Pisco and La Serena

La Serena has to be one of the highlights of our visit to Chile - not for any spectacular scenery or fantastic adventures, but for the relaxed atmosphere of the hostel we stayed in and the ease with which we could get around to see the sights of La Serena and the surrounding area. It was also good to get out of the dry desert landscape.

The hostel (Casa de Maria) just consisted in rooms out of the back of Maria's house, and we shared the kitchen and other facilities with Maria and her family as well as numerous other tourists of all ages and nationalities. It had started when Maria took in an Israeli student off the street years ago - out of a concern for his well being, and the next thing she knew he was recommending her to his friends, and travellers have been turning up on her doorstep ever since, some coming back repeatedly for years.

Evenings invariably ended in us all sharing several bottles of the finest Chilean vintage (so long as it was under $2!) and swapping travel tales or hearing stories of Maria's life under the dictatorship here in Chile or of travellers past.

From La Serena we took a boat trip out to the Parque Nacional del Pinguino Humbolt to see penguins, dolphins, sea lions, cormorants and various other marine wildlife. it was quite a contrast to the Galapagos - the animals weren't all lined up waiting for us to take pictures and the boat was a lot smaller and the seas a lot rougher, a regular soaking from the waves seemed to take our minds off any sea sickness!

We also took at trip into the Elqui Valley, which is the centre of Pisco production (pic below of wine being distilled into pisco) in Chile - where we had a look around a distillery and sampled one of the premium pisco brands - pretty grim unless served with lemon and ice in a Pisco Sour (the national drink). Peru also claims Pisco as it's national drink, but it seems Chile claimed it for it's own by renaming a village Pisco Elqui and claiming they make more and better Pisco than Peru... lawyers are probably making a lot of money out of the row, but I don't think it's doing any harm to Pisco production and consumption in either country.

Beach bums in Iquique

Coming into Iquique was like coming back into a more recognisable Chile - paved roads, neon, shopping malls and advertising everywhere - even lighting up the side of the oversize sand dunes which overshadow the city.

We're in a hostel 1 block from the beach, Iquique is a big destination for surfers this time of year, so we are pretty much the only people in the hostel without sand in our hair. It's far too cold for swimming in the sea without a wetsuit and although we're still on the edges of the desert it has been pretty overcast since we've been here. Sitting on the beachfront with a beer in hand watching the big waves was a pretty cool way to spend a few hours though.

We spent several hours yesterday (26th July) wandering around a deserted (nitrate) mining town - Humberstone. Now designated a Unesco world heritage site it was a photographer´s delight, so Rick should have some cool photos once we find a fast enough internet connection. It was a pretty creepy place full of rust, dust and broken machinery, but also clean and well preserved (that´s the desert air for you) with just enough information available to find your way around the old town. A very different cultural experience, but an important part of the history of Northern Chile.

Had dinner last night in a not-so-budget restaurant (Lonely Planet has been a bit off with some of its recommendations) where we discovered one of the waiters had been at the same fat boy slim concert as us in Brixton last year...he was the most camp Chilean we´ve come across, and very keen to have a chat about all things London (rather than work, which didn´t make us too popular with the other staff).

Tonight we start heading south to La Serena, hoping for a nice comfortable bus for the 16 hour journey!

Atacama Desert, part 2

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San Pedro de Atacama is a tiny little town which is very much on the gringo trail through this corner of South America, and had more tourists concentrated in one spot than we've come across since leaving the Galapagos. It meant prices of food and accommodation were high, but in the middle of the desert all those tourists must put an incredible pressure on resources. Occasionally the water pump would break down, and the entire town would be without water....or at least that's what we were informed by our hostel staff.

One of the highlights of our stay was a tour of the southern night sky given by a French astronomer who has been living in San Pedro for over 10 years (a lot fewer clouds in the desert than in Normandy!) We huddled outside while this enthusiastic Frenchman gave us a tour of constellations and explained how our view of the stars was affected by the rotation of the earth and our position on the planet. Pointing madly with a laser pen (I want one!) he pointed out constellations and educated the ignorant (ie all of us) as to the history and uses of star gazing and the basics of what we could see. We were then shown various star clusters, nebulae, planets etc through telescopes he'd built himself before being warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate in his home. His enthusiasm was so infectious I'd (Lesley) half resolved to try and new career in astronomy by the end of the evening... but on further reflection spending my life in the dark in a desert didn't seem such a good life plan.

Low point - altitude sickness - we went to visit some of the altiplano lakes (see photos) at over 4,300m and my head felt like it was going to explode... the only place I was comfortable after that was lying down in the dark with my eyes closed... apparently the lack of humidity can increase the effects of altitude - I certainly didn't feel as bad in Ecuador. Chewing rank-tasting coca leaves was the only way I managed to walk across town with my backpack to get a bus out of the town (and escape the altitude). Rick didn't seem as affected, but I was a picture of the pathetic gringo traveller...

Atacama Desert, part 1

In the middle of the driest desert in the world we knew we were guaranteed sunshine and warm days. We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama with an Irish soldier who was about to take part in the Race the World challenge. 144 people running/walking 250 km across the desert at high altitude in 7 days....carrying all their food, tent and equipment. Crazy stuff to do once, but he'd already completed races in the Sahara and Gobi desert and was planning to race the Antartic in December. In the heat and high altitude it was as much as we could do to organise tours to drive us around the surrounding desert! We were suitably humbled by the effort this challenge required but secretly thought they were all a bit crazy to do it!

The scenery was fabulous, as Rick's pictures show. Such a contrast to the mountains and greenery of southern Chile. Arriving by night it seemed very desolate, but in the bright white light of day the desert and vocanoes are full of colour. San Pedro is a small town, full of tourists from all over the world - more than we'd seen in a long time - as well as Chilean university students on their winter break (with a very high proportion of dreadlocks between them!). The night we arrived there was no room at the inn, we had to try 4 hostels before finding a bed, the first time we´d had such a thing happen.

Just outside San Pedro is the Valle de la Luna which is the place to watch a sunset. Not the romantic evening you might think as the best way to get there if you don't have your own transport is on a tour bus...and there are a lot of tour buses every evening. So we sat on top of a big sanddune with a crowd of Brits and Americans and a very nonplussed tour guide. It was beautiful though - vocanoes and deserts turning various hues of orange, red and purple before the sun disappears and the temperature plummets.

Chilean wine tasting

We left Pucon in search of sunshine a bit more warmth and ended up in Talca - a pretty colonial town which just happens to be within easy reach of wine country. So, we warmed ourselves up with a visit to a nearby vineyard and some sampling of the local wares, and treated ourselves to a hotel with central heating (what bliss!) and a private bathroom.

Pictures are of Vina Balduzzi in San Javier.

Pucon - Volcano & Lake

We were enticed to visit the town of Pucon solely by the description in the Lonely Planet guide book:

How often do you come across a small town smack in between a divinely blue lake and a perfectly conical volcano? Just to add to the effect, the volcano's crater spends most of its daily billowing smoke - even the occasional smoke ring - and on clear nights it gives off an eerie red glow.

It sounded idyllic and just a little dangerous; we just had to go...

However, the Chilean winter had other ideas and unfortunately we had heavy rain and cloudy skies for the whole 3 days we were there - we didn't even glimpse the volcano, it's smoke and its glow - it was always completely hidden by cloud (we couldn't even tell which direction to face. The lake was big, but it was a bit grey and dark (not even a hit of blue), because of the inclement weather.

We did however spot a "volcano traffic light" in the middle of the town, outside the municipal building. A sign nearby told us what the green, amber and red lights were meant to show (green being a little smoke, red being a full-blown eruption). We kept looking at the lights every time we went past, hoping for a little excitement - it's a shame that none of 3 lights were even on (i.e. nothing happening at all).

Fortunately Pucon was a mecca for tourists, meaning a bar or restaurant on every corner, so we consoled ourselves with many Pisco Sours (strong grape brandy with lemon juice and egg white) and some excellent Chilean meals and wines.

The closest we got to the volcano was a spot of nighttime bathing in volcanic hotsprings - three hours sitting outside in ther freezing cold didn´t do much for Lesley's health (no matter how hot the water) and she's been coughing and spluttering ever since.

Coffee, Wine and Beer/Lakes, Islands and Volcanoes

Ok, so those aren't the only things that are good about Chile, but there is definitely a marked improvement in beverages since leaving Ecuador! Not in the weather though. We arrived in Santiago in pouring rain and freezing cold (or so it seemed at the time, it gets colder!) and immediately found ourselves paying more money for more basic accommodation - the price you pay for big city infrastructure.

We were rescued from our damp Santiago hostel by friends of my (Lesley's) brother, who after a cup of coffee with us downtown offered us a warm bed. Perhaps our complaints about the hostel began to get to them, but we really welcomed the escape!

After a month on the road it was lovely to be in a family house for a few days, and to be fed and watered and shown the highlights of Santiago's nightlife into the bargain. (Although I think the Piscola's were the only thing that kept Rick and I awake after our uncomfortable night flight down from Quito the night before).

Chile is a very different experience of South America, particularly Santiago - it has a more European/cosmopolitan feel with American style malls, Parisian style coffee shops and German-style beer on tap. Santiago was a great place to restock travel necessities before moving on South.

Arriving in Chile in midwinter might seem a crazy idea to most Chileans if we aren't skiing, but it does mean we have our pick of accommodation and can book transport the day of travel, plus we have the additional welcome of a warm fire or wood stove in the hostels we've been staying in. Having decided that Patagonia was best left to sunnier times, our most southerly destination was the island of Chiloe, a green and pleasant land with wierd tales of mythical creatures. We stayed in Castro, in a hostel run by two very cheerful ladies (and their dog Luna) and were blessed with sunny days while Santiago was inundated with rain and bad weather that even made the international news. Oblivious to this, we wandered the streets of Castro, explored one of the small neighbouring islands of Lemuy and enjoyed excellent seafood and fine wine. The islands have a very laid-back pace, and are renowned for their wooden architecture - particularly the churches and the palafitos (houses on stilts). Clear skies meant nights were cold, but wood burning stoves kept us cosy and dictated our choice of dining venue!

From Chiloe we moved slightly further north to Puerto Varas, on lake Llanquihue, which is where our Santiago host's grandfather had originally lived when he came to Chile from Germany. The German influence in food and architecture is very apparent, and I think I already mentioned the beer! It makes for hearty meals, pretty churches and cosy wooden homes. From Puerto Varas we visited nearby waterfalls and the very small village of Petrohué - all breathtakingly beautiful in the clear blue skies we continued to enjoy. We also had use of the kitchen in the hostel so Rick cooked up his famous (?) tomato pasta dish in their German/Japanese/Chilean themed dining area.

Travel in Chile had been incredibly straightforward and efficient in comparison to Ecuador and our more distant memories of travel in Peru. The overnight bus from Santiago to Puerto Montt was luxury! The seats reclined into a bed, and we were handed blankets and pillows to get comfortable, and were brought trays with snacks, hot drinks and breakfast as we went along. Roads were smooth and we departed and arrived on time...Rick was so impressed he's even put diagrams up on the blog below! Even shorter bus journeys have been very comfortable and efficient (except perhaps for getting lost on Santiago's buses...but we're trying to put that behind us).

We didn't have quite so much luck with the bus trip from Puerto Varas to Pucon (Chile's adventure capital) the bus broke down 20 km from the nearest town in the pouring rain..and it took over 3 hours to work out that it wasn't going to get fixed and that the bus company was going to need to do something about 20 increasingly anxious passengers (being hungry and cold in the dark by the side of a highway would make anyone irritable!). We eventually got to our destination on a different bus about 5 hours late, and plumped for the accommodation closest to the bus station rather than the one we had chosen in the book...a decision that can sometimes be a mistake but in this case seems a cheap, clean and comfortable option. We have the place to ourselves and the owner is very helpful and friendly.

More to follow on adventures in Pucon...

Chilly in Chile

Sorry for the pun, but it had to be done and it is very cold here in Chile (it being winter and very far South) ... Pictures are of Lago Llanquihue from Puerto Varas (Volcan Osorno in the background), Lago Todos Los Santos, Saltos del Petrohue, wooden houses and palafitos on Chiloe... and reclining bus seats

The middle of the world (nearly)

In our last days in Ecuador we found ourselves in Quito (the capital) again, with a few days left before our flight to Chile. As a result, we tried a few of the day trips that were available. One of them was a trip to the "Mitad del Mundo" (the middle of the world - i.e. the Equator).

This was reported to be a bit of a tourist trap, but as it was only 20km from Quito, we went along.

After a long hot, crowded bus ride that lasted over 1 hour (including being dropped off at a round-about on a main round for a 2nd bus), we eventually made it. We paid our $2 each (which seemed a bit steep to our budget traveller´s purse) and entered. We actually found ourselves in a large complex, containing a large monolith designated where the equator was, and lots of shops and boutiques selling t-shirts, stuffed llamas, etc.

It was a bit touristy our course, but we satisfied our inner tourist by taking lots of pictures of us standing at the Equator, next to the large monolith and the big yellow line.

The unfortunate thing was that we discovered, upon entering one of the many small museams, that we we NOT actually at the equator at all. The French scientist who had calculated the position had got it wrong - the real "middle of the world" was 250 metres down the road. We were gutted!!

Amazon Jungling

We´ve just got back from 5 days in the Oriente (Ecuadorian Amazon Jungle) which was yet another amazing experience. We had to take a small plane to a place called Lago Agrio, take a bus drive for 3 hours, and then ride on a motorized wooden canoe for 2.5 hours along a jungle river, to get to our "eco-lodge" - a collection of thatched huts in the middle of the jungle called ¨Cuyabeno Lodge¨ in the Cuyabeno reserve. We had a guide for the 5 days, who took us on canoe rides, jungle walks and into an indigenous village.

The Amazon is a unforgettable place - so much "nature" everywhere - monkeys, frogs, snakes and of course lots of large insects and spiders (none particularly dangerous apparently). We were also lucky enough to a see an anaconda, caiman (small alligators) and some river dolphins. Just being in the jungle (especially during the night) was experience enough, without all the animals that we encountered.

It´s a shame that it had to rain so much (3.5 days out of the 5 days), but I suppose that´s what you get if you go the rainforest in wet season!! We eventually got used to everything being slightly damp (including clothes, shoes beds and towels), the lack of electricity, lack of hot water and the racket that the frogs and insects made when night-time came (it seems much quieter here in busy Quito!!).

Of course, the jungle was nothing like the Galapagos (although they are both ¨wildlife spotting¨ activities). It was many times more difficult to spot the wildlife, as they were very shy and had lots of jungle to hide in and had much better camouflage than a sea-lion on a beach! However, our guide and companion travellers we´re very good ¨spotters¨, which helped a lot when trying to take our photographs.
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