As the concept of having a hub worked out very well with Buenos Aires, I did it again with Santiago de Chile. Over four weeks, I was flying in and out. My trips from here have been to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Valparaiso, and Patagonia. As I was always returning to the same hotel, it was easy to leave my luggage there only to take what I needed.
When entering the airport to head to Easter Island, you already feel something special will happen. Even if it’s still Chile (the only existing flight is going from Santiago de Chile), you have to pass special customs. You need an ESTA-like VISA, you need approval, and you pass an extra security just for flying to Easter Island. But it’s worth it that five days have been one of the highlights of my world trip! But let’s start with some basics.
Two hours bus ride from Santiago, you can visit the small town of Valparaíso. Some agencies are even offering day tours to Valparaíso. I decided to stay for four days in this lovely little town. Valparaíso bursts with vibrant energy, its colorful houses cascading down steep hills like a whimsical tumble of Legos. You can take a ride on the historic funiculars, soak in the bohemian vibes of Cerro Alegre, and admire the UNESCO-protected architecture, a legacy of the city’s 19th-century maritime boom.
One of the biggest attractions in Patagonia is Torres del Paine, where Torres is “Towers” in Spanish and “Paine” means blue in an old local dialect. So “Blue Towers”
The name comes from three prominent “towers”, stone pinnacles, in the middle of the massive mountain. Still, that national park has so much more: lakes, glaciers, lodges, ice, sun, animals, and, in general, a beautiful landscape.
Going to Patagonia, you have two options to enter on the Chile side: Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. Both have an airport, and a convenient bus connection between these two exists.
I flew from Santiago to Punta Arenas, and after four days, I took a bus to Puerto Natales and left from that airport after five more days.
Due to some mess with my travel agency, I had to take a local bus from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. It was not only a long ride (almost 13 hours), but it was also pretty rough and dusty. Until the Chiliean border, it was a dirty road. Bumpy and Dusty. And as the bus was pretty old, all the dust found its way into the bus. We had three and a half hours of the border crossing at the Chile border, one and a half to leave Bolivia, and 2 hours to enter Chile.
When we entered the Salar de Uyuni, we were very disappointed. 6 strangers and a guide went into a Toyota Landcruiser and entered the Salar de Uyuni around 10 am. The salt was brown like it was covered with sand; we thought it would be white, like snow. We cheered ourselves up together, “It will be better soon,” “It’s just the beginning,” and “Just wait a little bit.” The driver was silent; he only understood Spanish. He could have told us our mistake. After 5 minutes of driving in brown salt, I asked into the round, “Might it be brownish as we are all still wearing our sunglasses?”. With a gasp of relief from the seats, everyone took off their sunglasses, and the white, pure whiteness of the salt immediately blinded us. That started a day full of laughter and fun with the group.
In addition to my day trips to Titikakka Lake and the scary ride on the Death Road, I stayed a couple of more days around La Paz to explore the city and to feel the Bolivian way of living. It’s not a secret that Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, but on top of that, and that’s only my impression, it’s unlikely tourist-friendly. It happens everywhere, especially in poor countries, where the prices differ for tourists and locals.
Having seen the Peruan side of the Incas, I had to see the most crucial point for the Incas: the birthplace of the sun and the moon, the “Isla de Sol”. The people living there are called Aymara. Aymara and the Inca are two distinct indigenous peoples of the Andes Mountains. The Inca were a powerful empire that conquered and incorporated many other groups, including the Aymara, into their territory. The Aymara, however, have their unique language, culture, and traditions, and they have never been fully assimilated into Inca society.
Due to my decision to cancel Venezuela, I went to Quito (Ecuador) for some more relaxing time. Therefore, I did not take that many tours. On the first day, I walked around in the historic city center, and actually, I would call Quito the city of churches. Only the historic part of the city has more than 30 churches—some impressive, some relatively minor and unimpressive.