Blogs from Arica, Arica & Parinacota, Chile, South America - page 3

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

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

Geo: -18.4874, -70.3222Saturday 03/03/12 Castro, Chile 14c Sunny spells with a few showersThe approach up river to Costa is lined by Salmon fish farms on both sides, as the river is fairly narrow it can be challenging getting larger ships upstream especially if there's something coming downstream. Apparently this is a five billion dollar industry for them and they're now expanding the operation to double its size, impressive. We'd no sooner been tendered across to the terminal building when the heavens opened up fortunately after half an hour it stopped and the sun came out which enabled us to wander the town which is renowned for its wood carvings and all things wooden. We visited the San Francisco cathedral which looks impressive from a distance but as you get closer you... read more

So, has been a long time since we posted something on our blog! The reason is that after our return from Peru we got kinda stuck in Arica, but in a good way! It felt really nice to have some sort of a home (the hostel is really nice, thanks to Kurt by the way) and we spent the days with surfing, relaxing on the beach and hanging out with our new friends Adam from Brisbane and Fabiola from Zürich! Surfing was really great, got used to La Isla and had some good days. We also did a day trip to the Bolivian boarder which is situated in the stunning National Park Lauca. So there is not much to report except that we really enjoyed the last weeks. Next stop, San Pedro de Atacama...... read more

Still having our base camp in Guanaqueros we made a second week-end trip to the Isla Damas National Park. The islands are famous for their wildlife, most of all for the Humboldt penguins, but also the view itself is quite stunning, which we experienced at a real nice kayak trip and a boat trip to the islands. Returning to Guanaqueros we got some surfing done, waves were not that good but still fun. After two weeks in the La Serena region we finally went north, on the way we wanted to visit Tres Cruces National Park. Actually we did, somehow. The park is at 3800m and to get there you have to go over a pass with 4200m above sea level. Turns out that having breakfast at the beach and driving to 4200m within 10 hours ... read more