In December 2003, and January 2004 we travelled from North to South through the South American country of Chile. Chile is approximately 4300km long from North to South, but only 175km wide on average. This makes Chile a very diverse country, with high, dry deserts in the North, and glaciated mountains in the South.
From Santiago, I flew to Iquique in the North of Chile. Iquique is in the Atacama desert - one of the dryest places on Earth. The time in Iquique was generally spent chilling on the beach and recovering from 24 hours of flying from London.
After Iquique we caught a bus to Calama and on to the tiny oasis village of San Pedro near the Bolivian and Argentine border. San Pedro is a great little town with loads to do, and we only had 3 days there. One day was spent travelling to the Atacama Salt Plain (the 3rd largest in the world) where theres a small lake where Flamingos live. From there we went to the Altiplano Lagunas which at a height of 4200m above sea level in the high Andes still have volcanoes towering over them. The next morning we drove up to the El Tatio geysers at a height of 4200m to watch the sun rise. In the early morning at this altitude everything except the steaming water from the geysers is frozen, but once the sun rises it very quickly warms up! Adjacent to the geysers is a natural hot pool where we went swimming - still with ice on the ground! In the evening we went to the Valle de la Luna where wind and rain in ancient times has scultured the desert to look like a luner landscape.
From San Pedro we went back to Calama and flew to Santiago where we hired a car and drove to the seaside city of Valperaiso. Valperaiso is a large port city situated on the hills with a lot of character, although a little run down. Only a few miles away is the seaside resort of Viña del Mar with golden beaches where we spent an afternoon chilling in the freezing Pacific.
From Santiago we headed south to the Lake District town of Pucon nestled under Volcan Villarica near the Argentine border. While there's a lot to do in Pucon, we only had 2 days to spare on our way to Patagonia so we went mountain biking to some waterfalls 20km from town.
On the 29th January we picked up a ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales in Patagonia. While the scenery was a little dissapointing, the trip was a lot of fun and we met some great people. New Years Eve was spent on-board the ferry and a great time was had by all...
Two days were spent in Puerto Natales buying food and camping equipment for an excursion into Torres del Paine National Park. The park is world renouned for hiking and has some amazing scenery. We elected to do the 'W' trail which takes in the major scenery in the park and purchased 5 days food for the trip. We carried all our own tents, cookers and food even though it is possible to stay in the well equiped refugios on the trail.
As can be seen from the photos, we were not dissapointed by the scenery. The weather was probably kind to us (for Patagonia) but we had everything from heavy snow to hot sunshine.
After Torres del Paine we took a day excursion into Argentina to visit the Moreno Glacier. This is an amazing site - the glacier is 5km across and 70m high and massive blocks of ice are dropping off into the lake all the time.
As I was flying out of Punta Arenas, we headed South again, this time via the Penguin collony at Seno Otway where around 6000 pairs are mating. The Penguins are great little creatures - one parent is nursing the children while the other is off hunting in the sea.
From Punta Arenas it was back to London via Santiago.
Chile is a great place to visit and is a VERY big country. There is a huge contrast between the deserts in the North and the forrests in the South, but both are great places to spend some time.
Map of Chile showing main places where we stayed.
The map shows the main areas where we spent time.
Note that Chile is an extremely long country. It is a 2 hour flight from Santiago to Iquique in the North, and a 4 hour flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas in the South.
