Blogs from Chile, South America - page 666

Chile - 6 Days - 29th March-3rd April I crossed the border with Peru and arrived in Arica, where I spent a day on the beach, waiting for a bus. I didn't stay long in Chile as it was quite expensive but I did spend 6 glorious days. From Arica I went to San Pedro de Atacama via Calama and spent 3 days touring the driest desert in the world, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications. I loved the Atacama desert area, with it's spectacular scenery and thermal activity. It is a virtually rainless plateau west of the Andes Mountains, composed mostly of salt basins (salares), sand, and lava flows. I left Chile when I crossed the Andes and reached Salta, Argentina. ... read more

Renacca is a neighboring town that is still considered to be Vina. I have gone there several times already and in fact experienced my first strong earthquake on this beach. Something I new that Chile was known for but was not informed about how often it happens. I have to admit I have been crazily excited to feel each earthquake that occurs. Call me crazy, but it was so exciting. I will never forget my first frantic phone call from Sara asking me if we had just had an earthquake. I was so bummed because I missed it because I happened to be out on the street. She is such an awesome girl and a great friend to have here in Chile. She and I have bonded since our first day of class. She's a Jersey ... read more

Hello all, We completed our five days of trekking in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine yesterday and returned to Puerto Natales safe and sound late last night. A few additions to our last email: El Calafate, Argentina is named after the calafate berry. It is a purplish-black berry similar in appearance to a blueberry, but darker. It grows on bushes in Patagonia. The taste is akin to a mix of blueberry and black grapes. Mild, not too sweet, slightly astringent. We had calafate flavored icecream in the town of El Calafate. Also, they make chirimoya (cherimoya) flavoured yogurt and icecream here. Back to our trek: We did a five day trek known commonly as "the W". We rented gear (tent, 2 sleeping bags with mats, stove, pot, backpack) from our guesthouse. Day 1: 7:15 bus to ... read more

Climbed a volcano, sat in some natural hot springs, went fly fishing and went to the beach...all within the little town of Pucon. I took a 10 hour bus ride "full cama" which means you sit in a chair that reclines almost 180...pretty comfortable for a bus. I arrived in the little town at 6am and it looked a lot like a smaller version of Vail, and had the feel of North Conway, New Hampshire. The main strip was only a few blocks long, with adventure tours and guides everywhere and little restaurants, bars and stores filling in the gaps. I arrived with a girl I had met in Valparaiso and we met up with some of her friends who were already in town. After waking up some people and getting chased by a few dogs, ... read more

From Puerto Natales we went to Puerto Montt. It took about 25 hours to get there, we had to cross the Chile-Argentine boarder twice as the countries are carved up so awkwardly at the end of the continent. Chile got a raw deal, its nearly 5,000km in length but only on average only 180km wide. Its an absurdly shaped country. Puerto Montt (in Manjits words) is the skankiest skank hole in the entire South American continent. Its a real port town, so it takes little to imagine what the town is actually like. Only stayed there for a day (seemed lot longer) and blazed out of town on the next available bus to Temuco. Temuco is a pretty city in central Chile. We went there because it has a really nice indoor market and its the ... read more