Rob's Rave and Silvina's Stories Living life at the end of the world
Chile
Heading Northward – Arica and Tacna
Arriving in Arica was a welcome relief to our tired bodies, tired of the travel and hungry for some decent food. So the first thing we did was store our backpacks and head to town for a hearty meal. Arica has some lovely beaches which are very tempting, although we only ever got to see [...]
Heading Northward – Chile
Here are a few photos and some descriptions about our journey northward. The most significant part of the journey was what we saw along the way, so it makes sense to let you see the photos rather than write much about it this time. One of the things you do while bored at midnight on [...]
Ricky and Rosy Married
Well here I am in Santiago again. It seems that in the last few months I have been here a lot… if you count three times as a lot. Ricky and Rosy with their parents on their respective sides. This time I am here for a wedding that happened yesterday. Ricky, a young lad from [...]
Plastic Everywhere
Having lived in Argentina now for almost four years, one of the things that still strikes me is the amount of plastic rubbish that covers the landscape. Seeing people throw their rubbish onto the ground when it is no longer wanted is still hard for me witness. The plastic bags are not normally in this [...]
Back Home in South America
I have never been so thankful to be here in South America. After two false starts that almost left me off my flights over here, I have sailed through Chile immigrations and customs checks without even stopping. What a difference to the letter-of-the-law hurdles I needed to jump over just to get here. Waiting in [...]
Puerto Madryn to Santiago in Chile
After an early start to the day, a cold snap caused snow on the road to delay my bus for an hour and a half. Wandering down to the beach to watch the whales play in the water seemed the best way to pass the time at this hour of the morning. A further delay in Cippoletti made [...]
Crossing Over to Chile
The Need After three months in Argentina I need to renew my visa. This is done in town at the local naval base after waiting a while and then paying the amount due. This only works once however, after which the only way to remain legally in the country is to leave it and then [...]
Crossing Borders in Bus – San Pedro to Salta
The bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Salta in Argentina lasted from 10.30am in the morning until 11pm that night, travelling over the Andes ranges during the day. Most of the sights were the same that I had seen during my tour of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, but some parts [...]
Calama City, Chile
The city of Calama is in the middle of a desert. We travelled for an hour and a half from San Pedro de Atacama where we were staying to arrive in Calama and saw nothing but dry, dusty, desert with virtually no vegetation. Only a few tuffs of grass poked up here and there in [...]
San Pedro de Atacama – North Chile
After leaving Bolivia, San Pedro became my home for two days while I waited for a bus to take me back to Argentina. Known as a tourist mecca in the north of Chile, this little town is always filled with foreigners. It is small, quaint, and not very cheap to live, but has some interesting [...]
Chiquicamata Open Cut Mine
Our visit to the Chiquicamata mine, the worlds largest open cut mine, was a little confused. We arrived late for the tour according to the faithful guide book for travellers, The Lonely Planet. It was the latest book for this area of the world, but was published back in 2003. It was wrong. The size [...]
The 24hr Barcaza Journey
The journey was not too far, but by boat it would take me 24hrs to arrive at the destination port. From there I had a further 6 hours on a bus to get to my next destination of Puerto Montt. As I was fast discovering, travel in the southern parts of Chile was not suited [...]
The Magic of Puerto Cisnes
A smallish fishing village situated in a protected cove of the Chilean archipelago and shadowed by a large mountain behind, Puerto Cisnes has a relaxed and casual ambience about it. The pebbly beach and scattered fishing boats in various states of repair all add to the atmosphere, as does the scent of fish hanging in [...]
Coyhaique to Puerto Cisnes
On arriving in Coyhaique, I was expecting to catch a bus straight onward to Puerto Cisnes. Unfortunately my bus was late and I missed the connection. Unbeknownst to me there was another bus that I may have been able to catch too, but after heading into town to search for some money that bus had [...]
Is There A Seat Available Sir? (Heading for Chile)
The bus from Puerto Madryn was late. One hour late in fact. By the time we arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia, it was already well past midnight. It was from here that I would be taking my next bus over to Chile. After a wander around town to see what it was like, I returned to [...]
Friendship for Miles
During my travels with Chris over the Christmas 2004-2005 break we ran into Andy, a young guy that had headed out to Ecuador to teach English for a year. It was a break between things back home in the States, and we met him in Pucon, Chile of all places. It is always interesting when [...]
Climbing Volcanoes
Well today, after waiting through three days of cloud and rain, I climbed a volcano. Not just any volcano either. It is said to be the most active volcano in all of the Americas. Judging by the toxic lava exploding out of the mouth of it as we were standing there, I would say they [...]
New Phone
During my travels, I spent some time in Concepcion, Chile. Now nobody told me that there was nothing to do in Concepcion until we got to Chile. Then everybody told us that there was nothing there. So what did we do? We went there anyway. And you know what? Everybody was right. There is nothing [...]
Adventure Touring Stage 5 – Concepcin
After a day ride in a bus from Via del Mar, I am now in Concepcin, one of the other great cities of Chile. It really is nothing like Santiago, which truly is a great city. It is small, quiet, and very South American in its styling. Finding A Home Arriving in the bus station, [...]