Viva el Chile

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La viva el Chile!
Is it possible for Chileans to become any nicer?

A copper miner from Calama offered us a hitch in his ute to the airport at no charge (he laughed when i asked him how much). At the airport, a policeman negotiated with SKY air a discounted airfare for us when we had difficulties booking the same flight online. Apparantly, you need to own a Chilean credit card; and a lady in queue behind me offered to pay my shortfall when i had the wrong change to use the 'bano' (it costs 25 cents to use the rest rooms in Santiago).

Drivers give way at Pedestrian crossings (it's the reverse in Peru & Bolivia), taxi drivers willingly become tour guides as well, customer service is delivered with a smile and bus drivers don't leave you stranded at border crossings!

Peter is in love. Over and over, at least daily, he reminds me, "Have i told you how much i like Chile!"
Ever since we arrived, Chileans have bent backwards to be kind and helpful to us. It's refreshing.

Chile is not as cheap as Peru & Bolivia, but its customer service makes up for the price tags we similarly pay in Sydney. We were introduced to Chila via the Atacama desert, a psychedelic landscape. It's dry. It's hot; long and bare. It lives up to one's imagination of the desert, and it leaves you feeling thirsty. No wonder its renowned for being the largest desert in the world and the driest place on earth (150 times drier than California's death valley).

Quickly we head South and fly to Santiago. Our main reason for visiting Chile is to explore in the deep south, the untouched rugged wilderness and scenic beauty of Patagonia. We begin our journey in Pucon, an adventure town near the active volcano Villarrica, which we decide to climb at 2847m while we are here. We decide we haven't hiked through snow yet or a lava-spitting crater! The smoking volcano suffocates you when you get to the top, but you get to tobogan/slide the snow back down, which is fun. In the evening, we retreated ourselves to the hot springs at 'Termas Los Pozones' to soak in six natural hot stone thermal baths under the stars.

Eight hours south on a bus, a ferry ride, and another hour on the bus, we arrive at Hornopiren, a sleeping fishing village which seems to be at the crossroads of 'the whitsundays' on the pacific ocean side (west) and 'alaska' on the Andean side (east). We are stranded here for 2 nights as the 'Naviera Austral' ferry to Caleta Gonzalo is heavily booked and it is the only way south unless you want to swim and trek through 2 national parks. We decide to homestay with a kind, Islander family, sharing their tiny wooden house and one bathroom with five kids. For $4 night, including breakfast, we discover its the best accomodation we had throughout all of Chile.

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