http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Chile en-us Thu, 03 Dec 09 03:37:50 +0000 Thu, 03 Dec 09 03:37:50 +0000 Hey allI'm writing to you from an internet caf in Chile's most northern city Arica. It's a city of nearly 200000 or so say the Chileans. The bus ride here was 18 hours through the driest desert in the world. Intense to say the least. I am making my way north through Chile and Peru before heading back to the states after over 8 months in Chile teaching English. As with the last few post I pro http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Arica-and-Parinacota/Arica/blog-457802.html Hola AmigosEste es un blog de viajes que comenzamos con el Richi. Vamos a empezar con nuestro viaje a San Pedro de Atacama ya que ah se nos ocurri PLlegar a San Pedro de Atacama SP fue un camino largo y tortuoso bsicamente porque SP no es barato y hay muchos gastos que considerar. Debemos empezar diciendo que vean bien cmo llegar all. Nosotros encontramos que lo ms barato era vuelo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Antofagasta-Region/San-Pedro-de-Atacama/blog-457704.html ATMrsquos Again Trouble MakersAfter crossing the border with Chili I took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama. It is a small town and very touristy. While I was sitting at a terras in front of the restaurant having a coffee I started talking with people who were sitting on the next table. They were very friendly people from Santiago and nice to have a chat with. To escape Santiago city life and to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Arica-and-Parinacota/blog-457540.html The Peru trip had me pretty worn out. Friday I went to bed at midnight... and slept until noon on Saturday. I got up but pretty much stayed in my pajamas the whole day. I ate lunch with my family did homework and went for a run. I did homework and worked on my photobook the rest of the night. Sunday was pretty much the same story. I slept until ten and didnt do anything too exciting. After lunch http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Biobio/Concepcion/blog-455879.html Semaine 19 De retour au Chili par la CordillereApres avoir change de plans au moins 4 ou 5 fois quant a mon itineraire jai finalement decide de passer du cote Chilien. Pour passer la cordillere des Andes entre le Chili et lArgentine il y a plusieurs passages. Bien sur jai choisi le moins facile un trajet ou il faut prendre depuis Bariloche un bus jusqua puerto Pauelo puis un bateau j http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Los-Lagos/blog-455597.html We arrived in Osorno and walked to a hostel that we had found in the guidebook. We got all settled in before anyone asked how much it would cost. Some people were unhappy with the cost so we ended up leaving to find a different hostel. We checked into a different hostel. It was a bit cheaper and had a kitchen that we could use. We walked to the store to get food and drinks. We went back to the hos http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Los-Lagos/Chiloe-Island/blog-454882.html This is a cool town very arty and bohemian. In the early 90s the city commissioned some artists to paint murals to create an outdoor museum. Time hasn't been very kind to them they're not in very good condition nor as interesting as the regular graffiti and murals done more recently on other walls all over town some of which are excellent. Just a few km's down the road or a few stops on the tr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/blog-454852.html The journey over the Andes from Mendoza to Santiago is spectacular if it's not cloudy but the day we picked was snowy rainy and very cloudy so we didn't get to see Aconcagua When we got to Santiago the Chilean public sector workers were on paro so the museums and some of the other places we've wanted to go have been closed putain de merde. With a limited number of things to do we spent t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-454849.html A las diez de la noche mis amigos y yo nos fuimos de Santiago para Temuco por autobs que dur trece horas. La prxima maana lleguemos en Temuco y tomemos otro autobs para Coaripe donde bamos a trabajar para una semana en una finca orgnica donde se estudia la permacultura y tradiciones Mapuches. Coaripe significa sendero de guerreros en Mapudungun. No sabamos nada de la finca con la http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/Villarrica/blog-454815.html Well here we are in Punta Arenas much has happened since our last blog.We have ridden our Motorsquos to the end of the world to Fin del Mundo and some of us continued as far South East as you can go to Ea. Moat what a great ride that was.Mike V has had his operation to repair and pin his broken leg and will be driven down to met up with us by his surgeon. We are looking forward to him rejoin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Punta-Arenas/blog-454691.html This week marks our class' trip to the south of Chile where we toured Puerto Montt and San Rafael Lake. It was a heck of a time. This is our 2nd and final trip where all 20 of us will be together.Tue Oct 272 more days until our trip to the south In class we talked about our weekends as well as what we should to to prepare for our upcoming trip. We were going to take a bus to Puerto Montt http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Aisen/San-Rafael-Glacier/blog-453756.html The conditions are simple Chile beats Colombia and theyrsquore qualified for the World Cup soccer. If not they get more chances later on. Chilean people know this. But the Chileans donrsquot want to wait. Itrsquos Saturday they want to party.We arrive early at the Irishstyled pub to get a good seat. A wise decision. We do get a table with a good view of the massive big screen. People w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-453740.html Well following my blistering trip through Asia it was time to change continents and make my way to South America. I decided to make a connection in Europe to catch up with a few friends in Germany. Getting to Germany wasnt too bad. Coming from India I arrived in shorts a tshirt and flip flops. Well Lets just say it was about 27 degrees F. I was wondering why everyone was mean mugging me http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Easter-Island/blog-453415.html We intended to send episode number 2 of our blog about a week ago but for reasons that you will discover in episode 3 which will follow very shortly we have been in the middle of nowhere with no internet or mobile reception for the last few days.2 November day 9 Peninsula ValdesThe 5.15am start wasn't too bad especially as they didn't serve breakfast on the plane they had forgotten to load http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Torres-del-Paine/blog-453157.html Argentina takes itrsquos toll on Bikes and Bones.Well here we are in the Island of Fire Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. The past few days have not been without incidents with the KTM short for Keeps Taking Money having to be loaded onto the truck just 70kmrsquos into a 517 km day we left it with a local Moto shop to track the electrical fault to a broken wire under the tank http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/blog-453086.html Four days off in Santiago were largely spent resting. However we did take the opportunity to go to Cocha Y Torro one of the largest vineyards in Chile. They produce Castillero Del Diablo which is prevalent throughout Central and South America as well as Tesco's etc in the UK. The tour was interesting and then we settled down for our tasting with cheese and four different wines. Educationa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-452935.html We came to Pucon to hike to the summit of Volcan Villarica and left 3 days later having not done that or very much else. Once again the weather closed us down bugger bugger bugger. We had nothing but low cloud rain fog wind and even a few flurries of snow. In the same hostel were a group of French guys who'd been waiting a few days for a break in the weather that never came but in Puerto http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/Pucon/blog-452632.html From Castro we took a bus directly to Peurto Varas skipping Puerto Montt which is an unattractive place with little to see or do.Happily the weather was being kind to us again when we arrived it was cold but clear and dry we can live with that. Like all of the lakes and rivers in this part of the world the water here is beautifully clear and clean but very cold although amazingly we did see http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-452536.html Once again I found myself on a sleepless overnight bus journey. This time it was an 11 hour trip from Pucon to Santiago. The bus arrived at around 7.30am and by the time I had found myself to the metro it was rush hour. The rush hour here made the Jubilee line morning rush look empty. Every train that came in was so full absolutely no one could get on. After sitting on the platform for an hour I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-452528.html We took the overnight bus form Concepcion to Puerto Montt. We left Concepcion at 11pm. We were on the second level of a double decker bus. We were so excited so I didnt go to sleep until about 1 or 2 a.m. Christina ended up getting sick on the way. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise. You could see Volcano Osorno. I went to the bathroom but I struggled to get the door open. It was really hard Grant http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Aisen/San-Rafael-Glacier/blog-452479.html