Chile Travel Blogs on RealTravel

Chile journal: 1 week in CHILE

2007-10-28T08:13:14Z

a entry by Dreamers from a trip to Chile.

A week in Chile for a "look see" before heading off catamaran shopping.

It was a last minute decision to stop off in Chile. Original destination was Brazil but I overlooked the need to apply for a visa.

Weather was cold but loved the place. Great people, good culture, inexpensive and a good introduction to Sth America! Happy we went.

We hired a car and went from Santiago to Concepcion (birthplace of my god-daughter), Valparisio and Vina Del Mare.

Would have loved to have seen more but we got the idea and will be back one day!

Lots of- tolls, stray dogs, friendly ...

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Puerto Natales journal: Enter the Towers of Pain(e)

2008-04-14T20:32:05Z

a entry by Mark and Rach from a trip to Puerto Natales, Chile.

Oops, I don't remember too much! We went here as the starting point for a 5 day trek through Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (read the review for more details). Puerto Natales is a small town on a lake overrun by tourists seeking to do the big trek. We stayed at a hostel the first night called Adventura Patagonia, which was a nice wood-paneled place. The girl at reception was really helpful so Mark took the opportunity to ask lots of questions about the trek. One problem with the hostel was the extremely noisy wooden floorboards. Not good at 6am being woken up by people leaving to do the ...

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Pucon journal: Straight into the thick of things

2008-03-24T17:49:36Z

"Climbing volcanos and sleeping with witches"

a entry by Mark and Rach from a trip to Pucon, Chile.

For the Easter weekend, we headed down to Pucòn, a small town in the lakes district of Chile, frequented by Chilenos and Chilenas during the holiday season. Because it was a long weekend for Santa Semana (Easter), Carolina and her boyfriend Lenny decided to come along with us for the weekend.

Arriving in Pucón at around 9:30 AM after an 11 hour bus ride from Santiago, we stretched our legs and walked over to our hostel which was 5 minutes away, on the way in to the town centre. After dumping our gear and having a quick shower (as well as doing some much needed laundry), we headed out to ...

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Punta Arenas journal: It´s Getting Chile

2008-03-18T16:55:42Z

"The fools who could not rest"

a entry by Cass and Worth from a trip to Punta Arenas, Chile.

The alarm didn´t go off, it was pouring rain and the dogs were still barking. It was by all accounts time to leave El Calafate, except for that it was dark and pouring rain and we had to pack up the tent and get to the bus station in record time. But after all those buses we can do it like clockwork, with time to spare and almost dry. And when the very throuogh Chilean customs officers opened my pack to find a wet tent, I was given diplomatic immunity from the standard unpacking of bags. Clockwork.

Sitting on yet another southbound bus, over ever increasing proximity to ¨the end of ...

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Pucon journal: Volcano Villarrica

2007-12-29T14:30:23Z

a entry by Jennontour from a trip to Pucon, Chile.

The day after Christmas we left Osorno for another three days. This time we drove north to Pucon, a little touristic town next to a nice lake ... surmounting of Vulcano Villarrica, an active Volcano ... and this Volcano we wanted to hike up to the top :-) ... this is only possible if you join a group, since it is icy and dangerous up there.

Earlier this week Martina emailed some organizations to find out the prices and the availabilities and by doing that she saved us each $20 ... how she did this? Well, she found an organization, which had an old English web side from 2005 - according ...

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Puerto Natales journal: Puerto Natales & Torres del Paine

2008-02-23T19:39:27Z

a entry by Matt&Bex from a trip to Puerto Natales, Chile.

We arrived in Natales pretty tired after 7 hours on the bus. It had not been a bad journey but a little uncomfy at times as the seats were the standard type.

We were booked into Erratic Rock 2 hostel, which catered for couples only. It was a god hostel but the walls were made of paper it seemed! Luckily peopl seemed to respect the 11pm no noise rule in general, so we were able to get some sleep. The owners were really helpful too and they had a good house and kitchen as well as a very good breakfast.

Puerto Natales is pretty much a hikers / trekkers town. It is the main launch ...

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Chiloe journal: Les Penguinas!

2008-03-09T05:33:07Z

"Top the whole lot with melted cheese and a side of dry mussels and you have a typical dish!"

a entry by Callum & Claire from a trip to Chiloe, Los Lagos.

After a short bus ride from Puerto Montt we arrived at the ferry port for the boat to Chiloe Island, just 30 minutes across the water.

Chiloe is the second largest island in South America, after Tierra del Fuego. The islands West coast being open to the Pacific is much wetter and greener than the East coast and is therefore mostly National Park with very few towns or villages. Most of the action is on the east coast and the northern shores where access to the mainland is the easiest. Chiloe also boast 150 churches, a lot for it's small size, most of them built by the Jesuit Missionaries ...

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Torres del Paine National Park journal: The Towers of Pain(e)

2008-02-29T05:31:12Z

"... watch the Torres turn golden in the rising suns rays!"

a entry by Callum & Claire from a trip to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.

We considered this to be a highlight of South America, on a par with trekking to Lost Inca cities or visiting the Iguazu falls. The fabled W trek. A hard trekking experience in stunning mountain ranges. The best known and most spectacular feature are the three towering granite monoliths (Torres Del Paine) ranging from 2500m to 3000m altitude. This national park has a reputation for extremely changable weather due to high winds.

Day 1. We meet up with Dave and get on the bus to the National Park. We have decided not to walk into the park, this adds on an extra day of trekking, so we get ...

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Santiago journal: A pinch of Chile

2008-03-07T18:07:51Z

a entry by Char and Andy from a trip to Santiago, Chile.

Hola todo, ¿como estais?

Our last night in Mendoza and Argentina, was really great. We went along to the annual celebration of the city that takes place as part of the Vendimia grape harvest festival. Situated in the park next to the civic centre there was a range of stalls from different districts of Mendoza offering free tastings of their new wines, or other produce from the region, fruit, chocolate, jams, olive oil etc. There was also a stage with folk music and the crowning glory - a big asado (BBQ). Basically a massive firepit that had animals of different sizes stretched on spits, ...

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San Pedro de Atacama journal: Board to Death? - Certainly Not! - Sandboarding in Death Valley!!!!

2008-02-04T16:53:54Z

a entry by Ivy from a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Do you know how incredibly excited I was when I found out that I could sandboard in San Pedro?!

My little face was beaming with excitement! It was almost like someone had told me that Christmas was coming all over again!

You see, my only experience of sandboarding so far on this trip had been abit of a wash out .... literally....no pun even intended there. So I was in the Bay of Islands in NZ and took a day excursion to Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach where there are huge sand dunes that you can body board down. Unfortunately, that day, the heavens had decided that NZ needed a ...

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San Pedro de Atacama journal: Hot and Cold

2008-02-04T16:50:55Z

a entry by Ivy from a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Apparently, the best time to view the El Tatio Geysers is bright and early in the morning when the geothermal activity is at its greatest magnitude. By bright and early, this means some time between 6am and 7am.......which doesn't sound too bad until its taken into consideration that the geysers are 90km away north of San Pedro. So what does all this translate to, you wonder? A DAMN EARLY 4:30 AM PICK UP AT OUR HOSTEL, THATS WHAT!!!!!

God, I thought they were joking when the tour agency said that they would pick us up at that time.....afterall, who has ever heard of a tour starting that ...

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Torres del Paine National Park journal: Third Trek in Patagonia - Torres del Paine: With Summers Like This, Who Needs Winters?

2008-02-21T16:14:28Z

a entry by Matt and Amber from a trip to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.

February 17-21, 2008Trek Three in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

(Amber)

Torres del Paine is a world famous trek and possibly one of the most beautiful places on Earth that we´ll ever see. But our bodies are really tired. Matt´s heel is in bad shape, and my left knee is basically done being a knee. It envies forearms, etc...that just sit there straight and do very little heavy lifting. I think we´ve clocked about 75 mountain miles so far in Patagonia, and this one was another 35 or so. We´ve been going non-stop really since we left home.....but especially since we´ve been so far ...

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San Pedro de Atacama journal: Doing the Moon Walk

2008-02-04T16:49:08Z

a entry by Ivy from a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

One of the recommended tours around San Pedro de Atacama is a visit to Valle de la Luna.....or Moon Valley as it is known to us English speakers, part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve and a designated sanctuary of nature.

Located 13Km west in the Cordillera de la Sal (Salt Mountains - which were formed millions of years ago moulded through time by the wind, rain and sun and whose name derives from the fact that the rocks possess a great quantity of calcium sulphate which gives them the appearance of being splashed with salt ) in the Atacama Desert, the valley is famous for its ...

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San Pedro de Atacama journal: As Napolean Dynamite would say ....."Vote for Pedro!"

2008-01-31T16:08:10Z

a entry by Ivy from a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

San Pedro de Atacama.....this place is amazing in more ways than one..... Although just a small oasis town, San Pedro has significant importance as not only is it considered the archeological centre of Chile but also because of it´s extreme geographic position and the beauty and contrast of the surrounding landscape. Salt lakes, desert, geysers, hot springs, moonscapes, sand dunes....oh and don´t forget the eternal blue sky!

I remember when we told local Chileans in Santiago that we were going to San Pedro de Atacama, they would sigh and with a dreamy look on their faces ,they would tell ...

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Antofagasta journal: Second Largest City.....

2008-01-18T15:01:50Z

"a mere $4,000 Chilean pesos per person"

a entry by Andre & Marcela from a trip to Antofagasta, Chile.

Antofagasta is simply an awesome city....it is also Chile`s second largest, after Santiago of course. The climate is mild, the beaches are great, the people are friendly, but the hostels are few! We arrived late at night to a very busy downtown and were a bit worried about finding a place to stay. Every place we checked was expensive, until we came across a very nice old man who told us about the only little hostel in town charging a mere $4,000 Chilean pesos per person (that`s around 8 bucks)! Ok, so we stayed, and had to share a room with extremely high ceilings and extremely uncomfortably ...

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Santiago journal: Santiago

2008-01-14T12:58:53Z

"A beautiful city, well laid out and easy to get around, especially with the metro. The weather is also lovely."

a entry by Tracy and Scott from a trip to Santiago, Chile.

DAY 39 - 11 JANUARY 2008

We caught the bus at San Pedro for the long trip to Santiago (24 hours). The bus is a huge double decker with very comfy seats that recline. We left on time heading through Calama and Antofagasta on the coast which joins the Panamerican highway. The scenery is just constant deserts and doesn't seem to change, except with the addition of the coastline. We got out and stretched our legs where we could but the bus didn't stop for long, at one point it left without some of the passengers, who managed to catch up to us at the next stop. Some of the towns looked ...

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San Pedro de Atacama journal: San Pedro de Atacama

2008-01-14T12:57:48Z

"Beautiful scenery and lovely town, but soooooo expensive"

a entry by Tracy and Scott from a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

DAY 36 - 8 JANUARY 2008

We arrived in San Pedro at 1.30am. We were dropped near the town centre in the pitch black after walking in the wrong direction for a while, we finally got our bearings and headed to our hotel where we had made our booking. Only to find there was no booking and they wouldn't let us in. We rang a couple of other places in the vicinity but everything was fully booked. So here we were in the middle of the night, in a town we didn't know without any accommodation.

We headed back to the Plaza de Armas where we had seen a church and Scott thought we could camp ...

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Iquique journal: Iquique

2008-01-14T12:55:16Z

"Nice beaches"

a entry by Tracy and Scott from a trip to Iquique, Chile.

DAY 34 - 6 JANUARY 2008

We got up early and packed before having breakfast and getting a taxi to the airport. The drive was about 30 minutes back to the top of the valley, we cant get over how many houses and people are here in this small area, it is absolutely packed and there appears to be no room for further development unless they start building more skyscrapers and I am sure I wouldn't want to be living in anything high after we have seen some of the building methods. The airport is the highest in the world and only special planes etc can land and take off at this altitude. We ...

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Puerto Williams journal: Puerto Williams

2007-09-24T02:39:15Z

"It really is the end of the world"

a entry by Tracy and Scott from a trip to Puerto Williams, Magallanes y de la Antartica Chilena.

DAY TEN - THURSDAY 13/12/2007

Not such an early start, but we left Caleta Olla in glorious sunshine and loads of it - amazing, I think this is the first day where it has been this warm, a few days ago we were in a freezing blizzard and now were are sunbathing.

The passage along the Beagle Channel was very flat and we spent most if sunbathing on the deck. It was even warm enough to necessitate sunscreen, 11 degrees for most of the day with a maximum about 12 degrees! It is strange to think that at home we would be nestled up inside with the heating on, but down here we are sitting ...

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Pucon journal: Smokin` Volcan Villarica!

2007-12-23T20:44:21Z

"you can´t help but think that the still active volcano is having a really bad day."

a entry by Andre & Marcela from a trip to Pucon, Chile.

What can you say about Pucon.... Well the first thing is that it is one of Chile´s most popular vacation spots. It offers an amazing number of activities ranging from white water rafting to active volcano climbs. It has long been a resort town for Chile´s rich and famous, but now it has expanded its welcome to the world and more budget travalers, with huge numbers of hostal and cheap excursions. However, Pucon is still a place to come with loads of cash. Even though there are some low budget activities, such as hanging out at the volcanic sandy lake beaches and some river bathing, most of the ...

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San Pedro de Atacama journal: A quick stop off and some very fine bread!

2008-01-13T04:56:45Z

"the most beautiful Boulangerie ever!!"

a entry by Callum & Claire from a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

After rather a long boarder crossing from Bolivia to Chile where we were made to stand on disinfectant sponges and have our bags rummaged through, we arrived in San Pedro in the middle of the Chilean desert.

The town itself is quite small and seems to revolve around the masses of tourists that pass over the border from Bolivia and then the other way. Most people use San Pedro as a stop off in transition, just like we were going to do! Or so we thought.....

We needed to travel across to Igazu in Argentina in the next 5 days in order to catch our flight to Buenos Aires. Quite a lot ...

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Torres del Paine National Park journal: Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

2008-01-23T22:13:25Z

a entry by Jennontour from a trip to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.

OK, my bus was suppose to leave at 8AM so I got up early enough to pack my tent and my backpack and showed up at the bus terminal 30 minutes before the bus actually left. The bus drove through another vend in Argentina and after 4 hours we arrived at the Argentinian border where everybody had to get an exit stamp for Argentina into his/her passport. Unfortunately, a girl from India never got an entrance stamp and for some reason Argentinian officers didn´t like that. That poor girl didn´t speak any Spanish, our bus driver was really mad (didn´t help at all in this situation), but an US ...

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Chile Chico journal: Sunday, january 27

2008-01-27T18:35:56Z

a entry by ME and Fish cruisin' from a trip to Chile Chico, Aisen del General Carlos Ibanez del Campo.

HELLO FROM PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE OUR SIXTH AND LAST STOP IN CHILE.

WE HAD AN AMAZING MORNING FROM THE PAMPAS IN PATAGONIA WITH PLENTY OF PENGUINS! WE WENT TO A MAGELLAN PENGUIN COLONY AN HOUR AND A HALF DRIVE DOWN A DIRT ROAD. ON THE WAY WE SAW RHEAS AND A SKUNK PLUS ALOT OF UNIDENTIFIABLE BIRDS. WE WALKED ABOUT 2 MILES AND TOOK ABOUT 75 PICTURES OF PENGUINS. THESE PENGUINS BURROW INTO THE PAMPAS GRASSY HILLS TO NEST. THE YOUNG HAVE LEFT THE NEST AND ARE ALL HANGING AROUND THE BAY AND SWIMMING AROUND. MEANWHILE THE PARENTS ARE BACK AT THE NEST TRYING TO FATTEN UP AGAIN SO THEY CAN ...

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Santiago journal: The City of Fumes

2008-01-21T16:51:48Z

a entry by Kina from a trip to Santiago, Chile.

Before reaching Santiago we had already formed an opinion about the city. Most travelers which we have met in Peru and Bolivia were headed towards Buenos Aires for Christmas and New Years instead of Santiago. When asking why most of them made a face, as if to say isn`t it obvious, an answered simply that Buenos Aires is better in every way, like we should know this. It is more European, developed, tourist adapted, fun, richer in culture, known for its famous Argentinean steaks, and so on. Santiago on the other hand was described as gloomy, dreary and depressing, dark and was playing second ...

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Valparaiso journal: The Twin Cities

2008-01-24T17:10:17Z

a entry by Kina from a trip to Valparaiso, Chile.

Today we visited Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, two cities that basically cross into each others borders and are located just an hour north of Santiago. We started off by in Valparaiso which historically has been one of the most important port cities in Chile. During the Californian Gold Rush supplies streamed in from this city which made a major profit from its transportation abilities. However the opening of the Panama Canal has greatly affected South Americas west coast in general and the value of the port has lessened as a national asset. Tourist wise it is now known mostly for one of the ...

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