After the chaos of Osorno, I was looking forward to a nice quiet campsite for the next few days. I certainly found quiet – so quiet, in fact, that despite being ‘open’, the campsite didn’t even have any water in the toilet cisterns and the showers were still in a state of having woodwork done…

Getting there The drive from Valdivia was easy. Again, traffic on Ruta 5 was surprisingly light. There were two tolls, one just south of Valdivia (2200CLP, about £2.20) and another at the exit to Osorno (600CLP). There were none of the problems with roadworks that affected me yesterday. The only issue was finding the hotel.…

Getting here I’d been warned by Carlos back in Temuco that Valdivia isn’t an easy place to drive. So it turned out. This is a city of complex one-way systems, multiple lanes and taxis that aren’t afraid to undertake you if you don’t know where you’re going. But that wasn’t the biggest problem. The main…

Getting here The journey from Temuco to Villarica is very straightforward and traffic was light. Ruta 5, as the Panamerican Highway is known in Chile, is a toll road but the only toll I had to pay was 2200CLP (about £2.20) just South of Temuco. Campsites Having thought that my drive (given my unfamiliarity with…

Getting here From Iquique, I flew to Santiago and then, after a one night stay, I flew further south to Temuco. Don’t worry: I’ll be returning to Santiago at the end of the trip. My logic is that, if I get delayed by bad weather in Tierra del Fuego, which is not unlikely, it’s better…

The journey here The journey to San Pedro de Atacama from Calama is a relatively short one: about 1h45m according to the timetable. Unfortunately, whilst the bus arrived in Calama only a couple minutes late, we had to refill at the Tur-Bus maintenance depot in Calama which added a further delay, and then someone who…

Calama is not particularly known for anything. My only reason for stopping here was as for acclimatisation at a moderate altitude (7000ft) before climbing higher to San Pedro de Atacama (9000ft, with nearby sites at up to 13,500ft). Journey there I came to Calama by bus from Iquique. Tur-Bus has a relatively regular service, and…

I’m starting my journey in Iquique, a city about 100 miles south of the Peruvian border, in the North of Chile. My guidebook tells me that Iquique once had the highest consumption of Champagne per capita anywhere in the world, such was the boom the city went through in the late 19th century, after nitrates…

As predicted by my itinerary, today has been a pretty boring day, with far too long spent in airport departure lounges. The trip to Iquique involves three flights: London-Madrid, Madrid-Santiago, Santiago-Iquique. Unfortunately flight availability conspired against me, even though I booked the flights in March, and so each of the connections was incredibly long. All…