Hola todos
After our visit to Wellington, we crossed the ocean and landed on the
South Island of New Zealand. Our two lovebugs promised each other eternal
love in the first city we visited (Nelson) and of course we have duly
celebrated the engagement. After this happy union, we were able to move on
and discover the versatility of this country: rainforests, sandy beaches,
glaciers, fjords, gigantic mountain ranges, volcanoes, penguins, albatross
and thousands of sheep (about 25 times more than the population).
During the trip, Bene jumped from a bridge. Don’t worry, he didn’t
regret his engagement already, he did use a rope. The famous jump in the
pipeline was taken from 102 meters above ground. Another highlight was our
swim with the dolphins. We took a boat the size of a nut shell out on the
ocean and looked for dolphins. As soon as we saw a swarm, we grabbed
swimsuits and snorkels and swam with the animals; an unforgettable
experience!
Because we all liked New Zealand so much, we left a few things behind as a
gift: Reto left his sunglasses and a roll of film of the engagement.
Caterine decided to give up her bikini, her glasses and her sunglasses.
And Bene was so nice as to leave two towels and his swim trunks. It is
said that these incidents are based on mathematics. Up until now the two
forgetful chaotic men have traveled together, and since minus and minus
equal plus, nothing bad happened. But now, our team has gained another
chaotic person, which would logically turn the whole thing to minus…
After the few minor losses, we landed in Tahiti. The barometer rose to a
good 40 degrees. But it was not only the heat that made us sweat, but also
the prices. Life is just about twice as expensive here as in Switzerland!
And to top it off, we could not find a nice sandy beach and were treated
rudely by the natives. We decided to go island hopping in search of those
beaches. We found them on Bora Bora and Maupiti, complete with blue
lagoons. It is therefore not very astonishing that we found the best hotel
of 1999 right there. The price: 1500 Fr. a night in one of those huts on
the lagoon.
After two weeks of sunbathing on various beaches, we checked in for the
last continent on our tour: South America. We were greeted by Pesche, his
parents and Fresia in Santiago de Chile upon our arrival. This city has
more busses than cars and coffee can make you a poor man! Fresias parents
took us in and we toured the surroundigs for the first couple of days.
Freesia took us to a VIP wine tasting, even though we were not on the
guest list. She also made sure we never had to pay the full price in
Hotels or organized tours.
We took a bus to Puerto Montt, which is in the south. The region is known
for it’s wooden huts ( a remainder of all the German immigrants) and
it’s fine seafood, especially salmon. The landsacape is similar to
Switzerland’s apart from the beautiful island Chiloe, the volcanoes and
the ocean.
After that stop, we flew to the southern point of the continent where we
visited the National Park “Torres del Paine”. The waterfalls, colorful
lakes, interestingly formed mountains, icebergs, lamas, foxes and eagles
were all wonderful to see. On a one day tour we were able to experience
glaciers up close, which all end in water. We were offered grape schnapps
with glacier water after which one of us had too much water in her boat…
(A Chilean expression for drunk, may also be used when not traveling by
boat)
We spent one night in the southern most city on this planet: Punta Arenas,
after which we traveled back to Santiago (2000km). We said good bye to our
Swiss visitors, then cooked some traditional Swiss food for Fresia’s
parents: an authentic Rösti and a Swiss style Züpfe! Under much praising,
they decided to write down the recipe for future use.
Our future travel plans
have been slightly altered: We will discover the north of Chile before
going on to Bolivia, Peru and Brazil.
A hello from Chile
Bene und Reti
