Chile

September 2nd - September 15th

Arica - San Pedro de Atacama

We had a day at each of these places. Arica is a nice little beach town near the Peruvian border. San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in the middle of the Atacama desert. We just hung out at a natural pool since the tours to see the geysers were pretty expensive.

Santiago

Ryan met a great guy named Den while studying abroad in Australia. Den met us at the Metro and let us crash in his guest house in Santiago. He has a very cool and very cultural family. His parents are Swiss, so French is spoken in the home while Spanish is spoken on the street. They also speak English. Den has his pilot´s license and needed to get a practice lesson in and offered to take us along for the ride. It was spectacular to cruise above Santiago at only 5,000ft. We are very gracious to Den´s family for letting us stay at his place.

Santiago surprised a little because although we knew it would be more developed than Peru, we didn´t realize how developed it would be. Being in Santiago was like being in the States, except everyone spoke Spanish. I was very impressed by Chile´s public transportation system and general infrastructure. Unfortunately, it appears the culture is becoming too Westernized. All the radio stations are in English and it is hard to find music with a Latin influence.

Puerto Montt- Isla Chiloe

We then headed south to said cities. They are small little port towns that offer breathtaking scenery on the ocean but not necesarily a whole lot to do.

Punta Arenas - Puerto Natales

These towns are located about as far south as one can go. From Punta Arenas we crossed the Strait of Magellan into the Tierra del Fuego, not all that far from Antartica.

National Park - Torres de Paine

We did a quick day and half trek to see the towers in this national park located in the beautiful Patagonia region of Chile. It was absolutely beautiful and I would have loved to have done the 4 day hike had we had time. It would probably also be worthwhile to check out the skiing in Bariloche if we had the time and more importantly the money, although cheap relatively speaking.

Overall Thoughts on Chile

Chile is compartively very expensive to Peru. Coming from the States, I don´t think you´d find a bargain either. The Spanish was a little more difficult to speak here because it is spoken faster and the general population tends to drop the last syllables of most words, especially those that end with the letter S. Chile is considered the most developed country in South America and I have a feeling that will hold true.