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Winter Sun - Chile

December 07, 2024

Winter Sun - Chile

Okay, it’s a bit further than Marbella, but if you love dramatic landscapes and fewer people, then add this to your list.

“Why Chile?” said Jack back in February, “We don’t speak Spanish!” “You don’t speak Spanish when you go to Spain either”, I replied. Nonplussed, he didn’t mention it again until September when one of their favourite TV shows, 'Race across the World’, hosted a clutch of celebrities struggling to get across South America from the East coast of Brazil to Chile on limited funds with no phones and no planes allowed.

We were heading out for October half term with eleven days to play with. Suddenly Chile was on the map for them, and they’d seen the amazing landscapes on screen.

Chile has a truly dramatic topography, looking onto icebergs at one end and the driest desert in the world at the other, with a central wine region, the most verdant forests, 2000 volcanoes, including the highest in the world, and with many still active, crystal clear lakes, serenely flowing rivers and roaring cascades for white water rafting. Three dozen 6000m peaks, one, only 2000 metres short of Everest, plus miles of beaches and thousands of islands as well as the famous Easter Island, a plane journey away, unless like Thor Heyerdahl you have a wooden raft for the 2000 mile trip. Chile makes for a great adventure in nature for kids and adults.

I like to take the boys out of their comfort zone, but once I realised just how vast the country was, we had to choose between north or south. We picked the middle and the north, putting Patagonia in the south on the backburner for another trip.

After a 14 hour direct overnight flight from London, extended to 16 hours while the ground crew struggled to remove the jetty from the plane, we landed ready for our ten hour road trip.

Long haul flights leave me a little disorientated and gloomy when I disembark, and I worried again about putting the twins through a trip with so many transfer days. Was it too ambitious? Should we have just stayed closer to home with a bucket and spade resort vacation?

They were going to have to work a bit for this one. South America is a big continent with huge distances, and if you want to feel it and see it you have to be prepared for distance travel.

Chile is nearly 2700 miles from top to bottom, similar to New York - LA, though only about 40 miles across at its narrowest point. A long toll road down through the country made our ten hour trip easier than much shorter journeys in the south of England.

The landscapes are beautiful, even as we drove south out from Santiago airport, and through their wine region with the Andes gracing one flank and the much lower Chilean Coastal Range on the Pacific Ocean edge. Chile is the world’s 7th biggest exporter of wine, and the vistas reminded me of the pristine wine regions of South Africa.

We broke the transfer day with dinner at a local restaurant and a night in a travel hotel. One large room for family bonding when not arguing over the single bathroom, and two double beds.

It left just two hours of driving the next morning to arrive at destination one.

Andbeyond Vira Vira

Located near the start of their lake district going south, and not far from the town of Pucon, it’s an area where Chileans holiday and have second homes.

Lake Villarica is overlooked by Villarica Volcano which last erupted properly in 2015. Thousands were evacuated but the lava flows stopped before reaching towns. Last year there were rumblings and a kilometre high plume which spewed particles as far as 4.5km from the rim. It’s one of Chile’s most active volcanoes and because of the recent venting, the upper snow covered part, was restricted to scientists only.

I’ve been to Andbeyond lodges in Africa; Mnemba Island and Ngorongoro Crater Lodge are two of the dreamiest eco-luxe, immerse-yourself-in-nature resorts you could ever wish to visit, and two of my favourite trips ever. Now the brand has ventured into South America.

From the moment we arrived the cares of travel dissipated, and I felt remarkably welcome and at home. Stepping into the lodge, the beautiful interiors and scents were instantly relaxing. Less rustic and more refined than the African safari lodges but energetically familiar. I love a safari adventure. But take away the big five and the model still works. Cosseted in consciously sustainable luxury, and with everything thought through to let you relax and tune into the awesome natural wilderness.

We sat to plan our excursions with a guide. The boys getting a sense of the local geography on maps and planning the days ahead. Volcanos, forests, lakes, sailing, river rafting, horse riding etc. We had two large, beautiful rooms in the main building on the first floor at the end of a wing, so interconnecting across a private lobby. That worked well for us having the boys in their own room but adjacent. High ceilings large panoramic windows, very comfortable beds and huge, comprehensive bathrooms. Big ticks all round. We broke for lunch.

We were spoiled with sumptuous food at every meal, much grown locally, farm-to table - and the attentive resort team made everything relaxed and easy for us. I love these all-in resorts for not shoving bits of paper at me all day to sign. That would really puncture the sense of peaceful being. The long bar beckoned, and the talented staff rocked up the perfect Negronis before dinner.

I couldn’t resist the swing across the lake, but the rope wouldn’t have carried the three of us.

Chilean horses have shorter legs to cope with the rocky mountainous terrain. James took his straight into a lake.

Huequehue National Park

This area and the surrounding peaks reach nearly 2000 metres altitude. It was the one cloudy day with drizzle, but the canopy was so thick it barely bothered us, and in some way added to the mood of this temperate rainforest.

The long upward trails show distinctly changing vegetation, but all evergreen and dense, teeming with life, with twisted roots and rotten, fallen trees covered in moss and lichen adding to this atmospheric walk through a Tolkien novel to Middle Earth.

James even found a hobbit hole for a cheeky nap.

Verdant smells and sometimes of skunk, mountain mists obscuring crashing waterfalls and rushing rivers left us wanting to go higher and continue our hike but the boys were tiring.

So we returned to base. After a long hike in the misty forest a hot tub by the lake was a perfect rest.

Villarica Hiking

The sky was often so blue because much of the time we were high above any cloud level.

We could walk through the forests and the fresh lava fields but weren't allowed into the snow line of the last 1000 metres to the rim as the volcano had been venting recently and was cordoned off for research officials only.

Transfer Day back to Santiago

The airport Holiday Inn is 50 metres from the terminal. Result! Again a large room with two double beds one bathroom. More family bonding. Our early 2-hour flight to the Atacama desert was on South America's budget airline JetSmart. Brand new planes absolutely full with workers going to the mine in Calama. This is the largest copper mine in the world in an area that used to be Bolivia.

In the 19th century Bolivia teamed up with Peru to go to war with Chile. Surprisingly Bolivia lost and in the settlement gave up much of what in now Northern Chile leaving it land locked. This is a rich resource for Chile having the world’s largest copper mine, the world’s third largest lithium mine and an area with increasing tourism. Not surprisingly Bolivia would like it back.

The Atacama desert covers Northern Chile and Southern Bolivia, and is weighed down with superlatives. The driest region on earth with some areas having no record of rain in the last 25 years, the largest salt flats, the highest geyser field, the largest copper mine.

We were staying at 3000 metres in San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis in the desert fed from the melting snow of the soaring peaks gushing into the rivers that run through the town. A few days acclimatising and building our endurance would prepare us to explore at 4500 metres towards the end of the week. At that altitude the oxygen level goes down to just 55% of normal, so star jumps and cartwheels aren't recommended.

Explora Atacama Lodge

Explora seemed more raw and a less chi chi boutique than the other luxury lodge Awasi, not that anything was missing. Explora felt like a research and discovery centre made luxe with perfectly comfortable rooms, pools, stables, an observatory and a truly excellent restaurant and bar offering.

The boys favourite day all year! Running, sliding, rolling, cascading down a 500ft sand dune. Except you do end up with an inch of sand in your shoes and just about everywhere else.

More Chile Facts

Tectonic activity has produced the Andes Mountain range that separates Chile from Argentina, and the ongoing instability means Chile has recorded a third of the largest twenty earthquakes in history including one in 1960 which holds the record at 9.6 on the Richter scale.

The Mapuche were the indigenous tribe which held back the conquest of the entire region until they were finally subjugated in the 19th century. Their culture still has strong influence in this essentially Spanish colony, which finally achieved independence in 1818 following the collapse of Spanish power after the Napoleonic wars in Europe.

In 2010, the Chilean mining disaster had 33 workers trapped a kilometre underground for 69 days. My brother-in-law Lee Sheward spent three months there in 2014 as Second Unit Director filming the story, ‘The 33’, with Antonia Banderas.

Catch up next week...

...with why we loved Explora Atacama Lodge and all the tailored excursions they put on for us from horse riding, sand surfing, off-road biking through devils gorge, astronomy, 4000 year old carvings, ancient civilisations, rainbow valley, moon valley, hot springs for swimming at 4000 metres and geysers even higher up than that, the camelids, flamingos and other desert wildlife, salt flats and Martian landscapes.