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Backpacking in South America
  • Eline Freim
  • Eline Freim

Backpacking in South America

An open-ended adventure by Eline Read more
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  • Trip start
    January 4, 2018
  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    First stop: Santiago de Chile

    January 5, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    5. - 8. January

    So the first stop of my journey in South America was the capital of Chile; Santiago. I met up with a friend that I met on Couchsurfing, and he showed me around. He is from Chile, but lives in America. We explored the city together during the weekend, which was really great!

    We walked around downtown and went to South Americas talles building - The Sky Costanera. It has a 360 degree view of the city, which was beautiful.

    I got to try empañadas, completos (hotdog with mayo, tomato and avocado) and the drink pisco sour. All three of them was great!    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Day 2 in Santiago

    January 6, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Met up with my Chilean friend and we walked up the Cerro San Cristobal. It was between 30-35 *C. The hill was right beside my hostel in Bellavista (The Bellavista Hostel).

    The hill was very green and beautiful. The view at the top is breathtaking! I loved it :)

    After spending some time at the top we went to Tupahue pools at the same hill, which was awesome! It was not a tourist place, so I think I was about the only gringo there - making everybody else snowblind. We spend some hours by the pool relaxing and swimming. I found it funny that chileans swim differently then norwegians. They swim «freestyle/crawl», which makes a lot of splashing! The pool seems like a populare thing to do on a sunny saturday, and it became pretty full by the time we left.

    At night I went to dinner with to people from my room in the hostel. We went to this nice peruvien restaurant and I tried ceviche (raw fish, corn and some vegetables in lemon jucie with spices).    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Day 3 in Santiago

    January 7, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Met up with my Chilean friend at Plaza del Armas and explored the area downtown of Santiago. Saw the presidental building, of course! We went up Santa Lucia hill, which took us 10 minutes and had a great view of the city.

    Went to two food markets; Mercado sentral and Vega central. The first one was very touristy and had mostly fish restaurants. The other one was a local and authentic marked that sold everything you can think of. We got fresh fruit smoothies and moved a long. A lot of people there, hectic place.

    The last stop was at Cementerio General de Chile. It was beautiful, and so different from Norway. Everything was in marmor, and some of the family graves looked more like small churches.

    At night I went to dinner with my roomie from the hostel. He is from Sao Paolo, and I felt lucky meeting him. We shared some great conversations during that short time as roomies in Santiago.    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Santiago -> Valparaíso

    January 8, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    Started my day early strolling around the neighbour hood of Bellavista to enjoy the street art. There was almost no one out in the street early on a sunday morning.

    After breakfast I went with bus to Valparaíso. The temperature was about 10 degrees lower, it actually felt kind of cold 😂

    Went on a nice boat trip with an Australian girl that I shared room with for one night. Went out to dinner with a gang from the hostel. We ended up on a restaurant with a terrasse with a beautiful view of the sunset on the hills.

    Pictures from Bellavista area in Santiago.    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Valparaíso

    January 10, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    8. - 12. January
    Oh what a lovely city you are, Valparaíso! Spent 4 nights in a lovely hostel called Casa Aventura in Cerro Alegre, great spot!

    The colorfull hills and the street art is just incredible. To just stroll around and get lost in this city is a great day spent.

    Loved:
    - Street art in Cerro Bellavista (and the rest of the city)
    - taking a funicular (Ascensor Artilleria)
    - doing the walking tour at 10.00 (tour4tips)
    - boat trip
    - seaing sea lions!
    - the view from the different hills
    - that people don’t have a leash on their dogs - and there is dogs everywhere. (Many of them are stray dogs - that part I don’t love)    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Viña del Mar

    January 11, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Spent the day relaxing in one of the beaches in Viña del Mar. Forgot the sunscreen and got crazy sunburnt, way to go! Viña is only 15 minutes with bus from Valparaíso. I enjoyed staying at the beach (even though it was cloudy) but didn’t find that the city was nearly as interesting as Valparaiso. Great place to do a daytrip just to go to the beach!Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Concón

    January 12, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    12. - 14. January
    Spending the weekend in this small and authentic beach town. Surf’s up! (At least watching it).

    Spent my first day here at the beach. I live in a nice hostel 3 minutes to walk from the beach. It was freezing (which means about 15 degrees). I had to use my wool-clothes 🙈 But I enjoyed myself even though my plans for a warm weekend at the beach seems pretty unrealistic. I will find something else to do :)

    The area around Playa La Boca gives me the vibe of Byron Bay - and even some of Nimbin with the cannabis signs in some of the shops. Small hippie place with a lot off surfers.

    Finally had the curage to taste «Mote con huesillo» which is a populare non-alcoholic drink during summer in Chile. It is wheat and peach (and probably something more). Taste like ice-tea, and is very sweet.

    I had a completo for dinner (sharing it with the dog in the picture). Also very populare here!

    Need to step up my spanish game, this is not a tourist place with a lot of people speaking english.    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Dunas de Concón

    January 13, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Decided to check out the «Dunas de Concón» today (sand dunes). Since the weather is much colder then I expected I figured it would be a bit chilly at the beach.

    The sand dunes was absolutely worth a visit - I actually loved it there. The sand was silky soft and the views from the tops were amazing. It was also fun to watch people sandbord. Had a lovely time there.

    Decided to walk down on the other side of the dunes to a ocean view. When going back it looked kind of far walking around, so I tried a shortcut walking up besides the sand dunes. Not a shortcut at all, actually. It was stright up in the soft sand, super exhausting and hard 🙈 Had to wear shoes, because it was a lot of branches, cactus and glass there. Probably had 1 kg sand in each shoe 😂 Ended up taking a break with some cookies half way up and watching the nice view. There is no point in spending the time here in being annoyed at things that go wrong - because it will happen anyways. I have all the time in the world, and try to take every obsticle here as a possibility to learn something new. So I calmed down with a nice view, and managed to continue the «shortcut» all the way :p

    This trip to Concón was suppost to be a beach vacation with sun and tanning. I started the weekend freezing, sunburnt and catching a cold. No one speaks english. There has been so many things I could have let ruin this weekend, but instead I have tried to flip it around to something positive. I get to practice spanish. Because of the cold weather I wear a lot of clothes - which means I don’t get more sunburnt. I got to see the sand dunes today. I get to spend time in a place that is not touristy at all, seeing more of everyday life in Chile.

    So this is kind of easy to do when you are only one week into your trip and everything is new and exciting. Let’s talk in about three months and see if I still manage to be super positive every day :p But right now, I enjoy it so much. Every day has been a gift, and I can go to bed smiling. I am actually living my dream, how cool is that?!    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler
    5

    Pucón - your up!

    January 15, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Sunday night I took the nightbus from Valparaíso to Pucon. I checked in to «Hostel Manos del Mundo» which is a small and cosy hostel with a great location. I spent the first day strolling around the streets, and then used the app «Couchsurfing» to meet up with to chileans for drinks at Mama and Tapas. I had my first Terremoto (drink) and learned the hard way that one of those is enough!

    Pucón is the complete oposite from Concón. It is super touristy, with about every third shop in the streets being a tour agency. It is a great place for outdoors activites like rafting, volcano climbing and more. The nature is beautiful. It has a lake, green mountains and woods, and the view of Villarica volcano.

    Btw: the cutest dog ever is staying in the hostel, as her owner work there. She is a 6 months old golden retriver - and is absolutely adorable!    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Fantastic day in Caburgua

    January 16, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ❄️ 0 °C

    Through couchsurfing I met up with Natalia. She is from Santiago, but her family has a summer house in Caburgua, about 30 minutes from Concón.

    We started the day in Ojos de Caburgua wich have waterfalls and pools in the forest. The scenery was absolutely beautiful! We walked around for a while and enjoyed the nature.

    Later Natalia took me to her families summer house where I got to meet her parents, and we had lunch. Her mom is a lovely woman that tried to speak a bit english with me, and we practice together - my spanish and her english.

    After lunch we spent hours at lake Caburgua - which after my opinion is much better than the lake and beach in Pucón. It was super clean with soft sand.

    We had once (a small meal with tea that is normal to have during the day in Chile) at their summer house, and then went to one of the many termas (hot spring) in the area. Natalias mom joined us. It was really good to go to the termas at 8 when the sun started to go down. The termas is super hot, so it would have been no point going there in daytime, as the temperature is close to 30 degrees every day here now.

    Both Natalia and her family is so amazing! This is so far the best day I have had in Chile.    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Huerquehue National Park

    January 17, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    It’s time to do some hiking :D Today me, Natalia and Pablo went hiking in Huerquehue National Park. The park is very green and beautiful with several lakes.

    Let’s be honest: our shape could have been better 😂 But it was a good hike in beautiful surroundings.Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Ops, that was a mistake!

    January 20, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 3 °C

    Today I was going to take the bus to San Martin de los Andes with Natalia and her sister. We were going to stay there for two days and celebrate my birthday (tomorrow). Somehow I have managed to throw away my immigration papir ✌️ So no busride to Argentina for me. Instead I had to buy a new bus ticket for tomorrow and go to the PDI in Villarica to get a new immigration paper.

    I guess back in Norway this would have made me crazy upset, but here I still don’t see any point in getting upset when things go wrong, it will not help the situation at all. So the plans changed, not the end of the world. Natalia and her sister went to San Martin, I went to Villarica 😂

    Villarica es muy lindo, and I spent some hours there - treating myself with a good lunch with a beautiful view of the lake and the volcano.

    I will spend one more night in Pucón, which mean one more morning to cuddle with my new best friend, Sofia the puppy 😍    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Mi cumpleaños

    January 21, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    Today is my birthday, tengo veintisiete años! I spent some time in the morning videochatting with my two bestfriends back home.

    12.15 I went with the bus from Pucòn to San Martín De Los Andes. I slept for big parts of the trips, which kind of sucks since the sceenery while crossing the Andes looked beautiful (in the few moments I managed to stay awake :p) I arrived at 19 i San Martin.

    Natalia and Cathalina already went yesterday, and I was suppost to join them. I went straigth to the hostel (Puma hostel) and met up with them.

    In night there was a party at the hostel, and we had dinner and spent time with others. Natalia and Cathalina had baught me cake with «fireworks» and got the whole hostel to sing the birthday song for me :)    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    San Martín de los Andes

    January 22, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    We decided to go to Bariloche with the bus at 14.00 today. Because I arrived last night, I really wanted to see some of San Martin before leaving. It is a really small town.

    Me and Cathalina went for Mirador Bandurrias, a hike for about 45 minutes. The view from the lookout point was muy lindo. It reminded me of my hometown, Odda.

    In the bus I slept a lot (again). Damn it, I should learn to stay awake more so I can enjoy the view. I got to do so for about 2 hours, and I loved it. A lot of clear blue lakes along the way 😍    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Bariloche

    January 23, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We arrived Bariloche last night and went out for a nice dinner with a lot of meat 👌 Beer, wine, meat and chocolate - welcome to Bariloche!

    Today we went to Cascada de los Duendes and Mirador Lago Gutierrez, which was a nice little hike. The waterfall was very small, and honestly I did not find it that impressing. The mirador was bonito, but not as nice as the one in San Martin yesterday.

    We went by cablecar to Cerro Otto which was amazing! Stunning view of the lakes and mountains of Bariloche. We had dinner in the spinning restaurant that offers a 360 degree from Cerro Otto. Loved it there!    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Last day in Bariloche

    January 24, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Tomorrow we will all leave Bariloche. Natalia and Catalina go back to Pucón, and I will move on to Villa La Angostura.

    We decided to do the Circuito Chico with bus today. It didn’t work out the way we wanted, as the bus didn’t go the whole way around the circuito. We had to skip some things, but still had a nice day. The best part was going to Cerro Campanario, the view is absolutely stunning. We ended our tour in Colonia Suiza, where we had dinner and listened to live music.

    At night we went to this populare brewery/restaurant two blocks from the hostel, Manush.

    Note to self: Do not stay in Rodina hostel in Bariloche again - ever. Horrible!    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Villa La Angostura

    January 25, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    I arrived in Villa La Angostura this morning. My two amigas left for Chile, and I decided that Bariloche was a bit hectic for the weekend. Villa La Angostura was the perfect choice! I stay in Italian Hostel, which is super cosy!

    The other people in the hostel is Argentinian, which is great for practicing spanish. I find the prounounciation of Y and JJ here funny, they say «sh» instead. Playa is plasha ✌️

    I’ve spent the day relaxing with people from the hostel, chatting and drinking wine.

    «Mate» is by the way super big here. They pass it around in these funny old cups.    Read more

  • Eline FreimBackpacking in South AmericaTraveler

    Saturday in Villa

    January 27, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Spent some hours hiking to a waterfall with awesome people from my hostel. I didn’t join them for the whole trip, as they went further than I can handle on a saturday 😂

    In night there was a festival close to our hostel. There was many rap-battles, which was very cool - even though I didn’t understand anything of it :pRead more

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