With a mix of attractive old architecture, and revolting 'modern' buildings, we spent our time celebrating their memorial day and visiting museums.
To be honest, the best bit was enjoying some really good bottles of red wine!ALEX: Hello wine!
GEORGE: After a couple of days we headed south into Patagonia to the lake district. It was beautiful, but freezing! Here, we did lots of walking, mountain biking, horse riding and volcano climbing.
ALEX: The day we spent hiking in one of the many national parks (clearly forgotten/no idea how you spell the name of the one we visited) in Patagonia was great. In a strange way the rain made it more fun as we felt that we were really getting stuck in. Not to mention the fact that gaters make you feel rather manly in a Brian Blessed kinda way......
GEORGE: The horse riding was great - niether of us had ridden before....yet there we were, galloping through the countryside. It was so exhilirating. I have to say I didn't actually ask my horse to gallop....but it just followed the other horses (Alex being the speed freak). Apart from trying to stay on, I can remember seeing the sparks fly from under the horses hooves in front of me! (I'm not saying I'm ready to join a 'pony club' ...Chris!) It was great fun.
ALEX: Two words, Leather Chaps! Despite having blonde hair, my horse was quite with it and didn't mind charging through the countryside at speeds that would make Frankie Detori get a bit wobbly. Had a great day and even made it back in one piece which I was a little surprised at. I also don't need to join a Pony Club - sorry Chris......
GEORGE: Right...now this is where we were a bit clever. Forgetting after three hours of horse riding and using muscles we never knew we had we might be in pain the following day, we had arranged to climb a volcano! Oooooooo me legs!
So the next day, at 7am we started our ascent of an active volcano! It was exhausting. We had crampons on which helped, but it was a long zig-zagging climb up and into the wind. The first 2 hours for me were agony as my legs were aching and tired from the previous day. We stopped every 30 minutes for a break. Every time we a lip, we climbed over and there was still sooo much mountain to go. BUT the last 30 minute stretch was really exciting.
When we got to the top, it was AMAZING!!!!! Not only the sense of acheivement (and the thank f*** I've made it), but the sight inside the volcano and the views across the lake district both Chile and Argentinean side.
The smell of sulphur was literally chocking. But it was very cool to see the lumps of molton rock being spat out of the top, high into the air, before falling back in.
I was very relieved that we then put pads on our bums and slid like little bob sleighs down the mountain, stearing with our weight and feet. It was childish and so much fun.
ALEX: Despite dressing up as if we were on work experience with the local gas board, this was definitley a highlight for me. What George has failed to tell you is that the night before, golden balls here dropped our camera on the kitchen floor in our hostel which rendered it useless - oops. Needless to say we very quickly became incredibly good friends with the other 3 people in our group, showing great interest in them and their lives so that we could get them not only to take some pictures of us, but also email them to us afterwards - and no, I can't remember any of their names!
GEORGE: After all that exertion we decided it was time to sit on a bus for 19 hours and make our way into Argentina to Buenos Aires.
This was a brief visit to Chile as we will be re-visiting later on! Oh the suspense.
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