Category: Chile

After a longer than intended stint in Chile, we bid it farewell for Argentina, as we continue our loop back up the Eastern side of the Andes.

Our exit has been pretty smooth. The bus ride back from Pudeto in the Torres del Paine National Park showed us the full extent of the walk we’d just accomplished. It now makes much more sense why it took so long to get between legs! The mountains and peaks look even more vast and impressive from afar, and we can’t believe we were walking at their feet just a day or two ago.

We have one last night in Puerto Natales and, after returning my jacket and picking up our full packs, we decide to just eat in our latest hotel. We’re paying stupid money to stay in this basic locale after realising too late how far in advance you need to book accommodation here, and it’s made all the more painful when the receptionist tells us we can avoid the 19% VAT if we pay in dollars (which we don’t have), or avoid a debit card charge if we pay by credit card (which we also don’t have). It’s an oddity of Chile we won’t miss. Not paying the tax, but being constantly reminded we can avoid VAT if you use USD and people looking at us like it’s our choice to pay it, that and the exorbitant cash withdrawal fees.

Bags repacked, mediocre breakfast inhaled, we’re back on a bus to take us to El Calafate, a town on the Argentina side of Patagonia. Let’s see what this next leg brings!

Chile Rule of 3 Summary

Highlights (James) – San Pedro scenery and atmosphere, avalanches in valle Frances, the enormity of glacier grey

Highlights (Alex) – bimbling about on bikes in the sunshine at the vineyard, the bowl-like range at Mirador Britanico, Glacier Grey disappearing into the sky like the end of the world (special mention to James’ Halloween meal and the run in Puerto Natales where I felt really ‘present’).

Lowlights (James) – food poisoning and ongoing nausea, being on edge in Valparaiso, supermarket shopping in Santiago (the prices!!!)

Lowlights (Alex) – Mendoza getting scrapped, our first blow-out (pretty good for 2 months being constantly in each other’s company, all good again), being electrocuted all the time and still flinching before touching any metal door handle

Takeaways (James) – finding clarity on what environments make me happy, the culture seemed less distinctive here, Chile is more westernised compared to Peru/Bolivia

Takeaways (Alex) – I need to learn to let go of my idea/dream of what this trip should be and try and go more with the flow of what it actually is. Humans are capable of horrendous things, and we seem to learn nothing to stop the same abuses happening over and over. The USA really messed up Latin America with all its ‘meddling’.

How to Describe Chile (James) – varied – from bone dry deserts to giant slabs of ice, the Switzerland of South America (pricey but beautiful), go to Patagonia!

How to Describe Chile (Alex) – expensive, ‘local’ cuisine severely lacking (Jordan tells us a theory that it’s because all the food would get exported so they didn’t learn to embrace what they had like peru did), just beautiful, from the driest of sandy deserts to snowy peaks of Patagonia.

Entertainment

TV & Film: Cyberpunk, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Killers of the Flower Moon, Chef’s Table, Ricky Gervais, Black Mirror, Beckham

Books: Motorcycle Diaries

Podcasts: A short history of…, TOTD, Criminal, This Is Love

Tips for the W

Before we forget, here’s some tips for anyone else who is going to do the W in 5 days, 4 nights:

• Don’t bother pre-booking and paying for lunches, they were not worth the money, and there are cafes on the way that you can buy pizza/burger/quesadilla for significantly less at lunch-times. You just have to check the hours and your route if you don’t do the same as ours as they only serve these at certain times
• there is very little information easily provided, but you can email the companies (Vertice or Las Torres) and they should get back to you
• Toilet roll was actually readily provided, only once did I need to use my own
• showers in Chileno and Grey (even the refugio) are in cold blocks. Frances has the best, you wouldn’t think you were in a campsite. Paine Grande was inside the refugio, don’t know what the camp was like
• you have to take all your rubbish with you throughout the trek and out of the park to Puerto Natales, think about that when considering whether you take a can of tuna in oil (oops)
• If you are going to make your own lunches, take wraps instead of sandwiches. The bread doesn’t get squashed and it takes up less space
• East to west has the benefits of starting out camping and then being able to end in the refugios. You don’t have the sun in your eyes on the walks. You get the view of the green lake opening up infront of you rather than having to keep looking back. And you get the steepest part done on the first day when you have the most energy and adrenaline
• wine is better value than beer, the measures are a full glass, no 125ml here!
• have your booking information downloaded or printed, and make sure you get what you’ve paid for. More than once they didn’t have a clue and guests had to remind them they were owed a drink, meal, pillow
• you can fill up water from the mountain streams or the campsites/refugios
• day 2 was the worst for us, I think we’re just not used to carrying so much weight, but it was a long day with all our kit and we found it the hardest for that reason
• practice walking with weight, we just practiced walking
• take blister plasters and tape to stop any from forming early on
• if you can get to Grey early enough, maybe you could make it to the elusive third bridge, but we didn’t have time or energy
• the boat back to Puedto was an hour late, and we still had 2 hours to kill until our pre-booked bus, which was annoying as it was too cold to sit outside. There is a lovely warm cafe, but of course you need to buy something
• Internet was $10 for 1 hour. Just enjoy switching off
• there were plugs in Chileno, Paine Grande and Grey, although we just used our power bank as we didn’t take our adaptor
• The tents in Chileno and Frances were brilliant. Yes, they were on a raised platform, but they included a mattress so you didn’t need a roll mat, and you didn’t have to worry about mice. The campsite in Paine Grande was totally exposed to the strong wind, and the one in Grey was on a woodland floor. I think camping with Vertice (Paine Grande Grey) would have been a very different experience to the camping we did with Las Torres (Chileno, Frances)
• the staff here are avid adventurers themselves, service is not their vocation, expect chaos, but with a smile
• the Las Torres website is confusingand horrible, Chileno costs about $50 more than Frances. No idea why and that was not clear to me when I booked it
• you might get lucky with being able to rent a sleeping bag on site, but it’s probably not worth the risk
• Staying at Chileno gives you a second chance at seeing the Torres
• Rental Natales in Puerto Natales were brilliant for hiring a warm jacket for the trip. There were also other rental places but they opened after 3pm so I can’t vouch for them. Plus Guillermo at Rental Natales is lovely
• There are boutique hiking stores selling all your brand-name kit. There are also your cheap everyday stores that sell your non-brand stuff. Like our Hong hiking poles and waterproof suit in a bag for £13
• Highly recommend a buff/snood for the wind, everywhere, not just for the W
• you need to book early, everywhere sells out fast. We’re pretty sure the travel agencies reserve everything before they open up, so you might get lucky when they release their chunks at later dates, but when we looked on day 1 of bookings opening for the season, many places were already sold out. Jordan had to pay to sleep in a tent even though he was carrying his own because that was all that was available
• if you can’t do the full W, there are ways to do day hikes to see the Torres del Paine and Glacier Grey. I’m not sure about Valle Frances. There was a guy doing the central and right leg and then taking the boat to the left leg, because that was the only available way to do it. If you’re determined, you can find a way. It just may be a bit of a weird way.
• if you can’t do the day hikes either, there are some incredible views from the south side of the lake that are accessible by tour group in a car/bus, and on the expensive lago grey boat
• there will be a printout of the weather forecast near or by each Refugio eatery, just ask if you can’t find it
• That being said, I went in October before and the weather was better than what we had in November this year. There’s no predicting the weather. Every forecast except day 1 was wrong.

The Bits In Between

• our first overnight in the airport = freezing
• a distinct lack of clear signage to help people navigate buses, and without Google maps, I don’t know how you know where you are
• the buses have WiFi on them!
• we keep thinking of how great our time was with our guides Odi and Walter, and how lucky we were to have them guide us on the Inca Trail and Uyuni respectively. It must be hard work being a guide and crossing paths with so many tourists each year, so we’re just so grateful for the energy they put in, and we carry what they taught us with us still to this day
• having my first bit of intentional banana. We struggled to find fruit (that wasn’t incredibly expensive) in Santiago and so I resorted to trying a chunk of banana in my morning oats to help ‘liven’ it up
• I still dislike bananas intensely
• so many bear/dogs just laying in the sun in Puerto Natales as the wind blew in their face. Absolutely gorgeous creatures and way calmer than any strays we’ve come across so far
• having to create a bath plug out of a plastic wrapper and socks because apparently tourists steal them (?!)
• forks being a sought after commodity and having to make do with teaspoons and knives
• nearly everyone on the W seemed significantly more capable than us. I don’t think we overtook anyone. Compared to being the gazelles of the Inca Trail, we can’t figure out whether our fitness has tanked, or everyone here is here for a holiday and way more prepared
• listening to podcasts with adverts of products and services from home makes me weirdly miss it more
• In San Pedro we saw an odd painting of a stripey man, which we then saw throughout Puerto Natales and the W. We eventually found out (thanks to Google Lens) that these depictions are of the Selk’nam tribe, one of the last indigenous communities to meet European colonialists in Latin America.
• you probably think you know what happens next, but it’s even worse than you’re probably imagining. There is a genocide of these people, most are slaughtered in the name of “progress” or “civilisation” and for the ranchers to protect “their” land. Others are stolen and sent to human zoos in Europe, where they are also studied “for science”
• this tribe is sadly now extinct, along with their language. I strongly recommend reading about the tribe, their history, and what our ancestors did to them
• we see the indigenous community represented everywhere, including stunning portraits in the Paine Grande Refugio on the W. There’s beautiful murals painted all over Puerto Natales of these people. The Selk’nam ‘spirits’ are even the artwork on some buses. What was done to them is a loss to us all, but it gives me some hope in humanity that these stories are being brought to light, that their existence from the history books isn’t wiped out like their existence on the planet was, that they continue to be remembered, and continue to remind us of the capacity of human cruelty, to inspire us to fight against the worst of our species commiting these atrocities again.

Photos From the Cutting Room Floor

Painting of a Selk’nam spirit in San Pedro de Atacama, a long way from home!:

James not enjoying the odd flavour of the Terremoto cocktail:

After getting my Vivo boots from my mum’s colleague, with the sun shining, and a nice jaunt around the more sophisticated part of Santiago, this sign is a little reminder. (We then spend 20 minutes walking in a cold torrential downpour trying to find the cinema we didn’t realise was so far away and life feels less good again):

Some more of the fantastic sunset in Santiago:

Playing around in the vineyard:

What do you do when you’re leaving your accommodation that day and you only have oats and icecream left… mix them together for breakfast. Tasted really good!

In case you weren’t sure which button to press on the airplane walkway:

First view of the snowy peaks of the south of Chile from the plane:

Some of the Puerto Natales bear-dogs chilling out after a few too many beers:

Treating ourselves to brisket burgers in Puerto Natales:

Finding an amazing pizza/pasta place with a visual menu:

What to do if you see a puma:

And many more from the W:

Bit disconcerting seeing this in the shower!

Trying to predict the weather each day and failing:

Two fires caused by backpackers. One accidentally kicked over their stove. The other set fire to some toilet roll (an extreme attempt to leave no trace?). The devastation is the size Santiago:

Day Three – Follow the orange stick road

7.30am. No breakfast booked for today but we want to make an early start as there is a chance the weather might turn nasty. Alex has slept well and is excited to tell me how clear the sky is this morning, it’s looking like a good day ahead. In the night, she escaped the tent to use the loo, with a clear sky and no moon around she saw a beautiful night sky brimming with stars. She tells me about seeing shooting stars and even thinks she saw the light of a dying star go out and never come back.

Our first segment is a simple half hour hop across to Refugio Italiano, an out-of-service campsite but it’s still possible to leave our bags as we’ll return this way later. Alex sets a mean pace along the flat path and we arrive in no time. There’s no other choice for breakfast but to make up cheese and ham tortilla wraps that we’ve carried with us in preparation. A quick check of the map and it’s time to begin the ascent.

Leaving a bag and as much weight as we can behind us, we climb up into the wooded area above Italiano. The ground is crowded with large trees both dead and alive, there’s no forestry here so it’s a chaotic scene of nature left untouched. We pass an outhouse building, some toilet cabins and the remains of a long abandoned campsite. A sign indicates the park rangers have closed the camp to allow the vegetation to regrow. We’re just under 200m above sea level, a plaque suggests we’ll be climbing up to around 970m before lunch.

We’re blessed to be at one with nature, the morning sun shines brightly on the green leaves of the trees and the sky is a vivid blue. The only sounds we can hear are the birds happily tweeting, the wind gently blowing the branches and the river of melted snow roaring through the valley to our side. We pass the guys from Dallas and give them our greetings. Not long after, a hiker who waited with us at the top of Torres for the weather to clear, catches up with us and hops on past saying hello. It’s nice to see some familiar faces on these trails, everyone is very friendly offering a ‘hello’, ‘hola’ or ‘gracias’ each time we pass or let them through.

Somewhere around 450m up we reach Mirador (viewpoint) Frances, we’ve left the woods behind and the scenery has opened up, revealing a magnificent view of the towering Frances glacier.

It doesn’t take long to hear the first cracks. A few seconds later and another fierce rumble and a misty cloud of snow reveals the scene of the latest avalanche. Before long snow is tumbling in multiple locations on the massive mountain. At times it creates waterfall like cascades of white powder flowing down the cliffs. The noise is incredible, like a roar of thunder or a powerful jet engine, it reverberates around the valley sounding a lot more intimidating than it looks. We’re a safe distance away though, we wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the valley with icy swords of Damocles dangling above our heads, ready to drop without warning. I could stay here all day watching this impressive show of nature but we’re just halfway to the top and not even a quarter of the way through today’s distance goal.

We dive back into the shelter of the woods and continue upwards. After a while, a huge expanse of rocks and dead trees opens up and we’re exposed to a bitter wind. There is a great view of the peaks surrounding the valley we’re in but we don’t wait around for long, knowing the best view awaits us at the top.

Later on, the ‘steep section’ begins but thankfully it’s only around 10 minutes up. We’ve reached Mirador Britannica and reward ourselves with a bag of trail mix and some chocolate. We’re at the peak of the central point of the W, in a seeming bowl surrounded by granite peaks on all sides. Like the green lake yesterday, it’s another vast view that is impossible to take it all at once. Time for some photos.

The way down seems to go quickly for me but Alex is flagging a bit. I put on some music to distract her and also cure the latest earworm she has stuck in her head! Arriving back at Mirador Frances we set down for some lunch, ham and cheese wraps once more but this time with a side of Doritos! The avalanches are taking a time-out and we enjoy lunch simply admiring one of the most stunning views in the world.

We race back down to Italiano and pick up the rest of our gear we’d left behind. The sun and wind is surprisingly fierce by the mid-afternoon so we agree it’s best to make tracks towards our evening stay while we still have some energy. We chat away along the undulating path and we’re soon back amongst the spring flora. Eventually, this gives way to a moving sight, thousands of bare grey trunks and branches litter the area from the lake all the way up to near the top of the mountain.

As we walk on, the graveyard of trees extends for miles around. Alex already knows the cause but it later becomes clear as black charcoal branches give the obvious clue as to what happened here. A fire started at Refugio Grey, an area we won’t reach until tomorrow night, that spread all the way down here and miles beyond. It must have killed thousands of trees, plants, bushes and countless wildlife too. We find out later there have actually been two devastating fires in the park since 2005.

Leaving the sombre scene behind we find refuge from the wind and share a final bag of trail mix to get us through to the end of this 7.5km section. The wind is once again blowing a gale and the mist on top of the lake shimmers a gorgeous prism of colours. We both plug in podcasts to take our minds off the weather and our aching legs. They make a good distraction and Alex beams a smile at me when she sees our Refugio for the night inviting us towards it in the distance.

Check-in is fairly painless for once, tonight we’ll be sleeping in a six person dorm within the large Refugio building. We dump our stuff in the dorm and head for a drink in the bar overlooking both the nearby lake and the glorious mountains, bathing in the evening sun.

Dinner is a help yourself buffet and we both pile our plates sky high. Later, we regret eating quite so much in a short space of time! We consider waiting for the night sky and stargazing together but by 10pm although the sun has gone down over an hour ago, the sky is still blue. We decide to call it a night and head to the dorm, the room is so hot that everyone is sleeping clothed on top of their duvets. I’m grateful when one of our dorm mates has enough and finds a way to open the window, a complete waste of energy and heat but at least we can sleep more comfortably.

Day 4 – Greyt Expectations

8.00am. A lie in! After a night surrounded by a cacophony of snoring, we roll out of bed for our final full day in the park. Breakfast is another buffet and we gorge on cereal, eggs, yoghurt, ham and cheese sandwiches and sponge cake! We will take the boat home from near here tomorrow so we leave dirty clothes and other unneeded items behind to save weight. Picking up our brown paper bag lunches we head North in the direction of Refugio Grey where we’ll spend our final night in this glorious park.

We pass through another area of burned out and dead trees, sprawling and collapsed in all directions. Yesterday it seemed like an interesting spectacle, today it feels like a sad reminder of the mass destruction, likely caused by accident, but devastating all the same.

We pass Laguna Los Patos (The Ducks’ Lagoon), the next body of water we see is Lago Grey, a huge lake with a peculiar colour, hence it’s name. It is a far cry from the luscious bluey-green lake we saw the last two days, this is more washed out. Continuing on, Alex invites me to walk in front of her, I suspect there must be something up ahead and sure enough on the horizon the edge of the glacier appears. It stretches well into the distance, we overhear a nearby guide explain it is the 3rd largest body of freshwater in the world!

By the time we’ve finished the almost four hour trek from where we set off we’re both struggling with our shoulders and backs, we’re relieved to arrive at the refugio. I check us in and we sit outside in the sun to eat our packed lunches. It’s only chicken and cheese sandwiches but it hits the spot and we feel better having a break from our bags. This afternoon we’re able to leave all of our stuff at the refugio and only carry a couple of snacks in our pockets while we take a bonus trip to get closer to the glacier.

Buoyed by finally being free of carrying backpacks, we trot off towards a viewpoint just beyond the camping section of this refugio. From here we have uninterrupted views and stare at the biblical chunk of frozen water in front of us, trying to make sense of the scale of it. The colour is unlike anything I’ve seen in the natural world before and I can only compare the unusual blue to the candyfloss you find at fairgrounds. Alex is determined to touch a part of the glacier so we descend down to where a piece has helpfully washed up on the rocks below.

Curiousity satisfied, we continue North, wanting to see how far we can push it before we’ll need to turn back and freshen up before dinner. On the way up, some hikers are surprised to see us, they have been doing the O trek which is a one way route only. We’re now on a section where the W and O routes cross over so we’re likely the first people they’ve seen coming in the opposite direction for a number of days.

Eventually we reach a suspension bridge bouncing above a valley far below as a group of hikers make their way across one by one. We ask the first about the route ahead of us and he explains there are two more bridges we’ll need to cross to get closer to being parallel with the nose of the glacier.

It takes us quite a while to reach the second bridge, the elevation gain takes us by surprise, we’re both determined but also tiring by this point in the day. Just beyond the second bridge lies another excellent viewpoint. From here we are much closer to the glacier but we can’t see the next bridge anywhere in the distance.

Contemplating our next move another hiker comes up to the viewpoint, they advise it’s another hour to the next bridge. We wager we’ve probably got just enough energy to push on but time is against us, but not then the three hour return on top, and we decide it’s been a fantastic day. We agree to head back while we’re still in good spirits and not burn ourselves out.

We both pop our headphones in and the distraction means we’re back at the refugio in what feels like no time at all. On the way back we see the ferry taking visitors close to the glacier. It looks ridiculously small on the massive expanse of water and gives a good sense of scale to the surrounding mountains and ice sheet.

Exhausted, we have a lie down before dinner, I write this blog while Alex finishes the Valparaiso text, it’s a part-time job! Just after 7pm we head through to the bar/restaurant area. Large groups are making a lot of noise and are in a party mood, fair play to them, they’ve just finished the gruelling O trek. We celebrate our own achievements with a bottle of red wine, priced relatively well compared to everything else (£9 for a bottle of beer).

Dinner is similar to last night and we haven’t learned our lesson, getting our money’s worth with mountains of mash, meat and vegetables. We head to bed around 9pm, the dorm is a bit cosier and much cooler than the sauna we slept in last night.

Epilogue – The Return

6.30am. That’s when we should be eating breakfast, however none of the staff seem aware of our request for food before 7am. Alex grabs a rushing through staff member and tells us they didn’t get the message of our early breakfast, but quickly brings out the buffet. We inhale what we can and have our last conversation with the chaps from Dallas, we finally learn their names, Jeff and Vidya. We wish them well, collect our lunches and hit the road later than we’d planned. Our boat leaves at 11am from the Paine Grey Refugio and if we miss it, the next one is 4.30pm which means we’d miss our bus home.

The walk yesterday took 3h40m so we’re conscious we’ll need a good pace to collect our things and make the boat. We plug in our headphones and I set a vicious pace as we retrace our steps. Alex does well to keep up as I scramble up rocks and almost jog along the flat sections. Around halfway we take one last look at the glacier and march on, we’re making good time.

The Paine Grande mountain emerges from the clouds on our left and we can see it’s had a fresh sprinkling of snow making it look harsh, wintry and more imposing than before. The only time we stop for breath is to let large groups of hikers through the narrow path. Amazingly we arrive at the refugio at 9.40am, we’ve done the return trip in 2h25m. I suppose it goes to show when we really want to we can shift up a couple of gears. We seek the shelter of the refugio and I reward Alex with a large hot chocolate, it goes down a treat. We collect our belongings and wait for the catamaran that will take us home to arrive.

On the bus ride back we see the full extent of the trek we’ve just completed, seeing the peaks and mountains in all their huge glory. Now we realise why some of those days were so long!

It’s been an incredible adventure in this beautiful part of Patagonia. I believe I’ve seen some of the most stunning sights in the world and also in my life so far. These hikes will be experiences and memories that will stay with us forever. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll come back here and try the O trek…

Summary Stats

Total distance – 85km

Total time trekking – 29h 17m

Total steps – 142,742

Total elevation gain – 4,142m

Avalanches witnessed – 4

Shooting stars seen by Alex – 2

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Adventure – helping Sophia bandage her wounds with some plasters and tape, loads of hiking across all sorts of terrain, walking like a quadruped with two walking sticks, trying to silently escape the tent without falling down the 7ft drop outside the door and also put boots on in the middle of the night while James slept, trying to think of new words for ‘unreal’, ‘amazing’ and ‘nuts’ to describe all the amazing scenes

Excitement – buffet dinner, greeting familiar faces along the walks, witnessing avalanches, the amazing pillows at the Lady Florence Dixie Hotel

Trauma – Sleep paralysis (James, it’s been a while), chaotic check-ins at the campsites, freezing cold on night one, thinking we might have to sleep without a sleeping bag in the freezing cold

Preparation – Puerto Natales

4.15am. The time our flight to Punta Arenas departs Santiago airport. From there we take a 2h bus to our two night stopover in Puerto Natales. It’s a nice little town with some Alpine flavours. We spend our time here stocking up on food and equipment for the trek ahead. Alex rents a warm jacket fearing the cold of Patagonia as well as buying waterproof trousers. We both acquire a new walking pole each. In our downtime we enjoy our first hot baths of the trip, eat at some nice restaurants and go for our first run in a while, along the stunning lake-front with the snow-capped mountains looking on.

From San Pedro to here, we’re at opposite ends of the country, in opposite climates. San Pedro, a town plonked in the sand, overlooked by dry, brown volcanoes. Puerto Natales plonked in the green, overlooked by snow-capped mountains. Both based largely around tourism, with bungalows blocked out in grid systems, with stray dogs basking in the sun/wind.

Day One – Good things come to those who wait

5.40am. The alarm bell rings, it never gets any easier waking up at this time of day. We need to be quick though as in the next hour we need to finish packing, eat breakfast, store our luggage, check-out and get to the bus stop 20 minutes walk away. We hop to it and inhale a hearty breakfast, kindly put on by the hostel one hour earlier than stated to cater to tourists doing the same as we are. We scramble our final bits together, brush our teeth and we’re out by 6:25. In our haste and panic we make it to the bus stop within 12 minutes, our bus arrives just after we do. The next couple of hours are spent gazing out of the window at lovely views of lakes and snowy mountains, occasionally nodding off into a doze to top up sleep reserves along the way.

Around 9, we arrive at the check-in center where we casually scan a QR code and are officially allowed into the park. There is an amusing sign indicating what to do should we cross paths with a puma, we need to make ourselves big, make lots of noise and if that doesn’t work, hit it in the face! The only advice for meeting a mountain lion is to ‘stay calm’, I assume this is the best etiquette to meet your maker. A short shuttle bus later and we’re at the welcome center, finally ready to begin our hike. A lot of people have arrived at the same time, heading in the same direction up the East side of the ‘W trek’ to see the Torres.

At first the trail is busy, with hikers walking in both directions along the path. But we get used to it and settle into our groove of walking between the groups, some with tour guides, most self-guided like us. The trail is a fair challenge with difficult footing and some steep inclines. To make it more of a challenge, Alex and I have put on too many layers for the day’s conditions, this combined with heavy day bags means we’re soon sweating and shedding layers within the first half hour. The morning part of the trek is a 6.8km hike to the first refugio we’ll be staying at, Chileno. It takes us around 2 hours to get there and we’re relieved to be able to leave one of our bags here and shed some weight. Although it’s only just gone 11am we take the opportunity to have an early lunch, reducing some more weight and giving us some energy for the next section. We’ve brought our own supplies for this lunch and make some questionable tuna and cheese wraps with a side of crisps and trail mix. It does the job.

This afternoon we’ll climb up for 2h to the base of the Torres themselves, the first hour in a dense forest and for the second, we’ll be exposed to the elements scaling a steep rocky path.

As we set off, the sky fills in a dense grey colour. There are a few spots of rain but the incredibly packed forest provides good shelter and we barely feel a drop. A few more hikers race past us and we wonder why they are rushing to the top. We talk about how close we’re getting to Christmas and discuss our favourite Xmas songs and movies that would get us in the mood.

Emerging from the forest we see signs advising it is a 1.5h round trip to the Torres and back here, with the caveat of ‘DIFFICULT CLIMB’. Unphased, we march on and begin the ascent. The way up follows a cold mountain stream, occasionally crossing above or through the water. A great opportunity to use nature’s tap, we fill our water bottles with the refreshing stream water. There are packs of people descending as we try to find a suitable path up through the boulders. Hikers climbing up should have right of way but it’s a bit of a free-for-all. In an unexpected twist, after a particularly steep section is a crunchy patch of snow we have to pass through. It has been well trodden but it was still fun to traverse a section of the white stuff.

It seems we are nearing the top but visibility is poor by this point and we can barely make out the shape of the Torres through the clouds. Surprised to see the vast lake in front of the Torres mostly frozen over, we consider our options. Alex is disappointed by the weather, ruining one of the most picturesque views we’ll see in our five day excursion. We set up camp under the shelter of a large rock shelf and consume a few sugary snacks as a reward. Alex suggests the weather should clear up in around 90 minutes but I’m reluctant to wait in the wind and the rain for that long, worried we’ll catch a cold. We wait for half an hour and if anything the weather has got worse, we can’t see the Torres at all through the thick cloud that isn’t going anywhere. We decide to call it and take whatever photos we can. There is an option to return here in the morning when we hope the weather will be better.

They’re there somewhere I promise..

After a few photoshoots and helping other tourists with their shots, we admit defeat and begin the climb back down.

Around five minutes later, we pause to let some hikers pass and look back towards the Torres. The clouds are starting to disperse and the silhouettes of the Torres have returned. There is hope! Another hiker we’d spoken to earlier has the same thought as we do… maybe we can wait a bit longer. Waiting now means we won’t have to repeat this four hour round trip in the early morning, it’s worth a try. We wait in a more sheltered spot and stare up at the sky. Soon enough a big break appears and we can clearly see a patch of blue. We distract ourselves with games of noughts and crosses in the sand, convinced if we don’t look at them, the Torres will come out to play. After 3 games ending in stalemate, they do. We turn around and hike back up, keen to get a picture of them before the clouds roll back in.

Another round of photoshoots and we think we’ve done ok. As we agree we’ve done as well as we can do, we start to head back. A final look at the Torres on the way out… They’ve cleared up more , looking better than ever… back we go again. This time we make sure to simply sit and admire the majesty of these three towering and imposing rock formations. The weather is as warm and clear as it has been all day and we sit basking on the rocks, admiring pachamama’s glory. By this point we’ve been up here around three hours, we are some of the last people up here and admit it is finally time to leave for good.

As an added bonus of waiting so long at the top, the path back down is very quiet. We almost have it to ourselves, barely seeing a soul. The route up is now closed but the occasional cheeky tourist is sneaking up anyway, wanting to see the Torres now the skies have cleared. On the way down we play one of the games we’ve invented for passing the time on treks. One of us says lyrics to a song without any tune or rhythm, line by line, until the other person guesses it. Simply said aloud, song lyrics are hard to recognize and it’s an easy way to while away time, distracting us from our trek. The hike down takes longer than we think and we’re relieved to finally see the refugio, groups of tourists sit outside enjoying schop (beers) in the evening sun.

We check-in and Alex goes to inspect our accommodation for the evening. An empty tent. No sleeping bags, roll matts or pillows. After some slight bemusement that we’ve paid $120 each for just a tent for one night (!), we cave in and hire two sleeping bags for a further $24. With that sorted we buy a couple of schops and converse with a nice guy from San Francisco called Jordan while we kill time waiting for dinner. He and another O-trekker discuss the woes of the full cooking and self-camping experience, something we’re grateful to avoid even after one day of our light packs.

By dinner time, the air temperature has dropped and the sun has gone behind the peaks, shivering slightly we waddle inside and sit down for dinner. We sit with a couple of Brits and two chaps from Dallas who have been in Chile to watch their relative compete in the Panamerican games. We eat a basic but satisfying three course meal and we’re ready for bed. It’s freezing as we jog back to our tent and we get tucked into our sleeping bags as quickly as possible. Time to bunker down before doing it all again tomorrow!

Day Two – Rocky Road

7.00am. Our allocated breakfast time. We’ve warmed up overnight in the thick sleeping bags and we brave the cold light of morning to head into the main building. The fog has cleared and there’s a spectacular view of two of the towers from the Chileno grounds.

The breakfast hall is already swarming with people just after 7, some of whom have been up since 4am to see the sunrise hit the Torres around 6am and have already made it back down here, impressive. Breakfast is a bit chaotic and as we’re two of the last people at this sitting, we’re sat right by the door. Every few seconds someone is coming in or out, letting a freezing draft into the building each time. The food offering is modest to say the least, especially considering what we’ve paid but it does the job and a giant mug of coffee brings me out of my morning haze. We grab our packed lunches from reception and we’re on our way.

Today we’ll head West, along an 13km stretch just above the lake where we’ll stop for lunch at Refugio Cuernos. From there we’ll trek a further 2.5km (or 3.2km depending on which map you read) to our campsite for the night at Camp Frances. The first 30 minutes are retracing our steps back down the path we walked up yesterday but just as it gets busy we branch off onto a new pathway. Luckily, for the first hour we have the trail to ourselves. We take in the sights and our spirits are high, the weather is cool and calm, perfect conditions.

As we were warned by a fellow hiker, at parts the terrain turns boggy and marsh-like. We have good waterproof footwear though and our hiking poles help us navigate the soggy ground as we hop, skip and jump from boggy lump to grassy knoll. A few challenging sections later we reach a stunning viewpoint over-looking the turquoise lake. By this point the lake is sprawling way into the distance and makes for a fantastic view. Alex is in awe, realising this is the part of the W she missed many years ago.

We take the chance for a sit down and take our heavy day bags off. With the added packed lunches we’re carrying a lot of food. We make a dent in it, eating handfuls of trail mix and drinking water to reduce the load. A few groups have caught us up, including the two guys from Dallas, we wish them luck and carry on with our journey.

Along the pathway we take note of the array of spring colours around us. There are yellow, orange and light brown plants, green shrubs with pink berries growing on them, tall mushrooms, and our favourite, an unusual red spore growing from the bushes. To our right are two huge jagged grey peaks, for a time we can see between them. There sits an enormous chunk of shiny blue ice supporting a massive amount of white snow above.

The following couple of hours are spent walking through streams, dense mud, gravel and rocks that often come loose and slide underfoot. We cross an impressive looking bridge and wonder how much further we have to go.

Another hour passes and we can just about spot the domes of Camp Frances in the far distance. Curious as to why we can’t see any sign of our lunch spot we carry on. We encourage each other as our energy levels peak and dip at opposite times. When one of us is flagging, the other takes the lead and drives us forward. An unusual sound rumbles in the distance, it sounds like a plane or boat engine but there are few vehicles here and we haven’t seen either of these since we set off.

Despairingly, every time we reach a corner or vantage point, the path just seems to go on and on… Sometimes steeply uphill. I’m really flagging by this point and my day pack is causing my shoulder muscles to burn, plus we’re both desperate for the loo! There’s no option but to push through. Mercifully, after around five hours of a gruelling walk Alex turns and points at something nearby. I can tell from the look of relief on her face that it’s the Refugio we’ll stop at for lunch! We find a spot outside in the warming sun and have a stunning view for lunch. Baulking at paying £4 for a can of coke we sit down at see what we’ve got for lunch.

Amusingly the packed lunch is a dense cheeseburger! Alex has heroically brought some ketchup on the journey and this is the perfect time to use it. The unusual sound rumbles again but this time we can see what is making it. In the distance chunks of snow are tumbling down the Frances glacier causing an avalanche!

A wooden signpost points the way to Frances, 2.5km it says. Refuelled on burgers, crisps, nuts, chocolate and water we’re ready to go again. The afternoon hike is much shorter and despite the occasional staircase made of boulders, it isn’t too challenging. The weather has changed drastically and the wind whips up something fierce, at times it almost blows us off our feet!

For a break, we walk along a pebble beach on the edge of the lake and Alex dips her hand into the water.

The wind is battering the water and forming white horses, making it look like a tide is coming from somewhere. The colours are breathtaking.

Curiously we’ve actually walked closer to 3.7km but after around 90 minutes we arrive at our final destination for the day, Camp Frances. We check-in and after some confusion about our booking details (again) we’re assigned another elevated tent with sleeping bags and pillows. We relax before dinner watching Netflix in our tent, we need to have subtitles on as the wind is battering the tent and it’s hard to hear anything else.

I have a short nap and we head to dinner just after 7pm. In the dinner hall, we spot the familiar faces of the guys from Dallas, bizarrely they’ve had to trek here from Cuernos as they were told it was full and the only rooms available are here! We take our seats and chat to a man from Hong Kong. Not long later, a couple that Alex was speaking to at breakfast join us, Brian and Sophia. Brian reveals he has been competing in karate at the Panamerican games and has won gold medals in previous competitions. I’m glad I refrained from telling him to keep his elbows in and give me some room during our breakfast!

Dinner is pumpkin and ginger soup, beef joint with palenta and vegetables followed by a coffee based desert. After dinner Alex tries the campsite showers she’s heard rave reviews about. Sure enough she returns to the tent waxing about the ‘amazing’ showers and encourages me to take one. Reluctantly I leave the shelter of the tent and admittedly it was worth it, especially after such a long and tiring day. On my way back to the tent I notice the giant fluffy clouds have changed colour. The sun is setting somewhere out of sight and it’s turning the marshmellow-like clouds a nice orangey pink hue. I beckon Alex to come and join me and we admire the colours switch to a pinkish purple and finally back to a bluey grey. We turn in around 10pm after a tough but brilliant day.

To be continued…

This post is somewhat out of order, but we thought they deserved their own, and Santiago didn’t deserve a fourth just to keep things chronological.

With a break in the weather we make plans to bring Mendoza to us and visit a local vineyard on the outskirts of Santiago. Alex has worked out the buses we need to take and before we know it we are on the driveway of Cousiño Macul vineyard.

We pass a friendly security check and continue along the path, taking note of the chicks and chickens, sheep and lambs along the way.

We check-in at the reception / gift shop and we’re greeted by a very flamboyant and gesticulating gentleman who advises us to wait outside and listen for a bell signalling our tour is ready to begin. We’re given a wine glass each and our first wine of the day is a sweet-ish rosé number which I think has hints of honey and citrus. I give Alex a quick 101 in wine tasting, as if I have much idea what I’m talking about.

Before long the bell dongs right above our heads and we gather into our group. We’ve booked onto a tour with a small cycling section at the beginning, something Alex really wanted to do in Mendoza. We set off into the heart of the vineyard with our small group, mostly made up of Brazilians, the tour is in Spanish and I try my best to keep up with our guide Fabio.

Our first stop is next to a man-made reservoir where we inspect the trees growing grapes for making Pinot Grigio. Fabio informs us we can identify the variety of grapes by looking at the leaves, in this case the leaves have 4 sections, then the fifth where two of them are almost conjoined. The grapes will only grow to a size similar to blueberries and the trees are kept at a height of just over one meter tall for easier picking. The chickens we saw earlier are to help keep the pests and insects under control. There is a complex mix of biology and chemistry to keep a balance of growth for the vines but prevent weeds and other unwanted flora that affect the wine growing process.

The next stop is to inspect the world famous Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, this time with 5 leaves. We continue our tour of the vineyard with the snowy Andes mountains providing a dramatic back-drop.

After around 30 minutes of bumbling around on the bikes we return to where we began and enter the warehouses. We’re surrounded by dusty giant oak barrels that can hold thousands of litres of wine but are no longer in use. Morbidly, Fabio informs us workers would sometimes fall into these 20ft tall behemoths and drown in a liquid tomb.

To take the edge off, we’re then served our first wine of the tour a 2022 Chardonnay. We’re advised how to properly hold a wine glass for drinking and also for posing for photos/making a speech. We’re told that holding your fingers off the glass stem like the characature of a posh person actually comes from racism, of people not wanting to touch the where their slaves would have touched, so no mimicking the queen!

I’m not usually a huge fan of Chardonnay but the cool temperature and tropical flavours hit just right. We’re also told that a ‘screw top’ wine, like the one we’re drinking, does not mean it’s a bad or cheap wine, it simply needs to be consumed quickly. Screw top wines will last for 5 years and corked wines will last for 10 years after being bottled.

We continue walking through the old warehouse, built in 1876. The cement is curiously made from a mixture of sand, egg white and lime juice! We arrive at a processing machine where they make the only wine still processed on-site. The majority of grapes are shipped off to be processed elsewhere but the oldest, most delicate grapes are used to make a Cabernet/Merlot blend here. Our next wine is a red Carmenere from 2021 with flavours of red fruits.

The next room is a history lesson on the family that founded the vineyard. Founded in 1856 by the Cousiño family, Don Luis Cousiño and Doña Isidora Goyenechea had traveled to Europe to import the first vines for their new land. Isidora Goyenechea’s legacy is the vineyard’s iconic winery, which was designed by French engineers and was completed in 1872. Having a history of mining in the family, Isidora introduced a mine-cart like machine to improve efficiency on the vineyard. This was revolutionary at the time and put her and Chile on the map in the minds of wine makers, as the competing vineyards copied their approach to keep up. After all, it’s one thing to be beaten by a fellow man, but something different entirely to be shown up by a woman! After Don Luis died in 1873 it was Isidora who took over the family business, quite rare for a woman in these times. She went on to introduce Sundays as a day off for workers, again revolutionary for the time. It was viewed as peculiar at the time that she never sought a new husband. Mere days after the passing of Luis the government and other influencers were trying to find her an ideal suitor. However, due to her immense wealth (and therefore power) whilst the country was at war, they let her be. She’s a fascinating person who did so much for the country, definitely worth reading up more on her.

We end the history lesson with another red, this time a Cabernet Sauvignon from 2019. I must admit by this point I’d stopped making many notes but I recall a peppery taste if nothing else. For the last leg of the tour we inspect some unusual equipment used for bottling wine, a combination of tractor motor and toilet cistern, and head below into the ancient cellar.

Candles light up the cold and dark crypt-like tunnels 20 meters below the surface. Here some of the rarest and most prestige wines are kept behind a locked gate even the tour guides don’t have access to. We enter a long hall lined with barrels and are instructed to pose for some rather awkward photos! At the end of the hall are two more locked rooms, they’re filled with dusty old wine bottles left here for dozens of years in respect of the founders they have never been opened. As we take photos and wander around we’re told even Queen Elizabeth has been here! The final wine of the tour is a beautiful mix of Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz.

We head back to the surface and the warmth of the afternoon sun where we are given a bonus glass to enjoy in the courtyard! Here we reflect on a relaxed and informative tour, it’s been interesting to learn about a specific vineyard and the family history and enjoy some fine wines along the way.

Valparaiso

Over to Alex… We decided to do just a day-trip to Valparaiso. There’s plenty of buses that go there and back all day, so we figured we’d save ourselves the cost of a tour, and self-guide our way. Getting the bus was comparatively easy from our other bus station experiences. There was no made up bus tax, the bus had a set platform, and it arrived and left on time.

The journey is smooth as we leave the sprawling city of Santiago, and hit the sprawling vineyards of Casablanca. The rolling green hills are sprinkled with orange and yellow flowers, many being the same orange poppies my mum has at her own house, it’s a beautiful sight of spring and reminder of home.

As we enter Valparaiso, the mountainsides start getting dotted with buildings jutting out being held up by wooden shelves, walls of corrugated iron, painted in various colours. In terms of organic growth into the mountainside not designed for habitation, it’s not too dissimilar to other Latin American cities. However, the colourful walls and greenery in between makes it seem so much more habitable than the sprawling shanties of say Cusco.

We get into Valparaiso and get a physical map from tourist info. We’ve read that Valparaiso is meant to be pretty dangerous these days, so we’ve stripped back all our belongings and aim to go back to physical map navigating instead of Google Maps navigating. Our first port of call is to walk along the beach. We walk towards the sea, through the bustling, chaotic and scruffy food market of downtown. Except the “sea” is blocked by a giant wall with a rusty ruin of a building behind it. We don’t seem to be able to even get to seeing distance of the sand. And because of this, there isn’t much or many people around. Aware of our obviously tourist appearance, we venture away from this area and go towards a square that apparently has a bust of Queen Elizabeth on it. We’re unable to find this either. However, we do find a beautiful array of architectures styles that make me think of London and how I love the mish-mash of building styles next to one another as they do here.

After giving up on Queeny, we make it to the main square and are back on the tourist track. This city was the main stopping point for ships coming up and through the Strait of Magellan. It was a huge port bringing in vast amounts of money from Europe. We later learnt that communities from England, then Germany, Italy and France come and settle here, which explains the mishmash of European styles.

We head to our first stairwell to climb up a ‘cerro’ and reach one of the known mural areas to take in the street art Valparaiso is known for. As we start towards the path, an older lady tells us the lift is behind us. We respond that we’re going to take the stairs. She tells us that we shouldn’t, it isn’t safe, that that is at least her recommendation, and tells us to do with that information what we may. We both consider the options, let’s not get robbed on our first stairwell, we decide! As anyone who knows us knows, we’re usually the first to choose the more physical option to a route, but we’ll take the easy route up to stay safe. Plus, the lift is only 10p and also part of the right of passage of visiting Valparaiso, so up we go, safely in the lift. There are various funicular in Valparaiso, relics from the era of wealth as one of the eldest is built in the late 19th century, and thankfully still going strong.

Now even more on edge than when we started, we try and find our way to a bar recommendation for a viewpoint cocktail. We walk down some cool little streets, buildings adorned with artwork of different styles and vibrant colours. There’s a beautiful little square at the top with Hotel Brighton and we check out some cute little eateries.

Unfortunately, we find the bar we were looking for, but it doesn’t open until 3, and I’m getting too hungry to wait. So, we head back to a place we’d passed by earlier, Café del Pintor. We enjoy a lovely 3 course meal eating outside enjoying the sunshine and quiet streets. A tour guide instructs her patrons to not put their bags on the chairs next to them, but under their feet. The beautiful streets feel like the ultimate juxtaposition for the danger and fear we’re subconsciously feeling from all angles.

After lunch, we aim to join a free walking tour. James is still feeling a bit off, so we meander down a bit early, get some anti-nausea pills that the NHS only provide on prescription for 90p (!), and wait in the shade. Other tour groups come and go, but ours never arrives. We can’t get a break! We give in and decide to do our own walking tour, to check out the unexplored streets.

As we wander around, up and down some more of the less ‘European’ streets, a lady leans out her window and asks where we’re going. Not another warning away… I reply that we’re just walking, and she says nothing more. I ask if it’s safe, and she says it’s fine. Mmmk then. We’re now in an area with houses that look like something built in the wild west. Wood frames and corrugated iron for walls. Most of these are painted with either murals or just a bright colour. It’s the definition of higgeldy piggeldy, but it looks like none of these structures have been checked into since they were built decades before. We safely make it around the latest loop, and head back to the main touristy section as there are two stairwells I’m keen to find. I’d recommend just Google-ing Valparaiso as, for now obvious reasons, we weren’t getting our phones out at each opportunity.

I make it to play some piano:

before we go for a viewpoint cocktail, enjoying an apple pisco sour, and a classic pisco sour, as we watch over the sea and docks (and seagulls) hard at work.

The last stairwell is a colourful one, and as we drop down I notice a couple taking a photo with a totoro, kindred spirits!

We make our last loop around before deciding to head back as it’s reaching rush-hour. We easily find tickets on a bus heading back, and say goodbye to an interesting experience. The mere presentation of the city makes it all that more inviting, but in reality, the shanty towns these artworks adorn are seemingly no safer than if you were to walk the shanty towns of Cusco or La Paz.

The history here is one of a city full of prosperity and opportunity, that disappeared in the blink of an eye with the Panama canal as ships no longer needed to risk the ridiculously dangerous Strait of Magellan (also check this out, looks ridiculous!). Goodbye wealth, goodbye Europeans, goodbye investment. Of course, goodbye all those that had the means to leave for opportunity elsewhere. Hence a city seemingly stuck in the past, like a faint memory of the lives that once were.

As I understand it, the murals here grew as a form of rebellion and expression after Pinochet (the regime that burnt books and painted over art and expressionism to control the masses). That they are now a seemingly dangerous area is unfortunately a reflection of wider issues Chile is experiencing. It’s hard for us to decide on our lasting impression of the city, as we realise how on edge we were throughout the experience. Which is a huge shame. It’s a gorgeous and fantastic city, and maybe if we’d managed to get on the tour we would have felt more at ease and been able to enjoy it, but for us, we were largely glad to be back in relative safety. We hope the safety issue improves, because it really is a gorgeous place, but we saw no sign of the authorities doing much in the way of keeping people safe, so thanks to the locals who did.

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Adventure – climbing up and down and all around Valparaiso, bimbling about on bikes in the sunshine

Excitement – doing a bike tour around a vineyard, seeing all the cute animals around, learning all about an influential woman in Chile

Trauma – finding out we’d used the metro card wrong and were out of money (whilst youths just pushed through the turnstile in rebellion), being on edge in Valparaiso and not being able to enjoy it, not being able to find the sea/Queen/tour in Valparaiso.

With the forecast looking bleakly British for a few days, glorious some others, we decide to save the glorious days for a wine tour and trip to the seaside city of Valparaiso. The others we’ll spend doing a city tour, trying to find me some warm clothes, going to the cinema, to the Human Rights museum, and picking up some boots Vivo has amazingly shipped out to Chile for me. This post will be largely about our week in the city, with our adventures out saved for separate entries.

I should caveat this post especially that the information shared in any of these posts is based on brief moments of learning, that will clearly be biased from the perspectives of those who share the knowledge we share with you. No doubt there is more information on all sides. These posts hopefully serve as inspiration to learn more, rather than to infer what we say here is the only story to be told.

Our first morning in our new flat for the week is spent with James getting food in, whilst I get planning. There’s a free walking tour this afternoon, and we decide it’ll be a perfect way to get to know the city that I’d been previously told had no tourist attractions.

A Brief History

We find our guide MJ at the Plaza de Armas, a young Colombian woman who rattles off her knowledge of Santiago like the pro she is. We find this really hard to follow at first, despite her favourite question of “got it?”, like a YouTube video spliced together without a pause to even process the last few seconds. We feel old. Thankfully, we either get used to this continuois influx of info, or the amount slows down to more manageable chunks, and we get into the rhythm of learning.

We first learn about the Plaza de Armas that we’re standing in. She points out that you find Plaza de Armas in almost all Spanish cities, that this is a distinctly Spanish thing. You don’t get them in Portuguese settlements, and sure you get main squares in other cultures, but there is something distinctly Spanish about a Plaza de Armas. The history of this one is this is where Pedro de Valdivia decided to found the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo.

The city was defined by the Mapocho river to the north, Cañada (an offshoot from the Mapocho), the Andes and Santa Lucia hill to the east (photo below), and another mountain range to the west. The snow tells you which one is the Andes if you ever get turned around.

Of course, Valdivia wasn’t the first one here. The native Mapuche people were already here, living their best lives. Their culture was distinct from the Inca empire, although they existed at the same time. Unlike the Inca empire, the Mapuche don’t have a hierarchical structure running across their towns and villages. MJ tells us that when the Inca empire tried to expand south, the majority died on the way, due to the extreme climate of South Peru and North Chile that we’d just left behind. But some made it through, and when they met the Mapuche, they didn’t believe they had come from the north. For the Mapuche, water equates to life, and they know there is no water above the Mapocho river. Therefore, there can be no life. The surviving empire explorers manage to convince them, and they extend an ‘Inca trail’ to be able to trade and connect. I later find out that the Inca empire did try and take over the Mapuche like they did so many other cultures, but the Mapuche were having none of it and (I think) may be the only culture to withstand an Inca takeover.

So, when the Spaniards arrive to plonk their flag in the ground, this isn’t the Mapuche’s first rodeo. MJ tells us that they pretended to be on board with these new people, but when the weather changed, and the Spaniards had no clue how to survive in the now vastly different climate, the Mapuche did the equivalent of shrugged and walked away. I later find out the Mapuche continue to create problems for the Spaniards, fighting and beating a weakly provisioned and captained Spanish side (there’s no gold down here so Spain only sent their C team). Sadly, the current situation for the Mapuche people mimics so much of other cultures who faced colonialism, and it’s become an incredibly complex subject. Nevertheless, the Mapuche flag flies pride of place next to the Chilean flag on the government building on the square, and we see much support and reference to this culture throughout our time here.

We learn about a huge earthquake that destroyed 70% of the city. That there was a big hotel for diplomats on the main square that was converted to a fire station in honour of a tragedy that killed a bunch of people when a huge fire burnt down a government building. That Congress was moved to Valparaiso to create some distance and avoid corruption. That the animals on the crest of the flag are a condor and a vicuña (a wild, roaming camelid similar to a llama), see top of the building below that used to house Congress:

And that there were two important men in Chilean history called Montt and Varas, and this is why these are prominent names of other cities in Chile:

We move along down to the Presidential Palace, La Moneda, where you’d be hard pressed to not know which country you’re in.

Apparently each flag represents the 14 regions, and there’s a statue for each president they’ve had in office going around the block. MJ is at pains to say she does not want to go too much into the recent political history here as it’s a contentious subject. There’s a lot of posters marking 50 years since Pinochet overthrew the government, and also an array of placards with the photos of victims of police brutality out front from a previous protest. These weren’t murders from Pinochet’s time however, but more recent history. Really sad.

MJ steers us away from the complex and contentious more recent history, to go back to the history of the country. Bernardo O’Higgins liberates the country from Spanish rule and designs the flag. The white represents the Andes, the blue represents the sea, the red represents the Chilean flower and the blood that was spilt in the fight for independence, with the star signifying the union of regions to one country.

We head to santiago’s ‘Wall Street’:

We learn some more random tidbits, like Lapis Lazuli can only be found in Chile and Afghanistan. That 30% of the world’s copper comes from Chile. 53% of the world’s lithium reserves come from Chile, Peru and Bolivia. What’s happening in Chile (and probably across the world) with lithium is a sorry state of affairs that just seems to be a replay of the abuses of the past, but with a different mineral, we’ve learnt nothing.

San Cristobal hill is actually a dormant volcano. And that Chile (and arguably Peru?) is ethnically more homogenous (compared to Brasil and the Caribbean coast of Latin America) because, without the Panama Canal, the Spanish shippers just couldn’t afford or didn’t want to risk shipping slaves around the Magallen strait to get them to the west coast.

We try some peach drink called Mote con Huesillos that looks like the teeth of all the people who drink it at the bottom, but is actually wheat soaked in this peach pit drink. The liquid is fine for me, but the wheat is a weird texture I don’t get on board with.

We end with a highly graffiti’d statue we had come across on our failed first day in Santiago, and MJ explains it was a gift from Germany to say thanks for looking after her refugees after the war. The ‘open secret’ is apparently that those ‘refugees’ were largely nazis, and that they helped to inform the horrendous actions of the Pinochet government (hence the graffiti). I don’t know if the timelines necessary match up with that theory, but I can say that what I later learn about what happened under Pinochet’s rule was horribly reminiscent of what the Nazis did.

And that was the walking tour. As it was Halloween, and not a pumpkin to be found anywhere, James spent the evening making a special, spooky meal, inspired by meals his mum made when growing up. It was a fantastic way to mark the day and bring a bit of levity to a difficult few days.

Unfortunately an undercooked sausage continues to haunt James the next day, and he’s back in bed fighting off his latest internal fight against something foreign. It’s nothing like in La Paz at least, and he orders me to still go ahead with my day (so long as I get him a giant Gatorade and box of crackers first).

Museum of Memory and Human Rights

The plan for the next day was to avoid the crummy weather by hiding out at the Museum of Human Rights. This means me getting to grips with the metro which is amazingly quiet due to the national holiday in place for the day of the dead. The museum is equally quiet as I jump onto an English tour.

It’s a difficult museum to go around, and at one point I feel a bit faint, so there’s a chunk I missed as I regained my composure. The museum was founded specifically to call attention to and acknowledge the human rights abuses of the Pinochet regime, in a bid to make sure it never happens again. It’s a bold statement, and another example of a country owning a part of its terrible history. Not writing it out of the history books and pretending it never happened. Well at least, not anymore.

For those like me who know nothing of this era, I’ll recount what I learnt and can remember, but it’s definitely worth learning more about. As my tour guide says, the important thing here is to provide evidence to counter any claims that this era wasn’t as bad as it is made out, was a necessary evil, or just didn’t happen at all. (Sound familiar?)

I’ve subsequently watched a good Khan Academy video on this time period, so the information here will be a mixture of the two. We begin with the overthrow of Allende, the democratically elected President of the country three years prior. Allende was a leftist, and his presidency was mired by failed economic policy. The USA, in the midst of the Cold War, is none too happy about the growing lefty governments in Latin America, and there will be forever debates over wether the failing policies were due to the USA making Allende’s job impossible to destabilise his presidency, or they were just poor policies on their own. As with a lot of this, we will likely never know.

There are declassified documents from the CIA saying they were finding out the likelihood of a coup to get our man out of power. Whether or not they orchestrated said coup, again, is up for debate, but there’s evidence they were asking the question.

Pinochet and a the other heads of the military divisions stage said coup on September 11th 1973. They bomb the presidential Palace and offer Allende a flight out. You can’t blame the man for not taking up said flight after just being bombed by his own men. One way or another, Allende ends up dead. Some say they saw him kill himself. Others say they were part of the group that shot him. Again, we will never know, but the outcome is the same, there is now military rule.

They round up all the opposition and put them in the National Stadium as a makeshift prison. This is the beginning of an ever worsening situation. The coup, that started with the combined military leaders taking over due to perceived lack of confidence in the Allende leadership, leads to Pinochet taking full power a year later, including over his coup-pals.

The museum shows us the various tactics the Pinochet government used to maintain power over the next 15 years. As I said previously, a lot seems sadly familiar. Having recently finished First They Killed My Father, this also feels sadly reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia too.

One tactic is to instill a bunch of rules, that are indiscriminate, and take rights away from the people. If you are deemed to have broken the rule, the military have the right to do what they want with you. After all, the judicial arm of the government no longer exists, there are no trials or rights. The military has final say. One such rule invoked is banning people being able to meet in groups, this includes sports clubs and neighbourhood watches. Our guide explains this serves two purposes. To not just stop any counter-groups spreading their message, but to break down communities, to isolate people from one another. If you don’t know your neighbour, will you care that they disappeared in the night? Or that they are starving? Will you speak up and help them if you don’t know them to realise they are innocent? Alongside the other rules, this helps to breed distrust of one another, because you don’t want to get caught up with the wrong person and get disappeared for just associating with them.

This tactic of isolation is fascinating, because it shows how a nation of a culture of individualism is actually weaker, than a culture of collectivism, who will empathise and fight and help one another. They’re harder to rule, and so this breaking down of communities is key to making a people easier to control.

The other tactic is to take over the media, rewrite history and the education system. Including burning books and removing all art and expressionism. Any book that they think may be left-leaning gets burnt, going so far as to burn books on Cubism because it looked like Cuba. Murals, posters and walls are painted over. If you happened to have any said material that could be construed as against the current regime, well you were going to experience their other main tactic, torture and murder.

A secret police is set up a la the SS and KGB. Of course, some of the people taken away are part of the opposition, but also included are completely innocent people. They aren’t even interrogated, after all, they have no reason to be there, they are just tortured. There is a whole video of victims here talking of their experiences. Some speak to the torture being less about the physical experience (which also sounded horrendous), but the worst part being the psychological wounds they carry from it. The powerlessness. That the aim was to make them feel inhuman and worthless. If you were lucky, you got to go home. But thousands disappeared. Of course, the tactic here wasn’t just about getting information, but to show the unimpeachable power of the regime, to create fear, to stop even the thought of rising up. There were over 1000 torture centres all across the country, from all the way in the North, down to the furthest south. This wasn’t something for the city, this was everywhere. You couldn’t hide. Here’s a map of each centre:

The international community apparently raise concerns about Pinochet staying in power without being democratically elected. This causes the regime to find a way to make the regime legitimate on the international stage. They do this through a plebiscite, whose result is in his favour, and ignoring the fact there is no official electoral roll to ensure there’s no forged votes. The previous secret police is closed down, and they create a new one, to throw off the beedy eyes of the foreigners.

With control of the narrative through the media, they rewrote history, they dehumanised the people they persecuted, and they fabricated stories of the disappeared. One woman who is taken by the regime is found beaten and dead in a river. The newspaper reads how it was femicide by a lover. The loved ones of the disappeared are told that they must have fled the country of their own accord. Even when you know this isn’t true, how do you argue? There is no law and order. There is threat of the same happening to you. There is no community to trust to support you. You are powerless to counter their lies of your loved one. They also fabricate a plan by the Allende government, a whole book is written and made up to show people the Allende government was not what they said they were. The author later admits this, but defends that it surely did exist, they just never found it, so he made it real.

If this is all starting to feel like a familiar amalgamation of the worst regimes, dystopian novels, and tactics still used to this day, then you’re on the money, and why this museum sees its importance to exist. Whilst Pinochet is in power, and the people live in fear, at the beginning, the economy is going strong and doing extremely well. As with before, there are debates as to whether the reason he did so well was because the USA were backing this horse, or because his policies were actually good. And this, I believe is where things get contentious, because of the three lies that permeate. That either this didn’t happen, that it didn’t happen as badly as it’s said, or that it needed to happen for the good that came from it (an argument I’ve heard in Peru too). The last is the most concerning, as it’s seemingly too easy for those that benefit from crimes against humanity to say it had to be done, or it was necessary. No crime against humanity is worth a good economy. A wall to the lost:

The other really troubling part of the whole story is yet another example of the complete manipulation and indiscriminate fuckery (for want of a better word) of the USA’s Operation Condor, to crush left uprisings around Latin America during the Cold War. America apparently only stopped backing their poison horse Pinochet when the regime’s secret police ends up bombing a target on USA soil with a US citizen in the car. As our guide says, it’s fine for the USA to get involved with the killings and torture of another nation, but when one of their own gets in the crossfire and it’s on their turf, well that’s not on. This is all in declassified documents, it’s not conjecture.

The end to the regime comes from a plebiscite, that was on the cards from the previously forged 1980 plebiscite that said there would be another in 1988. It seemed that by this point, his pals had had enough. Pinochet thought he would win, and didn’t fake the result this time for whatever reason. There’s evidence he was going to overrule the outcome if it didn’t go his way (sound familiar), but his pals don’t support him on this, and neither do the USA. It seems everyone, but him, has had enough, and he loses his almighty power, but remains in a military position for almost 10 years more. He eventually gets charged with crimes against humanity in the 2000s, but after 4 years of no progress, he dies of natural causes, seemingly never facing any consequence for the suffering he ruled over.

After this mentally and physically chilling experience (the museum is freezing!) I take a quick wonder about Barrio Yungay, but it’s freezing, I don’t feel too safe in this ‘seen better days’ district for whatever reason, and head back to check on James.

Another Side to Santiago

The rest of our time in Santiago is spent (not in this order) climbing up San Cristobal hill to take in the sunset, which is stunning. The view here alone is amazing, being able to take in the whole city, and the glorious white-capped Andes to the west. It’s a far cry from the view over Cusco:

We walk in torrential rain to get to a cinema to see Killers of the Flower Moon, our first film since leaving the UK. Collecting my Vivo boots from a colleague of my mum’s, going shopping in the fancy part of town to return and buy new jeans, despair at the lack of jumpers anywhere and giving in to buying a men’s mustard coloured sweater in desperation.

Having spent almost our whole time in Santiago down in Central Santiago that is bohemian, covered in graffiti, often falling into disrepair (not dissimilar to Barranco in Lima), surrounded by edgy rockers, skaters, cool uni students:

Our trip up to the east of Cerro San Cristobal is like a different city:

Black puffers and gilets, blue suits, starched shirts, rich folks with tiny dogs, abound. There are no tattoo’d, edgy uni students here. The streets are free of graffiti. The eateries are wide, clean, ordered. It looks like San Isidro in Lima, as do the people. I’m glad we got to see this side to Santiago, because up to this point, I had genuinely looked at the demographics of the country wondering if there were any older people! That they live such disparate lives I think reflects the disparities of the country at the moment, and the difficulty they are facing politically, between an outspoken and empowered youth movement, and the other side who I believe are more Conservative and look down on the youth playing teenage anarchy. “You haven’t experienced Chile if you didn’t experience a protest” as our guide MJ told us, and she’s not wrong. But it’s a fundamental right I’m glad to see the youth making the most of, after all, remember where this country was less than 50 years ago. The right to protest is something we need to be protecting in the UK, and it worries me which way our own government seems to be going. So keep protesting Chile. Never stop making yourselves heard!

The other key aspect of any city for us is of food. The prevalent memory is just how much more expensive it is compared to London! But of what is Chilean cuisine? I’m told by a Chilean that we have to try a specific item from a specific place, so we do as we’re told. A Luco from Dominó, and we get given what is essentially a frankfurter covered in cheese:

Now I like a hotdog as much as the next person, but the obsession with the hotdog here is amazing, and probably tells you enough about the quality of Chilean food without me saying anymore. There are places that sell about 20 variations of toppings, with 3-6 different types of dogs. It’s a matrix table I could not get my head around. The hotdogs are good, I’ll give them that, but how I miss Peruvian cuisine (and Peruvian prices)! (In their defence, the pastel de choclo and empanadas are also apparently a delicacy, but we tried neither).

Our Last Day

On our last day we finally do the task we set out to do on day one, changing pesos to USD so we can take some over to Argentina and make the most of the “blue dollar rate”. I also manage to donate my ‘old’ Vivo boots to a church. We spend the day eating up our food resulting in a breakfast of porridge and icecream, and lunch consisting of pasta, peas, omelette with green pepper, carrot sticks with cheese, cheese on toast, and crisps. Living the dream. Then pack up and head out for a drink to kill time before spending the night at the airport for our 4am flight.

As we wander about, we hear the familiar call of football on TV again, this time it’s the Copa libertadores final between Argentina’s Boca, and Brasil’s Fluminense, but more importantly, they have beer for £2. The game is a blinder, including a bitch slap and comedic fall to the floor. The owner has clearly been having day of it and ends up slumped in the chair inside snoozing through the gripping extra time:

The game over, we go for a Chinese dinner and learn that beansprouts translate to Dragon’s Tooth. Very different vibe! And then we’re off to the airport to ‘sleep’ and fly the final distance to the snowy end of Chile. Thanks to the help and kindness of strangers (and a Boca fan), we make it there in one piece.

Nothing to See Here

Whilst I’ll never be glad to have not made it to Mendoza, I am glad to have been able to give Santiago another chance. By the end, it was really growing on me. There was just enough order and westernisation to not feel completely out of place, but also just enough vibrancy, latin and indigenous history to feel the energy and liveliness of a Latin American city. Unfortunately, we did get a few warnings of unsafe neighbourhoods, and crime is apparently on the rise here (as in most cities it seems). This, alongside the ridiculous cost of food (and the food really not being great for what you pay for), were really the only main drawbacks of being here. The highlights were the views of snow-capped mountains, glorious green hills in the middle of the city, vineyards of easy access, and cheap public transport, make Santiago now up at the top end of my favourite cities list. So, thank you Santiago, I’m glad I got a second chance to know you.

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Adventure – trying mote con huesillos, getting up Cerro San Cristobal after a long vineyard day, exploring the different areas of Santiago (and being warned off some of them) by bus and metro.

Excitement – being able to take public transport, and for 80p a go, bus or metro combined! Finding out our cheap Airbnb had a pool, gym and laundry, spontaneous purchases of the yummiest chocolate éclairs from the shop under our flat, finding tres leches ice cream.

Trauma – haunted sausages, supermarket prices, being on edge on the metro thanks to many reports of pickpocketing but having no issues ourselves, trying to get coins for the laundry, finding ourselves at odds with other on more than one occasion.