Chile´s Atacama desert (the world´s driest desert) is a 24 hour bus journey north from Santiago but worth every minute of travel. Initially we were only going to stay in San Pedro de Atacama (the main village in the desert) for a few days but ended up staying over a week. This is the kind of place that Barry and I love - a nice town with good places to eat and facilities but a mere few kilometres from amazing sights. We took our first days in San Pedro relatively easy as we wanted to acclimatise to its 2,400 metres altitude before going any higher (this place really can leave you short of breath just from walking along the main street too quickly!). Valle de la Muerte & Valle de la Luna These two valleys near ... read more

We had booked our flights to Easter Island before coming out to South America 6 months ago. However, we only really had a chance to think about the things we were going to see as we sat on our 5 hour flight from Santiago looking down at the endless sea below us. It is fair to say that Easter Island exceeded my expectations - I knew it was going to be good, I just didn´t realise it would be this good. Stuck in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometres from the nearest inhabited islands (the Pitcairns) and even further from mainland Chile, Easter Island is described as one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. Despite this, it receives thousands of tourists every year and the majority of its inhabitants work in the tourist industry. ... read more

We crossed back into Chile from Argentina and went straight to the town of Villarrica to relax for a few days before moving on. This was a good place to rest as it was so hot there was nothing else we could do - 36 degrees celsius, ouch! But soon we had itchy feet and were on the move again. In a very roundabout way (via the town of Chillan to pick up our Chevy hire car) we made it to the areas slightly north of Villarrica, which according to our guidebook comprise part of Chile´s "Central Valley". First stop was the slightly unimpressive Salto del Laja waterfalls. The falls themselves are nice, but the whole set up is a bit strange. The falls seem to be sponsored by Coca-Cola giving quite a surreal commercial edge ... read more

We moved north from Chiloe, hoping to get some warmer weather, but unfortunately our first few days did not bring much sunshine. We went to Puyuhue National Park, home to various volcanoes including Volcan Puyuhue and Volcan Casablanca. Because of the weather we were restricted in where we could go, but we still enjoyed some hikes and particularly enjoyed visiting a sub-crater of Volcan Casablanca. This was the first time we had walked inside a volcanic crater and despite the fact that it had erupted a long time ago and was now covered in moss and grass it was still a fun thing to explore. In search of more sunshine we went a but further north to the University town of Valdivia. There is not a huge amount to do here but that suited us well ... read more

After returning from Antarctica we were completely exhausted, and so took a few days to just relax in Ushuaia. Our time there was spent mostly eating, sleeping and getting ready for Christmas. A couple of days into our stay Josh and Melanie (who we had previously met in Buenos Aires and Montevideo) turned up in our hostel and we decided to spend Christmas together. We ended up having a great Christmas Day (my first ever away from Wales!) which was significantly helped by Melanie´s (French) knowledge of cooking. Tasty chicken, plenty of other bits of pieces, wine and champagne - delicious. Despite the celebrations we were awake very early on Boxing Day (26th December to those not from the UK!) to catch a bus for the long journey across the border and into Chile. It turned ... read more