The McKenzies World Trip: 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.