Martin had prepped us for a warm, sunny beach town with temperatures of 30C. We were in for a rude shock: we were in between seasons and the town was foggy, grey and cold - the weather, I believe, played a big part in dampening our spirits and souring our impressions of the town. With very low expectations, I booked myself on the Valle de Elqui tour (Elqui means trunk of the Andes) just to give myself something to do as it was too depressing to spend a whole day...

We said our farewells to Matt, Hannah, Lisa, Heather, Edi, Amir and Will in Santiago, and took on 7 newcomers to the group: - Will & Claire (England) - Gareth & Sian (England) - Martin (England) - Breanna & Nimue (New Zealand) They are nice folks, although Breanna and Nimue have kept to themselves mainly; they are young lasses and not seasoned travellers, and are a little nervous of venturing out on their own. I spent most of the first day explo...

Louisa, Tom, Kim & I took a bus to Valparaiso. Our initial impressions are of a dirty and smelly town and we were not at all impressed by it. The town has a busy port; the lowlands stretching along the coast represents the commercial and governmental distrcit, and the highlands are made up of many hills housing a mixture of colourful homes (both mansions and slums), churches, and shops. There are 16 ascensors (funicular railways) spread across town which p...

The Chilean Lake District is very pretty, with a huge variety of activities on offer in Pucon: hiking up the volcano, skiing, white water rafting, horse riding, mountain biking, ziplining, thermal baths. My bad knee had resurfaced in Buenos Aires, and I am planning to give it plenty of rest so I can get through the Inca Trail in 4 weeks time. I opted out of the volcano hike (which I would have loved to have done) and instead enjoyed an afternoon of horse riding ...

We were not so lucky the next day when we went on a tour to Chiloe Island - it reverted to its typical wet, grey and cold weather. It was an interesting trip - Chiloe had historically been (and still is) isolated from the rest of the country, and was the last part of the country to accept Chilean independence (many years after the rest of the country had been liberated from Spain); it has its own unique cultural traditions and cuisine; and the Chilotans have more...