Happy Sunday folks,

Writing today from Puerto Varas, Chile (huzzah we made it across the border!).

Things are a bit different here in Chile. The currency is worth about 500 - 1 USD and the super markets have a diverse range of food similar to what you would find in North America thus re-enabling my daily consumption of Greek yoghurt. The people are very friendly but speak at an almost indecipherable quick pace. So perhaps they are not so nice as I'm only catching 30% of what they are saying and they are calling me an asshat in between words. We'll never know ...

If anyone has noticed my lack of online appearance for the past 5 days (my god) it's because Chris and I decided to get on the least functioning bus in Chile and head to the middle of nowhere. Was it worth the 95 KM 4 hour bus ride where the bus driver was continually pouring water on the engine and pulling off cliff side to bang on the motor a bit? Yes, absolutely. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. 

The town (peublo) is called Cochamo. It's a sleepy seaside/bay town that typically hosts people for a night or so before they head up to La Junta. We followed suit, spent the evening in Cochamo town and then headed to the trail head the next morning. To get to La Junta and Refugio Cochamo (our ultimate destination) you need to hike about 4-6 hours or go by horse. I figured, hey, I haven't ridden a horse since I was 13 why not take one up a mountain?

So Chris and I became cowboys for the day with our horses Hidalgo and Nino who took us on a guided tour of the area. I would say that we rode the horses but in reality the horse was definitely in charge... Especially Chris's who refused to walk in the mud and preferred a more dry path. However, this may have been Chris speaking telepathically to the horse due to this disinclination towards getting dirty. Thus this paragraph is incredibly confused as I just refuted my thesis statement ... Whatever it's my blog.

The refugio was simply amazing. The view from our room, the food, the people, everything was great. They don't get much meat of there so most of what they serve is vegetarian which suited me juuuuuust fine :) Chris didn't even complain once. That's how nice it was.

Our time in La Junta was spent pretty much just trekking and exploring the area. The first day we did a 5-6 hour hike into a waterfall where we promptly stripped to our bathing suits and jumped in as we were covered in sweat and bug guts. FYI the horse flies (tabanos) are as big as a chipmunk (probably something left over from the Jurassic period). They were fine in the shade but once you hit the sun, bam, tabanos err where. They don't really bite you but they like to buzz around your head as your trying to cross over a log 7 feet above a river. I've been doing yoga for about 5 years now and only when I had to deal with these fuckers is when I learned how to be "zen".

The other highlight of being up there was an area called the Tobbagones (toboggan). Which were a series of waterfall water slides. Yes, natural water slides.

The La Junta area is rustic to say the least. For instance as you're hiking you'll come to river with a few dry rocks peaking out. "Surely this could not be the way" I would say to myself. Buuuuuuuut, yes, yes it was as you could see the little orange tape that marked the way on the other side of the river. So you debate with yourself as to whether you can do it meanwhile Chris is hopping across the rocks leaving you stranded on the other side. There was actually only one crossing that we couldn't manage. However if we had a carabiner and harness we could have used the makeshift zipline that was about 10-12 feet above the river. Alas, no gear...

The trails see a lot of rain so you're essentially walking through rainforest. Which is cool because you get to see some enormous trees and neat colourful lizards. Chris has pictures of both which I assume he will post to Facebook or his blog shortly.

We sadly left after 3 days, hiked back to the trail head and hopped in some very nice lady's truck back into town. Transportation to and from the trail head is a bit complicated as it's about 8 km from Cochamo town. The suggested method of transportation is to actually hitch hike... which is fine because the locals are super nice and totally willing to give you a lift for about 15 bucks/7000 pesos.

That being said, we're going to add a new page to the blog that contains practical information about some of the places we've been, places we've stayed/recommend.

Before all of this we were in Bariloche but I guess I skipped that and will have to let Chris write about it ...