Blogs from Arica & Parinacota, Chile, South America

I an writing this blog entry sat on a tock by a lake Chungara at 4500 meters snobs sea level. I am High in the Antiplsno. Of tje lLauca Natonal prtk.. .it is so Peaceful here, as grorgie fame on e wrote no one looking over my shoulder, nobody bresthing in my ear , ehixh at ghd moment sould be vety difficult. The air is do thin here i sm lgbt heared and msking msny typinf mostakes. Just imbing u a smLl hill leaves dveryone breathless. I os skso msking me cery tired snd i had started to fall aslerp on the bus. Cncentration is very difficult. I have been at 4500 before on Bivia but that was a gradual climb over a week. This has edn from desevel to 4500 meters in four hours.one lady ... read more

'Get out of the waves.... Go back to the valley man' These words came back to haunt me when I was Jonny Utah for the day. George Evans where are you now? George was a young man I used to work with and who, during long night shifts. used to bring in films to watch. (and no, not the ones with Ron Jeremy, mores the pity). One film we all loved was Point Break with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, who played FBI agent Jonny Utah. A classic from the 1980's set around the surfing community. who happen also to be bank robbers. Dressed in masks of former presidents of the USA, Jonny had to learn to surf ... read more

Before I start my musings I am sending much love to Ainsley Reynolds, my cousin in law ( if there is such a word, who has had a traumatic couple of weeks and is now home resting after surgery. Speedy recovery Ainso and see you on the beach for Sangria and Jonny SaTrinxa. (and maybe a smidgen Pasha) xx Sunday . So fare well Iquique. You were wonderful but it is now time to cross into the last of the 12 regions of Chile to the city that lies on the border with Peru, Arica.Most ... read more

After almost three months and 4,000 kilometres, we've made it all the way to the top of Chile. We've arrived in Arica and our Chilean adventure is about to come to an end. Peru is only a couple of miles away. Sitting right on the Pacific Ocean, Arica is famous for being the driest city on Earth - an average year will see it get less than one millimetre of rain. While we've been making our way north from Santiago, Arica and its surrounding region have seen torrential rain and flooding. Yes, flooding. The driest city in the world. The world! Farms in the Azapa Valley - Arica's answer to the Elqui Valley - have been inundated, countless adobe homes washed away, roads blocked, bridges destroyed. You just could not make it up. While in Iquique ... read more

I´m a logistical person as you have probably gathered from my blogging style. I tend to blog more about little things that happen and how we get places than described in detail how incredibly cool the places are that we go. Sarah does a better job with that kind of stuff. So, in sticking to the logistical stuff, here are some other notes that may be of interest to some. Climate - Chile and Argentina have been similar in temperature to September back in the States. Mid 60´s most of the time with variations on the higher and lower end. For the most part, it hasn´t gotten below the 40´s at night even in the coldest places. So, what do you wear? - me, I have been in a short sleeve shirt and occassionally throwing on ... read more

We have finally made it into Chile! However, since my last post we´ve had a few extra obstacles to overcome than expected. We left Cusco last Sunday night for an overnight bus ride to Arequipa. We arrived at our hostel, Wild Rover, an Irish run hostel, around 11am which gave us the day to explore. The city was very busy and nothing too special, however back at the hostel everybody we talked to seemed to have loved Arequipa. We had to leave early the next morning for our next stop, so we will never know what was so amazing about the city of Arequipa. We woke up early the next morning for our bus to take us to Tacna, which is the lowest city of Peru and its before you cross the border into Chile. As ... read more