Friday 20th July 12 hour driving day today from Santiago on good "toll" roads with proper service areas. The scenery gradually changed to a more familiar (English?) landscape - cows, sheep, trees, grass, rolling hills - followed by miles of pine forest as we approached Pucon. Saturday 21st July Our planned trip to climb the local volcano was cancelled due to heavy snow making it inaccessible. We had heavy rain in Pucon but being "true Brits"...

Wednesday 18th July Another driving day to reach Santiago (de Chile). We followed the coast road and the desert landscape soon changed to a more green and pleasant environment. As we reached the valley in which Santiago is situated it is more fertile and there are many fruit trees, including orange and lemon groves, growing in this farming area. We arrived at our hotel in the centre of Santiago at about 4.30 and found ourselves in a modern, cosmopolitan ci...

Saturday 14th JulyA long drive today - about 500 km through the Atacama Desert (one of the driest deserts in the world). Fortunately the roads are good in Chile. We pulled off the road and set up camp just before dusk. There was a wonderful sunset over the mountains. David lit a campfire for us to sit round for dinner, and later there was the perfect opportunity for star gazing.Sunday 15th JulyAnother 500 km drive to La Serena (the second oldest city in Chile). W...

Monday 9th July We awoke to sleet and when we reached the truck park higher in the canyon it was heavy snow - 4/5 inches had fallen. There has been no snow in La Paz for 10 years !!! We travelled through the snow to the edge of town to be told the road to Potosi was blocked. So from 8.30 am to about 12 we sat in a blizzard in the truck with no heating! Brrrrrrrrr! Due to the delay we had to miss out visiting Potosi but we fortunately had an uneventful journey th...

Saturday 7th July The Overlanders took a city tour which showed us the two extremes of Bolivia - poverty and wealth (corruption). Bullet holes remain as a reminder of recent (2003) troubles, in buildings around the main square. There are multi-million dollar homes on the outskirts of La Paz in a very fashionable district (this is in the poorest country in the world!). Our tour also took in the Lunar Landscape, a natural phenomena caused by the erosion of t...