| Highlights of Chile (December 2006) | ||||||||||||
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Like a slim chili pepper, Chile runs from the dry Atacaman desert to the icy southern tip of the Americas.
With time running out to reach Antarctica during its short summer, we needed to take in the highlights of this long strip of a country at high speed! |
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The Driest Desert In The World
After a hair-raising descent from the Bolivian altiplano we reached San Pedro, bordering the baking Atacama Desert. No chance of a cooling shower here - years can pass without a drop of rain falling on the parched earth. |
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Searching for...
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Star Struck
Dry air makes the Atacama a premier site for the world's observatories. Through beefy telescopes we gazed at distant galaxies and saw new constellations like the Southern Cross sparkling in an ink-black sky. |
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Death Of A Dictator
Pinochet presided over a brutal regime that subverted democracy and "disappeared" thousands of political opponents. Walking through Santiago after the news of his death was announced, the muted public response signaled a mature democracy finally moving on from those dark days. |
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Love Is In The Air
The boulevards of Santiago were chock-a-block with amorous Latin lovers of all ages exploring each others' tonsils. They must put something in the water here; the level of mid-street P.D.A.ing was outrageous! |
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Let The Wine Flow Like...err...Wine!
After horrifying encounters with Central American "wine", we reached at the Chilean wine region like a division of the French Legion crawling up to a Saharan oasis after weeks without water. We drank long and deep from the well... |
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The Lake District
The Patagonian Lake District: dotted with picturesque volcanoes, forests and - yes - lakes. We biked off-road until our legs turned to jelly and flopped ashore like drowning fish after capsizing on a Class 4 rafting trip. |
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Ferrying Patagonian Fjords
For 3 days we navigated the narrow channels and islands of Chilean Patagonia on a ferry. Cruising Pacific fog, thundering through the self-explanatory Gulf of Pain and squeezing between the narrowest of island channels, we were strongly reminded of our northern hemisphere ferry ride to Alaska, on the other side of the world. |
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Somewhere, Over The Rainbow
The persistent fog lifts for just a minute... |
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Cowboy Country
Patagonia is dominated by huge and empty plains. A southern hemisphere cowboy culture survives here to this day where men are men and sheep are nervous. |
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A World Of Paine
6 days of non-stop trekking around Torres del Paine, the world mecca for long distance hikers. Lugging all our supplies round towering granite peaks was an experience of transcendental wonder (or perhaps we are confusing that with mind-numbing pain and utter exhaustion?!) |
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A White Christmas
Christmas Day found us climbing for 15 hours before finally collapsing at the side of a glittering glacier. We set up camp, sang a carol, rustled up impromptu mulled wine and promptly passed out - utterly exhausted. Top Christmas Joke (consider it our gift to you!): Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are sitting under the tree on Christmas morning Darth: Luke, I know what Santa brought you for Christmas. Luke: How? Darth: I have felt your presents! |
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Into The Blue Yonder
After an amazing week, we dragged our tired limbs across long-grassed steppe to Ushuaia, the southern-most town in the world, and then on towards the frozen wastes of Antarctica |
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- See more pictures from this section - Go to next section : Antarctica - Go to previous section : Bolivia |
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