We just wanted to cover our brief time spent in the Santiago area of Chile. We traveled from the Northern deserts of Chile to the mid region area, which includes the coastal towns of Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, and the capital, Santiago. Paul and I visited a happening beach scene in Vina Del Mar (remember, its summer here) called Ranaca and the nearby seaside artistic town of Valparaiso. We also hung out in Santiago and made a wine tour to a famous local winery. Check out pictures from both areas.
Vina Del Mar beach photos
Wine Tour Photos (Casillera Del Diablo)
The nice thing about Chile is that you can explore the whole country in one long straight trip down the entire length..
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So, we rented mountain bikes and made our way into the Valley of the Moon in Northern Chile to do a little sand surfing. There´s no beach, no waves, and you wax the bottom side of the board. I know it sounds odd, but it´s actually a lot of fun. Watch video of Paul and I wiping out and burning to a crisp in the desert.
Wipe Out Oops Paul Sand Surf
All Sand surfing and moon valley pictures
After our Salt Flat tour Paul and I found ourselves in the desert of Northern Chile in a quaint little town called San Pedro de Atacama. The town is in the middle of one of the driest deserts in the world. It is also flanked on either side by 2 large mountain ranges and several active and dormant volcanoes. It´s the perfect place to feel like you have stepped onto the set of a Star Wars movie, or at least Lawrence of Arabia. At any point in time we expected a light saber battle to break out on camel back.
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Few places in the world are as strange as the Salt Flats and desert mountains south east of Bolivia. Right on the frontier of Chile, this unique region boasts enormous white plains of salt, multicolored lakes with flocks of pink flamingos, as well as geysers, fumeroles and volcanos. Have a peak at the images from my three day 4×4 drive through this area. Make sure to check out the full FLICKR photo set, its one of the best I have taken thus far.
All Salar De Uyuni and Bolivia Desert Pics
We started out the tour from a run down town outside of the salt flats named Uyuni. This town is so desperate for water you are allowed only one cold shower and it must be under 5 minutes. The bathrooms are shared by everybody, so there is actually a lady there that keeps tab on your water usage. lol.
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I had to put that title. Couldn`t get by without a Guns & Roses reference.
Well, we decided we had enough of mountain life and thought a great place to relax and kick back would be the Amazon. Paul and I checked into transportation and found there are 2 ways to get to the Amazon jungle in Bolivia. Take a 45 dollar 1 hr flight, with planes run by the military to a town called Rurrenebaque, or… an 18 hr bus ride on some of the worst roads in the world. Guess which one we picked? To save a little dough, we decided the bus ride would be all sorts of fun. And we could always take the plane back? right?
The following pics and stories are about our Bolivian jungle trip.
hormigas jungle hike
All Jungle pics are here
After the bus trip from hell, sitting at the back row, with no AC, rumbling over mountain passes and into jungle, I started to think strange thoughts. “Maybe my head, which continues to bang into the window, will slam hard enough that it knocks me out completely and when I wake up we are there.” or “Maybe the bus will just fall off the edge of this cliff” Either option sounded more appealing to me.
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Let me clarify something. The deadliest road on earth is primarily deadly for large buses with out of control drivers, not tourist on mountain bikes. The road has also just recently been replaced by a newer road, with cement and signposts and such things of safety, so there is now far less car traffic. With all that said, I can still see why the road has its fame. Hundreds of people (usually locals in shoddy buses) die each year on the road and one mountain biker a few years ago. People also break and scrape things on their bodies every week. It is definitely not a cakewalk of a ride, but there is more to it than the aura of danger.
The 4 hr bike trip is a plunge into different styles of biking, different climates and vegetation, breathtaking views, and breakneck speeds. Even though its very touristy, it is a fantastic trip. Check out some pictures and a couple videos from our ride.
bolivia biking 1 Bolivia Biking 2
Deadliest Road photo set
You start your trip in the morning on a Bus in La Paz. The bus took us 40 min up one of the high passes over the Andean range. As you near the top of the pass the weather becomes extremely cold. There were snow flurries for us and the ground around the road is covered with snow. At the highest point (over 13000 ft) we unload all our bikes and gear.
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