Chile to Bolivia



We are writing this from the roof top of our hotel in La Paz, so I guess at about 3,700m, the sun is shining and I can see the sprawl of the city and a massive snow- capped mountain called Illamani in the distance, which stands at 6402m

So, we arrived in Santiago de Chile at 11.30am on Tuesday having left New Zealand at 2.30pm the same day, if you have ever travelled across the date line you will know it is a weird experience having to experience the same day twice ... also very tiring.

Santiago is a very modern, clean and friendly city and very much like any large European city. We spent 4 days here just pottering around and catching up on e-mails and blogs and sampling some local Chilean dishes. The only touristy thing was a wonderful day spent horse riding in the foothills of the Andes just outside Santiago.

Sarah and Bobby at the start of our horse ride with Rose





On the trail



Rose Deakin, the grandmother of one of Amber’s old school mates, Stanley,  lives just outside Santiago in the Cajon Del Maipo and coordinates horse rides using the local horsemen. So we headed out to the outskirts of Santiago on the Metro and were picked up and taken up into the Andes about 45 minutes drive. After a coffee and a chat with Rose we were saddled up and off we went up in to the mountains with our two local guides.  The path was pretty treacherous  but of course the horses had done this many time before so we felt safe. We stopped for lunch by a stream and pool, did some fishing and Amber caught the only two fish. The scenery was spectacular although there was no snow on the mountains and was very dry as they had had hardly any rain for 6 months (it’s all in the UK so we hear).

Bobby is shown how to gut a small fish

After 4 days in Santiago we headed north, making our way over a few days  to San Pedro de Attacama stopping en route at La Serena, Caldera, Bahia Ingles and Antofagasta. Bahia Ingles was a deserted beach resort which might have been nice in the summer but had nothing to offer us this time of year. All these places were interesting to see but that’s about it.

Alpacas in the park at La Serena

We didn't make it to Easter Island but this is an original Moai in the museum at La Serena

We all got a look at some planets and a close up of the moon at the observatory at Vicuna

Picture of the moon through the telescope

This clock was given to the city of Antofagasta by Great Britain

So after 4 day travelling we arrived in San Pedro. A good place to begin our acclimatisation to altitude being at 2500m. Although its main raison d’etre  now is mainly for tourists travelling to the nearby desert  and salt plains, it still retained  great character with traditional buildings and dusty streets of a desert town.

The biggest supermarket in San Pedro



Volcan Lincancabur overlooking San Pedro

Our hostel in San Pedro and yes Amber is doing her homework

The main street in San Pedro

17th century Iglesia San Pedro

There are many tours to do from here but we decided to stick to one that didn’t involve getting up at 4 am plus Steve took a mountain bike for a day to explore the surrounding desert. The scenery here is spectacular with volcanoes dotting the landscape and huge ranges of unusual  rocks rising from the salt plains.

Unusual rock formations in the Valley de Luna on the edge of the Salar de Attacama

The road into San Pedro

After a very relaxing 4 days in San Pedro we decided to take the well worn tour to Uyuni in Bolivia, which crosses the Andes at just under 5000m and into the Salar de Uyuni - the largest and highest salt plain in the world. Apart from a little dizziness and the occasional head ache we survived the altitude and amazingly the kids were both fine. What a fantastic tour, the first day we stopped at multi-coloured lakes, volcanoes, thermal springs , geysers and flamingos and we slept in a 6 bed dorm at 3600m by the side of the Laguna Colorada where the water was bright red and full of feeding flamingos (the red colour is algae that the flamingos love to eat). The night time temperature here was -10 and there was no heating, we had 5 blankets, slept in all our clothes and hats, and were still cold!

An old wreck of a bus at the Chile/Bolivian border, now a toilet!

Just before setting off into Bolivia with our 4x4 and driver Alberto

Amber posing at the border post at 4000m

The Laguna Verde, green due to large amounts of Arsenic!

A welcome hot bath at 4000m, the water was about 35 degrees outside was zero

More thermal activity at the highest point of our tour at 5000m

Our lodgings for the night, very basic and no heating

The second day was equally as spectacular and we stayed at an ‘Hotel’ made entirely of salt on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni. A little warmer this time but up at 6 to see the sunrise over the salt plain, then  on to Uyuni itself for a few hours before catching the night bus to La Paz.

Flamingoes on Laguna Honda

They call this the forest of Rocks



This one does look like a tree



The Salar de Uyuni stretches far in the distance

Yes it is salt as Amber taste checks

Kids snuggle up in their salt room

Giant cactus seem to be the only thing that grows here

Bob has grown a lot

Breakfast on the Salar de Uyuni

More fun with camera tricks

The tour group, 4 Brits (us), 3 Germans, 2 French, 2 Brazilian and 1 American

New Zealand - North Island

I am sure they  are wonderful places to live but the cities in NZ don’t have much to offer the passing tourist, for example in Wellington, the only building mentioned in the Lonely Planet was a ‘Beehive’ government building which was very disappointingly - not much like a beehive at all. Also a pole that squirted out water on the hour, lit up to give it some interest.  So our trip to Wellington consisted of curry in the evening and a quick jog around the harbour in the morning, blah d blah.....

Back on the road we decided to head up the east coast towards Gisbourne.  Stopping at a few nameless but very remote and pretty DOC campsites we arrived in Gisbourne. A bit of a seaside town, is probably lovely in the summer  but with gale force winds and rain we moved on quickly and made the longish journey to Rotorua.

A completely deserted beach in the middle of nowhere near Napier on the east coast

Cooking dinner in the van



Hungry children

Rotorua is the most touristy place in the North Island because of the hot springs and general thermal activity of the area so was pleasantly surprised on arrival that there weren’t too many tourists in town.  Fancied a bit of a change from van and stayed in a hostel a couple of nights out of our 3 there, so the kids caught up with some telly and parents sampled the local ales.  Steve took to the Red Wood mountain bike trails for a few hours which was great fun and quite challenging, Bob tried the bike jump park! Got a few bruises. 

V. smelly in Rotorua thermal area

More smelly steam at the park in Rotorua

and more .........

From  Rotorua we stopped at a nearby campsite with in house thermal pools included, 9 of them with temperatures up to 42 degrees C and all natural – fantastic,  then on to the Karangahake Gorge and then the Coromandel  where we went on some nice long tramps along disused mines (walks to you). Worst toilets so far go to the Wentworth DOC campsite in the Coromandel which not only smelt awful but were compost toilets with no seat lids and a nest of flies in wait!

Nice beach at Waihi near The Coromandel

Down aan old gold mining tunnel at Karangahake south of The Coromandel

Moving on we went through Auckland and north to some amazing beaches, a train ride on Gabriel the steam train that travels along the high street, the oldest tree (a Kauir) in New Zealand and I would guess in the world at over 1500 years old.

Amber sets the train off at Kawakawa



Bob gets up to drive the train (well he blew the whistle a few times)

ooh whats in ere?

a 1500 to 2000 year old Kauri tree

All in all the North Island was not a patch on the South for scenery and would guess it would be great for beaches and water based fun in the summer so glad we spent most of our time in the south.

Back into Auckland again for our flight to South America.  We left ourselves a couple of days to enjoy the city.  First night we camped in the north, not a very nice place, the tv was pinched out of the tv lounge the night we were there and no it wasn’t us.  Second night we camped in the south, much nicer area, the tv lounge smelled of sick this time but there was a tv.  We enjoyed visiting Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium and antartic experience – poor Kelly Tarlton, we had never heard of him, some genius diver/inventor chap that after several successful and failed dives on past shipwrecks to recover treasure, he set upon building this aquarium place in the sewers of Auckland, must have cost him a fortune, poor guy, cost him his life – died of a heart attack just as he opened the darn thing!

One Tree Hill in Auckland (with no tree anymore, just a large obelisk) and lots of sheep

A funny picture of Bob

Dropped off the combi to Lyndon, thanks very much, and caught our flight to Santiago.