Blogs from Arica, Arica & Parinacota, Chile, South America - page 2

Geo: -18.4874, -70.3222I (Liz) enjoyed Patagonia and the ferry cruise. It made a welcome change to visiting cities and I enjoyed talking to any Engllish speakers about their travel plans and reasons for their trip. \there were 2 couples we got to knw travelling with ther daughters and then we saw the Americans again at our hotel, straight after the boat, and went out to dinner together. We also re-met the Lebanese couple from the boat ( a Harvard doctor, now living in Boston) in the Torre Del Panne park, together with the strange Irish Diplomat, Eaomon - all very convivial. But then the whole day flying north to Arica where we were picked up very efficiently at the airport at gone midnight and were back in very warm temperatures again, so the aircon went on ... read more

I know that there are a least a few blog followers who share my passion for anything with an internal combustion engine and 4 wheels and I said I’d write a bit about the Xterra we’ve been travelling in. If cars isn’t your cup of tea skip this one! Well, I’m very impressed. So much so that I’ve started looking at what Nissans are available for when we finally make it back to the UK. The Xterra would be wasted in the UK really. It’s best on uncertain or gravel surfaces, but has been remarkably smooth on the tarmac too and it’s really roomy. Last time we came here to Chile was 3 years ago and we did the 10 hour trip in our tiny 3 door Toyota Starlet, so it’s been great to have the ... read more

Today was more like a day you would think of when you say ''I'm on holiday''. It started of with a usual holiday lie in reaching very late morning so I'm afraid i can't really say anything about what other family members untill about 11am. But when i was finally up and running properly Ben had prepared a bit of a devotional for us (something dad came up with for the holiday) to start my day off. A few minutes later we were alll down the beach, which is very easy to get to as our appartment is in a building right in the sea front. The beach here is nice with fine sand and the sea is a good temperature with decent size waves for me and ben to have some good fun on the ... read more

Day 304 Friday 10th August It is a shame that most hotels just have to have something wrong with them, this place has been a good hotel, right up to check out. At 6.00am we are checking out and there is an annoyance small but still it is a pity. The hotel conversion rate is 2.8 for US dollars to soles when every other hotel has been 2.7 and if you use Mastercard they will not do it in US dollars so basically it is a rip off. After some consideration we pull out the last of our US money, which includes the 100 dollar note no one in Peru would touch (it is not counterfeit it is just Peru will not except $US100 bills) and she accepts of course she had no choice because we ... 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