Chile 3rd January – 26th January 2011

After Australia I was now running low on funds and relying more on my credit card, so Chile actually turned out to be the last leg of my tour. When I arrived in Santiago I discovered a country that wasn’t typically South American, Chile is quite prosperous and has more of a European feel.

I started in Santiago where I visited the beautiful park of Santa Lucia, rode on the funicular San Cristobel up to the statue of the Virgen de la Immaculada Concepcion and beautiful views over the city and visited the huge complex of markets where I hung out with some of the locals enjoying a few beers and discussions on football.

In the hostel I met Milena from Sao Paulo, Brazil and we decided to head to the coast for a couple of days. First we visited the port town of Valparaiso, in the end the town turned out to be quite disappointing as there was not a lot there to even to fill a day and overall the town was drab and run down. The highlight was the graffiti exhibition spread around half a dozen of the streets and I was surprised to hear that Milena had heard of Banksy. The next day we went to Vina del Mar to relax on the beach before I returned to the hostel in Santiago and Milena carried on up the coast to La Serena.

I spent just the night in Santiago before heading to Castro on Isla de Chiloe to see the Palafitos. The Palafitos are houses on stilts built by the sea and are moved throughout the year when the tide changes. I was hoping that I would get the opportunity to help somebody quite literally ‘move house’. Unfortunately the opportunity never arose, but it was great to see these houses that are unique to this area of Chile. I also did some walking around the many national parks and small islands in this area including Puqueldon, Cucao and Curaco, where I managed to get soaked in the rain pretty much every day.

I then headed to Ancud, where I met Mario and his wife who were from Temuco who took me to the Ancud festival which included traditional dancing, rodeo and the local speciality of curanto. Curanto is a mixture of shell fish, meat, potato and vegetables which is cooked traditionally by digging a hole in the ground, building a fire in the hole to heat stones and when the fire dies down the heat from the stones cook the curanto in the ground, it was delicious and well accompanied by the Chilean red wine.

Again I headed back to Santiago with a stop at Temuco on the way. In Santiago I met another Brazilian, Ayrton and together we visited the Museo de Arte Precolombino, which contains some amazing artefacts including Chinchorro mummies which was followed by a meal in the fish market.

I then headed to La Serena where I had decided to spend a few days before heading on to the Atacama Desert, as it turned out I spent most of the time in the hostel drinking cheap beer at £1.20 for 6 pack as I decided whether I should continue on my trip building more debt on my credit card or head back to the UK. In the end I decided to head back home, although I promised myself that I would have to return at a later date to discover more of South America.