Arriving in Auckland was a huge culture shock. It seemed so clean, ordered and subdued compared to South America. And people spoke English (though I have come to the conclusion that wherever you are in the English speaking world, if you are out and about before 7am most of those you come across - street cleaners, bus drivers, night porters etc - will not be native English speakers. I think speaking English makes us sleep too much!). We touched down at 4am knowi...

Quite a few people told us that we would not like Santiago, telling us stories of being ripped off, or that it was unfriendly, but it turned out to be exactly what we needed. We stayed in the Providencia area, which is very well developed and very safe, but visited lots of the other areas. The highlight was a day at the races. We found the track after wandering through some of the less well off areas, but this had the added benefit of being able to have lunch and...

Valparaiso, or Valpo as it's known locally, is an odd place. It is a port town and was once the busiest in S America (before Panama Canal opened). Its location was obviously chosen for it usefulness as a port, rather than its suitability as a place to build a town. There is a small flat area around the port but the dominating feature is a ring of steep hills that surround that area. The flat bit has all the buildings that you would associate with a old major port...

I am fully aware that those sitting in the MOD, in busy offices or 'working from home' who read the following statement will have no sympathy whatsoever and may think I have lost the plot. However……….travelling can be hard work and sometimes you need a break from finding rooms, working out which bus to take, identifying a place where veggies can eat and trying not to get ripped off. Hence we found ourselves spending 5 days doing very little in a place calle...

Our next stop, San Pedro De Atacama was a hot, dusty and unfriendly town in the desert of Northern Chile. As we headed north from Talca on our bus, I was a little sad to be leaving the greenness of the Maipa Valley and push once again into the desert, 'cause it has to be said, I hate deserts.It is not because I associate them with some of the grimmer places I have served, I just think they are ugly.For those that have not experienced desert, my experience in M...