Allano's Travels in Chile and Argentina

By Allan Taylor

Chile, the "long thin country" is explored from top to bottom, from the northern city of Arica and adjacent Atacama Desert to the most southern parts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, a distance of about 4000 kilometres. Travel by bus, airplane and car-ferry is part of the fun and makes travel interesting and a challenge.

Argentina is always over the mountains to the Chileans, so to get there, the often snowy barrier of the Andean Cordillera must be surmounted by airplane or traversed by scenic roads through mountain passes. A new world is then presented that is much drier and sunnier than Chile, which cops all the rain in southern Fiordland.

The differences between Chile and Argentina covering climate, scenery, geology, immigration, development and trout fishing are pondered upon. The mining industry gets examined as does the wine industry in both Chile and Argentina.

Allano is an enthusiastic trout fisherman and always carries a rod to test out the waters encountered. New Zealand fly-fishing methods are successfully applied in the Chilean and Argentine Lake Districts and Tierra del Fuego. This expose of travel experiences should inspire others to venture forth into this wonderful part of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allan Taylor
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301697632

Allan Taylor

Allan Taylor is the minister of education at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, where Sunday School attendance has grown from 2,500 to 5,000 under his leadership. He is also the founder of Ember to Blaze Ministries and writes Sunday School, leadership, and training materials including his previous book, The Six Core Values of Sunday School. Allan and his wife, Linda, have three children and two grandchildren.

Book preview

Allano's Travels in

Chile and Argentina

By Allan Taylor

Table of Contents

Introduction

Atacama Desert * El Teniente

Chilean Wineries * Chilean Lake District

Thermal Spas * Island of Chiloe

Laguna San Rafael * More Cruises to the Glaciers

Fishing the Chilean Lake District

Southern Lakes Crossing

Early Days Fishing Patagonia * Tierra del Fuego

Chilean Car Ferries * Puerto Natales

Torres del Paine National Park

Fiordland Cruise * Puerto Williams

Buenos Aires * Bariloche * Guide to Argentina

Argentine Wineries * Welsh in Patagonia

Argentine Small Towns * Ushuaia

Conclusions

Copyright 2013 Allan Taylor

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Photo Attribution

Cover Image: Arroyo y glaciar El Martial, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Photo by Claudio Elias, from Wikimedia Commons.

Introduction

This ebook is a collection of 24 travel articles (30,300 words) about my travels in Chile and Argentina that were published in various newspapers and magazines ages ago. It seemed a pity to let them disappear into oblivion and so be forgotten. Together they make a synergy of my observations and provide useful information on where to go, and hopefully inspire others to do likewise and enjoy this wonderful region of South America.

The articles are denoted by having a centred title and the end by having a &&& mark. They have not been altered with regard to prices since it is interesting to see how these have changed with time. The articles are linked together by new information helpful to the present day traveller. It is inevitable there will be some degree of overlap with articles covering adjacent tourist regions; just consider this to confirm that the region is a must do place to visit.

In the past I have not written about misfortunes since travel writers don't like to appear foolish. Robberies are now included so as to be a warning to readers what to expect and be on the alert if they venture into South America. Cuidado los ladrones!

This is not to cast aspersions on South America; I have been robbed twice in my hometown of Adelaide, South Australia; it is just that travellers are more exposed to this risk. Some observant readers may ask where is an article about Iguazu Falls? My apologies to the Argentines. I have kept it for my next ebook entitled Allano's Travels from Venezuela to Brazil so as to balance things out.

How to get to South America from Australia? Most readers will be looking at the problem from the top down rather than from the bottom up, but people living in Australia are quite used to being down-under. Several times I have travelled around the world without venturing into the northern hemisphere which often seems to have terrorist activities. The Latin American countries have less of this activity, and possess a unique culture that lets them enjoy life.

Leaving form Sydney, Australia, is Qantas/Lan Chile; you can fly to Santiago de Chile, and then on to Buenos Aires (BA). Both cities are excellent starting points to explore Chile and Argentina. A direct Sydney to BA route goes via Auckland, New Zealand and then away south to eventually make landfall at Punta Arenas and so follows the east coast north to Buenos Aires. Alternatively, you can enter both Chile and Argentina from the north by train or bus, which I have done many times. First fly to Lima, Peru, or La Paz, Bolivia.

First Landfall

My first venture into South America was in the southern summer of 73/74. I arrived at Lima, Peru in November '73 and moved southward to La Paz, Bolivia by mid December. I took the overnight train to the coast at Arica, Chile. At the border with Chile we had to change trains to one that was antiquated and full of soldiers carrying machine guns. The soldiers inspected everyone's passport. They had never seen a New Zealand one before, but were impressed, thinking I had a diplomatic passport. Arica was a pleasant sunny seaside town on the border with Peru. I realized now that a military coup had disposed of the left-wing Allende Government and Chile was now in the hands of the military. My first plan was to bus through to the capital, Santiago, taking 3 days. However, this required getting a military permit. I solved that problem by flying out in the afternoon, and arrived in Santiago less than 3 hours later and booked myself into the Hotel de France.

There were not many soldiers in central Santiago which was being decked out with Christmas decorations. I inspected the Palacio de la Moneda where Allende had died during the coup. Part of it was burnt out and now covered in scaffolding for repairs. There were lots of bullet holes to be patched up in the Palacio and surrounding buildings. The Moneda had been hit by bombs from an airplane attack during the coup on 11th September, 1973. After seeing the sights of the city over three days I took the overnight train south to Temuca to explore the Lake District. The two articles on fishing the Argentine Lake District, and Tierra del Fuego, all date to this early period. It was not until 15 years later in the 1990's that I returned repeatedly to explore further a field and write about more adventures.

Atacama Desert

The quickest and most comfortable way of getting a first hand experience of the Atacama Desert is to fly over it.

Fly north from Santiago to the Pacific coastal cities of Antofagasta, Iquique, and to Arica on the Peruvian border and you will see a vast expanse of arid brown landscape stretching from the coast to the high Andes. You need to be on the right hand side of the plane, but coming south be on the left hand side. Flights from these coastal Chilean cities to La Paz, Bolivia also cross over the desert, from east to west.

How big is it? As an eco-region it takes in most of northern Chile from the Peru border at Arica down south to about Copiapo, or a coastal strip of about 1000 kms. This is the really dry part where yearly rainfall recorded can be 1 mm or less! To the east the desert extends to the less arid central Andean plateau at 4000 or more meters in altitude. All told, the Atacama desert covers over 180,000 sq. kms consisting of barren sand, volcanic rock and salt pans.

What's it like close up? It's the nearest you will get to walking on the Moon or Mars! In most places there is not a sign of vegetation anywhere.

There are various ways that the tourist can venture by land into the Atacama desert region.

You could take a deluxe air-conditioned bus from Santiago to Arica and traverse the entire desert which takes 28 hours nonstop for the journey of almost 2000 kms. Much better is to stop off a few days at places en route, such as at La Serena, Copiapo, Antofagasta, Calama, Iquique and to finally reach Arica after having 2 weeks of unhurried sightseeing and exploration. More on this later.

Alternatively, you could enter Chile from neighbouring Bolivia by two (or more) fascinating routes. The far north bus and rail route from La Paz to Arica is a great day trip where you can experience the amazing scenery of the altiplano and desert landscape while skirting Lago Chungara and the snowy volcanoes of the Lauca National Park. In the old days one could travel by a quaint antiquated rail car which provided added excitement particularly when traversing the often dodgy Bolivian railway system.

The most exciting and astounding way to come is to take the 3 day excursion from Uyuni, Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, which is an oasis in the middle of the Atacama Desert. These 4-wheel drive organized tours more or less follow a road across salt pans and the desert altiplano crossing a pass at 5000 meters altitude. The route winds its way around lofty volcanoes, salt lakes, a geyser field and hot springs, to finally descend to the gringo tourist center of San Pedro de Atacama (population ca 1000) in Chile, located at a mere 2440 meters altitude.

The high altitude salt lakes on the way, viz., Lagunas Colorada and Verde, are populated with graceful pink flamingoes feeding on brine shrimp. The rocky, wind eroded outcrops in the desert are the home of the friendly viscacha which is like a large guinea pig, always wanting a handout. On the Chilean/Bolivia border