(Chillin' in
Travel
Tales Index - Chillin' In Chile Index - Chile Pix
This year, we
are taking an eight week trip to
Why Chile? (i.e. Paul, Where Do You Get These Nutty Ideas?)
A number of places we initially considered (East Africa, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia) were ruled out given the current geopolitical situation. It also left us with a desire to stay somewhat closer to home which made Latin America a pretty easy decision.
Years ago, our good friends Eric
& Karen (remember Under The Oaxacan Sun?) showed us some stunning photos of
their trip from Bolivia to Chile, crossing Salar de Uyuni, a vast expanse of
salt flats near the border. Lois has wanted to go there ever since. Given that
An interesting bit of background is
that when Paul took his first trip of this type, the original (and highly naive
& optimistic) goal was to travel from
After researching it, we realized
that to see all of
Compared to what?
Our two biggest resources are the library and the Internet. We get as many guidebooks and look at as many web sites as we can. The idea is to decide which cities/towns/villages/small grouping of huts might be interesting to visit. We don't figure out exactly what we want to do in a town, just how many days we might want to spend there.
For this trip, Paul read about 5
guidebooks, cover to cover. For any destination, we first look for guidebooks
by Footprint Handbooks,
then Lonely Planet and
then the Rough Guides.
Which guidebook to use is dependent on the destination. For Central & South
America, Footprint is by far the best. For
Guidebooks we are using on this trip:
Footprint |
Lonely Planet |
After doing our research, we select
what we think is the best guidebook for the trip and supplement it with
information from other books and the web. We create a list of places we want to
visit and how long we want to stay. We get a map of the country (usually from
an on-line source) and circle each place on the map. Next, it is simply a
matter of trying to connect the dots in an intelligent fashion. The guidebooks
we use tend to focus more on logistics than information about various sites.
So, they have maps of each town with lists of places to stay and eat and
information about getting from point A to point B by bus, truck, boat, taxi
etc. With the dots connected, we have a rough idea of our itinerary and what
modes of transportation we will use between places. (Of course, the route is
relatively easy since
More detailed planning is done at most a day or two in advance. Often, we do it on the bus/truck/boat ride into town. Sometimes, we don't do it until we're in the town. The initial plan may be changed radically or not at all depending on how much time we have, if a place is better/worse than it sounded in the books, if we decide to add/delete a town because of information from someone we meet on the road, etc.
What Do You Take With You? (i.e. Paul, Do You Bring Your Telescope?)
Here’s our packing list for this trip:
Eagle Creek travel pack |
Anorak/Nylon windbreaker |
Combination locks for backpack |
1 lightweight fleece |
Lightweight Tent |
2 pair nylon convertible pants |
Sleeping Bags |
1 long sleeve shirt |
Silk Sleep sack |
1 t-shirt |
Thermarest |
2 light weight s/s shirt |
Cookstove |
Underwear - 3 pairs |
Titanium pot & bowls |
Socks - 3 pairs |
Titanium Sierra Cup |
Day hikers |
Lexan Fork, Knife & Spoon |
teva sandals |
Zip lock bags (to keep things dry) |
Sarong |
Large backpacking poncho |
Money belt - hangs from belt |
Pelican L1 Light |
|
First aid kit |
Guidebooks |
Nylon Cord - for clothesline etc. |
Language dictionary |
Toilet articles kit |
Books to read |
Lightweight Pocketknife |
Journal |
Camelbak |
Digital Camera |
Water purification tablets |
|
Passport & photocopy |
Passport photos |
In the spirit of full disclosure, Lois insists I note that she takes more than 3 pairs of underwear! The goal is to bring as little as possible. Our packs weigh less than 30 pounds each.
You feel miserable for a little while
and spend lots of time in the bathroom. On our
Where Do You Stay? (i.e. At The Holiday Inn?)
Hotels, motels, guesthouses, inns, pensiones, albergues - any place that has cheap rooms for rent. The guidebooks list places to stay in each town. If they don't, we ask around when we arrive in town. We have no reservations. We usually don't know where we are staying until we walk up to the place, ask to see a room and decide whether or not we like it.
Occasionally, we call ahead or have someone call for us and make a reservation if the next stop is a large city or we expect it to be difficult to find a room. We have never slept out in the cold, but have paid a lot more than we wanted or stayed in a place we really didn't like or spent an hour or two looking. We will probably spend around $25 per night for a clean room with hot water. We plan on doing a reasonable amount of camping and some backpacking in the national parks. This is the reason for the tent, thermarests, sleeping bags and camp stove.
Costs to date:
Airfare to |
$740 per ticket |
Guidebooks |
$50 |
Our Lonely Planet guidebook indicates
the costs for budget travel through
The official language in
How Do You Get Two Months
Off From Work?
Ask. It works for Paul. Don’t ask and don’t work. That is Lois’ method. Actually, Paul is quite lucky. The people he works for have been exceptionally accommodating of his desire to take a little extra time off. So, thank you very much to Jim & Tim.
If only we knew! Check out this map of Chile. We're flying into Santiago and then heading straight south to Puerto Montt. We'll spend most of our time between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas. While the map may show nothing between those cities, there is a lot there and we'll tell you about it over the next two months!
Happy Holidays & Happy New Year To Everyone!
Lois & Paul
December 27, 2003