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Published: April 15th 2014
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After our lovely, but slightly longer than planned stay in Puerto Williams due to adverse weather, we were very happy to wake up to a calm, snow free morning on the day we planned to fly back to Punta Arenas to make our way north. On leaving our hostel for the airport we were given a big hug from Patty the hostel owner, who was sad to see us go as we were her last guests of the season (she was either going to hibernate or migrate to warmer climes for the winter).
There had been much talk about the various sizes of aeroplanes that flew from Puerto Williams from other hostel guests, but we had no idea which plane we would be boarding. Our plane turned out to be one of the smallest, seating only sixteen people, with our seats being only one row behind the pilots' and having a perfect view through the cockpit (once again we were thankful for the unusually calm day, as we were sure that had the normal Beagle Channel winds been blowing, our tiny plane would be blown straight to Antarctica).
After the safety demonstration (the pilot turning round and saying seat
belts on please), we took off and had spectacular views over the Beagle Channel, Ushuaia and miles of uninhabitable Tierra Del Fuego. Once we landed in Punta Arena's large international airport, our tiny little plane looked very out of place.
The next destination we were aiming for was Bariloche in Argentina, famous for sparkling blue lakes and chocolate. However, getting there from Punta Arenas involved a flight (on a much larger plane thankfully as the Patagonian wind had returned with a vengeance), a night in the not so salubrious looking town of Puerto Montt and a whole day bus trip over the border and back into Argentina.
After covering the same distance north in two days that we'd taken over a month to travel south, we decided to stay for a week in Bariloche and soak up the unusually hot weather the area was experiencing. We spent our week exploring local national parks, hiking down ski runs in the local Cerro Catedral ski resort (lazily we took a cable car up), enjoying a few last Argentinean meat feasts and generally enjoying the fact that the exchange rate had swung significantly in our favour. We also had to, of
course, try the chocolate the city is famous for (after various free samples from various shops, we felt sufficiently guilty and had to eventually buy some chocolate).
After our relaxing week in Bariloche, we decided to cross back over to Chile to head north to Santiago from where we could fly to our final destination in Chile, San Pedro de Atacama. Getting to Santiago involved a very long and slightly uncomfortable over night bus ride, the highlight of which was a couple of beers and two "Italiano" hotdogs in a greasy transport cafe in Osorno bus station for a tiny price (an "Italiano" is a hot dog smothered in mashed avocado, fresh tomato and mayo. It makes for a very tasty but messy snack).
We'd decided to spend a few nights in Santiago, as all the Chileans we'd met so far on our trip could not believe we'd spent time in countless provincial towns, but had so far skipped Santiago. Not having many expectations for Santiago, we were pleasantly surprised by the city and really enjoyed our time exploring the different neighbourhoods (with very knowledgable local guides!), climbing Cerro San Cristobal (again the lazy way in a cable
car), visiting various museums and, in particular, enjoying the fantastic food we were able to find throughout the city cheaply. We also really enjoyed meeting up again with our Carreterra Austral saviours, Paulina and Estefania.
After another slightly longer than planned stay (our flight was cancelled due to a big earthquake in the north of Chile), we made our way up from Santiago to San Pedro high up in the Atacama desert, right on the border with Bolivia, far enough away from the aftershocks that were regularly hitting the coastline of Northern Chile and, supposedly, the driest place on earth.
San Pedro is a tourist mecca as it is located in some of Chile's most spectacular (if not very green) scenery. We checked into our rustic hostel, after being greeted by a hoard of cats and dogs, and Mario, our very friendly host and set about exploring the desert's weird and wonderful landscape. In the following days we visited the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), some seriously high lakes populated by flamingos, Chile's largest salt flat and El Tatio Geyers at sunrise after a painfully early 4am start. We also visited Laguna Cejar, a lake
you could float about in due to the high salt content, which Ross enjoyed immensely due to his normal tendency to sink, despite the fact the we did this on perhaps the one cold and rainy day of the year in the driest desert on earth.
From San Pedro, we said a fond farewell to Chile and began our next adventure, crossing the Uyuni salt flats into Bolivia, where, in the words of our chirpy, Chilean minibus driver who dropped us off at the bleak, high altitude Bolivian border crossing, "everything is possible and nothing is safe!"
Things we've learnt on this leg of our journey:
- Flamingo's spend 80% of their lives eating. Liz was probably a flamingo in a previous life.
- Luxury chocolate tastes even sweeter when it's a free sample.
- A drunkard with a drum on the street below your window in Santiago at 4am does not make the best music.
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Sam Fisher
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Sounds Amazing!
Your blogs really do brighten up a morning! Sounds like you are having an amazing time. My journey to South America (when we finally do it) is getting bigger all the time! Think James is getting worried. Chile sounds brilliant. The photos are certainly sending my Geography geekness into overdrive so what your like Liz I have no idea! I hope this message reaches you. I have tried sending a couple of messages but not convinced they are getting to you. Hopefully this one will. Continue having a wonderful time and I look forward to the next instalment xx