While wandering around Huilo Huilo in Panguipulli, Chile, this sweet chap over here tagged along while I unicycled through.

On this particular leg of my journey, I stayed in a “backpacker” lodge which was unreasonably cheap (I think it was <$10 a night). It’s really more of a camping lodge with a few huge rooms of something like 10 bunk beds. I was the only person in the entire place outside of the guard who lets people into the reserve. Not expected at all…

Naturally I appreciated the company though he had to stay outdoors since I don’t want to be evicted into the wilderness. I would learn later too why that sentiment of appreciation is shared. […]

In my country, an average bottle of wine costs US$15-20. You wouldn’t drink wine with your meals. Heck, grape juice was a luxury when I was growing up because juice isn’t cheap either.

Chile is, in comparison, ridiculous. At some point, I caught myself at the supermarket in a twist over if I should get a good wine for a dollar more. Why is that even a choice when it’s easily a $10 difference back home for the quality gap?

Eventually, I learnt that the rule of thumb was that wine under $2 was horrid. Anything $5 or more is luxury.

Water Water Everywhere

Wine was cheaper than water. Everyone knew that party trick where […]

I think I decided to hike the Torres del Paine in the Chilean part of Patagonia days before I did that. It was the right season; I happened to be in the area and everyone who’s done it raved about the brilliant scenery. Google tells me that it’s a must-do – a constant best hikes in the world contender and high up on a lot of people’s bucket lists.

All the cool kids do it, the internet told me.

Look at this madness!

I didn’t have the right clothes for it but it’s ok, there’re lots of second-hand shops in Puerto Natales, a tiny town that exists only to serve hikers. In fact, this was supposed […]