Chile - the unexpected gem

Great Chile. More than 4,300km from north to south. Great Chile. A constant flow of unexpected treasures on the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sESA9WIl8A0

Albeit we didn't hear much about Chile before this trip, we have almost spent as much time in this land as in Colombia, so we thought it deserved a post for its own. Since we crossed the northern border with Peru into this elongated country we have mostly travelled by car, a decision that has given us the freedom to go wherever we wanted whenever we pleased. Furthermore, the freedom to set up our rooftop tent wherever we chose and spend the night right there. We started in Arica by renting a 4x4 for a week to test the feasibility of our future plans. The national parks in the north of the country are not so well known, so we were on our own most of the time. The exception was our regular visits to the various police huts on our way where we would report our presence and intentions so they could make sure we were safe through these isolated lands. They were so friendly they even invited us to tea and coffee once! During this time, we drove on rivers and crazy unpaved roads; visited remote lakes and volcanoes; watched flamingoes, vicuñas, llamas and vizcachas (massive rabbits); wild camped next to salt flats, rivers and sulphurous hot springs; and ate lots of pasta, rice and palta amongst other more local cuisine. But the most important thing is that we loved it all! Even changing the first tyre of our lives! We also spent a few days exploring the surroundings of San Pedro de Atacama before returning the car. It was lovely but the regular admission fees and the amount of tourists made it less attractive than the northern parks; the latter will stay in our hearts forever. The experience was a success, so we started our way down south to Santiago to buy a car. Before arriving to the capital, we spent a couple of gorgeous days in the Elqui Valley, contemplating the most extraordinary sky and visiting local villages. This small detour was totally worth it and didn't prevent us to arrive to Santiago to buy a car just in time for my brother's arrival. I must say that despite several mistakes from the agency we were using as intermediary, the process was quite slick. The only downside was that the official document proving ownership (padrón) would take over a month to be issued... I guess we've all had to deal with bureaucracy at some point in our lives. Hopefully the padrón was only necessary to cross borders, so once we had our mobile duplex up and running, everything went very smoothly. With Jon we visited seaside towns around Santiago, lovely vineyards in Santa Cruz and numerous national parks, glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, islands and lakes while we headed south. We even celebrated his birthday in Puerto Varas! I initially thought he was going to make it until Ushuaia but when we were hit by all these beauties on our way, it became obvious that he was going to leave us much further north. Indeed he only made it to Puerto Río Tranquilo, not even three fifths of the entire way! One of the best things from our time together was the varied and extraordinary places we got to camp by. Fitting 3 bodies in a tent for 3 weeks may have not sounded easy at first, but we soon grew used to the squeezing at night and the sounds of each other. The further south the colder it was so we were really going to miss Jon at some point! Without him we carried in the same way on the Carretera Austral through Puerto Ibañez, Chile Chico, Cochrane and Caleta Tortel until Villa O'Higgins, the very end of it. Many more stunning lakes, icebergs, a great glacier and the beautiful Patagonia National Park awaited us before crossing into Argentina. But that wasn't the end of Chile! From the border until Ushuaia we went through Chile a couple of times again and looked at the impressive Torres del Paine from the distance and spied on the only King Penguin colony in South America. Really touching! In comparison to Peru, Chile is a country with little known historic remains and perhaps not such a popular tourist destination. However, the diversity of its landscapes made it one of our favourite nations to visit, almost comparable to New Zealand. Overall, the landscape and sights we have seen were extraordinary but it would have not been the same without the kindness and help we got from the chilean people we met on the road. A very friendly culture indeed!