Ritoque, Chile.

Ritoque stole our hearts. This small community of houses clings on to the Playa Ritoque bay which contains a beautiful secret beach which many locals from the nearby town ignore due to it's out of reach destination. Out of reach is perhaps an exaggeration considering this amazing little world lies only a ten/fifteen minute car ride out of Quintero, the nearest town to Ritoque. But to Quintero locals this is too far, which is just fine by me!

Ritoque couldn't be described as a village as there are not many people who live here. A lot of the houses are beach houses of the rich from Santiagio who only come during the summer. You feel immediately welcomed by those locals who do stay the year here though and who are more than willing to have a chat and tell you all about their hometown. Although there are no shops in this little community there are two restaurants, one is oversized and ugly and ran by an outsider who only cares about making money and is generally avoided at all costs. The other is an awesome little seafood bar that sits right on the beach selling the freshest food and offering the best views of the beach. When you look around and see how close all the houses and bars are to the beach (all within around 15 meters max) it is amazing to think that none were destroyed during the tsunami which hit earlier this year. Angie our hostel owner told us it is because the sea took it's natural path which was luckily down the road and towards Quintero, leaving all of the other houses, even those right on the beach, untouched.



The hostel we stayed at is probably one of the nicest places we will ever stay. Ran by German born Angie and her Chilean pro surf boyfriend Morris, Ritoque Raices is an off the beaten track hostel but a haven. Built a mere 10 meters from the beach we awoke every morning to see and hear the sea crashing on the shore, a pretty nice way to wake up. We spent our days chilling in the sun at the bar, playing on the beach with Angie's adopted street pup Took Took or taking surf lessons with Morris. At night we would all huddle around the Bosca for heat and exchange stories in english, spanish and german once Nicky from Germany arrived the day after us.



A highlight of our stay was the asada chileno Angie and Morris put on for us. This is the Chilean way to BBQ and man is it cool! We all hopped in to Angies sweet VW van and headed to the butchers where Morris bought over 2kg of the biggest slabs of steak we have ever seen! Once back at the hostel Morris built a coal fire and cut the slabs of meat in to smaller parts that got thrown on the BBQ. Once ready he would cut in to slices and pass around the group until everybody had a slice, chuck another slab of meat on the BBQ and repeat the process. We were all stuffed after this and Angies amazing avocado dip and retreated in to the living room to drink Piscola and Cervezas. It was probably one of the best BBQ's we have ever been to and definitely a style we shall be adopting in the future.



When it came to leaving Ritoque we both felt sad. It was easy to see how Angie had come to travel South America and ended up never getting further than Ritoque two years later. We have vowed that we will return as to never see this place again would be a great shame. A true hidden gem of Chile, and for me a defining moment of falling in love with this country.

Pucón, Chile.

Pucon is the definition of sleepy. This little town (they call it a city, but it's the smallest city I've ever seen) chills at the bottom of Villarrica volcano which is not only one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world but also currently the most active in Chile. You can see the snowy triangle puffing happily away from almost everywhere in the town and its presence seems more a thing of beauty than a threat. Bright white against the stark blue sky during the day and glowing pink during sunset, it's hard to imagine this towering town icon hurting a fly. The daily volcano warning sirens that get tested every morning at 11:30am are , however, a sharp reminder that this smoking triangle is to be taken seriously.

This very same volcano, that claimed scores of lives in it's eruption of 71 was in fact the only reason we had decided to venture to Pucon. It had been our dream for months now to hike up, peer in and ride down this living legend. Our dreams however were not to be fulfilled, well not this time anyway.

It would seem that our bad luck was to continue in the form of bad weather conditions. The night we arrived in Pucon was one of the windiest nights I have ever witnessed, and we're from Scotland so that's saying something. As we lay tucked up in our bed I was sure that the brittle tin roof of our hostel was going to be ripped off, thankfully it stay put. The high winds sadly continued for 2 whole days, and as we peered up at Villarrica each morning it broke our heart to see all the good snow (polvo) getting blown right off.



In an attempt to distract ourselves we decided to spend some time exploring what else Pucon had to offer us. Turns out that wasn't much. Because we were there during 'off season' anything slightly exciting wasn't an option so we decided to visit the Termas Los Pozones which are natural hot springs. That kept us amused for one day and I even saw a young man with two bellybuttons, probably the highlight of my trip to Pucon. Once you've done the hot springs there's not much else to do apart from walk around the lake or go hillwalking, you already know our thoughts on that one. Now I know what some of you are thinking; “well why didn't you just go to the pub and drink your time away?”. After much hunting we discovered that pubs either don't exist or are very well hidden in Pucon. Restaurants? Check. Street vendors? Check. Dodgy local eateries with painted food (usually a hot dog or burger) on the front? Check. Pubs? Not a sausage. Although quite upsetting at the time we have come to the decision that this unusual lack of pubs was probably a good thing (?) and no doubt saved us A LOT of cash.



On our third day of doing not much our hostel tour guide who, for some reason thought I was fluent in Spanish, caught me off guard and tried to convince me to join his group to hike the volcano the next day. Thankfully unlike him it would seem, we had checked the weather forecast and had seen that high winds were to continue, so politely declined his kind offer to take our money. Nice try though mate.

Four whole, windy, days went past and despair started to kick in. On the fifth day the winds finally stopped but left nothing behind on Villarrica but sheet ice, which we didn't really fancy conquering. We accepted defeat, mainly due to the fact that we were extremely bored and didn't want to even contemplate spending another three days in this town twiddling our thumbs, waiting for fresh snow and walking around that bloody lake. A hasty decision was made to escape to Santiago where the thought of civilisation and, more importantly, pubs excited us greatly.

You win this time Pucon but don't you worry, we'll be back in a few weeks. You shall be slayed.
Hasta mananas, keep on puffin!

Bariloche, Argentina.

Bariloche is a town which lives at the foot of the the Andes and is surrounded by these beautiful mountains for as far as the eye can see. It doesn't matter what direction you look in, if you look up even for just a moment you will get sucked in to staring at the jagged white peaks that stare down at you. The town is also surrounded by lakes (Nahuel Huapi, Gutiérrez Lake, Moreno Lake and Mascardi Lake) which create an awesome contrast, reflecting the towering mountains which surround them.



People come from all over the world to exploit Bariloches beautiful landscape which will not fail to please if you enjoy hiking and snowboarding. As you know we're not much into hiking and the extent of this for us was hiking our way to and from the local pub. We had planned on making the most of the local resort Cerro Catedral which lay a mere 20 minutes from our hostel but bad luck struck us down in the form of our board bag not arriving. We did get a couple days up the hill though thanks to the local hire gear (1990s eat your heart out) and had some of the sweetest lines we have ever experienced. The Andes are awesome and if you ever get the chance to shred these mountains then grab it hard with both hands. You will however need a swollen wallet as the prices here are not for the poor. We again had the bad luck of arriving just in time for peak season where the lift pass jumped up to a impressive £38. This isn't actually that much in comparison to France etc. and the mountain is just as worthy but when you put in context of Argentina it is A LOT.



Speaking of bad luck I forgot to mention how we started our time in Bariloche. We arrived in the late afternoon in the pouring rain to try and find our studio apartment, our only instruction of where it might be being to get off the bus at kilometer 23.4. This might sound odd but the whole of Bariloche outside the main town is basically determined by one main road which runs through it. For example a local would tell you where they live by saying km 6 rather than an area or street name. So we hopped off the bus at km 23.4 tired and weighed down with our bags and couldn't find our studio for a good 30 mins during which time we almost got mauled by one of the many local dogs which roamed around like herds of angry sheep. This was our first experience of the local dogs, which were EVERYWHERE but at km 23.4 they were in packs. Territorial, angry packs which scared the living crap out of us. We decided after a couple sleepless nights of being too scared to leave the door in fear of catching rabies that enough was enough and so we moved in to town, where there are still dogs but they were pussycats in comparison.



Although we had some bad luck in Bariloche we also had some good luck. One example being Hostel Pudu. This irish owned hostel is just awesome and we couldn't have asked for a better place to live during our stay. We met a whole crew of really nice people from all over the world and we couldn't recommend it any more if we tried, if you go to Bariloche, you have to stay here.
We also had the great luck of meeting Maria our spanish teacher who couldn't have made us feel more welcomed to Bariloche, helping us experience the local way through sight, taste and stories. Maria is a legend and we are stoked to have met her.

The bus out of Bariloche towards Chile offered yet more immense scenery and as we rolled out through customs and in to Chile we were met with deep, fresh snow that transformed in to green mountainscapes and flowing rivers. We were on our way to Pucon, the sleepy town in the south of Chile that sits at the foot of Villarrica, Chile's most active volcano.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina.

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu after a 16hr bus journey from Buenos Aires. This may sound like a long time to spend on a bus but man do the Argentinians have bus travel nailed!! The seats are super comfy, like loungers that recline right back and you get a fleece blanket and pillow to keep you toasty. During the journey you also get a snack and a warm meal with drinks, if only the megabus was this good!! Our bus got in to Puerto Iguazu at 6:30am which meant we could check out the Iguazu Falls on the day of our arrival which gave us an extra day to play with, our in our case lounge in the sun drinking beer.

Before I go on about the falls there are a couple of things I would like to point out about Argentina. First of all when converting some money at the airport we realised that Scottish tender is worth around 7% less than English tender, enough said on that one. Secondly we have discovered that Argentinians LOVE bread, ham and cheese. This is pretty much 90% of what is available to eat here on our budget and it gets dull fast. We are pleased to have discovered empanadas which are basically wee cornish pasties filled with usually either chicken, beef or, you guessed it, ham and cheese. Not exactly a healthy diet but it tastes good. Lastly Argentina is CHEAP and when I say CHEAP I mean CHEAP! Beer is around 60p for 350ml, a quid for a liter and a lunch of 6 empanadas is 15 pesos which works out at around £2/£3. This is a welcome change from Rio which was much more expensive!

Ok enough about empanadas and back to the falls.The Iguazu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones. Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. Anger issues there god.




We only saw the falls from the Argentinian side (two thirds of the falls are within Argentine territory) as we heard they were much more impressive and man were they impressive!!!! After arriving at the entrance of the park you get a wee open train that takes you to a central station where you can follow different routes to view the falls. We headed for the upper view of the falls first which entailed a trek through the rainforest where the route opens up to reveal an abundance of powerful and breathtaking waterfalls that fills your line of vision for as far as you can see. You can hear the falls before you see them, a loud rumbling that gets louder and louder until you feel the spray of the mist and finally see the beasts themselves ripping through the mountain scenery. Words can't describe how powerful these falls are and as we stood there we wondered how many unlucky souls had the misfortune of falling in to the river which gets sucked over the cliffs and luscious green vegitation before tumbling down in to the white, rainbow filled cloud below.

The Devils Throat, Iguazu Falls from Katie Guthrie on Vimeo.

The strongest of the falls was 'The Devils Throat' or Garganta del Diablo which is a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long cataract which marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. You could hear this bad boy from around 5 minutes away and when we finally reached it we were just utterly gobsmacked at the strength of it. If the legend of how Iguazu Falls was created is correct, the Devils Throat is an accurate example of just how pissed off god was.



After seeing the falls we decided to spend a day doing the Macuco Trail which is a short trek through the rainforest which leads you to a waterfall that has a pool below that you can swim in. It's a really nice walk and the entire time you are being bombarded by hundreds of different, brightly marked butterflies. Iguazu is like the west coast of Scotland in summer time but instead of swarms of midgies it has swarms of butterflies, I have never seen anything like it! The pool and waterfall were a refreshing treat after the hot trek and we spent an hour or so basking in the sun and water which was deceptively cold despite the 26 degrees air temperature. We luckily got changed to leave at the right time as we spotted a sneaky possum waiting to steal what he could.

Having come to the end of our stay in Puerto Iguazu we feel refreshed and relaxed. The town seems to depend heavily on the falls with not much else to do or see. But we've enjoyed our stay here and lucked out with a really nice hostel (despite the rude english and american people staying here at the same time) and even met an Aberdonian sitting outside our room one night. The falls were breathtaking and we're definitely stoked to have seen them and even swam under one.

Back off to Buenos Aires before we fly to Bariloche to start our winter season, we can't bloody wait!