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Published: April 16th 2014
Tuesday 1
st We finish packing and the taxi arrives at 11am to collect us. We suddenly realise we’ve got the time of the flight wrong and it’s not until 4.30 so we’re going to be very early at the airport.
Check in goes smoothly and we settle down for the flight to be called and then see we are delayed for another 2 hours. We have 4 hours to wait.
Finally we get under way and all goes well on the flight. We arrive at about 2pm earlier than our take off time due to flying west and the International Dateline. We get some useful info at arrivals and pick up the local bus to the city centre for £1.50 each.
We now have to find our apartment and it proves difficult as none of the streets are named. The locals aren’t particularly friendly or helpful.
We eventually find our block and after some delay at reception we get shown our 1 bedroom apartment on the 9
th floor. It looks really good and will be a nice stay for 4 days.
In the evening we nip into a small locals restaurent around the corner and
then retire to bed as we’re worn out.
Jet lag gets to us as we’re 7 hours ahead and after only a couple of hours sleep we’re awake at midnight and toss and turn until 2 until we decide to read until 3am. Sleep eventually comes!
Wednesday 2
nd We wake late and it’s a slow morning.We go out to find La Case Roja hostel to pay for our upcoming 10 day backpacker hop on hop off bus tour. We can’t find it due to the street naming problem and people we ask point us in different directions all the time. After nearly an hour we find it !
We confirm our place and sort out pick up details. It sounds a good tour.
Coping with the money proves difficult. Everything is in 100,000’s ! 10,000 pesos is about £10.50. Even a bus ticket is 1,300! We never have enough small notes. Paying for the apartment and bus tour is also a problem as the max. we can only get out at an ATM is £200 a day ! It means we have to make frequent trips to an ATM.
After a picnic lunch in
one of the main squares we eventually find our guide for a tips only walking tour of the city. Again the tour guide was difficult to find due to the lack of street signs. How visitors are expected to get around is beyond me !
The tour lasts about two and a half hours and there are lots of people on it. The guide tells us of a type of coffee shop called "coffee on legs". There are 3 grades: one where the waitresses where mini skirts and high heels, one where they wear bikinis and one where they don't ! Beats Starbucks and their free wifi !
He also explains about the number of dogs roaming the streets. The owners have always let their dogs roam, which has caused a population explosion, but all are well fed and friendly.They even make little kennels for them in the parks.
We get a taster for the city’s main highlights and make a note of those we wish to return to. It’s a good tour and we learn a lot about the city.
We then return fairly wearily to the apartment for the evening. We have walked miles,
on the tour and just trying to find places !
Our first impressions of Santiago are that it’s huge, congested with traffic and very lively. There are people jammed everywhere and lots more smokers than we’ve seen anywhere else we’ve been so far. It's an interesting place.
Thursday 3rd
Another terrible night's sleep. We rise late after finally getting to sleep.
First we walk back to the La Casa Roja hostel to pay for our bus trip. It doesn't take as long this time as we know where we're going.
We then make the very long walk to Mercado Central to look at the fish market and then cross the river to look at the flower market and go upstairs where there are dozens of local little restaurants selling two course meals for £2. Unfortunately it's still too early for lunch.
We then visit the Vega Central market where they sell fruit and veg. It's a market kind of day !
It's then another very long walk to the Barrio Bellavista district which has night clubs where the walls have murals painted on them. They look pretty good.
The area also has
lots of restaurants and is very lively at night. Unfortunately we choose a pizza for lunch which turns out to be a poor choice. We should have stuck with the menu of the day.
Back on our feet again we make another long trek to the Parque Metropolitano and catch the funicular railway to the top. It gives us a wonderful view over the city and the Andes in the background. Due to smog we can only just see the mountains.
The city is huge! Even larger than I thought with high and low rise buildings for as far as you can see. The roads are jam packed.
An hour later we take the funicular back down and venture onto the underground for the first time and make our way back. We just can't walk any further.
Friday 4th
A really slow start to the day as my hip hurts after all yesterday's walking.
It's to be a cultural day. We take the underground and out first stop is the GAM. A type of gallery and mini museum. We see some modern furniture, most of which looks very uncomfortable and then some South American
crafts. They're pretty good.
After walking around for a while looking for a museum we can't find we call in at the Museo MAVI. We see a display of modern portraits, not very good and some a bit weird and upstairs some artifacts.It's a strange mix.
After a quick snack in the park we visit the Museo Nacional de Belle Artes. It's their national museum. First we see a new display of children with animals. The children's faces are really good. Some of the compositions are a bit odd.
There are then some traditional old style portraits and then lots of "emperor's new clothes" modern paintings I wouldn't give house room to.
It's all housed in a wonderful glass roofed building , a bit like one of Kew Gardens glass houses.
It's then a long trek to the Castillo Hildago. A large park formed on top of a rock in the centre of the city. There are lots of paths to the top and there's a castle folly at the apex. From there we get a good view of the city, at least we would if not for the smog. It's worse than yesterday and
we can't even see the outline of the Andes.
We then make our way back to the apartment and pack for tomorrow's bus tour.
Saturday 5th
In the night we feel the bed move and the furniture rattle. There´s been an earth tremor !
The Pachamama Bus is a bit late picking us up but finally arrives with 8 others for our trip. We quickly start chatting and find we all come from the same part of England.
We get under way and leave Santiago behind. The further north we travel the more barren the landscape becomes.
We make a couple of breaks and around lunchtime stop in to look at a Pichidangui church. It's all glass and nothing like any other church. We pick up a snack at a bakery, it´s like a cornish pasty.
We drive on and eventually stop in Le Serna and go on a walking tour. There's another lot of church's to look at. The town was rebuilt in the 1960´s and we also call in at a handicraft market. I hold Christine back from filling our cases with things.
Our final stop of the day is
at a supermarket to buy things for tomorrow. Unbeknown to us the driver locks the van and joins us. We return to find that the van´s been broken into and everyone´s daysacks stolen and some have lost their main bags too. It´s devastating !
We´ve lost our p.c, kindles, mp3 players and lots of smaller but vital things and all our documents. Luckily I was still carrying our passports, credit cards and money. All the others have lost the lot. It was so avoidable if only the driver had stayed behind or we had been told he was coming.
After dinner, around 1.30am, we all go to the police station to fill in the reports. It has to be done twice, once in writing and again on the pc. We are there until 3.30am !
We fall into bed all dejected after such a fun start to the day.
Sunday 6th
We all get up late and hang around the hostel while the guide visits some of the car boot sales looking for our things but to no avail.
At mid day the rest of the group catch the bus back to Santiago so
they can sort out replacement passports.
Late afternoon we go with the trainee guide to Vicuna. On route we pass through wide valleys next to the Andes. The scenery is beautiful but fairly barren. Eventually we pass through vinyards and arrive at our hostel.
We have a walk through the small town and see many colourful murals and talk to an American sculpter who's carving a timber monument in the town square.
After dark we go to the observatory and are shown an electron telescope and get the chance to view Jupiter, Moon and the Magdelan Nebula.
We can actually see the craters on the Moon and in real detail. It's incredible !
We then go outside to use another telescope and look at the Moon and take a photo of it. We also see Mars,Orion and a young star cluster. The astronomer explains it all to us. The exprience has been wonderful.
Monday 7th
We spend the morning in the town and buy a couple of replacement items and a couple of glass souvenirs at a craft centre.
At mid day we drive to a Pisco distillery and have a tour.
We see the grapes being crushed and are shown the fermentation tanks and bottling plant. On all our tours this is the first time we´ve seen people working !
We then have a taste and it´s like whisky and we´re not keen.
We then continue our drive up the valley with barren Andean slopes on each side and a fertile valley full of vines. It's another beautiful area.
Continuing we reach another Pisco distillery. It´s very tradional and much smaller. This time the drink is like Sherry and Christine must have a bottle !
We return down the valley and stop at Pisco Elqui, a small town of Adobe buildings.
Further down the valley we make our final stop at Mountegrande. It´s the birth place and home of Gabriel Mistrel, the Chilean poet who won the Nobel prize. The country are very proud of her and have lots of places named after her.
We return to the hostel and it´s been a good afternoon. The Andes are amazing up so close.
Tuesday 8th
We hang about the hostel waiting for news about our movements. Communication is not our tour organisers strong point.
Eventually around mid day we drive back to Le Serana in order to join the rest of our group who are due to arrive tonight.
We stop in a shopping mall and I try to buy a replacement computer but it´s going to be difficult because they´re all in Spanish and no one knows how to convert them to English. We have to give up.
We arrive at the hostel and just wait out the rest of the day. Our guide Rodrigo researches how to convert a pc to English with success so we walk into town and I buy a new computer and day sacks. Our group return and we have lots to talk about.
Wednesday 9th
We leave early morning on the main road and the journey's pretty boring. Rock hills and scubby plants and lots of rocks, for more than an hour, we're in a semi arid zone. We then turn onto a dirt road and pass many small shacks. It's pretty bumpy for another hour or so.
Eventually we arrive at the sea within the National Reserve Pinguino de Humbolt ( Humbolt penguins) for a boat trip out to two
islands. We board a fairly small boat to go into the ocean in ! We strike out for Damas Island and the sea's soon pretty rough, luckily the island's not too far off. Somewhat relieved we all go ashore and walk around for an hour but there's virtually nothing to see.
Back in the boat and we go further out to sea. The sea's now really rough with huge swells ! The trip seems to go on for ever when suddenly we stop and there are Bottle Nosed dolphins swimming and jumping alongside us. We manage to stay fairly still for about 20 mins watching them.
We then cruise around Chorros Island and see sea otters, sea lions and lots of birds I can't remember the name of. The trip's been worth it after all.
Back to the bus and we're late which means a long drive of about 5 hours until we reach Bahia Inglesa at about 9pm where we stay in cabins on the beach. We share with Susan and Roger from Guildford.
We all club together and have a late night BBQ before retiring around 11.30, leaving the younger ones to it until
3am !
Thursday 10th
At breakfast the cabin shakes and rattles from another tremor. We set off around 9 and drive closer to the Atacama Desert with the landscape getting drier all the time. There's nothing but rock and sand around. This area hasn't had any rain for 50 years. It's amazing !
The late night's caught up with our bus mates and they're soon all sound asleep in the back.
Lunch is at a shack in the middle of no where and it's very basic.
On we go and eventually stop at an old cemetery of Oficina Chile, one of many abandoned Nitrate mining towns from the early 1900's. Rodrigo explains it all to us.
Our next stop is at the Hand in the Desert by Mario Irarrazabal. It's a big hand in the middle of the desert ! Apparently there are 5 of them around the world. Pity about the graffiti.
Back to the bus and we drive through Antofagusta, a pretty awful looking city and arrive at Le Portada on the beach. It's a very old rock formation in the sea that looks like Durdle Door.
Another late night
before we pull in at our hotel and then all go off to dinner in a local "restuarent" and have two courses for £3 !
Friday 11th
A fairly early start and soon on the motorway and then we stop a rock which denotes the position of the Tropic of Capricorn.
We then continue for many hours and see many Nitrate mines in the distance. There's loads of them and the road's busy with huge lorries carrying mining equipment or nitrate. We're now off the motorway and on salt roads.
Finally we reach our next stop at Baquedano where see an old train yard cemetery. Rodrigo explains that the rail network collapsed in the early 1970's when the truckers blocked the roads to prevent trains from hauling goods. They never recovered. There are many old steam engines just laid up all over and no rust as the conditions are too dry.
We now drive over the Salt Flats and it's strange to see huge white areas in the middle of so much sand. Another amazing scene. The journey continues through the desert until we reach the oasis town of Peine. We visit some ruins of
an early settlement conquered by the Spanish.
There's a chance to cool off in a storage pool but the green slime puts us off ! The younger ones jump in !
Late afternoon we pull in to the Natural Reserve Los Flemencos. A flamenco reserve around several salt water pools. The area's surrounded in the distance by huge mountains and volcanos and looks incredible. There's lots of flamencos on the pools and flying over us. It's really pretty and we watch the sun set over the mountains.
Finally late at night we reach San Pedro de Atacama, our stop for the next two nights. Another late night dinner !
Saturday 12th
We have the morning to look around San Pedro. It's built on the block layout and all of the buildings are in adobe and most are painted. It's very touristy and Christine's in her element looking at the souvenirs. Luckily we don't buy any !
Early afternoon and we all set off to Laguna Cejar where there's a very dense salt water lake, a bit like the Dead Sea. Some of us go swimming although that's almost impossible and we just float about.
As soon as we get out the hot sun dries us leaving our skin covered in salt. There are cold water showers to remove the stuff.
Late afternoon we drive through the Salt Mountains and into the Moon Valley where we go through a salt cave and then climb a large hill to watch the sunset. It's very barren and desolate. It's a pretty ordinary sunset compared to most we've seen.
Sunday 13th
We say goodbye to most of our bus mates as they are traveling on by local bus to either Peru or Bolivia. There's only 4 of us making the return trip.
We set off early as we have 800k to drive today. After an hour we make a quick supermarket stop for snacks and then it's back on the road.
Early afternoon we stop at Chacabucu, an abandoned mining town from the early 1900's, Rodrigo explains that the mine like many others became exhausted and the town was simply abandoned. There's many more along our route.
We now drive for over 4 hours and all we can see is desert and awful mining spoils. They're hundreds of feet high and
miles long.
Chile is building up a huge environmental problem with air pollution and toxic water run off into the sea. The country is mineral rich and is being mined all over by foreign companies paying little tax and taking the money out of the country.
Late afternoon we reach the Pan de Azucar NP. It's supposed to exhibit cacti but it's very underwhelming as most are dead !
Another two hours or more in the bus and we reach our overnight stop back at Bahia Inglesa where we share our cabin with two of the boys. They have there own bunk bedroom !
Monday 15th
Another very long drive ahead today as we have 990k to go back to Santiago. We get going around 8 and just drive for hours. The scenery by now is pretty boring, just rock and sand and more rocks ! The Atacama covers one third of Chile and it's huge.
On we go and eventually stop at the Valle del Encanto and see the remains of an ancient civilisation. There are rock carving and all very similar to Aboriginal ones.
Back to the bus and another four
hours to go !
At around 10pm we get dropped off at our rented apartment. The journey's taken over 12 hours and we've seen enough of the bus for a while !
Despite everything we've thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We've seen some wonderful scenery and incredible places and some pretty awful things too !
As we get to our apartment we meet the Columbian owners who invite us to dinner tomorrow evening for a traditional Columbian meal.
Tuesday 15th
First thing we visit Le Casa Roja hostel to get some emails printed off to replace our stolen documents and then book another bus trip to the south of Chile for 5 days.
The rest of the day is spent shopping to replace as many of the stolen items as possible. We have some success with new Kindles, torches and a BIG chain to anchor our bags to furniture !
In the evening we pop round to our apartment owners for dinner. They serve us a hot chicken and vegetable type pasty on a banana leaf with a drink of hot chocolate. This is followed by a grilled plantain filled with cheese. It's a
bit odd to us but ok. We have a fairly stilted conversation through an interpreter and hear their two girls, 7 and 5 sing to us in English they've just learnt. It's a nice evening and we are lucky to have been invited to their house.
Wednesday 16th
A very slow morning before we leave and soon stop for Christine to buy her second pair of trainers as the last pair have now worn out.
We catch the Metro to the Bellavista area and visit the house of poet Pablo Neruda. It's a strange place of various different rooms often unconnected in separate buildings and full of eclectic stuff. We then walk back to the restaurant area and have a really nice 3 course lunch for £3.50 each including wine !
Finally we catch the funicular train to the top of the Parque Metropolitano to re take the photos of the city that we lost with our pc. Unfortunately the pollution today is so bad that we can hardly see the building never mind the Andes in the background.
We pack tonight for tomorrow we leave on a 7 day tour of the south.
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Domimic Bottone
non-member comment
Change of scene
Good to still you can still connect to the internet. Must be quite a contrast from the relatively civilised world of Australia and NZ to the less civilised Americas. Sorry to hear about the loss of equipment and stuff. Again, contrast with NZ and Aus. Not long to go. Only a couple of months isn't it?