Chile - Wine, Mountains and Incomprehensible Locals

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Having passed more salt flats and ascending the andes once more over some very interesting hairpin bends (having to stop every now and then to let our steaming truck Jack cool down!), we had the joy of yet another less than speedy border crossing. Upon arrival at the Chilean border all bags had to be lugged off the truck, all lockers emptied and everything was generally prodded (they even probed our Santa on the front of the truck!). It is worth noting at this point that the Chileans are most unrepresentative of the rest of South America due to their love of rules, regulations, receipts and petty bureaucracy, or do they have particularly good relations with Argentina. Plus they have a penchant for speaking Spanish at a million miles per hour incorprating utterly different terms and making it very difficult for even their neighbours to understand them. For its size (never more than 265m wide) it encompasses an immense variety of landscapes ranging from the Andes to the Atacama, the driest desert in the world, to lakes, volcanoes and glaciers in the south.

Some time later we arrived in the beautiful desert town of San Pedro de Atacama (elevation 2436m). Rather weary from the winding roads it was very pleasant to head on out to a local restaurant for some substantial steak washed down with a very nice Chilean red. Based in a small campsite, it was quite entertaining to be woken up in the middle of the night by one of the girls coming back very drunk, crying for one of the group at the top of her voice before getting into the wrong tent. Fresh faced the next day, it was enough to just wander around town, taking in the ace local food and seeing the multitude of excursions on offer to the surrounding areas before settling down in an internet cafe for the day to try and get back up to date. Drinks accompanied dinner back at camp, mixing rum, wine and beer before heading on into a very Flintstones-esque bar with exceptionally strong mojitos, necessitating an early(ish) turn in at 2.00. Hardly had I fallen into bed, I had to be up at 4 for a trip up into the mountains to view some geysers. Having had 2 hours sleep and still under the effects from the previous night, and passing my partners in crime rolling in as I left, I was feeling a litte tender to say the least. Ths was further worsened by ascending to over 4000m for the geysers, at which altitude it is very cold, the air is thin and conditions are not really very forgiving on those who are still inebriated. The cold air thankfully eventually did its trick and the camera came out for hot geyser action with the sunrise before a few of us went for a dip in the thermal pools. These were sadly a mild misnomer as the water can´t have been over 15C and the breeze upon exiting the pool was enough to chill the bones, but did certainly wake me up properly!

Upon return to the campsite (stopping for alpaca kebabs along the way) I hardly had time for lunch before heading out with a few others to go horseriding. Some of the finest looking animals that I have seen yet, we all mounted (everyone mildly hungover) before trekking through the amazing landscape of Death Valley (no not THAT one...its southern counterpart!), galloping over sand dunes and trying to avoid horseplay (my horsie didn´t really like to play with the other kiddies and had a tendency to lash out if the other horses got too close!). Saddle sore and exhilirated, we arrived back in time to stuff more food down us before driving off to catch sunset over the beautiful Valley of the Moon, which captured the attention of a couple of the girls so much they decided to spen an extra day exploring it. As you may have guessed by the extreme verbiage on the subject, San Pedro has been one of my favourite places to date and certainly will necessitate a return visit.

Moving on (virtually having to drag me away from SP!), we hit the road again for another long (16 hours!) drive before rolling in to Chile´s second largest city, the beach resort of La Serena. Jubilant to be close to the sea once more, partying ensued late into the night, culminating with Matt falling off the most unstable campsite table ever made. Aside from a nice shopping centre, the beach is certainly the main allure of the city, where a fair bit of time was spent improving rugby, frisbee and swimming skills. In the evening we headed inland to the hills to Chile´s observatory area, the finest in the world for stargazing due to the lack of ambient light pollution, thus offering the clearest skies available. Sadly we only went to a tourist-focused observatory where the kit is a mere lesser sibling to some of the lenses in the area (one of the telescopes there has 4 lenses each with a diameter of 8.2m...ours was only 30cm!), although we still got good views of the moon and a few constellations with the help of a highly informative and passionate guide. Heading on back to site feeling very small in the universe, I planned to stargaze on the beach but a very inconsiderate fog prevented this so we had to frequent a local nightspot instead.

Santiago was our next port of call, and is without a doubt the most westernised city that we have yet visited, feeling more like Barcelona than anywhere in South America. 600m above sea level and surrounded by hills, its sheltered location offers mild weather all year round, so it was a slightly surreal and enjoyable experience shopping for my secret santa Christmas present in 30oC heat in shorts and flip flops! Heading out the first night en masse for a group celebration (combined birthday party and leaving do for 7 of the group) in a VERY nice restaurant specialising in chocolate dishes. Naturally I went for the obvious choice of shark in a spicy red clam sauce (mmmmmmmm) followed by a tri chocolate mousse (again with the mmmm), although all the meals were delicious (well you have to try everything on offer don´t you?!). Splitting the group up (thankfully - getting a collective decision out of 36 people is tricky at the best of times!) we headed on out to some local nightspots varying from a cheesy disco to a sophisticated jazz club to a grotty dive (oh I felt at home!), before numbers dwindled yet further, leaving just two of us to keep the party going with a couple of very friendly local ladies. Having shared a taxi with some psycho woman (we stopped the taxi and actually chucked her out!), the four of us ended up in the middle of nowhere looking for an afterparty. This translates as paying a dude on the street, who then lets you in to a very shut looking bar, leading you downstairs to a very cosy bar where the dancing can continue...and did until the early hours, rolling back into the hotel at 10am the next day. Feeling marginally spaced out the next day, Burger King was first port of call for breakfast before heading out shopping for Matt´s christmas present from Jo, a printed NKIE t-shirt as an ode to the cheap copy flip flops he bought way back in Quito.

Other Santiago highlights included removing my Movember beard at long last (I looked about 12 afterwards, and had a beard tan line!), visiting some of the notorious coffee shops with blackened windows (you get served by very attractive ladies wearing little more than cheese wire/a bikini/a smile, and the coffee´s good - great combo!) as a departure drink with two of my main party animal hellraisers, Pindy and Mike, taking copious sunset shots from the top of the neighbouring hill, eating in a fab local restaurant and finding a very good curry house! Small pleasures mean a lot when you´re away for so long, although my supposedly inert rogan josh nearly required a fire extinguisher! OH and of course there was the visit to the Concha Y Toro vineyard, home of the famous Castillero del Diabolo marque, where we got to taste some very nice plonk (some at a price - ten pounds for a glass of ´99 Don Melchor but very worth it) and all by noon!

Having had our tearful goodbyes to those departing in Santiago, we welcomed the new batch to the horde and left the capital (much to my disappointment - so much to do there) passing through hectares of vineyards and stopping at the Salto de Leja falls for lunch for photo opps aplenty and an ice cream. Still in the sweltering heat, we headed onwards to Pucon, with a campsite a stone´s throw from the shores of lake Villarica to party the night away with some of the other tour groups, Exodus and Overland Club. Nestled not far from the foot of the Villarica volcano, Pucon is a very attractive tourist town offering spectacular views of the (active) snow covered cone from every direction, with clearly marked volcano escape routes in case of eruption. Being Christmas Eve, the logical thing for us to do was to get up at crack of dawn and head to one of the plethora of outdoor activity shops to get kitted up in full mountain garb to climb the volcano. Sadly having squeezed into our attire, complete with crampons and ice axes, we were then informed that all climbs had been called back due to high wind, making the ascent too precarious. All traumatised (we would have climbed and then slid down on our asses using the ice axe to control descent rate) by this, we wandered around town to try and find more activities. Surprisingly it didn´t feel at all like Christmas Eve, as everything was open for such things, but sadly due to time constraints and the weather the only active thing we could find to do was paintballing. Having wanted to do so for some time, I was thoroughly looking forward to it, however in the ferocious heat, even in the shade, we were sweltering within seconds of donning our boiler suits. Not that these actually offer any degree of protection as all of us soon discovered, returning with a plethora of interesting shades of bruises in all number of places.

Bruised, dirty and exhilharated we returned to the site for more socialising with the other trucks before seeing in Christmas around Jack. The next morning, having had pigs in blankets and whisky for breakfast, we opened our Secret Santa gifts (I got a very nice bottle of wine - people know me so well!) before piling into minibuses to head out to our retreat for the day, a ranch owned by our local man in the know, Willy. Set in a highly picturesque setting with Villarica visible one side and a whole mountain range the other, we were gobsmacked by the beauty of the place, before being plied with more meat than we knew what to do with! Steak, trout, ribs, and the best lamb I have ever tasted were all piled high upon our plates until we were fit to burst, washed down with the ubuiquitous glass of red wine. Over the course of the day we all took part in some hardcore group competitions (3 legged races, melon throwing contests, water fights...) before moving onto frisbee and rugby before retiring inside for some cards, a final bit of meat and eventually being packed off wearily in minivans back to the campsite for some hard earned sleep.

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