Veronika Wild

Dark History -Palacio de la Moneda - The Presidential Palace - Santiago I was rather dreading a city of six million people but it proved to be quite interesting with lots of parks, fine buildings and  wide tree -lined avenues. It also ranks third in  South America when it comes to air pollution. This is partly due to its geography, lying in a basin with the Andes behind it, but also because it has more cars than any other city in Chile.  It also has more stray dogs per head of population than any other city though it is hard to get a figure on this.Unlike the dogs in Bolivia, these dogs are sleek and well fed and better looked after than many a homeless person. They have kennels in the parks and little coats to wear in winter. Chileans and probably South Americans in general do not believe in de -sexing their animals - not even the strays and there was a public outcry when the local authorities put three of them down. Instead, everyone feels obliged to feed them,...

Yay! I'm back. Apologies for the long delay between posts. My computer suffered a nervous breakdown after I loaded up the 2,000 photos I took. It has now been restored to prime condition (thanks Clu) and has stopped saying weird things like" would you like to change the colour scheme" or interminably trying to install update 1 of 1 whenever I log on so the story continues.... More awesome Waterfalls From Pucon I ventured south to Puerto Varas in Patagonia where there were said to be more volcanoes and more waterfalls.  Alas, it also had real West Coast rain - it rains 200 days a year there -and was freezing cold. There was no breakfast and as it was Sunday everything was closed. Ended up eating half a stale lukewarm empanada with a slightly off filling for lunch followed by some of my packaged soup. There was still a lot of soup mix left and a few carrots, so I offered to make soup for everyone in the hostel that night. This proved to be an excellent idea as other h...

Postcard from Pucon   I arrived in Pucon in the dark - how could I resist a hostel named La Princessa Insolente. When I woke up I was amazed to find a volcano smoking gently at the end of the street. Pucon is a small resort town in the Lakes District, around 860 km and 16 hours from Valparaiso. It  not only has a volcano but a huge lake and is is surrounded by national parks. It is very popular with Chileans and other tourists alike. In no time at all, I found myself shuffled onto a mini bus heading to the base of the volcano and the beginner ski slopes. As I left the bus I was handed this flat plastic thing shaped almost like a frying pan with a handle sticking out at one end. The others grabbed ski gear and snowboards and we all looked like Michelin men in the borrowed clothing. As it happened I may have had the best deal of all. Most of the other passengers were still stuck at the ski lift or the ticket booth for the entire two hours we spent there, while I had fun t...

Valparaiso "The Jewel of the Pacific" Valparaiso, thirteen hours by bus from La Serena, has to be one of the most colourful, fascinating and lovable cities I have ever come across. Until the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it was also one of the busiest and richest in South America as every ship that sailed between the Atlantic and the Pacific was obliged to call in. Victim of history -this luxury hotel intended to be the grandest in South America was almost completed when the Panama Canal opened in 1914. It fell into decay as the city's fortunes faded  It was also very international with immigrants flooding in especially from from Italy, Ireland, England and Germany. They and their descendants are commemorated in many streets and monuments in this city and elsewhere. Bernado O'Higgins for example, and his friend Mackenna were of Irish descent and prominent in achieving independence from Spain in 1818.   Arturo Prat who stands at the head of Sotomayer ...

The road from San Pedro to La Serena First let me say Chile is huge - not wide mind you, it's only 350 kilometres across its widest part and 4,300 km long according to wiki, sandwiched as it is between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, and you have to cover a lot of miles before there is much change in the scenery. I had hoped to break this journey, but the main industry here is mining, including the biggest copper mine in the world, so accommodation was at a premium and I ended up having to go straight through to La Serena, about 1156 kilometres away and twenty -one long hours by bus. Most of the way the landscape looked like the picture above, but as we came down a long pass towards the coast the vegetation began to change to scrub and cacti.  In summer La Serena is a very busy seaside town, but at this time of year it was rather quiet. Greening up -seen from the bus   I wasn't all that excited about the the hostel I had chosen. When I arrived the owner charged m...

Dawn breaks over the El Tatio Geyser field San Pedro de Atacama has to be one of my favourite small towns, not the least because there's nothing for hundreds of miles, except for volcanoes that is - twenty - eight to be exact, although only one is active. The town itself is a charming mix of simple adobe structures and cobbled streets.  Once a way station for cattle drives to the coast, tourism is now the main reason for its existence and they flock here in droves, not always to the delight of the locals. The village of San Pedro Even the furniture in the hostel was made of pise For the most part though, Chileans are warm and friendly. I got more hugs in my month here than I'd had in the last seven years. Yes, it's expensive and they do take your money, but at least they do it with a smile. During the day it was warm enough for the men to take their shirts off and most of my fellow hostellers wore shorts, but as soon as the sun set it was very cold. The hos...