Brazil

Wow, its been a while since I updated this. I've gone all the way through San Pedro, Salta, Posadas to Foz du Iguacu. That's Chile-Argentina-Brazil! Some very long bus trips, only 22 hours left to get to Rio. Its now sunday in Foz du Iguacu, and everything is completely shut down (except this internet cafe). Brazillian Portuguese is incomprehensible.
The Iguaca falls are awesome. Eighty meters high, the huge river Parana runs out of basalt and plummets. You can walk over, around and up to the falls on walkways. I don't think even the photo's will do it justice, let alone this description.

San Pedro de Atacama

There are millions of tourists in this village. I've met more londoners here than in SE Asia! There's a lot of things to do, mainly tours to weird lunar rocks, deserts, salt flats, a cool 3 day 4x4 trek to bolivia that I'll do next time. Even a royal visit- Queen Beatrix of Holland followed us up a sand dune to see the sunset over the valle de la luna. The border crossing was deserted - it took 4 hours for the lone officer to deal with us all. The andes are incredibly high - we went through the lowest pass at 4300m (no air!), and there were another 3000m of mountains towering over us.
Not a lot in Salta - Posadas though. Or Paraguay - I popped over for a daytrip. I think the Lonely Planet got it right when it said Paraquay's biggest highlight were Jesuit ruins that "weren't worse than Argentina's".
A week on the Copacabana awaits. Or maybe the Ipanema. That's the kind of choice I like...

Santiago, Valpraiso and Vina del Mar

I`ve shaken off the belgian guys - I think they were just coming back from a club as I was leaving for valpraiso. I can`t believe how many 2-litre boxes of wine (60p) we got through. Santiago is great - really lively, really good atmosphere, lots of things to do, pretty cheap - more expensive than Jakarta but not a dump. The street market was very entertaining - every so often the police would come and it would evaporate in ten seconds flat. Wait a few minutes, its back up and running. The shops all have very bizarre ticket systems - queue in line, get told to buy ticket, queue to buy ticket, get ticket, get ticket stamped, pay for stamp, queue to exchange stamp for item... But hey, the prices are about half that of europe and the items feel just as good.
Valpraiso (prounounced Vlprsi as far as I can tell) is a bit of a dump - "colourful" hillside neighbourhoods, half the chilean navy in the harbour and a big port. Vina del mar is pretty good - not a lot here, but its a nice place. Tonight its overnight to La Serena where they make the Pisco - grape brandy.

Chile - Pucon

Pucon is a lot like Barilloche - but nicer, younger crowd, and cheaper. I`ve been here three days and I`m going rafting today, I`ve been hydrospeeding (down the creek without a paddle, merely a lump of polystyrene you bounce of the rocks with), and climbed up a volcano. I met up with 3 belgian guys - Jan, Guy and Dave, and for the record, their insane activites have been perfectly sensible.
The volcano - vulcan villarica- was really good. You climb up to 2860 metres high, walk round the green and red stinking crater, and then tobogan down. Without a tobogan! Its packed ice all the way to the top, you have padded trousers, serious boots and an ice pick to steer/brake with. I`m amazed no one got hurt... still, I`d rather be doing it that way! In case you`re wondering, if you are sliding down the ice a la vertical limit (the film), those ice picks can bring you to a complete halt. Oh, and I went to a hotspring afterwards - more of a lukewarm spring.
The costs? Hydrospeeding - 10 pounds, volcano 20 pounds, rafting 10. I don`t want to think how much they would cost back in england.
I have to get a move on - I have just over 3 weeks left to cover north chile, north argentina and south brazil. Santiago tonight, then Valipraiso, San Pedro de Atacama and then Argentina, Salta, Corrientes, Foz du iwazu and then Rio. Only 6 overnight bus trips left!

Barriloche

Lots of lakes, rivers, mountains - the Andes, forests, beaches, steaks, ok, the steaks aren`t quite as big as the landscape, but they are pretty huge. I went rafting down the river Manso all the way to the Chilean border, class III and IV rapids, it was great. Again, the devalued peso is making everything really cheap, and it was never expensive in the first place! Barriloche is like a swiss town - the centre is actually made of log chalet buildings, with St Bernard dogs wandering around for you to take you picture with (at a price). Aparantely, this is where every school kid comes after finishing high school to have a week long party - they`re still in school right now. I met a Argentinian jew, who was determined to go to Israel to sign up for the army out of moral duty. It makes a change speaking english out here - there seem to be very few tourists.
Valdivia in Chile tomorrow, then Pucon, Santiago and San Pedro de Atacama, where it has never rained.

Penguins by ze millions!

Yup, there is indeed a million strong colony of penguins in patagonia. And a couple of welsh villages that do a roaring tourist trade in tea and scones, not very many actual welsh speakers left though. Elephant seals and sea lions, just lying around watching the tourists. I didn´t see any whales though - wrong time of year. Its quite weird the sheer barreness of patagonia - its hundreds of miles of scrubland as far as you can see.
Barilloche tonight - the lake district.