Lago Todos Los Santos and Volcan Osorno

A great day of turismo today. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but on occasions I have something I want to do on a trip and I get fairly peeved if we veer of course from this. This was what I wanted to do on this day, so I was pleased. We headed out from Puerto Varas in the direction of Lago Todos los Santos, which I don't really know why it had my attention captured so much. I had seen some pictures and said, yep, that's the place. I didn't read too much, but I did know that the National Park it is inside (Vicente Pérez Rosales) was the first in Chile. So that's something to the story. We were lucky with the weather and got some great views of the volcano.

This was meant to be a photo of us in front of the volcano. Of course, I am standing in front of the volcano, so you can't see the thing. Still a good shot of la familia. We carried on, stopping every now and then to try and get the volcano in the shot. Sometimes the clouds would cover it up, other times it would appear from behind the clouds. Our first stop was the Saltos de Petrohue. You have to pay a couple of bucks to go in, but it is well worth a visit. I am always fairly impressed by waterfalls, the sound and everything.

Just as we were about to head off from the falls we saw the volcano appear again from behind the clouds and looked to get the shot with the waterfall and the volcano together. This was the best I got, which turned out quite well. I have this wide shot option on my camera which has come in quite handy on this trip. Some pretty extensive scenes to take in.

Here we are again with the volcano - new angle this time, from the lake itself. Lago Todos los Santos. In the end we took a short boat ride with a very nice man, Jaime. It was 3,000 each for a half hour ride, which is absolutely fine. Six dollars is not very much and it was a great way to see the lake. You can do a ferry crossing to the other side, but that takes quite a long time, so this was a great opportunity to just take a quick look around. Later in the day we went some way up the volcano and had a very good lunch. The lady from our accommodation recommended that we go and check it out. It is at the base of a skifield, which of course you would think it adds double to the price, but it seemed it was quite a reasonable price (or that everything in this town is quite expensive). We are on the road again tomorrow, off to Chiloé. That's another place I have never been too, looking forward to checking that out.

Feliz Año- New year in Valparaiso

Happy new year to anyone coming across this blog. We spent the new year down at the coast, where they expected more than 1 million visitors from Santiago alone.

During the week I said something like "I don't really want to go down to the coast, it will be too crowded" blah blah blah. However, since Francisca's brother lives in Con Con, we thought we should go down and visit and take in the festivities, and maybe even escape the Santiago heat for a while. It has been super hot here- a real dry, energy sapping heat.

So it came to Friday and we took the metro to Pajaritos. That's pretty well to the complete other end of the line- I counted it today, 21 stops. It takes quite a long time, it's probably over an hour when you consider the walk to the metro as well. So with that stage of the adventure complete, we arrived at the bus station. What is normally a pretty quiet place, was swarming with people, lots of people simply waiting.

We had booked the 12:50 bus a couple of days before, and of course- this is just one example of what you could call the "culture of inefficiency" within Chile. We looked up the prices of the bus, and there were some seats still left, but the Dear Wife said the bus companies would be untrustworthy, it wasn't like the Murrays or Greyhound where you can just rock up with your booking number, or even just your name and be on your way.

So we went to the office, which was a while away. Seems a few other people had the same idea, so it was a bit of a wait. Including the journey time there and waiting in line, it was almost an hour of the day, for something that could be booked online within seconds. Alongside the inefficiency is also a problem of trust which runs throughout Chile.

So we had our tickets, though there were no surprises to find the 12:30 bus leaving at our estimated departure time of 12:50. It wasn't too long until our bus came along. I got talking to a guy sitting on the seat just over from me. He was from Estonia, a part of the Start Up Chile program.

The basic concept of that is they give lots of money to people with cool ideas. More on that in another post. The reason I got talking to this guy was because I recognised his shithouse Spanish, which reminded me a lot of my own.

So we got talking a bit, I asked him how he felt about this Israeli bloke that promised to start some kind of fund, but has just bailed for Singapore 6 months after arriving, promising to find the "Zamarano of tech". He seemed surprised I knew about that at all- though I did actually write an article about it just a few days ago.

So to end that story, I too would like lots of money from the government of Chile. He told me he was headed for Torres del Paine on New Years Day and I don't think he was too pleased with the news I gave him that there were massive wildfires and the National Park was closed- I told him it probably couldn't be closed for too long, while little did I know, the park will be closed for the whole month.

So we arrived in Viña, and there was the prospect of going out somewhere, but I didn't really think that was such a great idea, with the "big night" ahead. So we stayed and played with our nephews, Tomás y Diegito. It's a lot of fun to play with them, and you know, we have pretty similar levels of Spanish- they are both under 5, so maybe it's time for me to step up my game!

I actually had a snooze as soon as I arrived. We had been celebrating our friend Sofia's departure to Australia with her and her family the night before, and then I only got a short amount of sleep, so it was good to take a rest. Of course that messed up my sleep for the night, but we ended up getting a sleep in, then preparing for the night ahead.

Although we really had no plan, I don't think we could have asked for a better start. We went over to Miluco, a cousin of Francisca. You can see the view from his balcony in the second photo at the top. He referred to it as "a fucking million dollar view" and I told him he had underestimated, and it was a billion dollar view.

There we drank some pisco sour and colo de mono (monkey's tail, a traditional festive season drink from the north). I read that Alexis Sánchez was drinking that while playing Santa at Christmas time, so maybe I will be good at sports/rich after drinking that???? Let's see...

We had arranged to meet with Cecilia, who is a friend of Francisca's that she met in Canberra. Because it is Chile, we turned up at our scheduled time some hours late. We had a lunch at the Chacarerro restaurant, which we had actually come to during our first week in Chile. I ate this sandwich and it was too big, even for me. I spent most of the rest of the day feeling sorry for myself.

We met with a couple of Aussies, they were friends of Cecilia. They took the sensible option of sharing the sandwich that had destroyed me between two, and then we went and got some desserts at a cafe by the beach.

This was followed by a wander over to some more friends in Viña, to spend the afternoon with a few beers, and for me, a big hamburger in my guts. An afternoon nap probably would have done me good, or maybe ordering a smaller meal in the first place.

With no afternoon nap, we made our way towards the centre of the action, Valparaiso. The micro buses sure were packed. The first one we didn't bother to get on, as it left with the doors still open. The next one our little trio pushed our way on to find ourselves inside the bus, and this one even had the doors close.

It was a balancing act just to stand up really, with people trying to get further into the bus, and other people trying to get out. It was definitely a relief to get outside of the bus, that's for sure. We got out in the flat area of the plan, and while there were a fair few people around, it wasn't as CRAZY as I was expecting.

We wandered around a while and found a place to sit and rest up in the hills. It didn't really have a great overview, but more importantly it had a nice place to sit. So we rested there for quite a while and joined some other friends at a Chinese restaurant later on. Of course I didn't need to eat at all, however I hadn't eaten any Chinese food in quite some time, so why not I thought. Maybe that was another decision to regret, I really didn't need that food.

We had our meal and we wandered our way down to near the Puerto. Where we were there were quite a few people, but the problem was you could only see the pontoons of fireworks in the immediate vicinity. I would have liked to have a view overlooking the bay, and my original suggestion was at the dunes in Con Con.

It was probably a mix of a lot of things, but I found myself in a terribly grumpy mood, that I just couldn't shake. It is of course meant to be a night to forget everything and have a good time, but I guess the fact I'm not a big fan of fireworks to begin with didn't help that out either.

Our way home was a long one, it took us over 2 hours to get back to Con Con, including a change of bus, and the second one had the awful smell of urine to accompany us back home.

The next day was a day to take it easy. Apparently the kids woke up at 8am, but it was some hours later until I arose. We played a bit with them and once the niños were in bed for their afternoon nap, the adults soon followed.

Today we got on the bus back to Santiago. This morning I was wearing a jumper down in Con Con, but there were no surprises to be greeted with some hot weather arriving back in the capital.

¡Feliz Navidad! - My first Christmas overseas

It's just gone past midnight, so you could be safe to say the Christmas time is done.

This was not my first Christmas away from the family- that was was in Airlie Beach 2009 (Francisca came to join me, arriving in the afternoon).

Here in Chile, as in Europe, the big event is Christmas Eve. In the past apparently it's been a big rush as everyone comes to visit here (their Mum's house), and then runs off to the inlaws afterwards. So in a much more sensible move, they went to their inlaws for the Christmas dinner, then the Christmas Day lunch was on here.

As we were all without a place to go for Christmas Eve, Tia Amelia invited us around. She lives just two blocks away and had a bunch of her family around. Before going over there we got in a Skype session with my family back home, Grandma and Grandpa were visiting too so it was nice to speak to them.

In my younger years, Grandpa used to go an steal grapefruits from where the priests lived. Occasionally he would get me to tag along to help him, much to Mum and Grandma's disgust. I asked him if he had gone to collect any, but he said he's grapefruit days were long gone. Apparently he was out in the surf in just his speedos, while everyone else was wearing wetsuits. It was good to hear he was back out in the action- a hip replacement and a knee injury due resulting from the operation have slowed him down a lot in the last years.

So anyway- Christmas Eve. After getting in the spirit by watching the Festivus episode of Seinfeld, we headed over just a couple of blocks away and were joined by a few more cousins- including Mateo, he must be one or two- he was the star of the show with his dancing at our Chilean wedding.

So Mateo and his brother Pedro were the only kids at the party at the time of present opening. Tio Manuel took them outside to see if Santa had come, but it seemed they couldn't find him. When they got back, it seemed he had made a deposit! Pedro got one of the most sought after gifts by Chilean boys-

An Alexis Sanchez Barcelona Jersey.

Of course their eyes lit up. They got some great presents. One of the older relatives got an iPad for their gift, but little Mateo also got the kids version- an etch a sketch.

Of course, being Christmas, and also being Chile, there was an enormous feast. I talked quite a lot with everybody, as many of them I had only met at the wedding for a few brief moments. They were interested in what I was up to with the internship and wanted to know some more about footbag.

There was of course the obligatory question "qual es tu equipo". When I arrived I said if La U won the Copa Sudamericana, then I would go for them. They did that without losing a game, so now I would say they are "my team". It's very different to just start supporting a team though, compared to my ongoing support of the Raiders (now more than 20 years). It's also very different to see that team win...

So they were happy with the news and said "welcome to the family". Although I have widely read Colo Colo are the most popular team, they have been not all that great this year, and I think plenty of people have jumped on the bandwagon to La U.

We got a good gift for another uncle, Tio Hernan, Francisca got the signature of Eduardo Vargas at the Golden Boot ceremony, so we are going to turn that into a Christmas card.

So the feast was turkey, lots of salads, and of course, hefty amounts of dessert. Chileans sure love their dessert. It really is amazing you don't see more incredibly overweight people walking the streets of Santiago.

One other thing my dining companions didn't get was the fascination of Australian's with cricket. More on that one later.

At the end of the night they wanted to see some footbag- and as I always carry my footbag with me, I was happy to oblige. Even though I had eaten a lot and drank a few beers, I put a few good runs together and they were all pretty impressed with that.

It was good to only have a couple of blocks to go home, and then to sleep in as we were the hosts the next day, so we were already there.

So earlier today we had the whole family gathered here, and once again more turkey, more tres leches, more of everything. Vino con frutilla (wine with strawberries in it) and more. After lunch we went outside with the kids to try out some of the new gifts. I got a pelota de rugby which I am quite excited about having. I hope a dog doesn't steal it like my previous soccerball.

After all the eating, and then some physical exertion, I was pretty tired. The beauty of living where the party is happening, is that you can retire early. I lay down on the bed for a short rest, and soon enough it was many hours later.

After wandering around the house like a zombie for a while, I came good when I realised I would still be able to get in a footbag session and swim at the pool. I had a pretty good session, finishing with a cool combo of vortex>spinning osis and my final trick of stepping ducking osis. As per usual, it felt really good to take a big running jump and splash into the pool.

Francisca went to meet a friend of hers and I stayed around at home. I surfed through some movies on the TV and have been keeping an eye on the cricket on the Cricinfo website. People often ask how can people like cricket, when it goes for so long- a test match goes for 5 days.

Admittedly I have gone off cricket in the last years, but the beauty of the Australian summer tests, are that they are omnipresent. You don't have to tune in to every ball of every match. It can be on in the car when you're driving to the beach, or like me at the moment, you can see what's happening directly on your screen.

Of course some people just use it as an excuse to get incredibly pissed, but that's another beauty of the game. It goes for a really long time, so you can drink a lot of beer throughout the duration.

So it's well past midnight now, not so long after lunch in the Boxing Day Test. The other beauty of the cricket is that on day 3, you can take a quick look at the scorecard and know pretty well what's been happening.

From Santiago, even just looking at the scores, it's a nice reminder of "back home".

Fundo Membrillar

And so we arrived, eventually at "The Farm". Dad spent a lot of his youth heading up to the family farm just outside Lismore, and I think he liked the idea of our new family doing the same sort of thing in their own youths.

And so it was we drove in to the gates, the sun having gone down, 10 hours in the car- and ready for sleep. That was not on the cards at all- it was till a few hours until dinner time. Carolita and Alex made us very welcome with appetisers, and then they said they'd just put something small on to cook.

Of course, this is Chile. There is nothing small, and being at the dinner table after midnight shouldn't have come as a shock...So our meal the first night was the local specialty sausage, longanizas. They are a very thick sausage, and well known not just in Chillán, but all through Chile.

The next day we went in to Chillán itself, to the mercados (markets). Markets are a big deal in every town in the world, but I'm really enthused by them- most of the time the stalls are just selling the same junk anyway. We had lunch there in the markets and I would really have rather not...You may see in one of the pictures at the top- it seems it was "dress up as a princess"day for some little girls.

Back to the Fundo and it was time for another late night feast. It was just Alex joining us that evening, but after seeing a motorised rotisserie to cook up a huge lamb, Dad had to concede that the Aussies can not match the Chilenos in the BBQ stakes. An interesting note, as people will often ask "what's a common Australian food". The fact is their really isn't one at all- particularly one that's common throughout the world. I answered one day, Thai Green Curry!

Anyway, we had this BBQ, and it was an enormous amount of food, as all Chilean meals are, there is no doubt about it, by the time I return to Australia I will be double the size I am now. It seemed as we were heading down they were actually expecting all 16 of the family to come down in the bus we had for the wedding. Amazingly, we all could have fit, easily. The house was a big place, with another little cottage which we had for ourselves.

It was interesting before our feast, Alex got me to come with him to collect some carbon for the fire, and also to check on some wood. He doesn't speak English at all, but he listens to Frank Sinatra. (righto). In my broken Spanish I found out he likes the music but he doesn't know the lyrics.

It was a late night again, so the next day it was good to just take it easy. We went in to the very small town of Ñipas. This was once again, the home ground of the huasos, the cowboys. You would see them in their wide, flat hats, almost everywhere. Despite being small, and not having much of interest in the town, it was a worthwhile excursion- first of all just to see another place, but also to feel completely "in the country". Funnily enough though, there was an internet café, which Mum and Dad both used. In there I played one of these soccer games, which I couldn't work out if it was something like a pokie, or like a pinball machine. Either way, it was boring and I lost. I won't make that mistake again.

Dinner was a much smaller, simpler and specifically earlier affair that night. I walked down to the river with Mum and Dad and a couple of the dogs from the property. They really just made their own way along, Mum was concerned about them- I said they'd know they way a lot better that us. I was right. As we were slogging through long grass, this dog is wagging its tail with a smart look, on the other side of a fence, following a nice trail.

In the morning it was time to bid farewell to the farm and head back towards the north. Once again we had a long way to go, although this time around we had a few options in mind. The first option was where to go instead of over the wobbly bridge- at the time we left it was closed for repairs. So it was, I'm sure to Dad's great pleasure, a gravel kick off for our journey back.

The difference was, the majority of this time would be spent on the freeway, going fast.

Vichuquén- Witch Country

Since coming back from our little trip, which of course was only a couple of days ago- I have notice when we talk about where we went, when we went to Vichuquén, I don't think anybody we have met along the way had been there before. Places like Pichilemu are pretty frequently visited, and places further down the line a few people seem to have relatives who they occasionally visit, but this area, this was the middle of nowhere it seems.

Our path took us from a place called Lo Valdivia, where we encountered a few cows on the road- not an uncommon feature back in Australia once you get out into the countryside. The middle Chile landscape was a lot like the Australian landscape, and I guess that gets helped along by the plantations of Blue Gums all throughout the countryside. We found out later that wood is mainly used for fence posts or firewood...

The road took us along the Western side of Lago Vichuquén, which in itself is a fairly large lake. Of course it's a blip on the map when looking at all of Chile, but it was quite a nice place to go alongside. At the base of the lake - Aqualarre we stopped for some ice cream, it was a pretty hot day after all, and then made our way into the town itself, which is located a bit further south.

As you can see in a couple of the pictures at the beginning of this post, it was fairly heavily struck by the earthquake in 2010. Most other places we went you couldn't see too much damage, it had either been fixed already, or they were lucky to avoid damage. But here in the middle of Chile, the cracks (literally) were showing. There is a museum in town which is highly recommended, however I think the real display is simply walking around and taking a look at the houses and other buildings. The town itself is almost 500 years old and was declared as a typical area in the early 90s- similar to being on the Heritage Listing in Australia. The town is also known for brujas y brujos (witches and wizards)- apparently due to a perfect triangle between two other towns, and in this zone they would perform their magic- (righto...)

We had lunch there in Vichuquén, a pretty big feed- as they always are in Chile. By the time we finished our almuerzo it was about 3pm and we still had a long, long way to go. Dad had originally said he wanted to take the coast road, but our best option may have been to stay on the tar from Bucalemu. In the little book there was a picture of a very nice wave at Pelluhue, and the Lonely Planet kicked back in at Buchupureo, which they gave a very positive write up for. I had also seen some pictures of the Iglesia de Piedra, a cool looking cave formation in Cobquecura, so my idea was to navigate along that way.

After passing by Constitucion I started doing the numbers, if we went that way, our final destination in Chillán was still going to be hundreds of kilometres away. It was time to do a bit of a restructure. We stopped in Chanco, a smalll little town which is known for its cheese- a bit like Bega, really. On a side note, you can buy Bega Cheese in the supermarkets over here. Just like at home, it's too expensive for me.

Once getting to Chanco we had a bit of a wander around, and it seemed we had a new friend. I think Dad was pretty keen for a coffee as he had been driving through the whole day with the curves and everything, and was feeling the journey. So this nuevo amigo took us to a small little places, and at the end of the day waited at the corner to wave us off. Maybe they will talk for months - did you see those Australians come through town. Just south of Chanco it was time to head inland. The road further south became dirt, and the mention of more gravel I think had Dad shuddering. So we had a driver change and Francisca got moving through towards Parral, where would join up with Ruta 5, the main highway which runs right through Chile, from end to end. Unfortunately this road, and actually all the roads we had driven through, were full of roadworks- of course there is still a lot to be down in response to the earthquake.

We stopped again in Parral, which is probably similar to a lot of the cities along the Panamericana (Ruta 5), lots of huasos (cowboys) around, similar looking shops and a bit of a dry feel to it. It was only once we were heading out of there that it seemed we were actually getting close to our destination.

It was a different feeling gunning it at 120 down the freeway, after an average speed for the day of about 40km/hour. So it didn't take us too long until we were turning off a little south of Chillán, on the road to Concepcion, and then inland, over a very wobbly one lane bridge, to arrive at our destination- Fundo Membrillar.

Bucalemu and Beyond

The next day we went down for a surf check to kick off the day. There was no need to wake up early, it seems there's no dawn patrol here. The surf was looking smaller and I still had the memory of some pretty fresh water from the day before, so I suggested we head a bit further down the coast, possibly in search of another wave.

There were no waves to be found, but we had an interesting little trip anyway, we drove down to Bucalemu, which was about 30km from us. On the way we picked up a hitchhiker, which of course was much to Mum's satisfaction...although she couldn't argue when Dad used the excuse that he picked the bloke up to practice his Spanish. The guy we picked up spoke no English at all, so me and Mick were getting by with the little that we knew between us. It seemed he was going to Bucalemu for work and then back to Pichilemu in the afternoon. He also had 6 kids, 5 sons, 1 daughter.

Once we arrived in town, I must say we were all surprised to see a student protest- a student protest of primary school kids! They were playing their drums and waving banners and blocking the road. Our new mate suggested we just drive straight through them, or tear down the opposite (wrong) side of the road. Dad displayed patience as we eventually found a place to get around them, come to think of it that was a bit of a surreal experience.

We got down to the beach and had a bit of a walk around, there were a bunch of fishing boats coming in, and it sure looked like the pescadores had worked hard out in the seas- each of the boats were packed with fish. Old ladies would come down and put in their orders- 1000 pesos ($2) got one lady 3 filleted fresh fish- try getting anything for $2 back home...

Dad was keen to get back in to the water, but it just didn't look appealing to me, so Alison went out in my place, with no wetsuit. She would have been cold. We had eaten some pretty enormous empanadas for lunch- as a matter of fact I ate two, so maybe I was in no condition to be floating around in the surf- maybe there would not have been so much floating in that case...

We had a very good dinner at the hostel, and directly after dinner we made the dash down to the beach so we could see the sunset. The oldies took their time, so there was no sunset to see by the time they got down there. During the middle of the night, somebody had the audacity to call me at 4:30am- I didn't get the chance to answer it and give him a serve- but shortly after I felt my first earth tremor. It measured 5.4 on the Richter (nothing, they say) and gave the house a good little shake, but it was only short lived, a few seconds. Half of our gang didn't even hear it, and Dad wasn't sure if he dreamed the earthquake up.

The next day we took our time to get going, which was a pretty major rookie error. The fact was we had a long way to go, whichever way you looked at the map, and the course I selected for us was probably the longest, due to the windy dirt roads throughout. We passed through Bucalemu again, and although the Spanish guidebook- kind of like an NRMA book covered the territory, there was no mention of it in the Lonely Planet. We passed through localities such as Lo Valdivia and through windy mountain roads filled with blind corners, before coming to Lago Vichuquén. It was still a while until the roads got any better, and that I will fill in over the next posts.

Getting out of town- Pichilemu

We had the Chilean version of the wedding a couple of weeks ago now. It was a great success and everyone seemed to have a good time. We had 16 of my family come over from Australia, and for the last week Francisca and I have been travelling with Mum, Dad and my sister Alison.

With the help of a set of maps given as a gift from Pablo, we navigated our way through some countryside that I would say not too many Chileans have been to before. The guidebooks were in Spanish, and you might say my Spanish at the moment is "less than reasonable".

Our first stop on the tour was Pichilemu, home to the famous Punta de Lobos surf break. We were joined by Margaret and Mick, my uncle and auntie) and my cousin Bri. They had been living it up in the Explora in Patagonia, which they said was full of American wankers- but I think Pichilemu is much more their style. We actually arrived one day before they did. After a quick surf check we went to check in- the main conversations in the booking were made between Margaret and the bloke that owned the hostel- conveniently neither of them were around...

Apparently we were booked in to another house in the woods above the town, so we drove out that way. This looked very similar to an old neighbouring place back when we lived in Tanja- an ever smaller beach town. Their house was made of mud brick, but this one was a straw-bale house. They had actually done something a bit tricky, and put a picture frame to look through into the straw, so that it looked like a picture frame on the wall. Dad is currently in the process of building a deck, so everywhere we went he was looking for extra ideas, inspiration, and commenting on the types of wood.

We went into the town of Pichilemu itself, and I have to say there was not too much happening there. We had dinner at a restaurant, in which we were the only customers. Of course that meant we had prompt service!

On returning back to the house, it was fairly imperative to get home before dark as the driveway was a bit of a tight squeeze, particularly in our big van. I was walking in front of everybody and I heard a big thud. I looked back and Dad was lying down clutching at his ankle. Having spent the last months on the comeback trail from a badly sprained ankle, I could only think- oh no, not again. We got some Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation going, but I honestly thought things weren't looking too good, and that the holiday would have been ruined.

We let him retire while the rest of us had a game of Monopolio, Santiago style. The game never finished but I seem to have made an error when dealing out the money, so nobody really had enough to buy the different places. In the morning Dad was feeling much fresher, the trip was saved!

I also played some Footbag, here is a little video

The next day, of course after an obligatory surf check, we met with the others at our hostel, the Natural Surf Lodge. We had our next two nights here, and it was a pretty nice place. We could walk down to the beach, although it was a bit of a surprise to be greeted with black sand!

We had some lunch at a very highly recommended place- Costa Luna. It actually took us a while to find this place, we had some naviagtional troubles along the backroads, which were dirt, but we got there eventually, and we got a seat for all of us- the place looks out over the water. Even though there was a planed surf in the afternoon, we got ourselves some drinks to wash down the meal. My meal was a sirloin beef with risotto, it was excellent, one of the best meals I'd eaten in Chile.

On the way back we got ourselves some bodyboard hire. I was concerned when looking out in the surf, and in a couple of shops it would be a hard mission to accomplish. With my limited Spanish, I negotiated a lower price for a two day hire, because it was later in the day. Apparently Bri went back to the car very impressed- kids can be sucked into anything...

They suggested we try on the wetsuits. Dad got into his, I opted out of the wet wetsuit and told them "she'll be right". We dropped the girls back at our new home, and we walked up the beach to the point.

About halfway along it wasn't seeming to be such a grand idea to walk along there at all, Dad said he would turn around and get the car. This seemed like he was going to give the surf a miss altogether, and I told him, the whole reason we came here was to surf here- we persisted on.

The surf was ok- nothing really to write home about, with a fair few people out. This year I have really had limited opportunities to get in the water, so this must have only been about the third time I actually was on my tabla body all year. Even though the water was pretty cold, it was good to get in. The key problem was my mismatched flippers- neither of them fit. I had one XL and one L and had the painful problem of one too big and one too small.

Once I got out, I saw a very refreshing sight, Francisca and Margaret were waiting for us, with the car. That was great news. Dad claimed a ripper of a wave on the last one he got, he couldn't stop talking about it later in the night. I don't know if Mick was so happy with the surf, he was lucky to get some big surf in Peru last month, and this definitely would not have matched up to it. Still, it's probably best not to go out when it's 10ft + for your debut.

I will continue the story of our trip in the next post...

Once more unto the breach...

For most people, a wedding is a one time experience. Not for everyone though, plenty of religions seems to have the equivalent of the multiball option in regards to wives, whilst these days it's quite common for re-marriages to occur etc. And, in our situation, when your from two sides of a vast ocean, it really is necessary to have two ceremonies.

So after having our "proper"(according to the law) wedding in Sydney earlier this year, tomorrow is the next Big Day. There will definitely be no more weddings after this one- they're a lot of work!

The bride arrives

I made a little zine for the wedding guests

Champers anyone?

At both events we have been lucky enough to have some incredible garden spaces to use. In Sydney we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house, their gardens lay themselves out over a number of levels, which was a really perfect setup for the ceremony we had, meant we could change the focus point a couple of times throughout.

A good friend of mine, and a long time servant of Footbag in Australia, Ian Pritchard, just so happens to me a wedding videographer for his day job, so he had a bit of fun and took some photos on the day- what a great way to spend one of your only weekends off!

With this ring I give you my love

You may now kiss the bride

The happy couple

Cheers mates

José, a good friend of ours, who is from Brazil cooked up some amazing food.

Here's cheers

Another view of the garden. Grandma planted the Jacaranda when she was young.

A fierce battle for the bouquet

Then time for cake

Grandma and Grandpa- couldn't have happened without them

We were very fortunate with the weather the first time round- after some, very ironic, morning rain, the skies cleared up, and it was a perfect temperature, not too hot either- the next couple of weeks saw almost every day in the 40s, and the previous weeks in Sydney were full of rain, so we did well.

After "official proceedings", a bunch of our good friends joined us to take a water taxi into the city. Originally we had just planned to take a ferry, but in hindsight, it was definitely best to take the water taxi, meaning we had our own boat, I think the maximum capacity was 27. This was a great way to head into the city, as a whole bunch of us were staying at Sydney Harbour YHA.

When I first brought up the idea of staying in a hostel, I would say my Mum's reaction was one of horror. I worked for the last few years in the YHA in Canberra, and had the benefit, regularly used, of staying almost anywhere else within the (quite expansive) network for free. Plenty of the guests were fellow staff/mates from work, so they had some free rooms too... what I was not expecting though, was to have the best room in the house, and champagne and chocolate in the room- I don't know if you could expect that in a "honeymoon suite" in a flash hotel.

It was a great chance to have everyone together there, though you may say the night become a whole lot less formal as it went on.

Our honeymoon, we didn't want to make it a big, expensive trip at all, as we already had plenty of overseas trips booked for later in the year, so we made our way down to Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road.

I think it worked perfectly for what we were after, it was a chance to just take a laidback trip and see a few sights. Francisca had never been to Victoria at all, and I had not been all that far along the Great Ocean Road, so it was really a good chance to travel along there.

So now it's time to prepare again- the wedding is in Rancagua, it's about an hour and a bit away from Santiago. There has been a big turnout of family- sixteen in total, and my good friend Doug as well. Today the family are out touring down the coast, Doug and I will join them in a bus down south tomorrow. Not sure exactly what's going to be happening to come back, but there's a good chance our "romantic exit" from the wedding, it may also be in a bus with sixteen family.

What I do know is there will be a good spread on at the wedding, that in itself is doubtless. According to the last few days, I think the weather will be good, a little on the hot side, but there are going to be marquees set up. It will also be a good chance to meet some more of Francisca's family and friends that I have not met yet- we can share a mix of my hopeless Spanish (though it's getting better, slowly), and whatever English that they have.

We were incredibly happy with our first wedding, everything went exactly as it was planned, and I definitely hope tomorrow we will be saying the same.