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Monday, 13 February 2023

Papudo

As Claudio worked during one of the public holidays in December, he got a Monday off last month to compensate, and I also cleared my schedule on the same day so that we could have a long weekend. We decided to spend this long weekend in Papudo, one of the beach towns in the Valparaíso region that we hadn't visited yet. 

When I started my previous job back in March, I had to complete several hours of training. One part of the training included an article about lesser-known tourist destinations close to Santiago, and I remember that Papudo was on the list because of its geography that gives it a warmer climate than other beach towns in central Chile. Claudio and I had also seen some nice pictures and videos of Papudo, so it was an easy choice to go there!

One of the pictures we'd seen showed some amazing apartments on the beach, surrounding an enormous swimming pool! We hoped to stay there, but it was a bit too expensive for our budget at the moment. (Hopefully we can stay there in the future!) But luckily, I was fortunate enough to manage to reserve a little apartment in a cabaña for a good price, just a few days in advance!

The place where we stayed, Cabañas Aquario, had everything we needed and was close to the beach. To make it even better, there was an adorable resident cat, who greeted us soon after we arrived!





After checking in, we headed for the beach. On our way there, we were lucky enough to meet another lovely cat!




We had lunch at a nice restaurant on Playa Papudo, the town's main beach, and then relaxed and sunbathed for a little while. After that it was time to swim! 

Entering the chilly water of the Pacific was certainly a shock after our time in Brazil! But to be honest, I find there's something quite nice about having that cold shock on a hot, sunny day and then feeling yourself adapt to it within the first couple of minutes. And after that, it's perfect!

We had a nice swim for a short while, but then the waves started to get a bit too big and rough so I got out to spend some more time sunbathing and reading. (We found out over the course of the trip that the other beaches in Papudo are better for swimming.) However, it's still a very pretty beach with a beautiful backdrop of green mountains and palm trees, that reminded me a bit of photos I've seen of Colombia, actually. (My experience of Colombia currently consists of just passing through Bogotá airport, but I'd love to properly explore the country in the future.)






When evening arrived, we went on a little sightseeing walk. Probably the most iconic sight in the town is this German-style house next to the beach. Like Zapallar, Papudo is quite affluent, which is why you can find this kind of European architecture there.




Not far from the house, you can find the town's church, which is very small and pretty.




We also walked along Playa Chica (Little Beach).






Here we found a nice café, where we had our once (the evening meal in Chile). We had an amazing view of the ocean and the town, and it was a great way to finish the first day of our trip.






Afterwards, we booked our places on an exciting activity for the following day, and then went back to the cabaña, but not before passing through the town's main square.




The following morning, we headed down to the pier for our activity: a boat trip to Isla Los Lobos, an island full of wildlife. I was feeling very excited about the trip, until the boat appeared - well, I say "boat", but it was actually more like a dinghy with an engine. It was definitely not what I'd expected!

I got on with some trepidation, and we set off. The speed at first was fairly moderate, but then the driver asked if we were ready for an adventure... Everyone shouted "Sí!", and then we really went at full pelt! I was clinging on for dear life, and hoping that neither I nor my bag (which had my phone in it) would fall into the water!

Then all of a sudden, we reached our first stop: a little rocky area between Papudo and Zapallar. We had stopped here in the hope of seeing someone very special...

And then all of a sudden, he appeared - he being a tonina, a Chilean type of dolphin! It was absolutely incredible to see this beautiful creature appearing above the waves. Neither Claudio or I had ever seen a dolphin in the wild before, and it's something I'd always hoped to experience one day, so it was just such a memorable moment. Claudio even managed to capture a video of him!





Sadly, the poor dolphin has quite a tragic backstory - he used to have a partner, but she was killed by a fishing net, and now he's all alone. Hearing this story made me really want to do something to protect these magnificent animals.

After spending several magical minutes watching the beautiful dolphin, it was time to say goodbye to him, and sail on towards the island.

However the journey there wasn't so straightforward; at one point the driver and the guide noticed some plastic in the water and decided to fish it out. This meant doing a u-turn at speed, which lifted the boat nearly on to its side! While I admired their commitment to protecting the ocean and its inhabitants, it was a bit of a scary moment for those of us on the boat!

I was very happy when we finally stopped at Islas Los Lobos, not only because it was a chance to catch my breath, but also because there were more incredible animals to see there. It was lovely to see Humboldt penguins again (we'd previously seen them in Algarrobo), but it was my first time seeing sea lions in the wild (they are actually called lobos marinos - sea wolves - in Spanish, hence the name of the island). I'd seen seals up in Northumbria many years ago, but these creatures were so much bigger - in fact, some of them were huge! It was really funny to watch them flapping and sliding around!






It was then time for the third and final stop of the tour. Here we had the opportunity to jump into the water at the most beautiful beach in Papudo. This area is really isolated and is surrounded by forest.

The ocean was a beautiful turquoise colour here, and jumping in was a great experience!




It was a bit of a relief to arrive back at the shore of Papudo after the tour - it had been a much more adventurous experience than I'd expected! But it had also been an even more incredible experience than we'd been expecting, and it's definitely something we're going to remember for a long time.




As we walked back to the cabaña, we were lucky enough to spot some more wildlife. Lots of pelicans had arrived on the beach, and some had even taken over a nearby boat!





After lunch, we had a walk along the beach, up towards the northern part of Papudo. This part is a really picture-perfect paradise beach, and even has a small lake actually located on the sand.









We did attempt a swim here, but there were a lot of rocks, seaweed and jellyfish floating around, so eventually we headed all the way back down to Playa Chica, at the other end of town, and had a really nice swim there.





The day ended with us meeting another lovely cat!





And the next morning, we were lucky enough to meet yet another lovely cat when we were eating our breakfast! Her name's Selva, and I think she lives at the café we were at. She was so friendly and cuddly!







We didn't have much time left in Papudo, as we wanted to move on to our next destination fairly soon, but we managed to fit in one last bit of sightseeing, starting with some pictures at the big letters!






Then we went for a walk through some interesting rock formations between Papudo and Zapallar. Unfortunately, there was some graffiti there, but it was still a nice place to explore, and a bit of a workout climbing over some of the bigger rocks!







Finally, we arrived at the area where we'd seen the dolphin the previous day.
 




And guess what... he appeared again!

This time, he entertained us with some proper jumps, where his entire body came out of the water! It was absolutely amazing to see! 

We spent many minutes there, waiting for him to emerge again and again, but to be honest, we could have spent the whole day there. He's such a beautiful creature, and we felt incredibly lucky to have seen him twice. Hopefully we'll get to meet him again in the future!

Overall, it was a fantastic couple of days in Papudo - we saw so much amazing wildlife on this unexpectedly adventurous trip. Papudo is definitely one of my favourite beach towns that I've been to in Chile, and I'm sure we'll return at some point.

After saying goodbye to our dolphin, it was time to go to our next spot along the Chilean coast: Valparaíso. It was my second time in the famous, colourful city, nearly 5 years after my first visit, and it was great to explore it again, this time with Claudio. I'll be writing about it next!

Monday, 30 January 2023

2022: What a Year!

I've written up a little summary of my travels and life in general on this blog at the end of each year since 2019, and even though we're now at the end of January 2023, I still want to continue the tradition by writing about my 2022!

2022 had its challenging times, but overall it was one of the best years of my life so far, especially in terms of travel. Here's my summary of the year, as well as what I'm planning for 2023!


Life in General

2022 was really defined by the fact that I finally was able to move back to Chile in February, and that Claudio and I reached the milestone of renting our first place together in April. These are things that I dreamed about when I graduated from university in 2019, and it probably would have all come together sometime in 2020 if it wasn't for the reason we all know about. As it turned out, I would have to wait over two years for it to happen (and I definitely thought at times that it would never happen). But I did it in the end! Moving to another country, particularly one on the other side of the world, is never easy, but it's especially hard during a global pandemic. So the fact that I achieved this life goal is definitely something to be celebrated.

We've faced our challenges since February, particularly at the start of my time here. Finding an apartment was hugely difficult, and moving in was hugely expensive. In addition, the job I had between March and October was low paid and often stressful. I also faced some mental health problems in the middle of the year, which are largely better now, thankfully.

Another thing I've found hard at times is the feeling of being behind where I would have expected to be in life by now (again we have the pandemic to thank for that, at least in part). I always thought that by 27, I'd have a solid career and be generally more settled in life - I see my peers reaching milestones, and I sometimes feel a bit like I'm a teenager on a Gap Year in comparison to them.

But I've come to realise that there's no point in trying to tick things off as quickly as possible - it must be a challenging situation in its own way to still be very young and to have no more goals left to achieve or milestones left to look forward to. So while I have goals that I want to work towards (particularly career-wise), I know that I'm still young (even if I'm pushing 30, haha) and that things will come in their own time. And I also really appreciate the opportunities that this year in Chile has given me - I've had some amazing experiences and travelled to some incredible places, which I wouldn't have been able to do so easily if I had got a "serious" job back in the UK, for example.

Overall, looking back at the last year, I've done so many things that I wanted to do for a long time, and I feel like life has been so much fuller compared to 2021. Right now, I'm in a place where things are pretty good: I have a wonderful partner in Claudio, he's doing well in his career, I'm enjoying the work I'm doing at the moment, we have a nice apartment together, and we have lots of supportive family and friends both here and in the UK. You can't ask for much more than that really!


Travel

In terms of travel, 2022 has been the best year of my life, without question. My Year Abroad was pretty great, but last year managed to surpass even that! During those 12 months, I visited two new countries (Peru and Brazil), two New Wonders of the World (Machu Picchu and Cristo Redentor), and several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I remember being absolutely desperate to visit places like these when I was stuck at home in 2021, and I definitely feel like my Wanderlust has been satisfied to a certain extent since then!

Here's a little recap of each trip:

April - Iquique: Our first trip of the year was to this city in the Atacama Desert, and it was great fun! We enjoyed exploring the architecture and beaches in the city, and we also had a brilliant road trip to the ancient Atacama Giant geoglyph and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Humberstone and Santa Laura salt mines.

May - Parque Nacional Conguillío: This was a real "roughing it" weekend away, in which we slept on buses and spent a whole day walking in the freezing cold. Although it wasn't the most relaxing trip to say the least, it was still great to see some of the beautiful landscapes of the south of Chile. 

June - Arica and Tacna: On this trip, we visited the northernmost city in Chile and the southernmost city in Peru, as well as their surrounding areas. One of the most memorable parts was seeing the Chinchorro mummies, which are even more ancient than their Egyptian counterparts. I also loved the beautiful beaches in Arica, and the charming city of Tacna, which is off the usual Peru tourist trail.

August-September - England: After 6 months of living in South America, it was really nice to go back home for a few weeks to spend time with family and friends. During this time, I revisited some of my favourite spots in my local area, and also went on a trip to London, where I visited the Greenwich Meridian for the first time.

October - Cusco: For the first few days of this solo trip, I stayed in the city of Cusco and explored the sights of the city and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Then I took a train to the village of Aguas Calientes on the edge of the Peruvian jungle, before hiking up to the iconic citadel of Machu Picchu. This trip was a real adventure and a longtime travel dream come true!

December - Rio de Janeiro: This was also a longtime travel dream come true! Claudio and I had an amazing time exploring this beautiful city (even if the weather wasn't quite what we were expecting!). We also spent a really memorable day sailing and snorkelling around the paradise beaches of Arraial do Cabo. We hope to go back at some point in the future!


My Plans for 2023

Travel wise, I don't expect 2023 to be quite so much of a bucket list year as 2022, but it's already got off to a good start! Earlier this month, we had a fantastic weekend in Papudo and Valparaíso, which I'll be writing about next on this blog. Other plans include time in Algarrobo with Claudio's family next month, followed by a coach trip to Mendoza in Argentina, as I will need to leave the country before my visa expires. And of course I'll be going back to England at some point this year, but I'm not yet sure for how long.

This is because my plans for the rest of the year are still very much up in the air, and I have no idea in which part of the world I'll be living in a few months' time! Funnily enough, back in the middle of last year, when things were more difficult, I felt pretty desperate to get settled somewhere in Europe as soon as my year in Chile was up, but over the last couple of months, I've found that I don't really want to leave. In fact, I'd be quite happy to stay here another year and continue doing the work I'm doing now, but unfortunately the cost of a temporary residency visa for UK citizens is just too extortionate for me to pay for a second time.

So at the moment, my plan is to stay in Chile on a tourist visa for 2 or 3 months after coming back from Mendoza, and then go back to England, at least for a visit. After that, the question is: Chile or Europe?

While Claudio and I see ourselves settling down somewhere in Europe eventually, Claudio has a good job here, and if I could get a similar job (where a work visa would be covered by the company), staying here a year or two longer would be a good option.

So I've decided to leave things to fate by applying for jobs both here and in Europe, and seeing what happens. All I know is that my goal for this year is to get my foot up on the career ladder, which in turn will allow me and Claudio to achieve our other goals in life. So it's going to be a year of hard work, but it's all going to be worth it in the end.


Well, that's just about covered everything! All that's left to do now is to sign off by wishing everyone reading this a great 2023 and many travel adventures!

Charlotte 😊




2022 travel highlights from left to right, starting from top left: Parque Nacional Conguillío, Chile; Playa El Laucho in Arica, Chile; Greenwich Park in London, UK; Machu Picchu, Peru; Piscina Tupahue in Santiago, Chile; Pão de Açúcar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Saturday, 21 January 2023

Arraial do Cabo

It's taken me a while to write up all my posts about our trip to Brazil - it's been a really busy month - but now I've finally arrived at our last full day! Claudio and I spent this day outside of the city, sailing and snorkelling around paradise beaches.

We had known that we wanted to do a day trip like this during our holiday, but initially it was difficult to decide where to go! Arraial do Cabo, Búzios and Ilha Grande were the options we were debating between, but eventually we decided on Arraial, because not only is it the most convenient one to get to, but also because the photos online look absolutely incredible. We were really hoping that we'd have a day of sunshine, and that the beaches would look just as amazing in real life as they did in pictures. Fortunately, that was exactly what happened!

We booked a full-day tour which included transportation, a boat trip and a buffet lunch, and came to something like 80 pounds for the two of us, which was pretty great value! The minibus came to pick us up at our hotel at around 7am, and once everyone was on board, it was time to make our way over to Arraial, which is about 3 hours to the east of the city of Rio de Janeiro, but which is still located in the state of Rio de Janeiro. We made a stop about halfway through the journey at a motorway service station that was very similar to the ones we have in the UK. (It was surprising to me, as in Chile motorway service stations are not a thing, and we just have to stop at petrol stations!)

The minibus was quite cramped and stuffy, and I felt pretty sick by the time we finally arrived. But I was happy to discover that the weather was sunny and hot. At last!

We made our way to the port and were taken to the boat where we would spend the next 4 hours or so. 



I was really excited for the trip, but as soon as we set off, the motion sickness that I already had from the minibus journey got 10 times worse. Other people on the boat were drinking and partying, whereas I was staring at the horizon and trying not to throw up!

After what felt like a long time, we reached our first stop, Praia do Farol (Lighthouse Beach), which is located on an island. Here we had to ride on little motorised dinghies in order to get to the beach, which was quite fun!

We had rented snorkels on the boat, but we didn't see much underwater at this particular stop. That didn't matter though, because the beach was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. The ocean was turquoise and a perfect temperature, and the sand was white. We only had 20 minutes there, but we could have easily spent hours swimming and sunbathing, given the chance!





One of the best things about this stop was that the swim in the ocean completely cleared my head, and I could enjoy the rest of the boat trip afterwards without feeling sick.

Our next stop was Praia do Pontal do Atalaia back on the mainland. Here we had our first snorkelling success, seeing some white, yellow, and stripy black and white fish of various sizes! There's also a grotto here (Gruta do Amor - Grotto of Love), which we swam to. We had 40 minutes at this beach, but they went by in a flash, and again, we felt like we could have spent much longer there! This was really turning out to be the trip of a lifetime!




But it was our third and final stop that turned out to be the most memorable. This time we didn't take a dinghy to a beach; the boat stopped at a spot some distance from Praia do Forno (Oven's Beach) and we could jump straight out into the water, which was about 15 metres deep!

Claudio and I had a truly amazing experience snorkelling here. Even though we didn't see turtles as we'd hoped (Arraial is well known for its turtles), we still saw some incredible wildlife. There were more fish here than there had been at the previous stop, and what made it even better was that there was a beautiful coral reef of many colours, which we explored together. I've always dreamed of visiting Australia and seeing the Great Barrier Reef, and I'd never expected to experience something similar in a completely different part of the world!

We had just 15 minutes at this particular stop, but those 15 minutes were definitely one of those times that we'll remember forever.





Then the time came to head back to port.



After a late buffet lunch in the town centre, we headed back to Rio, arriving at around 8 or 9pm. It had been an amazing day, but we didn't want it to end yet!

So after dumping our stuff in the hotel, we went to Copacabana Beach for one last paddle in the sea and a caipirinha. While we were there, we had the fun surprise of seeing the "Holidays are coming" Coca-Cola truck pass by, driven by Father Christmas of course! (I hadn't known it really existed outside of the adverts!) It was a nice end to a really special trip.

Both of us were a little sad to leave Rio (especially because there was finally sun in the city on the day we left!), but I'm sure we'll be back at some point in the future. I think it would be really nice to spend at least a month there (preferably a dryer month than December!), visit places like Ilha Grande, Búzios, Paraty and Petrópolis, and try to get fluent in Portuguese. That would be a dream!

Since we got back, a lot has gone on - Christmas, New Year, and even some more travelling! But first I want to write my round-up of the year, which has become a tradition for me on this blog. So that will be coming next, followed by a couple of posts about our recent travels within Chile

See you soon!


Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day One here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Two here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Three here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Four here!