Albergue Latino Valdivia

... filled with parks and good stuff to eat. All the museums were closed when we went there, but the fish market was open, selling entire smoked salmons for absurdly low prices, as well as all manner of homemade Chilean herbal remedies. Like many cities in this area, Valdivia was abandoned during the Mapuche native uprising in 1599, and wasn´t reincorporated into Chile until the nineteenth century, remaining a remote frontier town for much ...

... just that, labor. You can get a lot of cups out of a ten dollar bag of coffee, and that's retail! Go figure. And that doesn't mean you can even find a place open before mid-morning. This is when you need that breakfast with your bed, just to have something warm for your belly first thing on a chilly Chile morning. Screw it. I'm tired of the wet and cold. I'm going to Santiago. Fingers are crossed. Santiago has a rep for smog ...

Next stop on the Skifari was supposed to be Nevados de Chillan, back in Chile. A lack of direct buses meant t]we had to go via Valdivia. According to the guide book this is a charming and picturesque university town with a busy river port (complete with colony of sealions) and buzzing nightlife, from where Pedro de Valdivia (long dead coloinialist) led the settlement of the southern part of chile . More lies! Apart from the last bit. Valdivia is a fairly ...

... us and gets out of bed and she is not a pretty sight especially since she is not happy (she sort of looks like Madusa if Madusa was a meth addict but with a lot less super powers). We go into Andy and Gill's room and wake her up as well and just start laughing our asses off because the old lady is so ****** and because we are tore up and everything for some reason is hilaious. It was a fun night but I have a feeling I may be paying for it in the morning. fin

... but the positive is that I get my own room with a queen size bed. I can't remember how long it's been since I slept in a queen size bed. Hell, I only had a full at home (btw: my bed for the last 10 years has been on the floor in the corner of my bedroom, no box spring or anything, just a mattress, yes I am ghetto fab). This is going to be sweet especially since I am dead tired from the 4 day drunkfest that was the Navimag ship. It's funny the things you ...

... much going on in Valdivia, but we had a nice day. We tried some local specialties including some curious spiky fruit. We also went for a wander around the botanical gardens, which lie on the far bank of the river. They are very strict here: no games, no picnics and no sitting on the grass! We disobeyed these rules a little bit - sitting on the grass and eating too, and watched a sealion cruise up and down the river.

... to Universidad de Santiago Regional Bus Terminal. We found our bus and sat down to enjoy the great morning weather with our cafe con leches in hand(white coffees). the bus arrived and after bags were checked in, we boarded what turned out to be the most comfortable bus seats I had seen, loads of leg room, great reclining, steward service, enertainment system, not unlike a plane ride, but with comfier seats. This was the more expensive option, but still only ...

... y. Fr*m here I keep g*ing s*uth *l*ne. There is * fish m*rket *n the river here h*s se*-li*ns th*t e*t the fish scr*ps. These *ren't y*ur st*nd*rd C*lif*rni* se*-li*ns these *re big b*d ***********s, m*re like eleph*nt se*ls. The big m*les re*lly l**k like li*ns. We *ls* s*w *n *ld sp*nnish f*rt, *nd h*d dinner *t the kuntsm*n brewery.

After another wonderful breakfast ( I forgot to tell you about the wonderful breakfast in the hostel in Ancud!) we set off for the bus. We were getting the 9.15am bus to Valdivia, which is in the lake district of Chile on the east coast. The bus was due to take 6 hours, it wasnt the nicest of buses as it had no air conditioning and boy was it hot, but 6 hours on a bus seems nothing after the 34 hours we previously did! When we ...

... songs, but I did throw in the occasional few words to some Spanish songs that I have never heard. All around it was pretty fun watching these Chileans get crazy on the mic. There wasn't really a a line or a system of who goes next, it was just a free-for-all arm waving and yelling to get the attention of the DJ. Sergio was a madman on the mic, enlisting the crowd to sing. Whats funny is Sergio looks like this mad scientist and is kind of ...