My Year of Adventurous Travel

As this blog is called Charlotte's Travel Adventures, it seems only right to write a post about adventurous travel!

Of course, I like going on holiday to relax, and visiting places to see interesting sights...but travel is also about having new and different experiences.

The 15 months that I spent living in Chile were a time when I made an effort to go on some exciting and sometimes a little extreme adventures. Though of course, there were plenty of challenges during that time (which I wrote about in this recent post), I feel like I really made the most of it and had a lot of fun travelling and trying new things across South America.

Here are 5 of my biggest adventures from the year!

Indoor Surfing in Santiago

Though I'd tried windsurfing in 2016, I'd always wanted to have a go at classic surfing. Surprisingly enough, even though Santiago isn't by the sea, you can surf there - Mall Sport offers indoor surfing lessons, and Claudio and I took one in May 2022. 

This experience was actually the most extreme of them all, I'd say! You basically get have to try to stay afloat against powerful jets of water, and if you don't manage it, you get thrown across that big curved area you can see in my pictures. Though we had plenty of bruises and even a couple of scrapes afterwards, we had a lot of fun. 

A Speedboat Ride in the Pacific Ocean

Our weekend in Papudo was one of our most low-key trips away during my time living in Chile, but it was actually one of my favourites. We saw so many beautiful animals there, from adorable pet cats to incredible marine life. Plus, the town and its beaches are absolutely beautiful.

Our time there was mostly very relaxing, with the exception of a boat trip we took to Isla Los Lobos. To my surprise, the boat was actually a dinghy with an engine, and it went incredibly fast - it was fun, though I was slightly scared that either I or my stuff would fall in the sea!

But the sights we saw on that trip were incredible: Humboldt penguins, sea lions and even a beautiful dolphin. We finished off the ride with a jump into the water at a beautiful, secluded beach. It was such a memorable experience!

Ziplining in the Andes

Another extremely memorable experience was going ziplining in the Andes mountains. This was something I'd always wanted to try, and I was really excited about it...until we actually got there and saw it!

The experience took place at Cascada de las Ánimas activity centre in Cajón del Maipo, which is such an enchanting and beautiful place. But the zip-line is suspended 25 metres above the River Maipo and looks pretty daunting! We were both pretty nervous when preparing to set off, but it was such a fun and exhilarating experience!

In fact, we liked it so much that we did it again a few months later at Parque Aventura in Santiago. 

White-Water Rafting in Argentina

White-water rafting was another sport I'd wanted to try for years, and I took the opportunity to try it while renewing my visa in Argentina. Although my day at the activity centre was rather long without a lot to do, the activity itself was so much fun, and the landscapes of the Andes and the Mendoza River were beautiful. I definitely plan to go rafting again at some point!

Backpacking Solo to Machu Picchu

We had several adventurous trips during the 15 months, but the most adventurous was when I went to Peru for a week on my own with just a backpack. 

During my time there I took in the sites in and around Cusco, and travelled around the Sacred Valley of the Incas, before taking the train to Aguas Calientes and hiking up hundreds of stone steps to the famous citadel, Machu Picchu.

It was a trip I'd dreamed of for several years and took quite a lot of organising, but it all turned out really well. I had an amazing time!

In my opinion, trying new experiences and adventures like these are a great way to get out of your comfort zone and create memories that will last forever.

There are still several other adventurous experiences I want to try, such as surfing at a beach, paragliding, and maybe even scuba diving.

Perhaps there will be more extreme adventures to come on this blog!

A Relaxing Weekend in Swansea

In order to make the most of Claudio's last full weekend here, we decided to take a little trip away. 

Initially, we'd been thinking of going up to Nottingham to see my old university, or possibly to Manchester, where neither of us have been before. But hotel and train prices are so steep at the moment, that it didn't seem worth it.

I then started looking at places a bit closer to home, like Bournemouth, where prices were better, but still not great considering a lot of hotels were badly reviewed. But looking at the different hotels, many of which had swimming pools, made us realise how much we wanted to go swimming! I hadn't been swimming since August last year, and Claudio hadn't been swimming for over a year, and we both were really missing it.

My dad suggested that we try Swansea - it's the city where my Nana was from, and we used to go on holiday there when I was little. So, I looked up Swansea on Hotels.com, and was very pleased to find a reasonably-priced hotel there - with a swimming pool!

The hotel we chose is part of a chain of hotels called Village Hotels. I'm not sure how long they've been running for, but I just started noticing them popping up on Hotels.com over the last few months. They all have a swimming pool and gym, but are quite reasonably priced (especially the one in Swansea, compared to those in England).

The Village Hotel Swansea is located in the docks of the city, which is quite a picturesque and modern area.

We were pleased to find that our room was very spacious and comfortable, and even had a bathtub.

After checking in, we went off to find some lunch at the India India all-you-can-eat buffet, which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. It had lots of different curries to try (including several veggie ones) and all of the delicious Indian side dishes you could wish for, as well as some tasty dessert options. We'd definitely go back!

We walked off our big lunch with a stroll along the beach and the marina. Even though the tide was out and the beach was a bit muddy, it was great to have some sea air.

Back by the docks, we had a look at the Norwegian Church, which is actually now a nursery. 

We then went back to the hotel to try the swimming pool!

In fact there was more than just a swimming pool to try out - there was also a sauna, a steam room, a jacuzzi within the pool itself (the same temperature as the pool water), and a hot tub outside of the pool (with hotter water). Although the steam room was a bit too hot for our liking, the other facilities were really nice to use, especially the hot tub.

The only downside was that the pool was open to members of the public as well as hotel guests, so it was busier than we would have liked. We went back again the following morning before breakfast, expecting it to be quieter, but it was actually even busier then.

But overall, it was really nice to swim again for the first time in ages, and to use spa facilities for the first time in years.

After our morning swim and breakfast at the hotel's Starbucks, it was time for us to see some castles!

We started off by walking into Swansea town centre to see the castle there. There's not so much left of it compared to other Welsh castles, but it's still quite dramatic to look at.

We then took the bus down to Mumbles to visit Oystermouth Castle. This is probably one of my favourite castles that I've visited in Wales! Not only is it a beautiful building, but it also has amazing views over the sea. 

You can pay to explore the entire castle, but we chose not too, as there's actually a lot you can look around for free. We spent quite a while there taking it all in.

Next, we went for a stroll along the seafront, picking up some delicious gelato at Verdi's along the way.

Past the pier, you can find Bracelet Bay beach, which is a really unspoilt beach with stunning views of the lighthouse.

We spent a really nice time there paddling in the sea and enjoying the views.

Overall, we had a great couple of days in Swansea, and felt like it was a nice contrast to previous trips we've taken. We realised that during a lot of our recent trips, we've walked for miles each day seeing different sights and often queuing at overcrowded attractions. While we love sightseeing, we definitely do not love crowds, and although we've still got a couple of very touristy places on our bucket list, we'd like to generally stick to more peaceful areas for our holidays in the future. We're not the sort of people to spend a whole week on a sunlounger without going anywhere, but we did appreciate the slower pace of this trip. We still walked lots on both days, but we didn't have to queue even once, and we felt quite restored after the trip, rather than exhausted!

Changing the subject to what's coming next on this blog, the truth is that I don't have any travels planned for the time being. We've got some BIG plans for December and January, but we want to save up a bit before then. Hopefully, once Claudio's got his visa, we'll do some little trips together, but for now, I'm going to focus on creating different kinds of posts rather than just write-ups of trips we've done. That's actually quite exciting, because I haven't really had the opportunity to try different things on this blog for a while, and I've got lots of ideas! My next post will be about a topic I find very interesting, and hopefully it'll be here on this blog in a week or two...