My reason for traveling to the end of the world was as much for the mystery it held in my mind as the rare, few, intriguing photos that I had seen, In order to acquaint myself with this place, I picked up a copy of Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia; where he details in both fact and fiction his journey through this vast and barren land on his ultimate quest to replace a piece of Mylodon skin (an extinct giant sloth), which he had been given as a child. Parts of the bo...

Troubled by the poor reviews and seemingly disdain from both foreigners and locals about Santiago, we resolved to spend the majority of our time in Valparaiso and only one full day in Santiago. However, I feel that the reviews from foreigners came from a desire for something different than whar they experienced at home, and the locals desired places that were also unlike where they resided. In my short time, I found Santiago to be a very intriguing city with a...

Arriving early in the morning to Valparaiso on a cloudy day after a 23 hour bus ride, one would expect that my first impression of the city would not be favorable. However, once we decided that we wanted to stay on one of the many hills which provide the backdrop for the city, we hopped in a cab and began driving down fabulous palm lined boulevards, passing european style monuments, and weaving our way up the steep hills into the brightly colored, corrugated meta...

Arriving at the Chilean border was definitely a bit of a culture shock. As Ian put it, "It's like crossing the border from Mexico to the United States!" Everything was different from the cleanliness and architecture to the much higher prices. On a side note, Americans apparently have to pay $100 when arriving by plane to Chile, but if you cross the border on land it doesn't cost anything. We arrived in Arica, Chile early in the morning from our over...