After the excitement of the Blue whale sittings we headed out along a lovely coastal road through desert. The north of Chile is primarily desert. Lots and lots of it. We stopped at a town with a large wooden church built in the 1860's by English carpenters in Chile to help build the railway. That night we camped in amongst some eeiry animal shaped rocks by the side of the highway. The desert area is quite scenic but all the towns seem dirty, dusty and run down...

We left Rancagua next morning after another yummy buffet breakfast. It was Sunday so we hoped to get through the capital Santiago without to much trouble. As we approached Santiago a policeman waved us down. Not a good start! He looked quite serious but only wanted to see Peter's driving licence. It is quite funny when you see them trying to read the reverse side, it's so complicated and you can see them give a knowing nod whilst trying not to look completely ba...

The day before we left Pucon Arthur developed ANOTHER flat tyre in the same one that had just been fixed days before! Luckily there was a vulcanisation shop at the end of the road so we popped in and got it repaired. We intended to drive slowly (actually Arthur only does slowly) north to get to a town call Rancagua by Saturday to go on a tour to the nearby mining town of Sewell. On the way we stopped at a train museum based around an old train yard. The ...

After 5 nights we finally left Puerto Varas. On the way out of town we popped into the third of the supermarkets, for a quick look, a smallish Jumbo. We were not disappointed and came out with big smiles and a trolley full of goodies. So many infact we have filled the food cupboard, an area under the bed and a plastic box on the floor. We drove towards Puyehue National Park which was supposed to have some scenic roads. On the way we camped in an actual campsit...