Back on the English Beach
We continued our journey along the Pacific coast, heading another seven hours north along the Pan-American Highway to the beach town of Caldera. Further south the coastline had been rugged yet relatively flat, but almost as soon as we left La Serena we were climbing into the mountains, and we soon had a spectacular view down to the coast behind us. Eventually we stopped climbing and continued along for hours across a high desert plateau, passing only the occasional mine and observatory – the area has more sunny days than almost anywhere in the world, and the clear skies make it ideal for a spot of stargazing. Read the rest of this post by clicking here…
Serena by the Seaside
We arrived in La Serena following an uneventful, but pleasant enough bus journey, passing
through amazing scenery. A lot of the road was right on the coast so we were treated to some gorgeous views of the Pacific. I was particularly impressed with the provision of a blanket and pillow, and make the most of it for an hour or two! We went straight to our hostel in La Serena, El Punto, which is the 2nd German run place we’ve stayed in in Chile. There’s a lot of German influence in the country; loads of German cars, quite a few words, i.e. kuchen, which means cake and, happily for Dan, lots of German beer! Read the rest of this post by clicking here…
Football Farce & Dodgy Dogs
From the capital we made the 2 hour trip to the coast, and the port town of Valparaiso, known to all as ‘Valpo’. The slightly quirky place is built into the hills surrounding the bay, and we checked into a B&B a good way up the slopes! We had a nice big room with huge windows looking down over the town.
Our first priority was to find somewhere to watch the big Spurs game that afternoon. Gem seemed more concerned about this than I did, and she later admitted she was worried about the strop I’d have if we didn’t find anywhere! It didn’t come to that though, and we quickly found a dingy bar with a big TV where the barman was suitably reassuring. Before kick-off we had time for lunch and we took advantage of one the good ‘Menu del Dia’ offers – basically a set menu with starter, soup, main and a glass of wine for about £4 each. Great value as Chile isn’t a particularly cheap country by any standards. Suitably filled with pasta we headed back to the bar for a pre-match beer. Read the rest of this post by clicking here…
Over the Hills to Santiago
D: We’d had a great time in Argentina, but it was time to move on to Chile, and our next destination; Santiago. This involved a 6 hour journey (supposedly) across the Andes mountain range, via the route known as Paso Internacional Los Libertadores. We soon left the vineyards of Mendoza behind and we climbed gently into the mountains, passing a huge man made lake behind the Potrerillos dam and the isolated village of Uspallata as we got higher and higher. Read the rest of this post by clicking here…
Mountains and Malbec
Our next stop was Mendoza; in the shadow of the Andes and right in the middle of Argentine wine country. After another day on the bus we arrived as the sun was setting over the mountains and checked into a decent hostel. We had yet another steak dinner (or
I did at least!) and sampled the first of many bottles of the local wine – at less than £3 a bottle in a restaurant it was too good to turn down!
The followed day we took our time exploring the city, which is made up of wide avenues and green squares, all rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1860’s. Apparently the avenues were so that rubble didn’t fall on anyone next time there was a quake, and the squares were
for people to evacuate in to – optimistic planning!
Our hostel had a roof terrace with a large Argentine barbeque, so I thought it was about time I tried to whip up an Asado myself. The traditional Asado begins with wood rather than charcoal, and takes some time to get going – starting at nearly 9pm wasn’t universally popular! However, we did eventually eat some sausages, chicken and steak. No-one was killed so I’d rate that as a success! Read the rest of this post by clicking here…
Choripan and Cocktails
The 20 hour bus ride to Cordoba was, predictably, horrific, and took about 22 hours. Dan got hardly any sleep, and must have looked so uncomfortable that the assistant driver took pity on him at 4 in the morning and upgraded him to business class, on the lower deck! Fortunately he did manage to get a couple of hours of shut eye in the superior seats. Poor old me was left in cattle class, but I’d already out slept him so can’t complain!
Once we’d finally made it to Cordoba all we wanted to do was have a shower and stretch our legs a bit. We hoped our digs, at the Pomelo Hostel, would at least let us shower even if it was too early to get our room. We got a taxi from the bus terminal and rang the doorbell to be let in. No answer. We tried again but still nothing. Deciding that maybe they weren’t expecting us that early we went to a cafe down the road and had a coffee before returning at 10ish to try again. Still nothing. I was tired, so got a bit annoyed and shouted up “Hola!” in the hope this would catch someone’s attention. We even tried calling the phone number. Very frustrating because we could hear the phone ringing inside the building but no one was picking up! We were a bit worried the hostel had closed or something. Read the rest of this post by clicking here…
