Chateau Windy Hills Sliven

... one place a man was trying to herd sheep by motorbike and it wasn't working! Much of this ride was taken up with climbing as it takes much longer than coming down. The heat made this particularly onerous; the forecast is 36 degrees. Often it was a short hill or sudden slope.
Just beyond the village of Stara Raka the signs for Vratna Pass appeared. Saying that it was open and that snow chains were needed in winter. This was a bit ominous. It was about 10.15 and ...

It is amazing how quickly you can grow roots when you travel, how fast a group of friends can develop and how familiar a place can seem after a few days... coming back to santiago was like that. Despite a love hate city relationship it was actually great to be back. we met up also with a few of the people from Mendoza as it was one of their birthdays, so after an impressive fish lunch i mastered the art of making ...

We left Puerto Varas at 9am and headed off to Frutillar. This is a highly German influenced town - once again, I tried not to mention World Cups and wars!! It was a nice place though, right on the shores of Llanquihue Lake. We stopped here for cake and coffee (6 of us now, including driver and guide) overlooking the lakeside beach. We did go for a stroll on the beach but decided that the water was far too cold and it was far too early for a ...

We verlaten het merengebied en gaan verder met onze tocht naar het noorden, via de rio Bio Bio naar Concepcion, de tweede grootste stad van Chile waar we een afspraak hebben met Dania, een weerzien voor Constanza 18 jaar later. Een kort bezoek aan de stad, enorm druk. Daarna samen met Dania haar familie een gezellige avond met lekker (en veel) eten - BBQ met heel lekker vlees.

We left our little peace of paradise in the countryside and headed to Concepion, which was a little colder than Talca, but as we are going south that is to be expected! It took a bit of walking around with our heavy rucksacks in the centre of town before we found a hostel to stay in, as the one in the lonely planet seems to have shut down some time ago. The place we found was a bit dump, but as it was right on the main street in the centre of the city, we ...

With just a little trepidation I looked out over the waiting crowd for Ricardo. Would he be very different after 20 years? No. Just the same. My short hair caused a moment of hesitation from the other side of the glass but no more than that. Where do you start after being out of contact with one of the most important people of your university years for so long. Well, 'You look just the same' is probably not original but it was what I said.

My luggage has arrived, yippee! I had to buy some emergency clothes to survive the last few days but i now have my bad and everything that i put in it. This is very good. I had a lovely time at Lake Lanalhue (a lake about 3 hours drive south of Conception) we stayed in a cabin with amazing views of the lake and i got to go canoing on the lake which was spectacular, I was the only person out on the ...

Concepcion war immer noch verregnet und kalt. Keine Lust da zu bleiben und Isla Mocha waere auch zu teuer gewesen und zu kalt und zu regnerisch und zu baeh! Ich will jetzt in den Norden! Und ich hab schlechte Laune weil ich so vollgeregnet bin und einfach nicht trockne... und weil sich immer dicke Menschen neben mich im Bus setzen und schnarchen. Und weil einen Taxifahrer ...

Having taken the bus down South for the weekend to Concepcion, we ended up in a little shanty town called Lota, built around a coal mine which closed just a few years ago. Stepping down into the black mine off the unpaved, dusty streets, we realised we had stumbled upon the World's Worst Job. Glad of our helmets, which saved my head from a few nasty bumps, and even more glad ...

Well, here I am in Concepcion once again. How crazy it is to be here. So much is familiar and so much is unchanged. I felt comfortable here the moment I arrived. I am sleeping in the same bedroom as I did when I lived here. They have had 3 other exchange students after me but they told me that the room has always been "Hadleys Room." How nice, huh? Yeah, they have been wonderful to me. I was picked up at the bus station and ...