Around The World With 30 Litres On My Back

Hey everyone

Hope you´re all well. We finally managed to acclimatise and get over our jet lag and get to sleep at night in the heat. We stayed in Santiago for a couple of nights and then headed straight to the coast.

Santiago is quite pretty for a city. It has pretty parks and old buildings and isnt any different to most modern cities. We did discover what are known as ´cafe on legs´. They are a bit like strip joints but they are just coffee places (they dont sell any alcohol) where men are served by women in really short skirts! We just saw a couple of tamer ones but apparently you can get girls in bikinis serving men their cappuccinos behind dark windows… sounds a bit dodge to me and dont think you´ll see your local barista in Starbucks strip down to her undies just yet..

Leaving Santiago was a bit of a ´mare and all the Spanish Ben and I thought (note the word ´thought) we had learnt just did not help us. Just trying to buy a bus ticket to Valparaiso, our next stop, was a lengthy task. In SE Asia, even if you dont speak the lingo, you can get what you want just by saying where you are going. In Chile, though, and we have found it outside of Santiago too, ticket sellers really want you to give them a detailed breakdown of where you are going, what type of ticket you want, where you want to sit and so on! So we thought we had our tickets sussed but then the seller quotes us a price that sounds a bit more than what other people told us it should cost so we tried to ask her if she weas charging us for a return instead of a single… but damned if we knew the word for óne-way´and no amount of miming could make her see what we wanted. We lost our place in the queue and an Argentinian who had seen us struggle came and asked in English if we needed help. We asked him the Spanish for one way and he told us. We bought our ticket and got on the bus. SOLO IDA kids, solo ida. Remember this, it could help you one day.

Buses are really comfy coach style with plush seats and very cheap too. To the coast, a 90 minute journey cost us 4.50.

Valparaiso was a really cool port town with cobbled streets high in the hills. Mauritians amongst you, it was exactly like Port Louis with the square and government buildings as you come in. We stayed in a hostel up in the hills (accessible by funiculares – oh joy) owned by the author of the Footprints guide. More people who want to know about this experience can ask… The area is quite bohemian and the houses are all painted brightly. There are a lot of stray dogs and I did get chased by one when it saw my backpack. As soon as I turned around to look at it. It stopped barking. Make of that what you will…

After Valpo, we wanted to catch some sun so we went to the very resorty Vina del Mar, just 15 minutes up the road. We took a train and this too was a nightmare as we couldnt understand that we needed to buy a metro card before we could buy tickets and it was this that was pushing up the price of our tickets unexpectedly…gawd…. Vina lived up to its reputation as the place where Santiaguins go on holiday. Very expensive and a bit tacky… but the beach was nice! This was also where we were meeting our friend, Ray.

We met Ray and headed down the coast to a very little known surfers hangout called Pichilemu. We stayed in a very comfy, very cool place full of stoners and grumpy senoritas (the only place I think where our little knowledge of Spanish has not been tolerated). It did get to a point where one of the women would shake her head at Ben whenever she saw him (he had tried to have a conversation with her about buses and got nowhere) and he thinks that she said something to him about it being terrible that someone can come to Chile without being able to speak Spanish… oh well… I dont know if any of the Yankee or Aussie surfers could speak Spanish, but there you go, we are the gringos.

From Pichilemu we have headed down south to Pucon, which is a bit like Queenstown in NZ – its the adventure capital of Chile. Ben and Ray have gone mountain biking and we are all going to climb a volcano tomorrrow! Its very eerie, Volcan Villarica. We arrived this morning after an 11-hour ride on a night bus (we did stop and have dinner in a small town called San Fernando) and seeing this conical, snow-capped mountain billowing smoke in the distance did give me the heebie jeebies but hey, volcanoes and earthquakes are my thing, so I have come to the right place. I cant complain now….

Am very safe here. Things are not as crazy as I though they would be and the gringo trail is well trodden, not as much as in SE Asia but lets say that I dont think I will have to hitch-hike while I am here. The men dont give you any hassle either. Food is cheap and very good. We just had a 3 course lunch for 1.50 and we get fresh fruit juices everywhere too. Downside is bread. Most things are bread-based and breakfast is very bready. We were expecting fruit and cereals but you´re more likely to get offered cake than you are a banana here. I was very naughty and ate nothing but bread my first couple of days here as there was not anything else and I suffered for it but we have now worked out what sort of places to eat at and how to say a few foodie things in Spanish so its all Ok. We have tried some odd things like Rico Mote which is dried peaches boiled in sweet water with barley kernels and I had to try a pisco sour, pisco is the local drink here made of fermented grapes. It tastes like sweet tequila (not that I would know of course…!) and even though ham is added to a lot of things even though it doesnt say on the menu (I asked for eggs with prawns and mushrooms and got a good sprinkling of bacon with it…grrrrr!), there are a lot of beef and fishy things to keep you going and complete vegetarians are OK too.

Right, going to go cos this internet place is boiling and I would like to get some water. Gonna stay in Pucon a while and next we will head further south into the lake district….

Lots of love
Farrah xxxx

Hey guys

I am now in Punta Arenas, right on the tip of mainland South America! Sunset isnt until almost 10pm and even then it doesnt get fully dark until way after 11pm. It is not really that cold, surprisingly, given how close we are to Antarctica but admittedly you need more than a t-shirt and fleece when you´re out and about in the evenings.

I’ve been playing around with the idea of getting down to Antarctica for a bit – I feel that I am all the way on the end of the world, I may as well keep going and see what is right at the bottom! I went to talk to the tourist office about it yesterday and the cost of the flight down is …. £1000!!! OK, OK, If I really want to do this once in a lifetime trip and face the wrath of Neil/Emma/Dave/Selina/my parents/my mortgage adviser for not being able to go visit/go to their weddings/keep borrowing money off/not be able to pay for a house then yes, I could just go. BUT what really put me off going was the lovely woman at the tourist office who cheerfully told me what was involved and how much it cost but then with a hint of sadness said, “that is like a million Chilean pesos. We can only dream about going there”. And I thought, what kind of irresponsible traveller would I be to come to Chile, flash my big gringo credit card and go to a land these people will never see in their lifetimes even though it belongs to them without giving it a second thought? So I thought no. Ill leave it for now.

Volcano climb in Pucon was the toughest thing I have ever done. Tougher than mountain climbing or hill trekking in Thailand. Tougher than running up that bloody hill for games and tougher than the annual 1500m every summer at school. The reason I chose to do it was I was too tired to climb Mount Kinabalu in Borneo by the time I got there and didnt do any glacier walks in New Zealand so I figured that climbing a snow capped volcano here would make up for that. And the boys would rub it in and tell me what I had missed out on if I didnt. And I have always been fascinated by volcanoes.

We woke up at 5am. Walking to the meeting point at 5.30am we passed loads of clubbers who hadnt even gone home yet from the night before. Our driver turned up to take us to the base drunk. I nearly refused to get in the van but some cheerful Germans who were in our group said that we would be OK. We got to base and I balked. Steep gravel hill all the way. Oh god, what was I doing? Our guide warned us that it looked as though the weather may turn and we may not make it to the top. I said we may as well try to make it as high as we could. So off we went. Ben stayed with me at the back of the group. Oh god, how hard it was, uphill, steep and not much sleep. The Germans steamed ahead and enjoyed a long rest about 1000m up waiting for us. We made our way to where the snow started and then this German guy offers to carry my backpack as well as his own! I refused to let him but he insisted. After that I felt a bit better climbing. On we went into the snow and the clouds start to descend upon us. Walking in snow was slightly easier and the guide made me walk behind him. I had to concentrate very hard as I was feeling more light-headed the higher we went and if I stopped for a minute to think about it I would fall over so I kept on, one foot in front of the other, up and up and up.

Eventually, at about 2,300m up or so (my measurements may be completely wrong but if you look at a photo of it, about halfway between where the snow starts and the crater), we become covered in cloud and we have to abandon our climb because of poor visibility. We didnt get to see lava. Poo. But we do get to slide back down in the snow so we attach special sliding mats to our bottoms and whizz back down the slopes that took us hours to climb. The need to pee got more intense the lower down we got, hehehe. What I found weird was that I did not ache physically like the boys but my lung capacity could definitely do with some improvements! Also, Volcan Villarrica means House of the Devil. Yep, thats not wrong.

In the evening after a snooze, we went to a hot thermal spring to relax and we met lots of people there. We got talking to some Germans and Israelis who ended up talking to each other about football. Ahhhh. Football, what else can unite so many different people?

By the time we left Pucon we could not walk down the main drag, O Higgins without saying hello to someone. Pucon is a great place – everyone who recommended it, you were not wrong, and I would definitely tell anyone to make a stop there.

So from Pucon down to Lake Llanquihue where I learnt to play poker very well (any guys up for a poker evening when I get back?) and down to the island of Chiloe where you can see houses on stilts and lots and lots of English backpackers. On the ferry back to the mainland we met people we stayed in the hostel with up in Valparaiso, all following the same route. Chiloe is the site of the end of the Panamerican Highway, Highway 5, which stretches all the way from Alaska, through Central America and down into Chile. Cool…

We made our way down the Carretera Austral, literally the Southern Highway, past amazing lakes, mountains, green forests. Not as scary as guide books would have you believe even though the road is unpaved and there are blind corners on every turn. Great scenery. We got halfway down (an 11 hour drive!) and caught a flight out here to Punta Arenas as the bus would have taken 18 hours to get here, cutting across the Andes and going through Argentina. Now we are on the end of Chile and going to see Penguins later and plan a trek in the mighty, mighty Torres del Paine.

Thanks for all your emails, will reply soon!!

Farrah xxxxx

Hey guys

Im nearly at the end of my trip… booo!!! Im now back in Santiago, loving the sunshine and wearing my flip flops and shorts, making the most of it as I hear that England is cold and snowy right now, brrrr!!

So from the bottom of Chile, Punta Arenas, we visited penguins. The boat trip to get to Isla Magdalena was an experience in itself. The sea looked calm but we spent 25 minutes hitting the waves and having our stomachs flipped and at one point it looked as though we might capsize as the boat went back into the water at a strange angle, but I live to tell the tale!

Penguins were great. They live on a big island all by themselves, thousands of them. They are quite shy really but if you approach them the right way they will walk with you. I got really close to a penguin and it came towards me with what I thought was interest but instead it leapt forward and hit me with its beak! It hit my water bottle though so cant tell you if it would have hurt or not!

Moving 3 hours north of Punta Arenas we arrived in Puerto Natales, the gateway to Chile´s greatest national park, Torres del Paine. Chances are if you didnt know anything about Chile you still would have heard of Santiago, the Andes and Torres del Paine. All the way down the country people have been saying to book accommodation weeks if not months in advance but we booked everything in Natales, like a day before we wanted to go, so dont always believe the hype. There´s lots of hiking up mountains and stuff to be done there with spectacular scenery.

The volcano climb had convinced me that me and uphill struggles are a lost cause so I told the boys that I would take a book and find a nice spot to sit and read while they went off on their hikes. Anyway, we decided to do the ´w´circuit of the hike which involves 3 different treks. One is uphill through mountaineous terrain to reach the base of the famous towers. Another is through woodland and along lakes to reach a glacier. The third is to walk in the valley created by the towers on one side and the glacier on the other and this is meant to be the best scenery wise.

On our first day we decided to tackle the towers first. At least the boys did. I started the walk with them, taking my copy of the Motorcycle Diaries to read when it all got too much. The weather is meant to be windy and rainy here but we were blessed with sunshine and hardly any wind. The first half hour was very flat and then it gets a bit steep and I told the boys to go on without me and I may catch them up and if not Id see them in the evening. So I continued uphill, it wasnt too bad. Some bits were steep but it wasnt continually like that so I carried on. A group of Israelis who I had seen in Natales and Punta Arenas caught up with me and I walked with them for a bit and that was good. But I was lagging in the heat so I just did it all in my own time. The last 30 minutes of the first bit was a bit hair-raising. You have to walk along a very narrow, steep mountain pass and if you miss a step, mate you are going down and not coming back up!!! The fact that it was signposted that there was a campsite at the end of this bit made me go on. Also the wind was a bit scary here but sure enough, I carried on and there was a campsite at the end along a lovely river and the boys had stopped there to have lunch. The first part of the second half was OK, through woodland with ups and downs and a bit of climbing over rocks. Again, the boys went on and I told them I would probably only make it as far as the campsite an hour before the base. The reason for this was we had heard that the final hour to get to the base was “a knee-popping scramble” over boulders uphill and that some hikers never came back!!! So we arranged to meet at the campsite. However, I eventually got to the campsite and so many people on their way back down had been saying, keep going, you´re nearly there and I got to a clearing where it said campsite 5 minutes in one direction or lookout point (the base) 45 minutes in the other. I thought, what the hell and started going uphill…

The first bit was fine but halfway up I found it harder and harder to climb over the rocks and feel confident about footing. I could see Ray up the top so I shouted up to him and that made me keep going. A girl on her way down told me to keep going. She said, “You´ve done the hardest part, you´re nearly there!”. And you know what, I made it! I nearly went back down at one point out of despair, but I did it! I cant explain on email how difficult it was and any photos you see of the last bit will never fully tell you how hard it is… you have to go there and do it yourselves! Ray made his way back down while Ben and I sat there and looked at the towers and the green lake below. It was pretty amazing. Then we made our way back down. I think going back down was actually harder than going up! We got as far back at the mountain pass when I suddenly decided that I couldnt go back. We had been walking for 7 hours and I was exhausted. I didnt even realise how hungry I was til I had a few marshmallows and ended up scoffing half the packet! Ben kept me going and when we got to the final downhill my toes felt like they were going to burst out of my Merrells!!

We made it there and back in 9 hours and its recommended the hike take 8-9 hours so I was pleased with that. Kids and old people do it too and hardcore Israelis carry their camping gear with them! It can be done. We got back to our hostel and found that Ray had twisted his ankle quite badly on the boulders back down but he´d kept going otherwise if he stopped he would never have made it back. So that was him out of action and he headed back to Puerto Natales early.

The Glacier walk was done in bursts of wind and rain. Looking back, not my favourite, plus a lot of walking in dark woodland. What I really like though was the walk to the Valley of France. I again was adopted by the Israeli group and then a couple of English girls and an older couple from Devon (I always let Ben go on ahead cos he´s a fast walker). Its a nice walk along a lake and through meadows and then you reach a roaring white river (Rio France) and I ended up sitting on a rock having my lunch watching ice fall off the French Glacier. I sat there for well over an hour. I could have sat there all day in the sun. When I was on my own, Id sing to myself apart from when walking under boulders and along rockfaces (!!!), Sam, a bit of Outkast and Hey Ya for you. And I found myself speaking 5 languages to passers by – English, French, Spanish, German and Hebrew!!! Except I cant really speak Hebrew but try telling the Israelis that – Rach you will have to teach me something smart to say next time I get told that I am Israeli and I am just joking or that my ancestors must be Israeli etc etc!

So almost 79km walked in 3 days. Everything ached. My knee is still gammy. But it was worth it! Patagonia has definitely been the highlight of my trip. Back in Natales, Ben gave me an early birthday present and took me to a place called Indigo – http://www.indigopatagonia.com/ – dead smart and great to relax and we spent a day eating chocolate and hanging out at a great Chocolate cafe – http://www.patagoniadulce.cl/ and then it was time to say goodbye….

I took a bus back to Punta Arenas and flew back to Santiago so I can fly home and Ray and Ben went over the border to Argentina. The flight was awesome, flying over ice fields and then lakes and volcanoes and eventually, dusty looking land and the Andes. I could see also how smoggy the air over Santiago is. Im in the Barrio Brasil district staying in a really smart place called Happy Hostel. I have really enjoyed Chile and after a month I am able to hold a conversation in Spanish. I just hope that I dont forget it all when I get home. South America has been really positive and in some ways not what I expected. I hope to come back and see some more. But for now… I have to go home and work to live……

See you when I get back!!
Farrah xxxx

BEFORE YOU GO
Didnt get any jabs other than our boosters. Dont need yellow fever but we did need Hep A, Typhoid, Hep B, the ones you’d get for most places…

They use Chilean pesos… at time of writing about $1000 (yup they use the $ sign) was equal to £1… some guide books say they take dollars… if you have them take them but dont go out of your way to buy dollars before your trip, its only really hotels that charge in US dollars and if you have a good credit/debit card like the Nationwide one you can just slap it on the plastic.

Learn some Spanish! You dont need to be fluent but having NO KNOWLEDGE AT ALL is going to make your trip really difficult! I also found that although the Chileans are friendly people, they did not seem excited by tourism out of Santiago and tend to get a bit bothered by gringos who dont even try to speak Spanish, especially loud Americans who dont say please or thank you… They speak Spanish really fast and a lot of words are different to European Spanish, they drop the ‘s’ of the end of a lot of words, like ‘Gracias’ for eg and even fluent Spanish speakers find it hard to understand at first..

Tipping outside of restaurants is not customary. Santiaguins seem to have their own rules about this, but outside of the city I found people to be genuine and would give you back money if you overpaid (I was given back more money than I expected several times until I got to grips with the currency) and never took advantage of you by charging more than they would to a local. Taxi drivers refused tips.

Maybe its cos I look Chilean, maybe not… my very white boyfriend was ignored in some places whereas I would get served and then stared at for not understanding their very fast Spanish… hmmmn…

FOOD
Cannot recommend any eating joints over others. Never had a bad meal, the greasy spoons serve up great food for very cheap and the expensive restaurants serve up good food like you’d expect for more! Veggies beware in Santiago. I ordered eggs and mushrooms and it came with a nice bacon topping (I dont eat bacon, arrrggghhh) but south, people tend to understand vegetarianism more and non-kosher Jews and Muslims you’ll be OK eating meat – its all beef in the pies and sauces. If you’re wheat intolerant like me then be prepared to hide your belly for a month. Bread, bread, and more bread. then cakes. And pies. You cannot escape wheat. unless you eat fish or meat with a potato or rice side which is very easy to find. Breakfast is difficult. Buy some fruit and cereal bars from a supermarket.

Beef steaks are the order of the day wherever you go but fish is plentiful too. King crab down south is yum yum yum!! Churrasscos are sliced beef steaks in a bun sometimes with avocado, mayo and tomato, depends what you ask for. Wheat-frees just chuck the bread out, the meat alone is enough without the extras!

Rico mote con huesillos is dried peaches boiled in sweet water with barley. I only saw this Santiago and north. try it just once. Churros as well are popular up this end. Manjar is dulce de leche and served in churros and in cakes and for toast at breakfast. Its yum! Pisco is nice if you like gin or tequila. Beer-guzzling boyfriend did not like!

Try the natural fruit juices as far as you can. I am now a big Chirimoya fan and raspeberry juice is a close 2nd. Most places will serve you Watts out of a bottle but take the real stuff wherever you can.

And oh yes hygiene wise, although toilets are relatively clean, take your own soap or hand wipes or whatever cos Chilean bathrooms are sadly scarce of this little thing.

GETTING AROUND
Buses including nightbuses are good and cheap. Tur Bus, Pullman, Fernandez… all good. Not all companies operate all the way down the length of the country but wherever you go you will hear of a good, regular alternative. We always booked our buses the same day but it is wise to book night buses a day in advance. On our night bus to Pucon we were lucky to get the last 3 seats, 4 hours before departure otherwise we would have been stuck in a down and out bus station for a day. WARNING: Taxi drivers hanging around the main bus station in Santiago con you into believing the bus you want goes from another station and that they will take you there as the bus is about to leave!! DONT FALL FOR THIS! Lack of Spanish and knowledge of the area may lull you into falling for this one, dont! Pachamama www.pachamamabybus.com is a backpackers bus service but there is only one bus and it does a loop of the south and of the north in a week. So effectively, if you chose to stay in a place longer than a night, you’d have to get off the bus and wait for a week to get back on it again. Im sure this service will improve but if you only have 2 weeks in Chile it could be the way to see it top to tail! Some of the bus drivers do drive a bit mental but they are bound to keep their speed under 100km/hr. The coach beeps when they exceed this. Some roads can be bumpy. HINT: It is legal to buy valium over the counter in Chile…

Internal flights are fine. I preferred the service given by slightly more expensive Sky Airlines. They were prompt, on time and, generally quite efficient. Aerolineas del Sur were haphazard and served food 10 minutes befor landing, cue Farrah salvaging food onto her lap as she had to put her tray up!! You get what you pay for… Felt safe with both airlines though!

TRAVEL AGENTS – From the moment you land in Santiago and tell anyone you are planning to trek in the Torres del Paine, they’ll tell you to book it! As soon as you tell anyone that you are going to make your way south of Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales through the Patagonian Channels they’ll tell you to book it! Like many travellers, we prefer to wake up in the morning and decide what to do rather than stick to a strict schedule but to some extent you should keep your ears open about whether the Navimag (ferry) is actually running and what you’ll do if you get to Torres del Paine without a booked bed. We used these agents to help us plan our trip:

Bercovich Travel – www.btt.cl Husband and wife team, helpful, friendly and speak English very well! Based in Pucon. You may need to specify exactly what you want to see for them to tailor an itinerary to your needs. For example they’ll tell you the ferry is fully booked until you tell them you’ll take the bottom berth which is about US$700 cheaper! Be careful to double check passport numbers are taken correctly and that tickets are confirmed. If you get vouchers for any trips they book you, be sure to EXCHANGE it at the appropriate local office for a proper TICKET!

Chaitur – Nicolas La Penna runs the tourist office by the bus terminal (more like layby hahaha) in Chaiten and can book stuff along the Carretera Austral or Futalefu for you. His email is nchaitur@hotmail.com

Path@gone – took the worry out of advance booking Torres del Paine altogether! Based in Puerto Natales, we walked in and told tehm what we wanted and they just did it no problems. A day before we wanted to go! I think teh Navimag ferry had been out of action though which is why there was so much availability at Torres… I dont know, keep an eye on it the nearer you get to it. And if you find there are no beds you can always camp or take a day trip! pathgone@chileaustral.com

ARTURO MERINO BENITEZ AIRPORT, SANTIAGO
They know when the international flights get in… be prepared for an onslaught of taxi touts! We arrived and pretended to know what we were doing and headed straight for a mini bus service, TRANSVip. They charged us $4500 to get to Barrio Bellavista. Taxis should charge around $10000 to centro. The Centropuerto Bus is $1200 all the way to Los Heroes Metro station from where you can get into centro or Barrio Brasil easily.
WARNING: A couple I met were charged $30,000 for a cab for 2 to centro. And to add insult, they were asked for a tip at the end of their ride!

SANTIAGO
We were worried about staying out after dark in our very first South American city. BUT! Santiago is a lot like London. Obviously watch out for pickpockets and so on but our experience was very positive, you can carry a camera and a wallet without getting blown away for the privilege. A woman I met was in Plaza des Armes and put her purse down on the bench next to her and looked away for a second. Purse was gone in a flash! But she says she was stupid. Visit the Cultural Centre at La Moneda. Follow the stairs down under the water fountains to get in. Its free unless there is an exhibition. Visit the room with the materials to inspect a huge, huge perspex map of Chile. It will really give you a sense of how big Chile is if you are just planning your trip and where to go! Visit the Museum des Bellas Artes on Sunday when you can pay what you want. Try the ice creams and empanadas. Go to the top of Cerro Santa Lucia. Take the furnicular to see the Virgin Mary. Ride the metro for 35p!

VALPARAISO & VINA DEL MAR
Gorgeous Valparaiso has lots of coloured houses and funky little cafes. Dont wander into the hills after dark. Vina del Mar is a resorty place where people go on holiday. Accomodation is in the form of hotels, you wont find any hostels here and the budget hotels are really nasty – our friend looked at a few and stayed in one and said it was a box with no window. We stayed in an apparently YHI-affiliated hotel. There wasnt a backpacker in sight and it was the one place where we got bitten by mossies in the whole of Chile. But it was a big room with a comfy bed!

PICHILEMU
The guide books dont tell you much about this cool surfers town or how to get there. Pullman del Sur goes from Santiago. To carry on south, YOU DO NOT NEED TO GO BACK TO SANTIAGO! We were told this by not one but 4 people including our hostel owner who phoned TurBus to find out. Me being fiercely stubborn decided there must be another way. There is. Jump on a bus to SAN FERNANDO. Get there early enough to buy an onward ticket south. Its not a really exciting place to spend a day if you cant get on a bus out.

PUCON
You can do all your crazy sports here from mountain biking 23 km to a local lake only to find that your girlfriend took the shortcut through town and got there in 10 minutes, to climbing up an active volcano! They say Puerto Varas is catching on fast, but really all the facilities are here. If you’ve been to NZ, you’ll meet people who say skydiving is better in Queenstown than on North Island and so on, but really, PUCON is where you should do it all – white water rafting, horse riding, all that! Word of warning with the volcano, not all guide companies will comply with the popular view that you should go up in a group of 6-8 with no less than 2 guides. Nor will they all warn you that you MUST NOT climb if you are pregnant, have heart conditions or are asthmatic. If they tell you its easy and anyone can do it, they’re lying. I did the W at Torres del Paine and as much as I never want to do it again, I did it within the time they suggest. The volcano however, is an unrelenting uphill and steep struggle and please, please get enough sleep and carry more food and water than you will need. Even you diet-conscious birds, PLEASE BUY SOME CHOCOLATE!!!! Not only will you be walking up steep sides, you are going up to high altitudes and your brain will not be the same up there. You need the energy! If you are struggling, pray for clouds cos poor visibility means you’ll have to slide back down in the snow on your bum haha! That happened to us but we did not ask for any refunds. Before you hand over your money, ask the company what form of refund you get if you are unable to climb at all or only get halfway up. Pucon is also like the adventure sports capitals of NZ and you’ll have fun partying til the sun comes up here.

PUERTO VARAS
– Genteel lakside town. You can start here to make your way across Lake Llanquihue into Argentina via Bariloche or you can stay the night and bugger off. A prettier alternative to Puerto Montt if you are heading on to Chiloe.

CHILOE – Unfortunately our Spanish was not good enough to grasp the subtleties of how the Chiloans are. They are meant to be very religious if not superstitious and easily excited by tourists. We got the bus straight from Puerto Varas to Castro, the bus sits on a ferry and thats all included in the bus fare. Castro has houses on stilts and big markets and Quellon is a sea port and site of the end of Highway 5 which runs all the way from Alaska and through the Americas. You will need a cab to take you to the end where you’ll see a monument and a mention of every country the Panamericana runs through. Except Canada.

CHAITEN
– You can see the tumbleweed. Even in the dark. The beginning of the Carretera Austral, you wouldnt really want to stay here for the town, there is nothing to do! M&C Tours (edamar@123mail.cl) took us all the way to Coyhaique and stopped for the loo and food but not to take pictures of the amazing scenery, waterfalls, snow-capped mountains, forests. A shame really, dont know if any other companies do or not. But our driver was safe around blind corners and sheer drops!

COYHAIQUE
– Large-ish town, can do little side trips to national parks and stuff. I took it as my cue to sit and do nothing before we hit the end of Chile! Balmaceda Airport flies you back north or down to Punta Arenas. Otherwise you’ll need to get a bus across the Argentinian Pampa to avoid the Chilean ice fields. Personally Id like a better reason for getting an Argentinian stamp in my passport. Either that or you should have taken the Navimag Ferry down. If you do take the bus across the border be warned it is not a regular bus, is often full and you need to book in advance. You do not want to spend days in Coyhaique.

PUNTA ARENAS
– Ahhhh I did not know if I would like Patagonia or not but I did! Punta Arenas is a large city and from here you can go across to Ushuaia in Argentina, down to Tierra del Fuego or Antarctica, go see penguins and Cabo Froward or back up to Puerto Natales for Torres del Paine. Single ladies, the men are HOT! It gets very windy though. A strange wind. Not cold, just very fierce and strong. Penguins. You can take a ferry in the afternoon but apparently this is often cancelled due to the wind. Get the very early morning speedboat. Seas are usually calm then anyway – www.soloexpediciones.com and keep an eye out for the fit bloke with long dark hair who skippers with the main captain, hubba hubba hahaha! Oh yes and no main bus terminal, buses leave from the offices, whichever company you go for to wherever you go! foodwise go to Cafe Irlandes despite the crazy neon lights outside for friendly service and lots of grub or Lomits for a good burger!

PUERTO NATALES
– Um… you should probably book a bed ahead here especially if you know where you want to stay. The town is full of people going to/returning from Torres and its quite trendy. At the time of writing the streets were all being repaved and there were some hip cafes and bars springing up, especially patagonia Dulce – www.patagoniadulce.cl – El Living and a good pizza place near there whose name I have forgotten. There’s also a good meat place that does ice cream… anything you need that you can rent out for any trekking, you can buy here. The Patagonian Black Sheep paper is published for folk like us so use it www.patagonianblacksheep.com

TORRES DEL PAINE
– Well, I really didnt think I was gonna do this especially after the Volcano climb wore me out! We decided to do the W circuit in 3 days, 2 nights, so the Torres, French Valley and Grey Glacier. With this I really would say that anyone can do it although if you get out of breath in 5 minutes then maybe not! The uphill bits are not really bad although the boulder climbing in the Torres bit can leave you crying in despair! Put it this way. A 60 year old couple with walking sticks and a couple of primary school children made it to the top! Just pray for sunshine and no rain and little wind and you will enjoy my own highlight of my trip to Chile!

The Towers – Recommended 8-9 hour trek return to Las Torres campsite/lodge. Start early so you can go at your own pace. 1st hour – steady uphill through rocky fields and trees, plenty of places to pee haha.
2nd hour – top of uphill bit (keep turning around for the amazing view that you are creating) and then into narrow mountain ledge scree pass (this should be just 30 minutes or less). careful. if you slip, you are going down with no way back up! On to the end for Chileno campsite. 3rd hour – rocky start, watch your footing through the woods along the river, up and down, up and down across streams, take time to stop if you like. LAST 45 MINUTES – it may take you double the recommended time as you pop your knees scrambling over boulders to the top. This is when you will be grateful you started early! Climb, climb, climb but dont rush. Be rewarded at the top by a view of the mighty towers and a turquoise lake! Zip up your jacket on the way down and take your time. My friend twisted his ankle rushing back down which put an end to the rest of the hike for him. Eat and drink well the journey home with tired toes and a need for bed can be a long one!

Grey Glacier – My least favourite walk, not many people on this one and a lot through dark woodland and barren open spaces where the wind howls at you and rain pelts down… but only for a few minutes in the ever-changing Patagonian weather. Trek for 2 hours for a view of the Glacier.

French Valley – Ah what a pleasant walk in the sun! Started on a good breakfast and the uphills were not bad. You walk through fields on a mainly flat plain along a lake for just under 2 hours when you reach the white water Rio Frances. Walk past the Italian camp for just another 10 minutes to sit on rocks in front of the glacier and ponder. You should carry on from here for the valley proper but being a slow pacer, I stopped here and had lunch before returning to base. Watch ice crash off the glacier. It sounds like thunder! Enjoy the sights and the sounds… ahhhh!! Anyone wanting to make it to Camp Britannico start very early, you’re in for a very long trek!

Entrance is $15,000 and you need ID to get in. You’ll get a park map for your trouble. You will see loads of people walking, dont be afraid to do it alone, but dont take unneccesary risks. All the running water is fine to drink. Dont pee near waterways! The refugios around Las Torres are run by Fantastico Sur. Dont expect any friendly welcomes on your way back. It seems unfortunately that right from their base in Punta Arenas to their restaurant in the park, this is really all about the money 🙁 We took the catamaran across Lake Pehoe to get to Paine Grande (formerly refugio/Camp Grey). Run by another company, we were surprised to find ourselves staying in such a smart place with good reception and good food! The mini buses, catamarans and buses back to Puerto Natales all run on a schedule, details of which you’ll get when you get round to sorting your own trip out!

PLACES TO STAY
Admittedly we did consult our Lonely Planet on this but it was not always correct in their descriptions. Some gems we found… oh and if you dont carry towels like me, dont worry, every place we stayed had towels and most had brekkie included! Have a look at www.backpackerschile.com or www.backpackersbest.cl

BELLAVISTA HOSTEL – Barrio Bellavista, Santiago and close to the Parque Metropolitano, Virgin Mary statue and hip clubs and restaurants. Dont take the dorm at the front – noisy! Voted best South American hostel by a website. Nice staff, really clean bathrooms. Free net!

HAPPY HOUSE – www.happyhostel.cl – Barrio Brasil, Santiago. Above a bar and a bit noisy if you plan on an early night. GORGEOUS house, good kitchen & breakfast, roof terrace, cosy TV room, however, you do pay for the privilege, the most expensive backpacker hostel I stayed in in Chile at $11000 for a dorm bed. If you have the cash I would definitely recommend it! John, the guy that works there is great fun and a good crowd stay there.

HOSTEL LUNASONRISA – Valparaiso and owned by the Footprints Chile author. This can be a good thing or a bad thing! If you suffer aversions to Oxbridge graduates forget it. If you want lots of help planning your trip its good. Breakfast is fab and the house is well-restored and comfy!

HOSTEL CHILE ESPANA – Pichilemu. Walk out and its a 2 minute jaunt to the beach! Right in the middle of it all although visitors to Pichilemu sometimes want their own private bit of sand and that is possible to get too although names of huts and cabins like that escape me. Lovely wooden floors, comfy, nice courtyard, just dont get a room next to a stoner or a wailing nympho hahaha!

ECOLE – Pucon. We heard this was popular and we were right to book ahead!
Cosy, comfy dorms, great non-meat restaurant but dont trust the bookings office too closely. You book an outing and they phone someone else to arrange. Plus, we booked a trip to the thermal springs with them only for the driver to turn around and charge us again!

CASA AZUL – Puerto Varas. Ohhhh so nice!! Huge lounge and kitchen to make your own food. I liked it here so much, shame we only had one night there. And friendly cat if you get really hungry… But its up the hill from town if you dont like walking!

HOSTEL CORDILLERA – Castro, Chiloe. The first place we styed where we felt we could mingle with other backpackers outside of Santiago. The owners are soooooo friendly! Nice big rooms for cheap… we paid $6000 for a double (?) and theres a nice lounge looking over the water. We met Aussies and Brits here.

HOTEL PLAYA – Quellon, Chiloe. Very busy with lots of people staying just the night so they can get the ferry back to the mainland. Cheap and the owner is nice.

HOSPEDAJE RITA – Chaiten. Im putting this one in cos Rita is in the Lonely Planet and almost everyone knows about here through word of mouth. But weirdly, we were the only ones staying there! Its not posh but she does a good breakfast. Yeah, its OK!

HOSTAL LA ESTANCIA – Punta Arenas. Oh how nice! Owners young and really helpful. Their kids are cute too! We stayed in a dorm with a fireplace and teh bathrooms were really clean. Brekkie was good and there’s free net. Close to all you need too.

ERRATIC ROCK – www.erraticrock.com – Puerto Natales. Bill and co are a bunch of crazy Americans who opened up a hostel here to tell everyone how great Torres del Paine is. They are not wrong and they provide good dorms and a brilliant breakfast including eggs if you dont mind bookings going awry and a bit of absent-mindedness…. if you arrive in Patagonia without a jacket thast windproof enough or you dont think your Merrells are going to last a 3 day hike, get your goodies here! If you dont get in cos its full at least come here for the pre-Torres talk. Consult a local Black Sheep newspaper for info or just ask them!

RESIDENCIAL BERNADITA – Puerto Natales. Right by the bus stations but getting further away from the water. We got a comfy apartment with its own kitchen for $18000 between 2. Felt very secure here given the number of people, doors and keys you need to bust through to get in!

INDIGO – www.indigopatagonia.com – Puerto Natales. Ahhhhhhhhh, Indigo! My boyfriend treated me to an early birthday and valentines present here! If you have nothing to celebrate but have the money to spare you may want to treat yourself when you return from Torres del Paine! Spa with jacuzzi, sauna and masseur if you want it for extra. The boy treated me to a suite overlooking the water and I loved it!!! They have just opened (Dec 06) so are being very accommodating while they find their legs. I dread to think what will happen when Mr and Mrs Smith find out about this place…

So there you have it… Santiago to Punta Arenas and back in a month! Hope it helps some of you out 🙂

Starting a journey around Morocco in Fes was probably a wise decision. We left the cold weather of England behind on December 28th as we didnt want to be here for yet another anti-climax on New Year’s Eve, nor face the emptiness of the post-Christmas blues… We huddled together on the train platform waiting for the train to take us to Gatwick Airport at 4.30am and within 6 hours we had the sun on our faces in North Africa!

Fes Airport seemed a fairly straightforward experience. Our BA flight had been full of Moroccans who seemed both friendly and helpful and when we stepped off the plane we were greeted by sunshine that we hadnt felt in so long although there was a strong gust of chilly wind.Our taxi to Fes had been pre-booked by the owner of the house in which we were staying and we greeted our driver with a cheery Assalaam Alaikoum. He was very pleasant and stopped at a cashpoint on the way for us to get out a handful of dhirams (the one at the airport didnt work). He didn’t speak any English, but a bit of French so we were able to communicate. His driving should have served as a precursor for how most Moroccans drive; erratically! We just thought it was him. They double up with other cars in a single lane but seem to think they are OK. Hmmmn…

Anyways, we got to a central car park in the Medina, paid the taxi 150dh and a boy came to cart our backpacks off into the medina to our place. We paid him 15dh (£1) and he took us down the main throughfare, Talaa Kbira, past different stalls with different smells. We were greeted with ‘Bonjour’ and ‘Ca Va?’ by the men waiting for customers. I dont think we saw any women but it was very quiet anyway as most people were getting ready for Friday prayers. Fes is the religious centre of Morocco so Friday prayers are taken very seriously. Eventually we were taken down a dark side alley and down round a corner to a rather grand large dark wooden door. This was Dar El Hana We were greeted by a very cheery Australian, Josephine, who owns this riad (strictly speaking a Riad is a house with an inner courtyard garden whereas a Dar is a house without the garden). Our bags were brought in and she asked if we would like tea or coffee. I was about to ask for coffee when she then offered us mint tea. Well, mint tea!! It tasted very good and although Moroccans generally drink it with heaps of sugar, it didnt taste sickly or anything. Josephine has been living in Fes for over 2 years running her guest house. We had the great pleasure of staying in the Acacia Room for 3 nights and later I found out ( I never knew this before) that the first morning prayer after Friday is always about half an hour long, so given Dar El Hana’s location between 2 local mosques we didnt get much sleep on our first night as we were woken by muezzins in succession at around 5am calling the faithful to get up and get on that prayer mat!

Josephine gave us a quick talk about the area and plenty of advice on how to handle ourselves and what to look out for and off we went in search of lunch. Our first Moroccan meal was taken at the Kasbah restaurant, just inside Bab Bou Jeloud, the gate out of the Medina. We sat on the roof terrace in the sunshine and enjoyed our tagine and fruit milkshakes.

In the evening we went to a cafe recommended by Josephine and owned by a British ex-pat called Mike: Cafe Clock The waiters were really friendly and showed us around the converted building which had lots of cosy corners, a library and a roof terrace. I tried traditional Moroccan soup, Harira, which was really spicy and very tasty and full of chickpeas, beef and vermicelli. Ben had a camel burger, which although delicious, I couldnt quite stomach as I was suffering quite badly from sensory overload. Fes is so full of smells like drains (its a medieval city with a medieval sewage system!), cinammon and spice and the tanneries (eugh) as well as tastes like lemon, mint and almond. I liked seeing men walking around wearing the djellaba, like they were all Ben Obi Wan Kenobe in Star Wars. We finished dinner with a round of amazing Moroccan pastries ranging from Gazelles Horn which is a pastry filled with almonds, almond cookies and sticky things a bit like gulaab jamon.

We spent the remainder of our time in Fes visiting (or at least trying to visit) mosques and museums (Museum Batha has a gorgeous garden full of orange trees) The huge Qarawiyne mosque is open only to practising Muslims as mosques are used as a place of worship, not tourism. This I later found out is a law laid down by the French! Hence, you can visit mosques in other North African countries… Fes also has had a crackdown on unofficial guides which explains the lack of hassle from locals who try to take you somewhere to show you something and then turn around and charge you for the privilege. having said that, we did agree to go up on some roof terraces so we could look down on the city tanneries where they make leather, and down onto the Qarawiyne and we would pay those people 5 or 10 dhirams for which they were always grateful. In Fes we never felt forced to give more than we wanted to pay, if at all! Looking back on Fes now in fact, we met some really friendly, helpful people. Locals would help us flag down taxis and point out local museums and we never felt there that they were after anything. Generally walking around the souks in the medina was OK and never show an interest if you are not interested!

At the tanneries I managed to buy a huge leather pouffe; my first initiation in haggling. the seller started at 800 dhirams. I had already decided in my mind that I would pay £20 for it – 300 dhiram. He pushed very hard to get me to pay around 450 dhiram but I told him I couldnt afford that and as I begun to walk out he came down in price and I ended up getting my pouffe for my target price and still I left the seller with a big fat grin on his face. Everyone happy!! Once home I showed my folks my pouffe and was told that it would probably be about £100 in the shops here, yeah!!!

A great way to see Fes is to climb up to the Borj Nord which overlooks the city and wait for sunset for some stunning views, catching a hot drink for yourself at Les Merinides hotel on the roof terrace afterwards.

We visited the nouvelle ville of Fes and as soon as we stepped out of the Medina, past the Jewish quarter and saw the McDonalds, we knew we were there. Absolutely horrible place. Men sit outside cafes and they leer at you, I was really annoyed! Dont bother, there’s not a lot in the new town anyway. But if you end up there for lunch, try a place off Mohammed V called Le Chamonix for good tagine. Some other places to try and eat at are Riad Laaroussa, both restaurants by Le Kasbah with Bouianania in the name (one has a roof terrace, one doesnt, the one that doesnt makes good Pastilla!) and the rather fab Riad Fes which does serve alcohol but where we had a rather civilised mint tea!

We were sad to leave Fes but its best to leave a place when you still like it there. The taxi drivers are mad and we nearly crashed several times when our petit taxi driver took us to the train station in the new town to leave for Rabat but you will appreciate drivers at home, howver stupid they are, hahaha!! Also, do stand your ground if you feel that you’re being ripped off. unfortunately on our departure a greedy monkey charged us 30 dhirams to take our bags to the car park. We tried to argue this but without Jospehine to back us up and our need to get in the taxi he had flagged for us, we paid him the £2 reluctantly (extra reluctantly as we could have carried our bloody backpacks ourselves!) – ALWAYS agree on a price before!!! We later emailed Jospehine to thank her for her hospitality and mentioned the greedy carrosser only to find that he had also tried to charge other guests 50 dhirams for the same privilege! What I found most upsetting was that he was one of the few Fassis who had greeted us with a salaam so in my mind I felt that someone using God’s name in a greeting would not so easily rip us off. HUH!!!

Fes is not a city that stays open late into the night (not the medina anyway) so we would find ourselves wandering home as early as 10pm. But that was OK as it meant we could get an early start in the day and enjoy the sun while it was there (sunset would be around 5.30pm). It was also nice to not have the pressure of feeling that we had to stay out late all the time, and being a Muslim country, alcohol is not widely available and it was good to not have that around too. Even though it was sunny during the day, you need to wrap up warm at night at this time of year and sunglasses during the day will help defend against that fierce sun. I think lone female travellers will be fine in Fes. Women do seem to be well-respected there and stares from locals seem to be out of curiosity and at no point did I feel threatened as a woman or as a foreigner. Even walking back to our place in the dark at night was not a problem. Men do hang around street corners but they do not hassle you in any way.

Fes is perfect to experience a bit of Morocco if you are short of time, definitely go there!

I wasn’t sure what to expect of Rabat. The nouvelle ville of Fes was just horrible and lacked any character and I was worried that Rabat, which I had heard was fairly modern, would be soulless too.

Despite our kamikaze departure of Fes medina, we bought our train tickets to Rabat with great ease. 76 dhirams for a 3 hour journey one way, which is about £5. The trains looked clean enough and we had been advised to just get 2nd class tickets as 1st class was not hugely better despite being almost double the price. We sat in carriages not unlike the old British Rail trains where you have compartments sitting up to 8 people. The train was really busy and several people joined and left including a mother and her very cute children, a mathematical genius (we know because we watched him trying to work out some crazy algebraic formulas) and some teenage boys. Train stations along the way were not marked or announced really so we asked our fellow travellers when we felt we might be near Rabat and they were quite happy to advise us.

I was pleasantly surprised to get to Rabat Ville station and walk out to see not only a modern city but a pretty one. The main thoroughfare has a huge fountain in the middle of the palm tree-lined road. There was a lot of hustle-bustle but instantly we could see that the traffic was more ordered than in Fes. The Medina in Rabat is quite small so we thought we’d just opt for a regular hotel in the middle of town and Hotel Le Pietri was very close to the station and very easy to find.

Once we had checked in and dumped our bags in our new, clean home, we set about finding a place to have some drinks – it was New year’s Eve! We walked around town which was full of people carrying big boxes of cake to celebrate the holidays – January 1st is a national holiday although as we found out, ringing in the new year at midnight is not really the done thing. We did stop for coffee and cake at the Cappuccino Cafe and then we went to the Medina which was not at all exciting after the buzz of Fes. It’s a bit more like Surrey Street Market!!! It was getting dark by this point but we thought we’d wander over to the Kasbah anyway which is the old fort overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It’s not so welcoming in the dark when the gardens are shut and so on so we had a quick snoop and left to have dinner back in the medina at Restaurant de la Liberation.

Restaurant de la Liberation was full of backpackers and locals and the food was cheap in price but not in quality. Massive bowls of couscous and tagine cost us under £1.50 each and mint tea was only 15p!!!! We did ask the only other Brit in the cafe what she planned to do for New Year but she said she had only just got to Rabat and was so exhausted she was going to get some sleep! Undeterred, we headed back to our hotel and asked them where was good to go. There were celebrations in the hotel but it was reservations only and we a) didnt have one and b) didnt want to spend the evening with a bunch of middle aged diplomats who would no doubt be there.

With the help of our Lonely Planet (which honestly we tried so hard not to use!) and hotel staff we chanced on the French-owned and alcohol-serving Purple Bar. The doorman was friendly but the clientele, sadly, were not unlike the in-crowd in any happening London bar. I was actually a bit shocked to see young Moroccan women wearing short skirts and knee high boots and… SMOKING!!! They lacked the humility of their Fassi counterparts but obviously had I been in London seeing this I wouldnt have looked twice would I?? Ben wanted a beer but I was sticking to the no alcohol regime of Morocco but even then a Coke and Heineken came to almost £6.50, bah!! Actually what was really weird was being in a smoky bar!! At midnight the barman got up and started chucking confetti at everyone and a woman came round giving us party hats to the beat of some Arabic disco classic! It was a great little celebration.

2008 started with a sunny, if fresh day. Being on the ocean we were feeling the cold a bit more than in Fes. We walked to the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and Le Tour Hassan. It was here that we started to discover a nastier side to the Moroccans. A girl came out of nowhere and grabbed my hand and started to paint henna on it. Always keen to experience something new, I let her get on with it. She started speaking to me in English and I let her decorate my hand. Ben was already wary and stood a few paces away. I did think she might expect some small change for her favour so I told her I had no change but she said it didnt matter. When she was finished I turned to Ben and asked him to slip her 5 dirham or so. Bear in mind here that she spent less than a minute scrawling on my hand and true works of henna art take HOURS. She took the money (actually it may have been 10 dh) and said “This is nothing! Dont you have 50 dirham??” I looked at her, gob wide open, annoyed by lack of gratitude really and also what? Do I look like a moneybags or something?? I told to get lost or Id get the police and quickly she shuffled off with Ben’s money in her hand. I was so angry I scraped the henna off my hand with a rock on the ground but the orange dye had already stained my hand by then.

The mosque at the Mausoleum like virtually every mosque in Morocco is open only to Muslims. Ben wandered over to just poke his head in and have a look but he was fiercely challenged by a man sat by the steps who told him not to go in. I replied in French that he wasnt going in, he was just having a look but Ben walked away anyway and it was becoming apparent that Ben was pretty fed up with what looked to him like a ‘them and us’ situation. I had to explain that Islam was not an exclusive religion and even I felt like a bit of an outsider in this Muslim land. Everwhere we went I was asked if I was Moroccan. My negative answer brought disregard but the funny thing was by not being Moroccan, the locals seemed to think that I must be someone far removed from their cultures and traditions.

Rabat is twinned with the city of Sale which sits on the other side of the River Bou Regreg. After hanging around a grand taxi stand for about 20 minutes wondering how we could buy a seat we decided to just go up to drivers and ask them how much it was. We could have walked it but the bridge across didnt look like a nice walk; too much traffic. We paid 4 dhiram each to sit in the front of a big mercedes (grand taxis take 7 people including the driver!) and drive across the water. We read in the Lonely Planet that Sale was really backwards and not as liberal or women-friendly as Rabat. We got dropped off in the Medina and we were pretty much left alone. We walked around the medina wall and looked at the ocean on the other side of a huge cemetery. We decided to go and look at some really big old mosques and a local man, probably in his 20s stopped us and started talking to us. We decided to go with it and not let the earlier experience with the henna girl stop us from talking to locals. It became apparent that he was going to show us around so we just went with it and let him guide us around the medina and show us where the locals bake bread, where they shop and where they go to study the Quran. It was getting to sunset time and both Ben and I felt that we should get away from this guy before it got dark. At short periods where he was out of earshot we would signal to each other, lets give him like 30 dhirams for showing us around. We told him we wanted to go home and he said he would take us to the grand taxi stand. He took us to a quiet part of the medina wall and said taxis would come past and we could get in one. Unknown to him, we had already walked past this part of the wall and we knew the actual and much busier area where the rank was was about 3 minutes walk away. We felt something was going to happen here. He turned to leave us and both Ben and I said we should give him something for taking 45 minutes to show us around… I reached into my purse and as I did so, the guy leaned to me and whsipered “I normally charge 500 dhirams but Ill just take 200 from you”. Thank your lucky stars you were not there to see me erupt! 200 dhiram!!! Over £10 for someone to show us the medina of a lacklustre town for less than an hour!! I THINK NOT! At this point me and Ben ganged up on him and I started screaming at him that he was being outrageous. Ben laughed in his face and told him that an official guide in Fes would get 150 dhiram for HALF a DAY! OK, OK, he says, just 100 then. I told him what he was doing was illegal and we had never agreed to have him as a guide nor had we agreed we would pay him. Ben said we’d give him 50 dhirams and that he should pretty much get lost. he then asked for 50 dhiram EACH! A taxi came by and he hailed him down. He told us to give him 100 dhiram and to get into the taxi. I was ready to mash the boys face to a pulp. He kept asking me to lower my voice as the few people that were walking past were looking. I told him I was going to the police. To add insult to injury the taxi said it was 60 dhiram back to Rabat! I told them both to shove it, Ben gave the greedy guide 50 and even then he asked for more!! He jumped in the cab himself and they sped off. Worried they might go round the wall and to the rank and tell the other taxis not to take us anywhere we legged it down to the taxi rank where we found it would cost us 40 dhiram to have the whole of the grand taxis for ourselves back to Rabat. (seats are sold per person not by cab so by taking the whole thing we pay for 6 persons seats which at 40 dh is still about 10dh more than we should have paid) We could have just walked it back across the bridge but we just wanted to get out of Sale.

So people, if a local starts talking to you and you find that you start following them somewhere… DONT! Dont let your British politeness get the better of you. Tell whoever that you are fine by yoursleves and if anything, get a map out and tell them you have a map and dont need a guide!! Dont end up like we did. We chucked under £3 at him but we’re pretty sure some unsuspecting and less-experienced tourists and travellers would have coughed up the extortionate £35 he claims he normally gets for a tour of his town. Also bear in mind that between what is written in guide books and what (friendly and genuinely helpful) Moroccans have told us, the average Moroccan earns less than 100 dhiram a day so never feel pressured if someone turns up their nose at the 5 dhirams you have thoughtfully given. Especially when it costs the locals only 20dh to eat out!

We never reported our faux guide to the police. Hopefully his experience with crazy screaming British girl might deter him from doing it again, I dont know, but whatever, had the police caught up with him, he might have experienced something far worse than if a tourist was to part with £15…

Rabat is the place to eat cake and drink coffee and Moroccan coffee is amazing. I would usually have a cafe creme – a coffee with frothy milk. Ben fell in love with mille feuille slices which I adored as a child and we spent a lot of time drinking mint tea. We did venture back to the Kasbah in the daylight and we stopped for pastries at Cafe Maure with views across the sea and to Sale. The ‘ensemble artisanale’ in the medina is a good place to pick up jewellery and good stuff to decorate the home with but being backpackers we’ll make another trip one day with empty suitcases! I was impressed at the lack of hassle too 🙂

Our experiences with greedy Moroccans closed us up to talking to anyone else well into our adventure. We took a day trip to Casablanca from Rabat as we had heard it could be quite a difficult city to get around and we just didnt want any further hassles, plus many reviewers have said its not worth overnighting. We got a return ticket for just over £4 return to Casa port – trains from Rabat are every 1/2 hour and take just an hour. The train is full of commuters and we passed mainly hills and valleys but before Casablanca you can see the shanty towns where very poor people live and wonder what is wrong with this country. We went to Casablanca really just to see the Hassan II mosque. Amazing, opulent (and in view of local rundown housing) and built over the Atlantic Ocean (God’s throne is built on water), at least this was a mosque Ben could have a look at! Google it for some awe-inspiring pictures! After the mosque we did the proper tourist thing and had lunch at Rick’s Cafe, as inspired by the movie, Casablanca! I had a most welcome cheeseburger ( I was getting a bit tired of tagine) and a salad!!! I thought I would be living off fruit and veg here but the main staples unfortunately are not green or full of vitamin C unfortunately! In all, Casablanca was OK for a quick visit. I dont feel I missed out by not staying there, its very industrial and like a not so nice Port Louis.

I enjoyed our stay at Le Pietri except nobody told us the room rate went up by 100 dirhams in the new year so we were paying the bill only to find it was a lot more than we thought. That wasnt clever of them and we told them so. But they do a nice French breakfast with good coffee!

And so onwards with our journey. We were now going to head down the coast. I just hoped that the short spells of rain we experienced in Rabat didnt follow us to Oualidia…

From Rabat we needed to head back to Casablanca and catch our connecting train down the coast from there. Their trains run perfectly on time and within 15 minutes of arriving at Casa Port and nipping out to get a bottle of water we were on a train to El Jadida. Our train to El Jadida was like what I imagine the Orient Express to be. Big leather seats and unlike our first train from Fez, this one was like the trains at home 2 seats facing each other with an aisle down the middle. Ben went off somewhere leaving his seat unoccupied. An older woman got on the train and aksed me something in Arabic, I assumed if the seat was taken and so I replied in French, Oui and she began to sit down and I told her no. There were plenty of seats around but it does seem from having watched other people, especially on the commuter trains between Rabat and Casa that people prefer to sit with others rather than on their own whereas in England people are quite desperate to get a seat on their own! Also, I wondered, on a train full of men whether it was not the done thing for an older woman to sit alone or sit near men?