GETTING READY

(Chillin' in Chile Part 1)

Travel Tales Index - Chillin' In Chile Index - Chile Pix

This year, we are taking an eight week trip to Chile from December 28th until Ferbruary 22, 2004, focusing on the South. For one reason or another, your name is on our travelogue e-mail list. It can NEVER be removed! (Just kidding) If you know anyone else that would like to receive our e-mails, have them contact Paul at PaulWorksHard@hotmail.com. This is the first of a series of e-mails you will be receiving related to our trip. Here is information about planning, packing, logistics and answers to some questions people have asked us:

 

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 Bolivia is having problems of its own, we decided on Chile which has a relatively high standard of living, good transportation and a lot of beautiful national parks.

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 Mexico to Tierra del Fuego in a span of six months from October 1994 to April 1995. He only made it to Costa Rica before the time was up!! So, now Paul and Lois both have a chance to see Tierra del Fuego.

After researching it, we realized that to see all of Chile, from the North (where the salt flats are) to the South (Tierra Del Fuego) would take six months all by itself. Given we only have two months, we decided to see the southernmost part of Chile on this trip and save the north for another trip. So, Lois still has something to look forward to in the future!

Is It Safe?

Compared to what? Washington DC? - where planes crash into buildings, there was anthrax in the mail and there was a sniper on the loose? Certainly it is different than here, but in terms of crime, most of Chile is not reported to have any problems. The capital, Santiago has typical big city problems - bag snatchers, pick-pockets etc. So, we will use our money belts, be careful and snarl at anybody that gets too close!

How Do You Plan Your Trip?

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 Asia, Lonely Planets tends to be better. For Cuba, Moon Handbooks can't be beat.

Guidebooks we are using on this trip:

Footprint Chile by Tony Green and Janak Jani

Lonely Planet Chile and Easter Island by Carolyn Hubbard

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 Chile is only about 180 miles at its widest and only has one major north/south road.)

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.

What Happens If You Get Sick?

You feel miserable for a little while and spend lots of time in the bathroom. On our Cambodia trip, Paul got seriously dehydrated, but made it to a clinic; got the best and most attentive medical care he ever received and was ready to go the next day. We bring Imodium and Cipro. The Imodium stops you up and Cipro is an antibiotic for any bacterial GI problems. We have used both of these on a couple of occasions. Worst case, you need to be evacuated to a nearby city with modern health care facilities. Insurance covers this. In fact, if you join DAN (Diver's Alert Network) for $30 a year, they have fantastic medical evacuation insurance.

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.

Money, Money, Money?

Costs to date:

Airfare to Santiago        

$740 per ticket

Guidebooks

$50

Our Lonely Planet guidebook indicates the costs for budget travel through Chile is about $25 per person per day. We are planning on 50% more than that or $75 per day total. Normally, we bring $500-$1000 in cash (there's nothing like the US dollar), credit cards, traveler's checks and an ATM card. We use the ATM card for getting local currency. This is the cheapest and best way to change money. The credit cards and traveler's checks are backups.

How Do You Communicate?

The official language in Chile is Spanish and there are a few Indian languages. We're guessing that English is widely spoken in tourist areas. Paul has probably spent over a year of his life in Spanish speaking countries, so while he is not fluent, he can communicate pretty well. We have a small Berlitz dictionary, a sense of humor and away we go...

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.

What Is Your Route?

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

 

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Chillin' in Chile Part 2

 

all content is copyright © Paul Schneider, 2003.