The good ship Magallenes

On Mon 25 sept we boarded the Magallenes, the ship that would be our home for nearly the next four days. Sleeping in little bunks cabins, there were a large group of gringos of various nationalities travelling onboard alongside the few Chileans making the journey.





I really enjoyed the whole boat experience, it was great to have space to chill alone and yet have a new bunch of people to meet and chat with. And the scenery just seemed to increase in splendor the further south we went. It was the perfect setting for the Chronicles of Narnia, some of my favourite books as a child, which I read through as we journied on.









Stopped off at Puerto Eden on our last day, a remote village of 167 people, that's more than a days boat ride from any other settlement of any sort. The ferry is the only way the people have of transporting things to and from the mainland. Amazing little place.

Ferries and more ferries

From Puerto Varas, we headed further south and a little to the west to Pargua, where we got the ferry to the island of Chiloé. The beautiful island of Chiloé is 250km long and 50km wide, it's small rolling hills and rugged coastline quite remind me of Ireland.

For lunch we stopped in Ancud for a fantastic lunch of 'curantos', a local seafood platter. Once we had digested sufficiently to be able to stand up, we continued on down the coast to Castro, the capital of the small island. It's a pretty little fishing town with a beautiful wooden Cathedral on the main square, where myself and Oisin went to mass in the evening. One of my first masses, definately my first in Spanish, but really enjoyed it. It was lovely to get the space to think, pray and worship, and the people were so welcoming.



We stayed in a lovely family guesthouse in Castro. At 4 am, I was woken by the sound of sirens and looked out my window to see the house accross the road in flames. There were 3 fire engines and a couple of police cars arriving, and firemen seemed to be rushing from everywhere, jumping out of cars and hurriedly dressing. Within the hour the blaze was under control. I guess in a town where all the buildings are made of wood, you need to have a good fire brigade. And fortunately, the residents were away on holidays when the fire happened, so no one was hurt.



After a somewhat sleepless night, we headed further south and west to the tiny hamlet of Cucao, one of two settlements on the west coast of Chiloé. Here I had my first swim in the pacific, and after, a well earned lunch, before making the long trip back to the mainland.





Last night we arrived in Puerto Montt, and this morning we checked in for our 4 day ferry to Puerto Natales (you'll see where is it here, as usual). Had a few hours to gather supplies and do a bit of blogging before we head off, which is rapidly getting shorter, so I'd better run. Next time, it'll be news from pretty much the end of the world! Asta la huego!

Further into the lakes

When we finally pulled ourselves away from the beautiful Refugio Tinquilco, we headed towards the coast and the pretty little town of Valdivia. Found ourselves a nice little hostel, and had a little look around the town. There's a great little market down by the inlet where sea-lions come up to the back of the stalls to beg.



On Friday, we headed further south and on into the lake district, to Lago Llanquihue, Chile's largest lake. We visted several picturesque little towns before finding a hostel in Puerto Varas for the night.

Hitting the open road

We arrived in Temuco on Wed morning at 6 in the morning and had to sit in the freezing cold for hours before anything opened! But by time lunch came around, we'd had a very succesful morning, having rented a car, booked our ferry south to Puerto Natales and gotten Erica and Lisa's flights sorted.



From Temuco, we drove up into the mountains through Vallarrica (a beautiful town on the shore of a huge lake, with a volcanoe as backdrop), Pucon (took a quick stop in this gringo mecca to use the local internet amenities) and on up into some of Chile's beautiful national parks. You can see all the spots we visted on my little map which I have to say I'm a big fan of. It's the nerd in me.



The roads rapidly decreased in quality, and eventually we abandonned our heavily-laided Toyota and hiked the last 2 kms up the dirt track to the beautiful Refugio Tinquilco, arriving just as it was getting dark.

Thursday morning we awoke to find ourselves in the spectacular surroundings, and after breakfast, myself and Oisin took a beautiful 4 hour hike up to three lakes, called Los Lagos, set in the mountains above us.

Lakes, waterfalls, 1000-year-old trees, bamboo, snow. A spectacular combination.

Loads of photos so I put them up here.

New city, old friends

This morning we left Valparaiso, and travelled to Santiago, Chile's capital city. We wandered around for the morning, taking a walk up the beautiful Cerro Santa Lucia, with great views over the city.



We were meeting our new friends Fanny and Geraldine from Habitat for lunch. It was nice to be turning up a strange city and yet meeting familiar people. We met them again after work at their local for a few drinks before we headed off to catch our night bus to Temuco. We've now persuaded the two of them to come join us for a weekend in Buenos Aires... the party continues!

Valparaiso: Party Town!

What a weekend in Valpo and a great way for the Habitat team to finish their time here.

Stayed at this beautiful old house owned by Eugenio, father of one of the Habitat staff who's also Eugenio, who treated us all like family.

Valparaiso's a beautiful postcard-perfect city...





...with a cool bohemian twist.





Saturday night we headed out with Fanny, Geraldine and Eugenio for some dancing in one of Valpo's many clubs. Great night. Had to concentrate a little for the Salsa lessons, but I had great instructors!





Sunday was Chilean Independence day celebrations, so we headed down to the traditional 'Ramadas' (Huge tent-like structures made of branches, or´'ramas') for some traditional food, drink and dancing 'cueca', Chile's national dance. Another great night, not sure if I'll be able to keep this pace up!

Cascada de las Animas

As a break in the middle of our building we headed up to Cascada de las Animas in the Maipo valley for the weekend. You can see where it is here.

The drive up was beautiful, passing by the outskirts of Santiago, and heading up into the Andes down alongside the Maipo river. In the afternoon, we took a horse trek up into the surrounding mountains...







... and on the Sunday we went white water rafting. Fantastic!







There was even time for a little relaxing!

Week 1 : Busy!

Wow, that week went by very quickly. Seems like there's hardly time to think in these days, yet alone write a blog! An average day starts by getting up at 7, meeting with Lissy, the other team leader at 7.30, before breakfast with the team at 8. At half 8 the bus collects us for work, and brings us for lunch at 1.30 in the nearby childhood home of a former president of Chile! The meals are so big that a siesta is a must, before the bus returns us to work at 1.30. After a long day on the site, we're usually back home by 6.30 for a quick wash before dinner. After dinner we're so wrecked, there's only time for a quick team meeting before collapsing into bed! Muito rapido!

During the week we got three houses started on. You can see where they are in relation to where we're staying here. Here's a few photos to let you know how we´ve been progressing...

Work begins on the first house:







Work on the second house:



Work on the third house:



After a long week at work, we're heading for a well-earned rest in the Maipo Valley, 2 hours drive from Los Andes.

Hasta Luego Amigos.

Where exactly?

For anyone interested, here's where Los Andes is...

Google Maps
Tagzania (Gonna be putting all the place I visit here, handy way of showing where I'm at)

Beautiful Los Andes

Went out for a wander today. It's a lot clearer than it was yesterday and the phenomenal views of the Andes just opened up before us. Fantastic!

"Ce Bueno!"

Or "It´s all good!"

All 15 of us have arrived in one piece to find Santiago a lot colder than we´d expected. It´s funny, I´m not sure if it´s the weather or the old cars, but on first impressions, this place kind of reminds me of Poland when I visited a few years ago. Definately very different from my previous experiences of South America in Brazil.

This evening and tomorrow we´ll have our orientation and we´ll start building on the site on Monday. Here´s hoping it warms up a little! Anyway, everyone seems to be settling in fine, and we´re all really looking forward to getting stuck in.

Hope to have a few photos up shortly, but having a few computer problems!

I´m gonna head back to my room and put some more layers on. ´Cold to the bone´ doesn´t seem like such a silly expression after all!

Our Arrival

Upon arriving in Santiago we were met at the airport by Fanny, who works for Habitat for Humanity here in Chile, and the Mayor of the small rural town we're going to be working in. It was quite touching that he came out to meet us, and as we gathered round at the side of the baggage carousel he gave a short speech welcoming us and thanking us for the work we would do. He said that the Los Andes region had recently experienced a lot a very bad weather which had damaged a lot of the houses in the area. He said that our coming would bring a real joy to the area, and the whole community were really looking forward to it. It was a humbling welcome.

Final preparations

Leaving for the airport in about two hours. Running the final few checks.

A random assortment of clothing and equipment?



Check.

A bad haricut as a going away present from the lads?



Check.

Guess I'll pick up the rest along the way...

Slan!