our brand new Puma duffel. Gotta love knockoffs! We then spent the next few hours wandering, getting lost, enjoying the gorgeous city, walking through parks and little classy neighborhoods, and here we are. We felt like we have been neglectful of our blog readers, and we should be much more diligent in the future. LOVE TO ALL! xx

ps- just bought our tix to India. flying london-chennai on March 20, then heading north. any advice? we wont recieve our india guidebook for another month, and would love some tips!