conversations with friends who convinced me to pursue it, I came to an
agreement with work to take three weeks off before Christmas and three
weeks in February.
A month ago I booked return flights to Chile - I fly out to Santiago on
the evening of Friday 25th November, and I fly back from Santiago on
Saturday 17th November. There is some suggestion I am perhaps being
foolish going back to Chile a second time, but it's a big place (2400
miles top to bottom, more or less, if my memory is correct) and while I
may end up revisiting some places a bit, it's still up in the air and I
think it will be OK.
(Not too sure what the three weeks in February will involve. I am
tempted to go back to Latin America again and save anywhere more exotic
and/or maybe less interesting for when I have more time to travel. Not
worrying about it right now.)
I've been ridiculously lax in making plans (especially since it ought to
be an enjoyable experience - half the pleasure's in the anticipation
etc) but there you go. I also haven't studied any Spanish at all, even
though I hoped this would give me a kick up the arse. I may just
possibly start to get round to that this weekend, but I've thought that
before. With a couple of minor exceptions I haven't spoken any Spanish
since I got back from my last trip in June 2010 and I haven't had any
lessons either.
When I drunkenly conceived the idea of a three week trip to Chile, the
vague itinerary I had in mind was a few days in Santiago, then travel
overland up to San Pedro de Atacama, stopping off at some places I
didn't stop at before. (I haven't checked my blog from last time, but I
believe I only stopped off in Chanaral on the way last time, largely
because I couldn't get into hostels in most places.) While I didn't like
San Pedro much as a town, there were two touristy things to do there
which I get round to and which I think would make it worth revisiting.
You could go sandboarding there, and while I flirted with the idea, a
certain time pressure combined with fear of injuring myself put me off.
I am not 100% sure I'd have the balls to do it anyway, but it is tempting.
The other thing you could do was go out into the desert at night with a
group and (I think) a telescope and look at the stars. That sounded
pretty cool and I would have done it if I'd had time last time round.
On that rough itinerary I sketched out in my head, I think the plan was
to return to Santiago overland, ideally by a different route, and finish
off with a few days there before flying back. I worked out at the time
that three weeks would allow me to do that route pretty comfortably
without feeling rushed, so it would hopefully have some of the slightly
laid back feel of my six month trip in 2010.
Since then I have mulled it over very intermittently in my head and had
a couple of other ideas, which are vaguer:
- I could maybe head east out of Santiago, cross over into Argentina and
perhaps loop round (if there's another suitable crossig point) back into
Chile, doing some kind of circular route. That would, with the exception
of Santiago, be completely new and also potentially quite cool. I have
some recollection of my (Argentinian) Spanish teacher telling me about
some interesting town/region in that part of Argentina.
- I could head south out of Santiago and visit the southern half of the
country. With the exception of the extreme far south (Punta
Arenas/Puerto Natales) I have no been anywhere south of Santiago, so
that would all be new too.
- As I come to write down the two previous ones, it occurs to me that as
a minor variation on the Argentina trip, I could maybe do some kind of
circular route solely within Chile but staying relatively near to Santiago.
I have to be honest and say that a big part of the idea behind these two
three week trips is to escape the UK winter, as well as to give me the
chance to do a bit more "serious" travel before I turn 36. (The earliest
I can imagine taking another 6 month or longer break is October-ish
2012.) So that slightly puts me off the heading south idea, but it is
going to be more-or-less summer there and it's unlikely I would get as
far south as Puerto Natales (though it might be cool if I did make it
that far, in a way) so I probably shouldn't write it off.
Anyway, having got all that out of the way (deliberately) without
looking at any books, I am now going to sit down and have a brief flick
over a guide book, or at least stare at a map a bit. Vague plan is to
sketch out a possible trip to San Pedro and think about the others
separately afterwards, but I can imagine getting sidetracked once I
start to look at the book. We'll see...
No comments:
Post a Comment