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Santiago tops NYT list of places to go in 2011
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 9 January 2011
I went to sleep in a city with relative anonymity. We're not Buenos Aires. No one comes here for the boliches (discos) nor to go to a milonga (tango hall).
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Solo Travel Planning: inspiration, orientation and perspiration
Blog: Solo Traveler - 8 January 2011
Going some place??? Trip planning can be complicated - it's also the theme on Solo Traveler in January. Here's the first of the trip planning posts.
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Puerto Natales, Patagonia Chile
Blog: Two Backpackers - 5 January 2011
If you are planning on visiting Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, you will inevitably arrive to Puerto Natales. Lying next to the cloudy turquoise glacier shores of Seno Ultima Esperanza, extreme wind conditions are common. It’s a small town with most buildings only a single story with the main street clearly more developed [...]
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Photo of the Day: Salar de Surire Chile
Blog: Two Backpackers - 5 December 2010
Salar de Surire Natural Monument is a Chilean Natural Monument located in the Andes, in the Arica and Parinacota Region. It consists mainly of a salt flat and a number of small salt lakes, sheltering several Andean species of wildlife and plants. Arintica volcano towers over the salt flat. The protected area, along with Lauca [...]
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Photo of the Day: Reserva National Las Vicuñas Chile
Blog: Two Backpackers - 4 December 2010
Northern Chile’s Altiplano is filled with varying landscapes including snow capped volcanoes, desert mountains, small adobe villages, salt flats, flamingos, vicuñas and pre-Inca ruins. Arica will serve as your base camp for settling into the new country and planning your exploratory 4×4 road trip. Read about our 3-day adventure road trip. Reserva National Las Vicuñas, [...]
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Road Trip: Northern Chile Altiplano
Blog: Two Backpackers - 1 December 2010
Entering Northern Chile from Peru will most likely lead you to the coastal town of Arica. Check out our article on discovering Arica to find out what adventure lies there, but for this article we are jumping right into Northern Chile’s great Altiplano! Road Trip Northern Chile’s Altiplano is filled with varying landscapes including snow [...]
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Into Argentina
Blog: The Road Chose Me - 50,000kms of ebb and flow - 28 November 2010
We’re utterly exhausted when we roll into San Pedro De Atacama, Chile, and searching around town to find a campground nearly finishes us off. Rob has endured the most by far, and is so throughly done he drops the Harley twice in ten minutes, before sitting on the ground, trying not to pass out. The [...]
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Into Chile
Blog: The Road Chose Me - 50,000kms of ebb and flow - 24 November 2010
Distant mountains surround a tiny shack in the middle of nowhere, marking the international border between Bolivia and Chile. Apparently we’ve arrived at immigration. The officer tells us there is no Customs here, it’s about 60km back across the desert, and we need to go there to hand in our vehicle paperwork. Running low on [...]
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Velvet moments: travel photo of the week – mural in Valparaiso
Blog: velvet escape's blog - 24 November 2010
The stunning murals are a major highlight of a visit to Valparaiso, Chile. Read the accompanying post: “The Murals of Valparaiso“. See other Velvet Moments: Impalas at the Serengeti, Tanzania Quebrada de Las Conchas, Argentina Bruges canals, Belgium Sacred Water Temple, Bali, Indonesia Positano, Italy The Great Ocean Road, Australia Share this Velvet Escape:
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The World’s Largest Swimming Pool is in Chile, Next to the Ocean
Blog: Travelogged - 5 November 2010
If you had asked me where the world’s largest swimming pool is, I’d have guessed Dubai or Las Vegas. And I’d have been wrong. The world’s largest swimming pool is in Algarrobo, Chile, at the San Alfonso del Mar resort, which opened in December 2006. In the photo above, you can see just a portion of [...]
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The World's Largest Swimming Pool is in Chile, Next to the Ocean
Blog: Travelogged - 5 November 2010
If you had asked me where the world's largest swimming pool is, I'd have guessed Dubai or Las Vegas. And I'd have been wrong. The world's largest swimming pool is in Algarrobo, Chile, at the San Alfonso del Mar resort,...
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Gender equality: what decade is Chile really in? (disturbing image below)
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 5 November 2010
Something we often talk about in Chile, locals and foreigners alike, is where we are socially. Where are gay rights, and abortion rights and racial equality? We sometimes use where the United States is as a point of comparison, for example for gay rights, you might say we're in the 60s, or maybe the 70s. For abortion rights, we're certainly pre Roe vs. Wade, as abortion is illegal and a prosecutable offense here.
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The Salt Flats From San Pedro de Atacama– Working Out the Details…
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 29 October 2010
The first stage of Salt Flats tour is finding a decent tour operator and booking. We were lucky enough to have teamed up with an Australian couple (Ryan & Brenna) who had heard about a decent company. The companies all offer the same accommodation and stop at the same beauty spots. For us the critical [...]
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Sandy Pedro de Atacama…
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 24 October 2010
There are two pieces of useful information about the trip into San Pedro, Chile, from Salta, Argentina. The first is that once you go through the border post exiting Argentina you don’t officially arrive into Chile until you reach the passport control offices of San Pedro de Atacama. The other is that once you have [...]
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Stargazing in Chile
Blog: Two Backpackers - 22 October 2010
Travel in Chile doesn’t always go as planned, as our guest writer Linda Martin discovers… We’d hoped to visit San Pedro de Atacama on our first trip to Chile, detouring off the main road from Santiago to the border to see what this desert town has to offer. But while we were in the south [...]
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In Bariloche, a tale of too much talking
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 19 October 2010
We're finally out of the wormhole and back on solid ground, alone, unfettered, and dag gummit, untalked to. What am I talking about? Mamaj and I took a trip from Puerto Varas through to Bariloche via the Lakes Crossing (it's capital-letter worthy, look it up), and the weather was mostly good, or at least not torrential, which is a near miracle for this time of year. There will be pictures, really! The lakes district is just as pretty as I knew it would be, just as pretty as it was the last time I was here. But untalked to. What's going on?
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Travel Solo to the Easter Islands
Blog: Solo Traveler - 12 October 2010
Thanks to a reader request, we have a Q&A on the Easter Islands with answers supplied by Keith of the Velvet Escape. Thanks Keith!
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(Attempted) Street Crime in Santiago. How I almost became an attacker.
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 5 October 2010
I have seldom been so angry, felt so violent, came so close to running home to get my bike and find the ingrate who decided to ruin my night and go ruin his night. Or week. Or life. Or whatever.
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The one where Chile and I reconciled ...
Blog: Pasándolo Chancho - 4 October 2010
So Santiago querido and I had our ups and downs.But now sitting in a far-away country (in fact, about as far away as you can get), and looking back on the place like past relationship, I'm feeling a little sorry that I harped on about its bad points, badmouthing it to all and sundry. Because just like a past relationship, once you get some distance (about 10,000 km seems to do the trick), you can actually revisit those good moments and see them for what they were - unique and intense and character building.
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The mysteries of Easter Island
Blog: velvet escape's blog - 27 September 2010
Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it’s called by the Polynesians, or Isla de Pascua as it’s called in Spanish, is one of the most isolated places in the world; the closest landmass is about 4,000 kilometers away. The island is small but the scenery is spectacular. In addition, it boasts an extraordinary history as [...]
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Is that a putty knife, or are you making me a Chilean sandwich?
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 27 September 2010
You may think, being a person of a certain age, and by that I mean nothing more than that you find my blog mildly entertaining, which puts you in your twenties and up, for the most part, that you know kitchens.You've been in kitchens, you've seen what they contain, you know how to use some (if not all) of the implements contained therein.
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Lights/Luces at La Moneda, Visual Spectacular
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 22 September 2010
Qué quieres que te diga? (What do you want me to say, literally, "what do you want that I tell you (fun with the subjunctive, included!)" Santiago has a lot of really great public spectaculars. Like really, really great. Pequeña Gigante great.
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What's your second last name? A tale of nomenclature and identity in Chile
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 18 September 2010
I have gone on and on about my name, my first name (always misspelled), my medical name (señora Barbara) and other nomenclature-related things, but I don't think we've ever explored my last name.
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Desktop September 2010 - Easter Island
Blog: Mood to Travel - 2 September 2010
Desktop September 2010 - Easter Island, originally uploaded by Homdaum.It was our first day on the Island and we were lucky enough to see this amazing sunset. #travel #photo #lp
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Through the lens of Fondo Esperanza
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 2 September 2010
By Lorena Gil, KF12, Fondo Esperanza – Chile I was quite surprised when I arrived and turned on the television and saw a commercial of FE, how often do you see a commercial of an MFI? The commercial only runs during the campaign month, but FE works with radio stations year round.
