Blogs from Antofagasta, Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America - page 3

Dag 53. Vi sto opp i 07 tiden. Ryggsekkene var mer eller mindre ferdig pakket, saa vi gikk for aa spise frokost for bussturen. Mens vi satt og spiste kom et amerikansk par som vi hadde sett paa turen igaar. Da de skulle betale, oppdaget de at de ikke hadde nok penger til aa betale for seg. De var ganske fortvilet og snakket seg imellom om hva de skulle gjore (de hadde ikke tatt ut mer penger i minibanken - siden de skulle til Argentina). Damen bak disken forlangte aa faa betalt for det de hadde kjopt, og Eirik spurte dem da om hvor mye de manglet. De manglet 900 pesos (9,- NOK), og for aa hjelpe dem ga vi dem 1 000 pesos. De var utrolig takknemlig, samtidig som de var veldig flau! De spurte ... read more

Antofagasta is 19 hours from Santiago, 11 hours from Peru and 8 hours from natural vegetation. Stuck between the extremes of the Pacific Ocean and the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, Antofagasta has been said to be the "ass end of the back of nowhere". Although that may be quite true, Antofagasta is quite an enjoyable town. Back in the day when nitrates, used for fertilisers, were found in the Atacama Desert, Antofagasta was the main export port. Today, with a population of just under 300,000, Antofagasta exports much of northern Chile's vast copper resources. I jumped on the bus in Santiago at around 9:30 on Wednesday night for Antofagasta, a pretty long 19 hours away. I slept for most of the night, then spent a large part of the day wondering why the ... read more

Having arrived in Antofagasta in northern Chile, Sheena & I decided we would leave as quickly as we could and explore the region a little. We hired a car and headed south along the Pan-American highway (Ruta 5) from Antofagasta via Chañaral to the Pan de Azucar National park. This national park is in the Atacama desert which falls abrubtly into the Pacific Ocean where we set up camp on the beach. We were the only non-Chileans and it´s the kind of place you imagine will be discovered in a few years time by other travellers. The camping in Pan de Azucar is very basic (cold showers etc...) but a great place to kick back without feeling like you're just another tourist passing through. We explored the park for the day seeing desert foxes, small birds ... read more

Hi everyone I´m not feeling so well, so I´m just trying to get out of Chile as fast as possible. I have giardia, and its a stomach parasite. Eck. Anyway. ´ I´ve got medicince of every kind and I´ll going to be fine. Tonight I´m going to head up to Arica, and then I´ll think about peru. If I´m still feeling whoosy I´ll take the day off and spend it in Arica. Otherwise, I´ll head right over. Things will be cheaper in Peru, and I think it will be easier to orient myself there a bit. At least I hope so. At least if I get somewhere more touristy, it will be easier. The last couple of towns weren´t good with foriegn tourists... which is fine, but it makes the going more difficult in a lot ... read more

We caught the 6pm flight from Auckland on Tuesday 7th August, flying east for 11 hours to South America and landing at Santiago on the Chilean coast midday on the Tuesday 7th August…. Always a bit confusing the old International Date Line… To add to the 8 Hour time change, we had a rather uncomfortable flight and essentially missed a whole nights’ sleep on the plane, only getting a couple of hour’s kip. We had a funny moment just before takeoff as I adjusted my headrest and it came off in my hands… various attempts by stewardesses and myself failed to reattach it and I just held on to it as we left the ground and afterwards moved to another seat which was almost as bad. In hindsight having been on two Lan Chile flights now, ... read more