2 Weeks in Chile

Well I am now nearly 2 weeks into my time in South America. Spent a night near Buenos Aires before flying over the Andes to Santiago.

We were waiting on the rest of the expedition team to arrive to I spent the 6 days on a bus tour through northern Chile rather than sitting around in Santiago.

While not normally a 'tour' person I had a great time, met a great bunch of people, we went to a number of towns and sites.

We stopped in a fishing village and took a boat out to an island national park with penguins, sea lions and dolphins (took lots of great photos, though not so many of dolphins, buggers move too quick).

Most of the time was in the Atacama desert, one of the driest places on earth, some weather stations have never recorded a drop in over 50 years of operation.

We explored salt caves and sand dunes, weathered ranges that look like a luna landscape.

There was also a sculpture of a Giant Hand, apparently there is a matching one on the opposite side of the continent in Uruguay. We also visited a train 'cemetary' which was used as a scene in the latest bond movie.

We stopped in Oasis towns surrounded by desert and visited a laguna which is home to a large number of flamengos.I spent a night safe and secure in the Calama airport. I had arrived in town after 10pm and had to be at the airport to fly back to Santiago at 6:30am, so I convinced the airport manager without a single word spoken that the other could understand (except gracias)to let me stay the night. She showed me a light switch, got me some cardboard to sleep on (instead of the floor) and gave me a packet of biscuits (I guess she thought I was broke) and then turned everything off and locked me in for the night. The next morning as people arrived I hopped up out of my little nook and sat down ready to check in with no-one aware I'd been there all night.

Back to Santiago I met up with Rupert, Geoff and Kenni had arrived and cleared their land cruiser through customs and we had acquired a motorbiking companion, Simon.

We have spent 5 days driving through various areas of central chile heading southwards, along the coast, through forests along large flowing rivers, expansive waterfalls, through mountian ranges and past snow capped volcanos.

We have hiked up to mountain lakes and free camped in some incredible places. We are currently in a campground in Pucon, so hot showers, kitchen facilities and free wireless internet are a rare opportunity.

Tomorrow I am about to climb a volcano to the summit (2840m), starting at a drop off point at about 1400m and then slide back down on my ass on the snow to the starting point.

I don't have many photos to share at this stage, having a connection issue with picture format, so can't view thumbnails, but I've found a few to share. I do have 744 pictures on my first memory card and just starting on the next, so a challenge to randomly find the right photos to reformat. Hopefully I will have some more the next time I get access to the internet.

Also if anyone has tried to contact me (unlikely) my mobile does not work in Chile, but it did work in Argentina when I passed through Buenos Aires so I should have access again in a week or so, certainly from Christmas onwards.

We just scored a free dinner with an overland truck group in the same camp ground, and so I'm off to socialise.