Buenos Aires

Love at first sight......Tango in the streets, great food, party till dawn, free museums, what is not too love. The people are stunning and the city is always buzzing, and the best part is that you get all that european feel and romance for half the price. Normally I am not a big shopper, but I am a sucker for a bargain and that is exactly what Buenos Aires is, a bargain for the value. Yes, I am not the first nor the last to say that it is a magical city and would love to live there if I could, jejejeje. Museo de Bells Artes en BA puts the one in Santiago to shame, and the amount of cafes and pizzierias give you the Italian affect plus the argtine castellano has a similiar rythmn to italian. Then you walk down the cobble stoned streets and past apartment buildings and I feel like I am in Madrid all over again. France has also kissed BA with various structures and influences, overall it is a great mix of europe meets latin america.
On another note, FYI to obtain a paraguayan passport in Argentina you cannot pay with credit card nor argentinian pesos nor the garani (local currency) you must pay in cash with US dollars. Just a friendly tip, it was quite strange to have to go to a money exchange and change my argintine pesos to US dollars, not to mention that my bank charges me a foreign exchange fee to extract foreign currency only to change it back to US dollars!

Torres de Paine...Ushuaia

What an adventure, hiking in the infamous Torres de Paine National park is one of the most wonderfully scary and mysterious experiences that I have had travelling. As you arrive in Puerto Natales, the gateway for all the travelors to the park, you start to feel that you have left Chile and arrived in the land of european and american travelors. For some reason it is quite hard to get information about the park ahead of time and therefore you have your hardcore hikers, inexperienced yuppies, and the average adventurist all trying to scramble around and get ready for what is quite possibly the most unpredictable weather in Patagonia. Torres de Paine creates a culture and atmosphere all its own, and it is quite remarkable the kinds of people you meet, for it is quite distinct that just your average travel gossip in the typical hostels. The range being a group of 20 +65 germans taking over the comfortable refugios in the park, to the most common travelor trekking the W route, to the extreme hiker living off of practically nothing and hiking the entire circuit of 12 to 14 days. Yet, almost everyone has an entirely different experience that is all dependent on your luck with mother nature and when she is scorned, beware. Luckily after my first day of horrid rain and waste deep river crossings, the next two days were gorgeous, sunny and clear, she tried to scare me off but it didn´t work!! Yet, after 3 days of hiking and camping and carrying my life on my back I was glad to get out of the park and return to real travel culture, HOSTELS!!

The 10 hour bus ride and crossing of the magellane strait, good have been worse if I hadn´t been sooo exhausted from Los Torres, but Ushuaia is well worth it. I always forget how much cheaper argentina is, and am amazed my the Italian influence and the great quality of food! Of course the argentins all make fun of my chilean accent and insist that Argentina is better, and I have to admit for a young person traveling, I whole heartedly agree. After visiting the glacier and national park with stunning views and navigating through the beagle channel with beagle beer, I am ready to get back to the warm country......Buenos Aires here I come!

Puerto Montt/ Puerto Varas

After a night out at my friends bar in sleepy Puerto Montt, I woke up the next day feeling a bit hung over, but ready for our canyoning adventure!! I invited my friend to join me and I guess I thought that since he is from Puerto Montt that he knew what canyoning was, but the poor guy had no idea that in a couple of hours we would be jumping of cliffs into the river, sliding down natural falls, and repeling the backside of an enormous waterfall, which he didn´t quite make it too, whoops! Anyway, it was sooo much fun, such a thril and our french guide was a bit non-traditional in the sense that the so-called precautions were virtually non-existent. The look on my friends face after swallowing practically the entire river said it all, and our guide told him he could get out and walk the rest of the way whenever he wanted to. Poor guy, although I didn´t really feel that bad...hahahaha. Anyway, the hostal I stayed at was nice and I had the room to myself so that made it even better. On my way to Punta Arenas and then to Torres de Paines and I hope that I have at least one day of hiking without rain!

2010..Renaca..Talca..Los ANgeles..Pucon...Valdivia....

After the locura of New Year´s in Valpo and trying to go anywhere in Renaca during this time, it was a bit of a shock getting to Talca where you were lucky to find a retaurant open and of course I forgot that no wineries are open on sunday!! Chillan and Los Angeles are small insiginficant stops on the route la Laguna de la Laja, but el VOLCAN Antuco and the laguna was well worth the time and effort, if not for the views then for the feeling of being the only people in this national park. Villarrica and Pucon of course were touristy, but the everyday adventures of rafting, canopy, and hiking the base of a still active volcanoe were enough to make the crowds shrink away. I arrived in Valdivia to find myself in a German Cerveceria with 8 samples of yes, delicious beer, something I thought I might never say, but after meeting two americans from CHicago and 3 rather large beers later the beer never tasted better! Laura, Kevin and I showed true american style and continued to drink the entire day, we wound up with two bottles of wine in the middle of a Pinera Rally, an election candidate here in CHile, the elections are on the 17th. Then of course we went to an Irish bar and had some pisco, and then live jazz and another pisco at what looked like an old western bar, all in all, it was a pretty good time. Off to explore the fish market and the lily gardens and then Puerto Montt.

Instructions for life

Dalai Lama-----2005

Instructions for Life:

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Once a year, go somewhere you’ve never been.

Be gentle with the earth.

Share your knowledge. It is always a way to achieve immortality.

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

Take in account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

Follow the 3 R’s: Respect for self. Respect for others. Responsibility for all your actions.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

When you realize that you made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend sometime alone everyday.

Open arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Feliz Navidad

Mi Familia,

Although, I will not be with you this christmas, I just wanted to let you know that my heart will be and that I love you very much. Despite the fact that I have no money to buy you gifts because I am unemployed, I hope you enjoy a trip through memory lane.

Love always,

Claire xoxoxo

La Isla Negra

After visiting Pablo Neruda's third house yesterday in La Isla Negra, which is not an island, I think that I would have loved to know him. Although, he was married three times and had quite the reputation with women, his life, collections, poems, travels, and adventures are all too intoxicating, as I am sure every other women has seen, sees and will see him. He is not the most attractive man, but there is something magnetic about his houses and all the stories that are still untold.....I guess it is just my luck that the only Chilean man that has called my attention is in fact a dead poet! Oh well, that is the great irony of life I guess. If you ever visit Chile, make sure to visit one of his houses, there is one in Santiago, Valparaiso, and La Isla Negra. "Love is so short, forgetting so long." -Pablo Neruda