A Solo Travellers Mind

My flight to Chile was pretty smooth, sailing minus the abundance of tears that continued to flow. I arrived, having had no sleep ready to re live the same day again! After 12 hours in the air but going back wards in time, it was a very weird feeling. I was mainly just super tired this day but attempted to kill jet lag by staying up till a rather late bed time. Caro collected me from the airport, and on arrival to her home, I met her family and all her farm animals (including but not exclusively, the duck, horse, sheep, rabbit, and hamster). Super relaxed vibes, reminding me of my auntie hayleys’ house a little. We had a hot dog dinner, and I also took a ride on the horse before it walked into a tree, and I subsequently nearly fell off, requiring Caro to save me from death.

The next day was a huge chill day with Caro working. I spent my day swimming in the pool, painting my nails, and relaxing, I was still super tired after not the best of sleep, so this day was needed!

The next day, our adventures began, with me Caro and Paz ( Caros sister) flying to Purto Natales. We unfortunately missed our first flight (whoopsie, Caro didn’t read the flight change email). However, with my spanish speaking locals, we were soon put on the next flight for free! That night, we stayed with Caros friend, having a chit-chat before some dinner and walking around the town. It has super cool vibes and was very cute, and also quite cold… (the next two weeks are basically in Antarctica).

We were up early the following day, ready to catch our bus to Torres Del Paine, for the 4 days trek. We spotted some animals on our journey there, including llamas, horses, and cows! On arrival, we set up camp, cooked some dinner, and showered in what we didn’t know would be the best showers of the whole trip!

Our first day trekking was to Mirador Base Torres, the apperent “highlight” of Torres (spoiler, it’s not, theres better to come hehe). It was 3 peak mountain and laguna, waiting for us after a long trek across the valley. The walk was super pretty, crossing rivers and walking through forests while it snowed. On the way down the girls ran ahead, waited, but didn’t see me as I passed them, which meant when I got to camp they were still up the mountain and not at camp (and subsequently we both spent hours asking park rangers if they’d seen our friend lol)! A somewhat scary but future funny experience! A total of 35km hiked on day one!

Day 2 involved trekking from Central to Camp Frances with our 16kg rucksack the whole trip. You can imagine that this was a tough day for me, as I have the upper body strength of a mouse, but we managed, and slowly made our way to camp! The walk was crazy pretty, heading  across valleys and mountains, with the veiws ever changing. Today was 21km in total!

Day 3 was a hike up to Mirador Frances and Mirador Britanica, then to Camp Paine Grande. It was a BIG day with the backpacks on! My knees were totally obliterated at this point, with me genuinely questioning why I chose this at one point. I did, however, spot a llama along my route to camp! This day racking a total of 28km… 

Day 4 was easily the highlight for me, hiking up to Mirador Grey and Sector Grey where you can veiw and walk alongside the gaint glacier. We then continued north to the swinging bridges where we saw a crazy view. Massive day of over 39km, with my knees 100% RIPed by now, but a very cool end to part one of the trip!

Torres was super nice, a big challenge being my first overnight hike, but well worth it in reflection! 140km totalled across the 4 days! And it was a funny bonding time for me and the girls, with conversations seriously ranging as each day progressed!

We had night in Peuto Natalas, where we watched the sunset and then had a good sleep in a comfy bed before a travel day to El Calafate. We had a breaky of sopapilla, a traditional chilien dish of bread made with pumpkin and sweet flour, sorta giving me doughnut vibes. On arrival to El Calafate, we had not booked anywhere to stay and were greeted by camp sites that did not take cards, and we had no cash. After some searching, we located somewhere to camp and had a very late dinner before retreating to the tent well past midnight!

Our next day involved a trip to Perito Merino glacier, a very cool and gaint glacier. We did the boardwalk along the glacier, sat and watched it crack and fall into the water, and spent some time at the beach there. We were all super tired that day, but we needed to walk into town to attempt to get cash. We had absolutely no luck and subsequently exchanged what little currency we did have! We packed up camp and found a hostel online in the hope that we could pay with a debit card and have a cosy bed and a shower! Luck was in as we managed to pay on card, thank god! Dinner that night was patee and pasta, an interesting combo. However, my logic is that it’s similar to Corned beef and would be nice? It was kinda tasty. The girls headed back into town for ice cream, but I opted to stay in bed and call a wee australian chap and relax! (And rest the knees!)

Travel day to El chalten followed, where our first day of hiking in Argentina began with the Paredon trail, a short but super super steep hike with amazing views of Fitzroy and a cool lake. Dinner was consumed and an attempt at an early night  occured, however apperently we all had too much to discuss and lay chit chatting in the tent till far too late (and definitely pissed off all those in tents near us).

A 5:30am start greated us the next day, ready for a 22km hike to the Laguna Sucia, a hike that is more off the beaten track and gives a very cool look of Fitzroy mountain without any crowds, with us having the whole place to ourselves for a while followed by just another couple joining later on! The hike itself was super cool, with some being along the river bed and more of a scramble along the rocks than a hike. Greeted by the view of a super blue lake, where we relaxed before heading back down.

Another 5am start was had before a 30km trek up Loma Del Pliegue Tumbado. A super reccomended hike, again off the beaten track on the south side of the national park. A huge day hike, staring with super green scenery and ending with the last 1km being 700 meters elevation, basically hiking up vertically, with a glacier trailing alongside the mountain. Snow was falling on the mountain, and it was insanely cold. Knees fully ripped on the way down, and I was very pleased it was the last day of hiking for some time! The evening was a chilled one, with a final pasta dinner and a trip to the pub where l tried two Argentinian drinks, Fernet, which was not great, and Gaucia a super nice drink! The girls got half a KG of ice cream on the way home (insane i know) before it was time for bed, and our last night sleeping in the tent 😦 

The following day, we packed up, ready for an early bus to Punta Arenas. We tried an Alfajor on the bus, which was a very nice biscuit, and a known argentinan snack. We explored the town, walking along the beach in an attempt to go and see some penguins, and headed to a veiw point at the top of the town.

We took a flight to Puerto Vares to stay with Caro and Pazs family, greeted by a very cool house, with the cutest doggo and cats who provided me the most wonderful cuddles. A bit of life admin followed, such as finally washing our clothes and ourselves, followed by some seriously tasty food and brownies! This was the post hike TLC I needed.

We had a chill day before a drive to the family beach house, at a southern chile beach. It was very pretty and also super warm (but has very cold sea water). We had a tasty dinner (the theme of Caros’s family, lol), played some card games, and star gazed. At the beach we saw OTTERS! Star fish, pellicans, and lots of birds, so a big day! We then took a night bus back to santiago for a reset day and repacked before heading to San Pedro in the North!

For our flight to San Pedro we arrived early at the airport, in order to avoid the mistakes of last time! We sat and planned our trip for the week and chilled before meeting Tankles before our flight. We picked up the car, which was kindly lent to us, free of charge by Caros dad work, and then explored the town before a dinner of Chorrillana (meat and chips) was had in a nice wee restaurant.

An early start was had to head to the devils throat, a cool walk through a massive sand valley. Then we headed to Death Valley, again a big desert walk, where we nearly got burnt alive walking down a sandune (im not joking, we had to retreat up and re trace our steps to get back to the car lol). Sunset was watched at Mirador de Kari – Piedra del Coyote, a cool sunset spot close to the hostel. We had another nice dinner in town, having a set meal of Cazuela (meat stew, very, very good!), churrasco (meat), papas Dorado (potatos) with Chilean salad. It was a very cheap and tasty meal after a busy day.

Another early rise heading to Laguna Chaxa Park and the Atacama salt flats, where we saw the flamingos, seeing their reflections in the lake and seeing them fly (pretty cool). We went to Laguna Cejar, where you can swim / float in some hella salty water. It’s the first time I’ve floated as I’m not very buoyant, so that was cool! We made a stop in Toconao town, where we explored the Jera valley and Jera cascades, maybe the highlight for us all, as it was a waterfall and swimming hole in the middle of the desert, and was just super nice! Saw lots of alpacas, some sheep, a donke,  and goats onour explore,  which was very cute!

Another early rise was ha  (a theme of my life), with a long drive to Los flamingos national park. A cool drive through the mountains along the border of Boliva. Stopping to see LOTS of Guanicos on the way. There were super high altitudes and freezing temps, with the road actually icy! Stopped at Saler de Tara and Saler de Loyoques as we drove north towards the Argentinan border, spotting a Biscatcher (basically a large chinchilla cross rabbit) before we headed back to San Pedro. Alltitude got to me this day as the headache was creeping in!

A medium early start occured, taking the day to drive south, through the Tropico de capricorn, into a village called Socaire. Heading to three Lagunas, miscanti and  miñiquix and Piedras Rojas, which is a red rock lagoon/gaint salt flat, with a pretty cool walk around it. We also stopped at a very cute church on the way home, super small but cool because we could go up the bell tower! We all opted for as early as night as possible today due to a crazy early start to follow.

A 3am start to go see the Gycers, these are Volcanic mineral formations that have boiling water / steam leaving them. A very cool sight to see but unreal cold as they were at + 5000meters alltitude! Experienced the brocken spectre, where your shadow is within an aura (photo attached). Stopped in a small village on the way home called macusca, with a crazy simple way of life. Like 20 houses, with communal toilets. An opening ceremony for some more toilets was taking place when we were there, so we witnessed lots of traditions taking place. A chilled evening for me was had as I was a tired bunny and just wanted to nap (all night).

A slow morning (at last), with a day spent at the valley for the moon with our new German friend Adrian (shock, it was another desert landscape). Another dinner of tuna pasta was eaten, where chats about Caro and Tankales sacrificing me and Adrian occured (so nice)! We headed to the pub for a drink and subsequently ended up in one filled with men that looked like they’d kill us! I also tried a chilien drink that was absolutely vile and genuinely tasted like acid. That night we headed star gazing, out of the city, but quite literally on the side of the road, many giggles occured, some due to Adrian’s face (poor guy), and some because we were potentially sleep deprived and found everything funny.

Our final day in San Pedro was super chilled, sending off some postcards, and Caro attending the court to pay our parking fine received earlier in the week, lol. We then headed to give the car back to Caros dads work and found out he got a notification every 20 seconds to say Caro was speeding! A super late night was had, flying back to Santiago before a 2 hour drive to the beach (most of which is passed out asleep).

A chilled christmas eve occured, spending time at the beach, and decorating cookies and eating a christmas dinner of roast meats, bread and salad, (some of the best roast beef ive ever eaten FYI) and opening gifts as Christmas is celebrated on the 24th here! (even i got some gifts to open, how cute!). I even got to witness the family nativity performance (all in Spanish).

On christmas day, we headed back to santiago to celebrate with the other side of the family, lots of people attended, more than my entire family! I spent lots of time on phone calls to people back home, utilising the free day to catch up with everyone. Another nice dinner was had, before a very late night due to a broken car and us not knowing if we would go back to the beach that night!

On boxing day, we returned to the beach. We headed to a very cool, small beach a short walk away, spotting some penguins on the way! The day involved some sunbathing and playing games, including the chilien version of dodgeball. The next day, my final day in Chile, was this repeated on another beach, a longer but more cool walk away. We also stopped to swim in a Laguna, but it was filled with dead crabs a thus, we swam in a sea life massica, lol. A final dinner was had before goodbyes to everyone were said, and a game of heads down thumbs up played, lol.

Chile has been very non-stop, and I’ve been crazy tired at times. But it was super nice to explore the country with a friend, and also see how the latinos live 😉