Destination Daydreams: Chile

Chile. Long, thin and deceptively huge. Over 2,500 miles from top to bottom but on average little more than 100 miles across.

That's pretty big. And I currently only have 2 and a bit weeks set aside to explore it. Here goes.

I want to see Patagonia. Because... well, because it's cropped up in so many nature documentaries and it looks so beautiful and wild and I imagine you could just lose yourself there for a while. Besides, it has glaciers and I'm all up for seeing some more glaciers.

I also have plans to explore Tierra Del Fuego, the very southern reaches of Patagonia. Mostly because it came up in a book I read years ago and I want to see it for myself.

Of course, Chile being enormously long, getting around is going to be interesting. I've looked at flights from the capital, Santiago, to Punta Arenas, which seems to be the gateway town for Patagonia. Reasonably priced for the distance, but I'm wondering if it can be done another way. It is possible to get a bus, but a quick search seems to suggest it goes through Argentina and I'm not sure I can be doing with that malarkey. Oh, and it takes 24 hours...

Adventure vs sanity... hmm...

I'm getting ahead of myself though. I'm assuming I'll go straight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, which is silly because that would miss out a whole raft of interesting places in the middle. So let's look at those, shall we?

Heading south from Santiago, I'd like to explore the Lake District mostly for the beautiful views, but I'd also like to check out the city of Valdivia which got hit by an enormous earthquake in 1960 and looks like a really cool place to wander round.

Still moving south, Chiloe looks like an interesting area - an island just cut off from the mainland by a fairly narrow channel. Seems to have an interesting culture of its own. In fact, the whole south-central region of the country looks pretty appealing.

Maybe what I should do, then, is destination hop from Santiago to Punta Arenas by bus - almost certainly having adventures and yet maintaining my sanity - and then catch a flight back north for my onwards travel from Santiago? Yes? Yes.

Aside from exploring the southern end of the country (and the continent), the roads from Punta Arenas seem to be the only way to access Torres del Paine National Park. I'm not entirely sure what I'd want to do in the National Park - I'm not the type to go on multi-day hikes - but to see the gorgeous scenery would be amazing. We'll see.

I'm still missing things though, because Santiago's almost in the middle of the country and I've only covered the south. What about the north? All wide open spaces and clear skies. Oh, and a whacking great desert. The Atacama, to be precise - the driest place on earth and oh so pretty about it. I want to poke it.

San Pedro de Atacama seems to be the main gateway to the desert's beauty spots, but as with accessing Punta Arenas, it's not the easiest place to get to courtesy of Chile's ridiculous stretched out-ness.

So how to get there? Again, buses are an option but again can take nearly 24 hours. I'm more included to catch a flight from Santiago to Calama, the nearest airport, and then take a bus from there. Flights only take a couple of hours and then a bus from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama is only another 90 minutes or so. That sounds much more reasonable than a whole day/night on a bus.

From San Pedro I can visit Valle de la Luna, salt lakes, the de Tatio geyser field and a whole array of other natural wonders. Now that sounds like a good plan. There's a photo of de Tatio on the front of a travel book I own and it's amazing. I want to see it first hand.

Aside from that, I'd like to spend a few days in Santiago, taking in the sights and poking around the museums. I might need to extend my 2 week plan a little - three weeks might be better.

What should I see in Chile? Do you have any suggestions of lesser known places I should seek out?