Our stop in Uyuni was brief as we have become increasingly aware of time and so we spent half a day exploring the town, the markets, sussing out how to head south (yes south) and generally meeting the real life of Bolivia. We love Bolivia, the people are friendly and smiling and with un poco … More Uyuni & Tupiza – Isolated towns in South West Bolivia
To cross from Chile to Bolivia we decided to take a three day 4WD jeep tour across the mountainous terrain of the high Andes up to the Salar de Uyuni, looping round to end in the Bolivian town of Uyuni. We rocked up at 7:45am and were bussed (very slowly in an old minibus with … More Bolivia! 4WD tour of High Andes & Salar de Uyuni
We must hold the record for the longest stay in San Pedro ever, but after watching others come and go finally our time has come! The hole in the tooth is filled with infection busting wading, the gum sprayed with antiseptic stuff, antibiotic course nearly finished and antiseptic lozengers in the pocket. Marie must have … More Finally – Adios San Pedro!
We had planned to only spend 4 days in San Pedro, but on the second night Marie developed toothache which by the third night made signs of swelling (although this was probably contained by the freezing cold temperatures at night and our room being like an ice box). My self diagnosis was a dental infection … More Desert dentists – not one for the squeamish
The journey to San Pedro was an 11 hour bus to Calama then another 2 hour bus. For the first time two other gringos got on our Calama bus (god knows where, it was sometime in the middle of the night). Of course they were also heading to San Pedro so we teamed up in … More San Pedro – An oasis in the desert
The 11 hour bus journey to get to here seemed to fly by, we’re obviously getting good at this bus malarkey. Just as well really as we’ll be on a fair few more yet! Copiapo is surrounded by big mountains on all sides and has a dry desert feel to it. It’s a relative sized … More Copiapo
Having arrived at Vina del Mar unexpectedly we remained optimistic and decided to suss out some digs and base ourselves here. A tout approached us at the bus station and in my usual pessimistic style I (Emma) believed we were going to get ripped off but accommodation was on offer so we decided that we … More Vina del Mar & Valparaiso
The crossing from Mendoza, Argentina to Vina del Mar, Chile only took 8 hours. It was amazing how different the mountains looked from the day before, as much of the lower level snow had melted and we could really see the different colours and layers in the mountains. They’re actually really colourful in a strange … More Adios Argentina, Hola Chile
As well as ensuring that we finally get to see the Andes we had another motive for taking the tour up into the high mountains – it goes on the same road that passes over to Chile and would take us almost to the border so that rather than hearing about the conditions we could … More The Andes at last
As we spent the day exploring Mendoza it was cold and trying to snow (even though Mendoza is a only 700 odd metres high). We scored ourselves some hats and gloves before the day was out as it was obvious that we couldn’t wait any longer to get them without risking frostbite. Mendoza is a … More Mendoza
Marie & Emma's Travel Journal 