London: Part Eight

My last blog before leaving the UK was about London, and it turns out that my first blog since coming back is also going to be about London!

I'm only going to be here for three weeks, so I want to make the most of it. For this reason, I decided to spend a day in London, which is one of my favourite cities in the world.

This time I chose to visit the borough of Greenwich - an area I'd never been to before and which I'd wanted to go to for a long time. And now that the new Elizabeth Line has opened on the tube, it's much quicker to get there. I took the tube from Paddington to Canary Wharf and then took the Docklands Light Railway to Cutty Sark station, where you can find the famous ship of the same name.

I had a quick look in the ship's gift shop, but I didn't buy a ticket for the museum, as time is always a bit tight with an off-peak return ticket to London.

Next to the ship, you have some nice views of the Thames and an old tunnel that goes underneath it.

After having a coffee, I walked to the place I was most excited about visiting: Greenwich Park. Here you can find the Prime Meridian, where the western and eastern hemispheres of the world meet. You have to pay to visit the actual line, which is located in the Royal Observatory (pictured below).

I didn't visit the Royal Observatory this time, as it's expensive, and my time was limited, but perhaps I'll go at some point in the future. However, the whole area of the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and there's plenty to see there for free.

The first thing I did was walk up to the viewpoint next to the observatory. Here you can find what I would say is the best view I've seen in London, and probably up there as one of the best views I've seen in the whole world. You can see the beautiful old building of the Old Royal Naval College down below, with the modern skyscrapers of Canary Wharf rising up behind it, and other landmarks such as the Gherkin and the O2 Arena further away. It's just incredible.

I also enjoyed seeing the sights of the rest of the park, including the bandstand, the rose garden and the flower garden - it was amazing to be in this huge space of nature in such a big city.

I was also lucky enough to see not only a tame squirrel, but also a beautiful fox! He stopped on the pathway, about 5 or 10 metres away from me, just long enough for me to get a photo of him. I couldn't believe I'd seen him so close up - it was really an incredible experience!

Greenwich Park definitely turned out to be one of my favourite places I've visited in London. It's a little way off from the usual tourist sites, but it's really worth going over there, if only to see that fantastic view.

My day in London, as usual, felt too short. (Thought at least I didn't have to go to the Chilean Consulate this time!) There are still many more places I want to visit in and around the capital, and there's a big part of me that really wants to live there. What with the cost of living there, I'm not sure how possible that will be, at least for the time being, but maybe someday it will happen... We'll have to wait and see what the future holds!

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Four here!

Read about London: Part Five here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Rapel Lake

In the middle of August, there was a three-day weekend in Chile, so Claudio and I wanted to make the most of it and go to a new place. Our original idea was to stay in a cabaña with a jacuzzi in Termas de Chillán, but it seems everyone else in the country had the same idea, as all of the cabañas in the area were fully booked. (Hopefully we will get to go there some other time!)

In the end we decided to go on a day trip instead. As we'd been to the snowy mountains the previous weekend and to the beach the weekend before that, I had the idea of going to a lake in the countryside, in order to do something completely different. So we chose to go to Rapel Lake, which is actually an artificially-created reservoir located in the O'Higgins region, the next region down from Santiago Metropolitan Region. I had actually never visited anywhere in this region before (I'd only ever passed through by bus) so it was nice to get to know a new area of the country. (Now I've been to 10 of Chile's 16 regions - I hope to explore them all some day!)

The journey took longer than we expected, but after a few hours, the stunning blue lake finally came into view. Unfortunately, actually getting access to it was more difficult than we anticipated, as a lot of the area around it is private. So we went to have lunch at a nearby restaurant and had a look at Google Maps to figure out where to go next.

First we ended up going to a small amphitheatre on the shore of the lake. It was nice to have access to the lake at last, and there were nice views of the mountains and trees from there, but the actual area itself was a bit swampy and unattractive.

Next we went to a beach that was mainly being used for fishing. Again, this area had some nice views, but it was quite run-down looking with lots of rubbish on the ground.

Up to this point, Rapel Lake had been a bit of a disappointing experience. But then as we were driving across the bridge that goes back in the direction of Santiago, we noticed some people offering boat rides. We got out of the car, and found out that we were just in time for the last ride of the day, which was very lucky!

The boat trip really was just the experience we were hoping for. It was amazing to sail around the lake at sunset, seeing the different birdlife (including herons and pelicans) on and around the water, and enjoying the views of the mountains, palm trees, forests and cabañas. There were even some over-water cabañas that reminded me of pictures I've seen of the Maldives - I think they would be a great place to stay in summer.

Overall, our trip to Rapel Lake was a nice little adventure, and we're thinking of going back there in the summer to go swimming.

Right now I'm actually back in England again, and I'll be here for the next three weeks. Although I was really happy to move to Chile, it's definitely nice to be back here for a holiday! I'm hoping to do a bit of travelling during my time here, including trips to London and to the beach in Wales. So watch this space!

Our Snow Day!

Last weekend, Claudio and I did something completely different to our trip to Zapallar the previous weekend, travelling in the opposite direction up into the mountains to the ski centres of Farellones, El Colorado, La Parva and Valle Nevado.

This was a trip that I'd been wanting to take for a long time, and we were really determined to do it at some point this winter. So on Saturday, we got up at the crack of dawn and left when it was still dark, in order to beat the weekend traffic and spend as much time in the snow as possible.

The ski centres are not very far from Santiago in terms of distance (in fact, they are part of Santiago province and Lo Barnechea comuna), but because of their high altitude (Valle Nevado is at an altitude of 3000 metres above sea level), it takes at least 90 minutes to get there from the city. The journey consists of 40 sharp bends up the mountain road, which seems to go on forever... but then finally you arrive in Farellones, which looks like a fairytale Alpine village, and you feel like you're in a completely different world.

First of all, we spent some time driving through all four villages and getting to know the area, before exploring Valle Nevado, which is probably the most popular of the ski centres - there were many Brazilian and Argentinian tourists there, as well as Chileans.

It was pretty hard at first to get used to the cold (it was -4 degrees, which is a big contrast to Santiago, where the days have gradually been getting sunnier and warmer again). But later in the day, we put on some snow trousers and gloves which Claudio's family lent us, which made a big difference.

In Valle Nevado, there's a rooftop viewpoint, which offers you really great views of the mountains and the ski slopes.

The next place we stopped off at was an area at the side of the road, where lots of families were having a great time sledging and playing in the snow. This area is a free alternative to paying for activities at the ski centres, and it has amazing mountain views.

Afterwards, we went back to El Colorado. Here we had lunch at a restaurant with views over the ski slopes. While we were there, it actually started snowing, which was pretty exciting!

We didn't go skiing or snowboarding this time, but we had a look at the prices for future reference, and discovered that we could go for a ride on the panoramic chair (in other words, the ski lift) without actually taking part in any winter sports. The ride was a little expensive ($10000 pesos per person, which is around £10) but it was a lot of fun, and it made our snow day extra special.

Going up into the mountains to spend a day in the snow really felt like being on holiday, as it was so different from the city, and the scenery was so beautiful. We are definitely going to try to go back there at some point in September (when I'm back from my trip to the UK), and next time we're planning to try skiing or snowboarding for the first time! I'm really looking forward to trying a new sport and writing about it here soon!