Chile

From La Serena it was a long overnight bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama where I spent the next few days. The town is really small with only about 2000 people living here, and a lot of tourists. The main street in the town is full of tour agecies offereing trips to the local sites and restaurants. I found a really nice hostel to stay in, with traditional style buildings made of mud bricks and a thatched roof around a central courtyard. I spent a while walking round the town trying to decide which of the main tours I would do the next day, but in the end gave up and went on got a bottle of wine with a couple of girls I had travelled up from La Serena with. After a good nights sleep I decided not to do any of the tours and instead hired a bike for the day. So I set off into the desert by myself with a sketch map of the area, a lot of water and suntan cream. I decided not to be put off by the name and went to see the valley of the dead. Here I cycled along a track in an enclosed rock valley until I reached an area of sand dunes where the local sport of sand boarding is popular. I decided against trying it and headed back to the main road and on to the moon valley. This was a difficult ride in the hot weather and up a lot of steep hills, but the effort was worth it. The place was amazing. It is one of the most popular tourist sites in the area but all the tours go there for sunset, so I had the entire place to myself. Cycling through salt flats, sand dunes, past strange rock formations, it as like nothing else I had seen before. After climbing up a sand dune to get better views over the whole area, I managed to find a bit of shade to have lunch before cycling back into the town. Luckily the way back was mostly down hill so it was relativly easy going. Later in the afternoon I cycled out the other side of town to an oasis for a swim to cool off. Then in the eveneing I went out for dinner with a group of people I had met the day before. We went to a really nice restaurant in a courtyard with the tables arranged around a fire in the middle. It does get really cold here at night, so the fire was greta.
THe next day I had a very early start, 4am. I went on a trip to the Geysers del Tatio, the highest geysers in the world. Apparently the best time of the day to go is at sunrise, as when the temperature difference is greatest the geysers look most impressive. Very strange to see the boiling water right next to frozen ice. Spent a while looking at the geysers then had breakfast. Thankfully the sun started to reach us then as it was absolutly freezing. To warm up we went for a swim in a hot pool, this was really nice until we had to get out back into the freezing cold air. Then it was a really nice drive back in to town where we saw llamas, guanacos, flamingos and nandus.
The following day I got the bus back to Salta, Argentina. This was one of the best bus journeys I have been on as it went up over the Andes, past salt flats, volcanoes, oasis. At one point I think the road is up at nearly 5000m, so there is snow by the side of the road. Arrived back in Salta late in the evening and just spent a few days there getting ready to go to Bolivia.

From Puerto Natales I headed further south to Punta Arenas where I spent a few days before starting another 5 day hike. It´s the most sotherly town on mainland South America and it´s an incredibly windy place. Sometimes they put up ropes on the corners of the main square to stop people getting blown away. Stayed in an interesting hostel, run by a Chilean Rastafarian who played Bob Marley 24 hours a day. The town had a couple of interesting museums and a big, very elaborate cemetry that was interesting to visit. Also went to see a penguin colony on Isla Magdelena. There are about 120,000 of them nesting on the island and we were able to walk around the island. Some of them were very curious and would come right up to you and even pecked at my shoes. We spent about an hour there watching them going in and out of the water, waddling about, climbing up and down the cliffs etc. They are really comical the way they jump down little steps on the cliffs and slip and regain their balance.

On Sunday the other people going on the hike arrived at the hostal and we got everything organized ready to leave on Monday. We had planned to do a 5 day trek to Cabo Froward, the most southerly point on mainland South America. We caught a bus to start of the trek at about 7.30am and were walking shortly after 9. Initially we walked on a gravel track between the beach and some woods, along the Straits of Magellan. We could see across to Tierra del Fuego and occasionally dolphins broke the surface of the water. In the afternoon we walked along more beaches and through the woods to our first campsite by a disused house, which provided a good shelter for cooking and a fire. We had a late start the next day (about 12pm) because we had to arrive at a major river crossing at low tide to make sure the water was at its lowest point. We crossed a smaller river straight after leaving the camp and then after more beach walking we entered the turbal. I don´t know what the English translation of this would be but it was a dense extremely muddy woodland followed by a long stretch of bog. After this it was time for the river crossing. We all stripped down to our undies and held our rucksacks over our heads and waded across. It was nearly chest deep and very cold, but luckily not too fast flowing. After that we had to scramble arouind a headland to reach the 2nd campsite. It rained hard all night and we got up early at about 6.30am in order to cross the nearby river at low tide. But after all the rain the water level had risen and was very fast flowing so we decided we wouldn´t be able to get across and returned back to the camp. We built a fire to get warm and dry out all our wet things from the previous day. There had been fresh snow on the hills in the night and as that melted during the day it became obvious that the river was not going to go down. So we had no choice but to head back. So in the afternoon we headed back to our first campsite. The first river we had crossed was much lower than it had been, probably because of a lower tide, so we were able to get across just rolling up our trouser legs. But after all the rain we had a further 2 rivers to cross. On the way there we were able to just step avross them, but on the way back it was more knee deep paddleing, made a bit more difficult as we had to do it in the dark this time. The extra rain also made crossing the turbal even more intyeresting. But eventually we all made it back to the hut, soaked and covered in mud.

The next day was sunny and quite warm (for Patagonia) and we stayed at the campsite until about lunchtime before heading back to near the bus stop, where we camped in the woods. Early the next morning we caught the bus back to Punta Arenas. Despite not making it to the end of the walk it was still a really good trip as we got to a very remote part of the country and experianced some true Patagonian weather.

From Puerto Natales I spent 4 days hiking the W trail in Torres del Paine National Park. After taking a bus and a catamaran I arrived at the first campsite late in the afternoon so just spent the evening there and started walking the next day. The campsite was quite civilised with toilets and showers and you could even get a beer. The backdrop to the campsite was superb with huge mountains and the lake. The mountains are two tone; pale granite up to a certain point and then topped off with dark rock.

The next day I started walking by about 8am to get away before it got too busy, as at this time of the year the park is packed. The hike went up through a valley to a viewpoint looking over the end of Glacier Grey. The glacier ends in a lake which had a lot of icebergs in it from chunks of ice falling off the end of the glacier. While I was sat at the viewpoint another chunk of ice fell off with a huge crash that echoed round the valley.After about 3 1/2 hours we reached the Refugio Grey and climbed to the top of a rocky outcrop for views of the glacier. Went back to the campsite where I spent another night before moving on the next day.

On Sunday the main part of the walk was along the Valle Frances. It was another good walk along rocky ridges, through woods, with views of the mountians and glaciers all the way along. At the head of the valley you could see the back of the Torres and lots of the other mountains. From the Valle Frances I continued walking to the next campsite at Los Cuernos, another nice site under the mountains beside a lake-

The next day I set off for the campsite below the Torres. After walking along the side of a lake, the track went up and over into the next valley. After putting up the tent it was a 40 minute scramble over bolders to the viewpoint at the base of the Torres. The view was amazing, huge towers of granite above a lake and glacier.

The final day I got up at 4am to climb up to the Torres again, in time for sunrise. I was one of the first people to get to the top and it was still dark but it was stunning sitting there in the silence with the moon and the stars and a red glow of the sun starting to rise in the distance. Sat there for a couple of hours watching the light change as the sun came up, then went back down to the campsite for beakfast and to finish the walk. It was only a couple of hours walk down to the bus stop to get the bus nack to Puerto Natales. Then we made our way down to the end of the trail where we waited for the bus back to the park entrance and our bus to Puerto Natales.
Spent a couple of nights in Puerto Natales before moving further south to Punta Arenas for a few days-

From Chiloe I got the bus to Puerto Montt for an overnight stop before getting on the ferry to Puerto Natales the next day. We arrived at the bus station without anywhere to stay but as usual there were people advertiing there hospedajes - small, family run place to stay, a bit like cheap B and Bs. So we agrred to stay with a women there who then explained that her son would drive us to the house, which sounded good as it meant no walking carrying our heavy rucksacks. Started to feel a bit concerned though when we were put in the back of a van with the windows covered up and we were driven away by a strange man. Probably not the safest thing to have done but it worked out OK and we ended up with a room in an old wooden house where the floors and walls all sloped at interesting angles. But, it was a nice place to stay and they make a nice change from staying in hostels.

We spent the next morning looking round the town before getting on the boat in the afternoon. I´ve heard a lot of mixed things about the boat trip, people trying to sleep in cabins next to trailers of cows, people spending the whole 4 days being very sick etc. so didn´t really know if going on te boat was a good idea. But I think it is one of the best things I´ve done on this trip so far. I was in the cheapest accomodation but it was still very comfortable. I had a bed in a cabin with 4 people and a shared bathroom. The only cows on board was the beef we had for dinner and most of the time the water was so calm it was hard to believe we were on the pacific. There was only one night when it was a bit rougher as we went further out to séa. Every day we got 3 good meals, there were talks about things of local interest, films to watch, and a bar, but most of the time i just spent out on the deck as the weather was perfect and the scenery was stunning. Cançt think of any way to describe it really, but i took over 300 photos in just 4 days. Most of the route navigates through narrow channels betwwen the mainland and groups of islands just off the coast, so on one side you could see across to huge snow capped-mountains and glacier and on the other side there were islands. There was also loads of wildlife, birds, whales, dolphins and seals. One of the highlights of the trip was a dtour te boat made to the bottom of Pio XI the largest glacier in South America. It ends in the sea and the boat sailed up a chanel through icebergs to te base of the glacier. Also met a lot of really people on the boat so it was never boring. On the last night there was a Patagonian bingo party in the bar, which was certainly a lot more lively than Bingo in the UK as somehow it also involved a lot of dancing.

Arrived in Puerto Natales last night and I,ve just spent the morning getting organised for a 4 day hike in te Torres del Paine national park, starting that this afternoon.

From Valdivia I travelled down to Ancud, a small fishing town on the Chiloe islands, a group of about 40 small islands just off the coast of Chile. Found a really nice hostal to stay in, right by the sea. The evening I arrived I ended up going on a tour out to a little group of islands where 2 species of penguins live. The tour was really good as although our guide didn´t speak much English he made an effort to talk very slowly so I was able to follow what he was saying. Found out a lot about the history of the islands and the people from that area. They have a lot of traditions that are different from the mainland, all based around myths from the area. The boat trip around the penguin islands was really good, the evening is apparently the best time to go as thats when all the penguins come back to their nest sites. Also saw loads of other birds and wildlife including sea lions and sea otters.

The next day wasn´t so good. Decided to hire a bike a cycle around the coast to another small fishing village. The first part of the route was along a very busy main road and then there was 30km along a gravel track. There was also a quarry along the track so all day there were huge loirries going up and down this narrow track so ended up covered in dust and hit by stones. And the bikes didn´t have the most comfortable saddles, so a few days later I am still avoiding sitting down for too long. Although the village and beach that I made it to were very nice, it really wasn´t worth the effort of getting there.

The following morning I got a bus further down the island to the town of Castro. It´s another really nice little town which is best described as having rustic charm. Along the sea front are buildings called parfitos which are built on wooden stilts over the sea. Then there is a steep hill up to the town centre which has a lot of very unstable looking wooden houses all painted different colours. One of the main attractions of the area are 16 world heritage listed churches that were built by the Spanish in combination with local creaftsmen, using local wood, so they are all unique designs reflecting the traditions of the area. Spent the afternoon going to look at a couple of these. This was a bit of an adventure as it meant getting a few buses and boats across to other islands and we seemed to be far from the main tourist route, I think we only saw another couple of foreign tourists all day. Was a really nice day going to these remote little fishing villages, and finding some nice beaches. In the evening we came back to Castro and went out for dinner to try the local speciality, curanto. It basically has a bit of everything in it, a lot of mussels, chicken, chorizo, ham, potatoes and dumplings, all very nice.

Yesterday we spent the day at the islands national park. Had a really good day there, walked along a huge empty beach in the morning and then came back through the woods by a lake.

Today I´m getting the bus back over to the mainland to Puerto Montt. Just going to stay there overnight before getting on a boat to Patagonia. The boat trip takes about 4 days and I´ve heard a lot of mixed things about it, so don´t know what to expect. But I´ve stocked up on sea sickness tablets and I´m just hoping the weather is going to be good for it.