Time flies, I have been on the road for some weeks now. In the 6th week, I traveled in Chile with my friend Mishka from Czech republic and two friends from Santiago de Chile. Not to forget, Mishka’s dog – Dolfy – was also on board and turned out to be a very passionate swimmer in the ice cold water of Chilean lakes.

Dolfy swimming in the Laguna del Lajo

Our decision was to spend the New Years Eve in Valdivia, a city and commune in southern Chile. We had to drive a long way from Santiago and made several stops along the way and camped there. Camping in Chile is very easy, there are lot of camps available during the season and it is common to pay for the camping side (approximately 7000 – 10 000 Chilean pesos). Shared by four we were able to keep our costs pretty low. But then came the NYE and we wanted something fancier. We didn’t have luck finding a hostel because we had Dolfy with us. The hostel “Airesbuenos”, which had good reviews, seemed as the best option, but they declined because they had a duck (!) and it could be a problem for the dog… So instead of a hostel we found a pretty fancy “cabaňa” (a private cottage) and stayed there for two nights. The costs that we saved for camping vanished automatically, but it was definitely worth it. For NYE dinner and party we chose to join the hostel “Airesbuenos” offer and had a really great time with other travelers and ate delicious food made by a cook from Hawaii. He was so kind that he improvised and prepared a veggie meal for me, even though I didn’t announce in advance that I was vegetarian. There was a lot of good energy shared that night and I felt ready for 2013.

The duck that lives in the Airesbuenos hostel in Valdivia 🙂

We have a saying in Slovakia that what you do on a New Year’s Day, you will do everyday for the rest of the year. If this is going to be true I will be the happiest person. On 1st January, I ran on the beach, had a very quick bath in the ocean (in Chile the ocean is VERY cold) and then I did some yoga exercises. There couldn’t be a better way of spending a lazy day as 1st January usually is. After that I bought a super refreshing mango juice. This is one of the things that I love about South America, all these fresh fruit juices. I even got a little present to go. An “Espiro papa” which is a potato chip wrapped around a stick. Tasty and fatty, good that I made some exercise that day 🙂

The next day was time to leave Valdivia and travel even more south to Puerto Varas. Before departure, we stopped at the local “feria artesanal” – a craft market and this was a unique opportunity for me, to do an unboxing video of the most typical Chilean statue – Indio Pícaro. You have no idea what it means? Check out the video and be surprised! ☺

As usual, I would like to thank the cameraman Tomas from Santiago for being patient while doing videos and being inspirational for the next ones!