Chile Summary
Geographically:
We flew from New Zealand to Santiago, Chile. Then, after an hour of struggling in Spanish, we managed to book a flight with LAN airlines to Easter Islands. (The flight was booked from South Africa, but LAN cancelled all our flights for some reason unknown). On Easter Island, we did a guided tour from Hanga Roa to Rano Rarako and to Anakena beach. We explored the rest of the island by bicycle. We flew back to Santiago Chile, where we stayed for a couple of days for some sightseeing. We did a short visit to Valparaiso and back to Santiago where we took a flight to Punta Arenas in Patagonia. We took a bus to Puerto Natales from where we did the four-day W-trek. Finally, we took a bus into Argentina.
The weather on Easter Island was good, a bit chilly at night but otherwise sunny and warm. Chile’s weather varied due to the size of the country - it was warm in Santiago and Valparaiso, but it was very cold in Patagonia.
We were planning to return to Chile from Argentina to visit the north, but we ran out of time and had to discard the plan.
Chilean favourites:
- Easter Islands were absolutely amazing!
- The weird Patagonian landscape
- The W-trek and all it’s views
- The ‘Completo’ on Easter Island (huge hotdog covered in avocado and mayonnaise)
- Riding the unique elevator system, called ascensors, in Valparaiso
- The best hot chocolate in the WORLD in Valparaiso
- Our ‘night in the town’ in Santiago
- The luxurious bus system
The ‘not so cools’:
- The unsafe environment - it is awful to constantly hear that you need to look after you belongings.
- How expensive things are here compared to Asia
- The guy attacking Eon in the park
- All the bedbugs!!!
Overall:
I loved Easter Island, mainly due to its mystical atmosphere. Mainland Chile came as quite a shock to our systems - firstly there is the language barrier with English being close to non-existing here. Secondly there is the safety issue. And lastly the sudden increase in day to day expenses. So at first, I did not enjoy it - I was longing for Asia. But now, looking back, it was not all bad. I think if we travelled to South America first and then to Asia, it would have been an entirely different experience.
There is till so much of Chile that we have not seen, so we will have to return here.
Click on the link below to view the gallery for Chile: