The Atacama and The Salar de Uyuni - Bolivia

After our New Year´s Eve recovery day we were back on the road and heading north, to the desert! For the first time we were able to understand just how much of Chile is actually desert and for twenty-four hours on a bus this is all we saw. We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, a small town with adobe walls and dusty roads at midnight and had to wake up our hostel so could could get a bed for the night. Having come straight from sea level and now at 2400 metres we were both feeling the effects of altitude sickness the following day, whilst being in a baking desert environment. From Chile, San Pedro is the gateway to the Salar de Uyuni and Bolivia and it is a great stepping stone for getting used to the altitude before hitting the heights of the Bolivian border.

A few kilometres outside San Pedro is Death Valley, an area renowned for its similarities to the surface of Mars. In the past few months NASA has held prototype tests here and it´s easy to see why as we walked through this vast desert and ancient sea toward The Valle de la Luna where we watched sunset.

Our time in Chile was drawing to a close and soon enough we needed to move into Bolivia. We were planning to do this with a three day tour across the Atacama and the Salar de Uyuni and as San Pedro is quite a small town only four tour agencies do trips across to Bolivia. We had heard a lot of bad things about them all and it wasn´t a case of picking the best but the best of a bad bunch. In fact none of them could tell us what was better about their company compared to the others. They all brake down, they all provide similar food and all cost vaguely similar prices.

With low expectations and a couple of other people from our hostel, Pete and Louise - also booking with Cordillera Travel, we decided to pick them. The morning of the 6th came and at 8.00am we were outside the offices waiting for the minibus to arrive and in classic South American tradition it did, half an hour late. Before we knew it were heading high into the mountain range that borders Bolivia and exchanged our school bus for a more suitable 4x4 jeep. We got our border stamps and had breakfast at over 3000 metres with snow replacing the sand which had existed but forty-five minuets before. (Sorry slipped into novel writting then).

Anyway the next three days were incredible, myself, H, Pete and Louise from the hostel and two mad Brazilian girls were all crammed into a jeep with our trusty driver/mechanic/DJ - Ruben! We were one of three jeeps in total (the blue one) and the group reformed each evening when we arrived at the accomodation.

The first night was spent at 4600 metres and we were all feeling it. Dehydration, headaches and exhaustion are a few of the earlier signs and the only things to help you adjust from this lack of oxygen is water, time and some good old fashioned Bolivian Coca Tea! We had been warned that the accomadation was going to be basic and cold but the only thing that stopped us from having a good nights sleep was the altitude and headaches. The following day we were driving past green lakes, red lakes and thousands of Flamingos until disaster happened and we broke down surround by miles of desolate rocky ground and being scorched by the midday sun. Ruben and the other two drivers turned from ralley driver to expert mechanic and within 30 mins they had disassembled most of the engine replaced the cricial parts and reassembled it.

That evening we stayed a lot lower in a small town called Culpina 'K´ where we had our first shower and were fed deliciously spicy Llama steaks. We got to know some of the other people in the other jeeps that night and one Dutch couple, Thomas and Lucy, seem to be doing the same sort of route as us for the next few months. Luckily for us the mental Isreali guy (and there always seems to be one around) isn't. Thanks to the rather tired Lonely Planet guide there are some very worn paths through South America and it s funny the random or now predictive bumping intos that happen out here. People we've seen before in South Chile are suddenly on the same trip as you or in the same hostel as you in Bolivia.

The final day was spent on the Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats) which had been flooded a few days before. The results were spectaclar reflections of the sky for miles upon miles as we drove through this foot deep salt water sitting on the roof of our jeep. That afternoon we were dropped off in Uyuni, ate pizza, found a bed for the night and bought a bus ticket to Potosi - the highest city in the world!

Año Nuevo in Valparaiso

After a brief stop in Santiago we headed to Valparaiso just a couple of hours away on the coast. We´d managed to find a room for a few nights in a really nice B and B called La Nona, actually voted one of the top 10 hostels in SA by The Guardian (woo), the only problem was we didn´t have anywhere to stay for the 31st. No worries we thought - we´ll be out all night anyway....

Our hostel was in an area of Valpo called Cerro Alegre, a hill overlooking the rest of the town and bay, with cafes, restaurants and bars. Valpo is considered a Unesco World Heritage site and there were so many beautiful buildings and amazing outlooks. The Cerro´s are also real artist hubs and some alleys are covered in the most amazing Graffitti - you can walk around for hours quite happily snapping away.

We took a sunset Boat trip out into the bay with Rene and Carolina the owners of La Nona, and two other Australian couples we met staying there, Sean and Shona, and Sarah and Mitch. On New Years Eve afternoon the 6 of us headed up to one of the Cerro's on the far side of the bay to get the optimum view of the coast from Valpo all the way along to another town Vina del Mar and beyond for the legendary firework displays. People had been saving the best spots all day, some seemed to have even hired bouncers to sit on chairs for them, but we managed to find a small section to squeeze into right next to the railings. Then we just had a 6 hour wait until midnight.

We drank, chatted with the locals, who introduced us to the local bevvy fanchop - Fanta and Beer - which is actually surprisingly nice! The atmosphere was incredible. A group next to us had brought instruments up and were singing and dancing away, James joined in, and at the countdown to 12 all of the boats and ships in the harbour sounded their horns and the noise was deafening. When the clock struck everyone was shouting, throwing confetti and spraying cava over the crowd. Then the fireworks started. All the way along the bay for miles there were fireworks going off, they lasted for ages and the finale sounded like a hail of bombs landing and rapid gunfire.

Slightly drunk and hungry we headed down to the centre and gorged on completo hotdogs, eventually it was just me and J left and we realised we still had the rest of the night to get through! By 4am we'd exhausted our options of sitting on the pavement and drinking beer, we'd been kicked out of a bar for falling asleep, so we decided to head back up to Cerro Alegre and see what else we could do. There we found the comfy step of a Thai restaurant and dozed until 8am - interrupted frequently by stray dogs and drunks walking past. Desperate and slightly smelly we then headed for a little Cafe called La Desayunador for a huge and much needed breakfast buffet. By 10am we'd checked back into the hostal and slept for the rest of the day. It was a brilliant, if slightly long New Years.

Video to follow soon (as I find a decent internet connection)

Pichi Christmas

We spent Christmas in a small surfy town on the coast of Chile called Pichilemu, 3 hours south of Santiago with Rob and Kim who we´d met in Pucon. We stayed in the cutest little cabana at Cabanas Buena Vista - a real find as we rocked up the day before christmas eve without reservations. The owners Sonia and Eugenio were great and supplied us with eveything we needed to cook our christmas lunch in the tiny little oven.

Days were spent on the beach, attempting to surf and bodyboard and we drank and played cards in the evenings. The waves were great, but really strong currents swept you down to the other end of the beach in a matter of minutes. Just outside of town was a beach called Punta de Lobos which has huge waves and is where they hold annual surf competitions.

Our mock christmas lunch of Roast Chicken with the works and icecream for pud made up for what we were missing at home. Christmas isn´t a big thing in Chile, with most celebrations happening on christmas eve. On the big day the locals were out eating empanadas and chips in the town and relaxing on the beach - James and Rob even found a freindly seal to bodyboard with.

Sur de Chile

I love Chile. The people are really friendly, the weather is great, the supermarkets are full of fresh fruit and they eat Guacamole with everything. There is however, one thing we discovered that I don´t like one bit, and they´re called Tabanos, a type of horsefly that are big, mean and hungry.

From Bariloche our first stop back in Chile was a town called Puerto Varas, in the south of the Chilean lake district. It lies next to Lago Llanquihue and there are stunning views over to Volcan Orsono. One day we decided to jump on a local bus to go to Lago Todos Los Santos for a picnic, we´d heard it was a beautiful green lake, surrounded by volcanoes and with unbeatable scenery.

Unfortunately, we´d only been off the bus for 5 minutes before we were absolutley swarmed by Tabanos, we had at least 15 on each of us trying to bite through our clothes. So we both ran back to the bus and jumped straight back on, much to the drivers amusement, and headed back towards town. We learned one important piece of information from an old man on the bus - apparently Tabanos are particularly attracted to black and blue, so J in a bright blue tshirt and me in my black fleece were pretty much asking for it. Lesson learned, we stopped at a place called Las Cascadas on the way back and just about managed to take some nice pics of the waterfalls and Volcan Osorno while beating off the Tabanos.


From Puerto Varas we headed to Pucon further north in the lake district. We were booked in to stay in a brand new hostel, and when we arrived it was quite obvious that we were the first guests, and the guys who ran the place we´re learning along with us! The manager was the loveliest lady called Connie, who despite speaking not a word of English really made us feel welcome. She was also an amazing cook and let us sample what she was cooking. Despite a few teething problems Etnico Eco hostel was an amazing place to stay, the house was an old vicarage, it had been owned by one of the richest families in the town but had been unoccupied for 5 years since they moved out. It had a real feel of faded glory, complete with swimming pool, chapel/games room, and a huge garden full of trees with ripe cherries and lemons. There was also a huge dog called Mattheo - who had apparently been brought to the town from the country after he´d killed two llamas - but he seemed to be the softest, laziest beast alive now.

Pucon is surrounded by amazing countryside and there´s plenty of adventure sports on offer. As we´d had a week or so of being bloody lazy we thought it was time to get involved. Our first trip was to go rafting on the the upper Trancura river. It was amazing, although I think our guide Claudio despaired of our useless group quite a bit - it was something to do with the way he kept diving off the boat just before a rapid and leaving us to make our own way down it.

Our second day of activities was postponed due to storms, but a day later we began the attempt to climb nearby Volcan Villarrica. The owner of the hostel, Gustavo, was also a Mountain guide, and he took me, James and another couple from the hostel, Rob and Kim. I can honestly say it was obne of the scariest things I´ve ever done! Because of the rain the day before it was really icy and we had to wear crampons and use ice axes really early on in the climb. That combined with quite a wind and some bloody steep sections left me feeling terrified. James obviously loved it and was massively disapointed when halfway up we realised we weren´t going to be able to make it to the top because of the conditions. Me and Kim wimped out at a point above the clowds while Gustavo took James and Rob further up to the plateau to see the peak.

The best bit came when we had to climb down, when we got to a part where the ice had softened enough, we sat on our bums and slid down! Definitely my favoured bit of the climb. That evening we went to some hot springs just outside of Pucon called Termas Los Pozones. There were 8 or 9 pools in total, all of different temperatures and surrounded by river rock to retain their natural appearance, there was a small path running between them that followed the freezing cold glacial river that you could jump in at any time to cool off (James and Rob did, I´ve never heard such girly screams), the whole place had a zen like atmosphere. So much so that it was only when we arrived back at the hostel that I realised I´d nicked someone elses flip flops by accident when I got out of a pool - leaving them my well worn Havaianas in return. So if the said flip flop owner is reading this then I´m sorry!

From Perito Moreno Glacier to Bariloche

The day after Torres Del Paine we were back on the road and trying to head north. There are only a couple of ways to do this as southern Chile/Argentina is rugged, mountainous and the roads are simply gravel ways. The Navimag Ferry up the Chilean coast is one way but a costly one, flying from Punto Arenas is another, but our chosen option was to head back into Argentina and cut across country to the east coast - as we love busses a lot!

Adventure Patagonia in Puerto Natalas was our extremely helpful hostel and sorted us out with a mini bus across the Chilean border and north to the Perito Moreno Glacier; situated outside the tourist hell hole of El Calafate. The sheer size, colour and noise of the glacier is awe inspiring and as you watch chunks occasionally fall off crashing into the lake as it advances toward the land. Once you go up onto the viewing platforms the scale of this ice field is realised and stretches for miles.

After visiting the glacier we were dropped off in the nearest town, El Calafate. In my opinion this place is touristy, garish and in comparison to the rest of Argentina it is extremely expensive. It´s sole existence is to feed off tourists who want to see the glacier so my advice to anyone wanting to go/needing a stop over is to get through it fast! We stayed one night at an equally souless and over priced H.I. hostel aptly called Calafate Hostel.

From El Calafate we had to head south and across country (east) to changes bus in Rio Gallegos and head northwest back across country to Bariloche, in the heart of the Argentine Lake District.

At last we had finished the roller coaster journey of 33 hours and slept, sunbathed and slept some more for a few days in Bariloche. We did little more than eat steak, drink excellent red wine and stay at an incredible hostel called 1004, so named as it is on the 10th floor of an apartment block over looking the lake and mountains. From the balcony we had this view of the full moon every night. It was quite incredible and the nicest hostel we´ve stayed in so far on the trip.

Torres Del Paine / Towers of Pain!

After checking out of our over priced hostel, HI Patagonia, we caught the bus south, via Rio Gallegos (Or as I say - Gallallagaygos) and across the Chilean border to Puerto Natales. This journey takes about 22hrs, give or take a couple of hours for the big, fat Chilean Policeman to route around in your bag for fruit; which is a no no.

Puerto Natales has the feel of a frontier town and is one of the furthest south so doesn't get dark until about 11pm; its blustery and surrounded by stunning scenery. Most who come here come for one reason - Torres Del Paine, or as we now refer to them - The Towers of Pain, which is one of Chile's incredible National Parks.

Obviously being seasoned hikers and pro mountain goats we thought we'd have a crack at this and amble through the park. However, the infamous Torres Del Paine is home to some difficult weather conditions! The 'W' route is one of the more popular hikes and takes about 5 days. It takes you to three different valleys and there are various places to camp on route so you end up walking a route that resembles a W. The day before we went to a hostel in Puerto Natalas called Erratic Rock where they give free talks about the park, the different routes and what to expect, consequently we decided to do the W from left to right.

In retrospect, Day 1 was easy, a short 3.5 hour walk to Glacier Grey. Although we each had 15 kilos of tent, food, clothes and general stuff we arrived in good time and pitched camp by 4.30pm. Our campsite was incredible, a small beach next to Glacier Grey and its lake. Whilst we sat on our camp bench and made Nigela Lawson proud with a volumptuous bowl of pasta con tomate, icebergs would float past and the sun shone high.

Valle de Francais and Camp Italiano was our destination for day 2. This involved 6 hour back track from the glacier and across the first 'dip' of the W. After the hike to Italiano the cool sheltered woodland camp was a sight for for sore eyes, and feet! We set up camp and brewed a hot chocolate as some friends, Pete and Jo who we'd met in Puerto Natales appeared from the bush (they had been out walking the Valle de Francais). That night we ate another mountain of pasta and knocked back some of our emergency rations of vino tinto, without a care in the world; little did we know what the towers of pain had in store for us on day 3!!!

Ah yes day 3 = HELL! There is always a point during hiking when fun disappears and is replaced by anger, pain and 70mph winds! Luckily the winds tended to be behind us (one reason for going left to right) but even so with our packs on our backs we were knocked over, pelted with stones and burnt by the sun for a mere 11 hours! Not to mention the three large river crossings. These were actually great fun yet slightly risky. The biggest had water around our shins and was about 30 metres wide with rapids! Crossing the river (with those 70 mph winds) involved holding a rusty bit of wire whilst hopping from bolder to bolder, with water crashing over and filling your boots (well, H's). By the end of day 3 our feet were blistered, our bags were still bloody heavy and our minds were nearly distroyed - thank god we had more pasta for dinner!

The last major hike, day 4, and we were at the end of our tethers. Han's boots had got soaked in the river crossing and only partially dried out, there was a 2 hour climb ahead of us to take us back up to 1000 metres but we decided there was no way we could drop out now. After that climb everything improved, we had spreadable cheese and crackers for lunch - oh soooo good - and by 3.30pm we had made it to our final nights camp, 'las Torres'. This campsite is just below las Torres and in woodland, as the towers looked clear we decided to assending the bolder field which led to the towers. After an hour of scrambling we'd made it and completed the bloody 'W'. The following day we descended the same way in half the time and headed straight for the Hostario (the posh hotel in Torres del Paine) and had our first beer - moy perfecto, and a Lomo al Pobre, the tastiest steak sandwich in the world.

Whale watching and some really tasty Pizza!

From El Bolson we headed towards the East coast of Argentina to the Peninsular Valdes (stunning national park) and Puerto Madryn (not so stunning city). We had 2 main aims, to go whale watching and to eat some good mariscos (seafood)!

The Peninsular Valdes was incredible, we had a guide for the day to drive us around the park and help us spot the wildlife, we saw Guanacos (weird llama type things), Maras (overgrown rabbits with dogs heads), and Rheas (similar to emus). We also saw Magellan Penguins and Elephant Seals.

We ended the day in a small town on the peninsular called Puerto Pyramides, where we joined a group of other tourists for the whale watching trip. The locals there seem to have devised a joke around the visitors, by insisting that we dress up in completely unnecessary huge oil skin coats and old school life jackets, they then paraded us through the town to the boat by which time we were all sweltering!

The whale watching was fantastic however, we saw a mother and her young calf who came so close to the boat, and seemed to be checking us all out, and probably laughing at our stupid outfits. We both took hundreds of mostly undistinguishable photos, its so hard to capture their size and how close they were.

Back in the city we discovered that there is something worth staying in Puerto Madryn for, a San Francisco Pizza from the Lizard Bar. It was the tastiest pizza I think I´ve ever eaten. Thin crusty base with the usual tomato sauce and mozzarella, but then topped with Spinach, Onions, Olives and a fried mixed topping of crushed walnuts, breadcrumbs and sage. It was incredible. We also ate our own body weight each in Rabas Fritas (Calamari) due to a little bit of a translation problem where I ordered the same thing for starter and main course. We then decided it was time to jump on another coach, this time headed for Chile.