Hello from the roadside! Your friendly neighborhood worldwide hitchhiker just arrived in Santiago de Chile, which is Chile’s capital city. To get here, Jonas and I hitchhiked an empty bus/van of sorts. We met a guy who lived in Punta Arenas. For reference: Punta Arenas is close-ish to Antarctica and my goal for traveling southward. He was planning to just stay there for two months, but then he lived there for fifteen years! I wonder if the same will happen to me… We exchanged phone numbers so by the time I reach Punta Arenas I can give him a callContinue reading
La Serena: Reading in the Japanese Garden (Chile)
En route to Santiago de Chile, there are many cities worth a visit, but somehow there seems to be only domestic tourism. One of them is the city of La Serena, which has a sweet Japanese garden. It’s good for book reading and a mandatory relaxation session with ducks, koi fish, and some scary looking swans. It was so peaceful until someone with a few too many kids showed up with eyes set on destroying plants and harassing the animals. Then the peace was gone. There should be more childfree places in this world. Now I’ll need to continue readingContinue reading
Atacama Desert Hitchhiking—Trees + Rain, Please! (Chile)
The Atacama is a huge desert, yet it only takes a handful of cars to get going to where you need to be! As in the entirety of Chile, you can basically only travel North or South, nearly all traffic goes a long distance. It’s easy to find a ride to Chile’s capital city Santiago. But seriously, one can only appreciate so much Atacama Desert. I need to see a tree or a bunch of trees. Something taller than a shrub. I’m traveling in the wrong season to see the (annual?) blooming of the Atacama Desert. The people I’ve takenContinue reading
Camping Stove Cooking at the Chilean Coast (Paposo)
Who’s up for a cup of mint tea on the beach in Paposo? After a long search, I finally found a cheap camping stove with a fairly universal fuel system. A shop in the Zona Franca of Iquique (Zofri) that also sells children’s toys and Christmas decorations (!?) and other completely random objects had this beauty of a camping stove. It has some kind of metal skirt that’s its wind protection and hugs my pot completely. And it has a sparker that makes it very easy and safe to turn on. If you can’t tell yet: I’m so fucking happy!Continue reading
Paranal Observatory, Chile: Tour Group Crashing
“Paranal Observatory, Chile: Tour Group Crashing” has a Russian 🇷🇺 translation: «Паранальская Обсерватория, Чили: Незваные Туристы» Today cannot be described as anything else than plain epic. Together with Jonas, I hitchhiked from Antofagasta to the Paranal Observatory. Our drivers were kind enough to drive us up the mountain out of their way. They drove back downhill and we anticipated hitchhiking another car down within the hour. I definitely didn’t expect to come closer to the Very Large Telescope than the security guys at the gate. But it is a Saturday today and the tour group was just about to leave.Continue reading
Pisagua, Chile: Squatter’s Paradise
Northern Chile has provided me with a lot of fun things to do so far. One of the most rewarding detours off the main road south has been visiting the hamlet of Pisagua and its abundant former glory. This used to be one of Chile’s biggest ports back in the day, which one can’t imagine anymore. A lot of buildings are wooden, including the semi-abandoned theatre. The theatre now hosts a tiny library and internet café in one of the small rooms. Only a few shops provided my provisions of food and water. After walking around, I’ve spotted four restaurantsContinue reading
Beach Camping in Northern Chile (Iquique – Tocopilla)
It’s tough to give a summary of the things I’ve done in northern Chile in the past weeks. But it involved a lot of freecamping at this beach or that beach, and the ruins of ghost mining towns in the Atacama desert region. This beach between Tocopilla and Iquique, found on the amazing app discovery called iOverlander (there’s an android version too! And of course it’s free), was one of those memorable places. The morning light was sheer perfection, with the Chilean Coastal Range mountains rising up from the sea and only giving a little space for putting up myContinue reading
Chajnantor Observatory, Chile
In San Pedro de Atacama – the biggest tourist trap in the north of Chile – I managed to get to the entrance of one of the European Southern Observatory sites here in Chile. To be specific: they’re the ALMA and top-secret APEX at 4.800m above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau. The observatories are above 5.000m. Unfortunately, they even blocked the sneaky “back entrance” I found on my map for the public during my attempt to approach. There were all these warning signs telling me that I probably can’t even breathe up there. Yes, the air is that thin.Continue reading
Freecamping at the Termas de Polloquere, Chile
Sunrise over the Termas de Polloquere in northern Chile. Free hot springs! The sulphuric steam was a little smelly but all in all, it made a pretty good bath. I usually don’t take baths twice a day, for obvious reasons… I’m not sure if freecamping was actually allowed, but nobody really seems to care about what you do here, which is always awesome. The water temperature was something between bearable and skin-scalding hot. I managed to make noodles in the evening and coffee in the morning au-bain-marie style by putting my improvised cooking gear in the hot water. I wasContinue reading