Chile

3 November – San Pedro

We had an interesting border crossing yesterday. The Bolivian customs building is a little shack in the middle of nowhere, and the Chilean building is much bigger and forty kilometres down the road, three thousand metres lower in altitude. This lower altitude made sense later on, when they made us unpack the whole truck to make sure we had no vegetables in our tent bags. It would have been an exhausting exercise to do all of that at five thousand metres.

After Tom hinted that he was interested in an upgrade, the group unanimously decided that an upgrade was in order for all. The Altiplano left us all dusty and we were not out of the desert yet – San Pedro is a brown town with mud brick buildings and gravel streets. Brooke quickly found a suitable hotel and made a deal to suit our pockets (or rather kitty’s pocket).

There are lots of activities to do in San Pedro, but most of us opted for a day of relaxing. Jan and Christianne went on a sunset trip to The Lunar Landscape – a desolate valley on the edge of town.

5 November - Antofagasta

Another surprise waited for us at Antofagasta. We were booked in at a super fancy hotel. We all got rooms with sea facing balconies. Next to the hotel was a big shopping mall; selling things we forgot we needed. There are also some old English buildings and a train station to check out. And then of course the wharf and fish market.

More dead trains on the way

Antofagasta

Fish market

View from our rooms

6 November – Pan Azucar

For our second last camping night we came to the Pan Azucar National Park. It is a coastal park with campsites in the desert on the beachfront. It is beautiful in its desolation.

Of course all the smaller roads leading into the park were washed out, so we had to drive right around it to find the main road going in. Tonight we will do our last braai for the trip. We bought some big Uruguayan fillets and chorizo to go with our potjie chocolate and dulce de leche cake.

The Hand of God

Lunch

Pan de Azucar

Jan

Ithaca on the beach

7 November – Guanaqueros 

We were meant to stay at a campsite in La Serena, but when we got to the address, the campsite was a brand new apartment building. Luckily it was still early in the day and we headed off in search of something else. Bush camping in this part of Chile is not easy. There are only fenced-in roads and private properties. We realised soon enough that we were heading towards more developed lands than what we have become used to.

Not far from La Serena we found a little village with a campsite right on the beach. It was perfect for our last camping night of the trip.

8 November – Valparaiso  

Valparaiso does not look like much of great place when you drive in – it’s a bit dirty, there are lots of hoboes around, it was cloudy and windy, and everything seemed a bit desolate and closed (we came in on a Sunday afternoon).

But when we left the hotel on Monday morning it was a different city. It was alive and bustling and suddenly very interesting. It is built on steep hills with a busy shipping port at the bottom. You can walk for two minutes and you will be lost in the old town. There are cobbled streets, countless restaurants, crafts shops, street vendors, and “ascensors”. These are old (the oldest one is one hundred and forty years old) funiculars taking you up the hills about fifty metres at a time.

Ascensor

Or stairs?

Who dares pass?

Container building

10 November – Santiago

On the way to Santiago we went looking for a nice wine farm to do a last group activity. We found Emiliana, an organic wine farm. The vineyard tour and wine tasting they offer there is very good. Even for a seasoned wine tourer there is much to learn about the effects of African chickens and different herbs growing in your vineyard.

Santiago is a big modern city. We got to our last hotel easily and Ithaca could park right outside the front door. We are all going our separate ways tomorrow morning – Maggie and Nanna are meeting Stuart and Alie’s Chair to be whizzed off for a week of spoiling, Sue-dawg is off to the Galapagos Islands, Jan will relax in the spa, Frank and Julie are staying in Santiago for a couple of days before also going to the Galapagos, Jan and Christianne are relaxing here for a week before going home to relax there for two weeks, Jodie is off to a volunteering camp in Peru, Tom is leaving super early in the morning to get a flight out to his aunt, and David and Carol are catching a flight back to Tasmania.

I must say we will miss the Spring Chickens.

Brooke and I will ponder in Santiago for a week or so before heading over to Buenos Aires, to start the epic South American Explorer expedition – six months of action through just about every country on this continent.

Adios Amigos!

Wine tasting

Julie & Frank

Last truck lunch