Monte Grande Having decided the previous day that it wasn't worth attempting to climb the mountain after all. (partly as we coudn't find where the path up started) We slept quite late today and got up at around 12. After a lovely breakfast of ham and tomato sandwiches we set off in the opposite direction from Los Nichos in the direction of a small village called Monte Grande. We admired the wonderfull scenery as we walked about 5km and arrived to find a small...

Los Nichos Pisco Distillery We made a special effort to get up early today, which wasnt a problem for me as I was freezing cold and hadnt slept properly at all :(( The reason for our rising at 7.30 was that we'd been told about a hike to the top of the mountain behind us that should take about 3 hours to reach the summit and we wanted to leave whilst it was still cool as the heat in the middle of the day is exhausting at over 30 degrees! After an attempted br...

Pisco Elqui When we got off the bus in Coquimbo it was still dark. We collected our baggage from the irritated man who had put our bags in the wrong place because he didn't bother to listen to us the night before when we told him where we were going!! We decided to wait until it was light before walking the mile or so to the hostel and while we waited I got some water and two mystery cakes (layers of custard and pastry with chocolate icing I think) from the cof...

Last day in Valpo we got up and packed our bags ready for our departure later on in the evening, leaving them in a corner of the room so they were out of the way should the guy who runs the place actually decide to do any cleaning (the 4 beds used by the other guests were as yet still unmade 3 days later!). Then we decided to go out and look round the town once more and as we had a few dollars left over, maybe have a go on one of the old cable cars of which t...

Vina del Mar By the time we had got up, showered, etc... and walked down to the coast where we planned to catch the bus to Vina Del Mar it was around 12:30. Vina Del Mar (Vina for short) used to be another town located around the bay from Valparaiso, however the two places have now expanded so much that there is no longer any actual boundary between the two. We flagged down a microbus which took about 25 mins to drive around the bay and dropped us off at the ...