Home for me is a seaside town with a funicular, so the port city of Valparaiso, with its 15 ascensores, on the face of it had some similarities. After spending 2 days in "Valpo", I had to concede that the similarities were indeed purely superficial, with the lack of good fish and chips here a glaring difference. Valparaiso is spread over more than 40 hills, a Rome (or Sheffield) squared, and many of its residential areas are filled with the kind of colourful houses and street art that characterise the Bellavista neighbourhood of Santiago. Sadly, the smog that blights the capital is also a fixture here, and neither the dock area nor the busy streets running near it add to the city's appeal. With Chile's navy being based in Valparaiso, there are plenty of sailors floating ... read more

After 4,000km of little but ocean beneath the plane, I was excited to finally see a small island out of the window. Easter Island's human history is short, in all likelihood less than 1,500 years, however that history has generated enormous debate in circles ranging from the purely academic to the best-seller lists. The bare bones of the story are that a society arose in which the carving of enormous moai (stone sculptures) had a central role. Over a period of time, the society broke down and the moai were toppled from their ahus (stone pedestals), leaving the island's appearance pretty much the same as it is today. "All" that's missing is a consensus on the whys and wherefores of the detail. DNA evidence has shown that Easter Island, aka Rapa Nui aka Isla de Pascua, ... read more

Valdivia is a university town founded by and named after Pedro de Valdivia, conquistador and no great friend of the local Mapuche people. Standing at the confluence of three rivers, it has recovered from bearing the brunt of recorded history's most violent earthquake in 1960 to be called the prettiest town in Chile, a title which would never have sprung to mind based on my two days there of rain and gloom. Perhaps because of the student population, I saw numerous fast food joints, with my first MacDonald's sighting for over a month. On the plus side, there were at least two Chinese restaurants in the town. Valdivia is also home to the Kunstmann brewery, producer of Chile's supposedly best beer. Kunstmann originally started beer manufacture when the town's main brewery was destroyed by the earthquake, ... read more

I'd heard that Volcan Chaiten had been depositing ash on a couple of places further south that I'd intended visiting so, with no wish to look any greyer than I already do, I went west instead. The journey across the Andes and down into Chile provided some views of the volcanoes that punctuate the landscape here with a menace not conferred on mere mountains. Volcan Osorno, possessing a shape of which Hokusai would no doubt have approved and conveniently closest to the road, drew my eye for several hours. My chosen hostel had a name translating as "Blue House" in English, a description it fulfilled even down to the colour of the toilet paper. Other guests were scarce so, with the young dog's idea of fun being to try to bite me and cover my trousers ... read more

Puerto Madryn and its surrounds are a representative example of how Argentina's population has been shaped by settlers and immigrants predominantly from Europe. Seeking to escape oppression by the English in Wales, and encouraged by incentives from the Argentine government to colonise sparsely populated areas of Patagonia, a boatload of Welsh would-be settlers landed in what was to be Puerto Madryn in 1865. Unlike the catastrophic effects for indigenous people that other European incursions into South America often had, the meeting of the Welsh and the local Tehuelche was to result in an relationship of mutual respect. The Welsh recognised the Tehuelche as the rightful owners of the land, and the two groups were to remain on good terms, with the local tribe acquiring a particular liking for Welsh bread. On a headland at one end ... read more