When you think of the desert what springs to mind? Sand, dust, and dry weeds right...well that's partially right but look closer and there is so much more going on. San Pedro itself is mainly a town built around catering to the tourist crowd. Despite this it's adobe style and interspersed greenery gives it a charm that most tourist traps are missing. We stayed in a basic but friendly hostel at the edge of town. Its name was Paso de los Toros and it cost $8,000 CLP ($16.58 AUD/11.90 USD) per person (for 3 nights or more, $10,000 CLP/20.72 AUD/14.88 USD for less than 3) for a 12 bed "dorm". I say "dorm" because essentially Paso de los Toros is an open room that has been divided up by bamboo curtains to create partitions. Despite this, it is a warm and hospitable place with free tea and coffee and decent free wifi given it’s peripheral location. Through our hostel we were given the name of a company that organised tours of the area. We were lucky that this company (Turismo El Relincho) turned out to be a great company that used smaller buses, which meant a small group to travel with. We did learn however that many companies switch customers depending on how popular a tour is that day so be warned that you may not end up going with the company you have booked. This also goes with the price of the tour not necessarily reflecting the quality. We booked a 4-tour package ($55,000 CLP/114 AUD/81.85 USD) that cost us less than the cost of 3 trips combined. The first of the tours was to Valle de la Luna ($10,000 CLP/20.72 AUD/14.88 USD), which translates to Valley of the Moon. This landscape looks like something between what you imagine of Mars and a Star Wars set, it is one of the most surreal things either of us had ever seen! A handy tip for this tour is where to focus your sunset watching. The end of the tour finishes on the sand dunes (Duna Major) to watch sunset over the valley. Most people find a good position looking towards where the sun is setting on the left side of the dune. Towards the right of the dune the colours of the sunset light up the surrounding hills in a spectacular colour display. It's worth getting a good spot facing this way to watch the colours light up the Andes. The next tour ($30,000 CLP/62.17 AUD/44.64 USD) that we took was probably our favourite and is definitely the one we would pick if you can only afford one. The shuttle arrives to pick you up at 6am and takes you to have breakfast by the lake in the mountains. This is an amazing breakfast location and for those of you who like birds a good spot for some bird watching. After a short stop and walk at another lake (look carefully for the small flamingo flock) the tour takes you to a small village where you can see the local crops of green beans and quinoa as well as a simple but very beautiful little church. The last stop on this tour is the best. Laguna Chaxa is a lagoon in the middle of the salt flats. This would be impressive enough in itself, but add to that an enormous Andean flamingo population and you have the recipe for one of the most idyllically beautiful locations we’ve ever had the privilege to encounter. These spectacular birds are fairly brave so you can get pretty close and just quietly enjoy the experience. domOur next 2 tours were good but unfortunately did not really live up to that sensational second day. Cool for the novelty was our third tour ($15,000 CLP/31.08 AUD/22.32 USD), which was swimming in hot springs. They were a collection of cascading pools in a valley that were picturesque but expensive for what they were. The other was a very early 4.30 am start to see the geysers ($20,000 CLP/41.45 AUD/29.76 USD). Personally we didn’t feel the early start was really worth the trouble for what this trip had to offer but if you have seen geysers before it is an impressive display. Again it felt like a novelty that we were seeing water spurting from the baron desert ground, especially because it was boiling and at the time it was -8 Celsius however both of us having seen very similar on a larger scale in Rotorua in New Zealand, it was difficult to muster up much enthusiasm that early in the morning! It is important to note that none of these trips include the entrance fees to each of the individual sites and all up these cost us an additional $28,500 CLP/59.06 AUD/42.41 USD each. That might seem steep, but when you are in Atacama you are on the doorstep on some of the most fascinating sites of natural beauty in the world and it’s not a place to skimp on the chance to experience them. Overall San Pedro de Atacama was an expensive but amazing stop. It is the driest desert in the world and has some of the clearest night skies anywhere on earth. The only problem we had was that we were there during a full moon so visibility wasn't great. The fruit and vegetable market and small shops make it easy enough to cook for yourself, which brings down expenses if your hostel has a kitchen (which ours did). We did spend a lot of money over the five days we were there but it was all very much worth it and we would definitely do it again and recommend splurging on the experiences! A bus to Santiago, which was our next stop, cost us $37,200 CLP/77.09 AUD/55.36 USD and took 22 hours. This journey is predominantly through desert, which does get monotonous eventually, even for Dani who loves looking out of the window on long bus rides Santiago is actually a very funky city if you get to know it. We were fortunate enough that my cousin's fiancée is from Chile and so we were staying with her sister. This gave us an opportunity to view the city from a different perspective. We also did both the walking tours on offer through a company called ‘Tours for Tips’ that were great at showing us a different side to Santiago. For example the wonderful "coffee with legs". If you go into the city between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday you can visit a coffee with legs bar. These are basically coffee based strip clubs that were introduced in 1930's when trying to bring coffee culture to Chile, a tea-drinking nation. These are still the most common places you will find decent coffee in Santiago. Also worth checking out are the markets. Not only is there the world famous fish market here (inside tip: always eat at the restaurants around the outer rim of the market. They cater to locals, are cheaper and better quality) but there is also a local market a block away that has amazing food stalls, fruit and vegetables and very warm hearted people. After 4 wonderful days it was off to our last stop before the start of our cruise to the end of the world, Valparaiso (the bus from Santiago cost us $3,300CLP/6.83 AUD/4.91 USD). Valparaiso is an odd place. It's got a fantastic reputation for street art (which it has in abundance) but it's also a bit rough round the edges and more of a port town than a tourist attraction. We were staying at a hostel called Escarabajo Hostel which cost us $6,500 CLP/13.47 AUD/9.67 USD each for a 4 bed female only dorm. As we were only staying overnight we may have missed the heart of it but we left thinking we must have missed something. We did however find a great backpacker treat. El Guatón is a Chilean fast food restaurant and has meals that could feed villages let alone starving backpackers. One meal is easily enough to feed 2 and could quite possibly stretch to 3. Meals cost $12,200 CLP/25.28 AUD/18.15 USD for 2 people including a drink. Overall we loved Chile. The Atacama Desert has some spectacular scenery and is worth splashing out on. We were also pleasantly surprised by the fact that we could stick to a lower than expected budget. On that note I'll hand you over to Dani for... Budget Time $$ Overall we came in under our target budget for Chile in spite of doing a hefty amount of trips while we were in Atacama and having a fairly modest budget to begin with! There are two main reasons for this and neither of them have anything to do with Chile being a cheaper country than expected...it is not! The first reason for our being under was while we were in Atacama we chose to buy food from the supermarket and cook in our very well equipped hostel (Paso de Los Toros). This saved us a huge amount as eating out in Atacama is really expensive being in the middle of the desert and a serious tourist destination, the perfect recipe for unfeasibly high prices for 90% of things! The second reason is that in Santiago we spent 4 nights staying with family thus eliminating the expense of accomodation in the capital city (which is often pricier anyway)! Your two main expenses when in Chile are likely to be accomodation and transport both of which are up there in the top range of South America (along with countries like Argentina and Brazil). Obviously if you want to visit a range of places when you're in Chile these two are completely unavoidable but taking a night bus obviously means that you are at least combining these costs by moving and sleeping at the same time! Buses in Chile are very comfortable and well equipped so 'semi cama' is more than necessary as a backpacker! Just bare in mind that unlike in Argentina you are given nothing more than a juice box and a small packet of wafers as food on the buses so you will definitely want to bring food with you if you're going to do a long journey. There are of course stops with street food available which we believe to be a very tasty and cost effective option but these are unreliable so it's probably better to be safe than sorry! Any more detailed information required about budgeting in Chile just email Dani (just click on the envelope below the Blog title above). What it actually cost: (AUD) 12 days = $881.74 Entertainment: $350 Food: $159.01 Transport: $199.87 Accommodation: $122.50 Miscellaneous: $25 Souvenirs: $16.10 Drinks: $9.26 This worked out at a daily budget of $36.75 a day each however as mentioned above we were staying with family in the capital. LGBT: We found Chile very accepting of us as a couple. From speaking to my Chilean family it appears that as is happening all around the world the younger generation are more accepting than the older ones. This being said Chile is moving forward with legal recognition of same sex couples. Same sex couples now have the right to a civil union that entitles them to the same rights as straight couples but not the title of marriage. Also the President's latest ad campaign featured a gay couple which shows the progression of Chile's acceptance. In relation to transgender policy this is also progressing and the laws have recently changed where a person is no longer required to go before a judge to legally change their gender on their documentation nor is surgery required for this to take place.
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From Toronto we were heading to Canada's next "big city" nicknamed Winterpeg by Canadians due to its extremely low winter temperatures. Winnipeg on our arrival was surprisingly warm. The journey from Toronto is long.... 38 hours to be precise. This is also providing that the train is running on time, which VIA rail are very quick to point out may not be the case. Unfortunately this is also one of Canada's less scenic route so come prepared to entertain yourselves. We were stocked up on food, snacks and had our travel kettle prepared for tea and coffee. Food on board is expensive so make sure you get it before you get on board because there are very few stops along the way. We were staying with a friend we had met while staying in Halifax. Tara our friendly Canadian had spotted fellow lesbians at the hostel and had approached. What quickly ensued was what Tara describes as the friend U-Haul. Within 24 hours of meeting she had decided we were cancelling our reservation in Winnipeg and staying with her. We rocked up to Tara's place after our epic journey and were welcomed into her home. Luckily we had Tara because I'm not sure what one does in Winnipeg without friends. We ate some really good Japanese, went down to the Forks, which was a First Nations trading post, and for the rest of the time we netflixed and chilled (the non dodgy kind) with our U-Haul friend. We sadly waved goodbye to Tara and Pusspuss (the cat) and headed towards Edmonton. We were stopping in Edmonton to stay with friends of ours we met and traveled with on our first trip. We had the most wonderful time during the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend being welcomed by our friend’s family for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Edmonton is another one of those places that you should really have friends for. We did enjoy our trip to North America's biggest mall though. From Edmonton it was off to Jasper. A word of warning the train is almost always delayed arriving in to Edmonton and it gets further and further behind schedule from there. This train journey is spectacular and if you can get a good seat in the dome carriage to view it will be well worth it. From here you can spot wildlife such as long horned sheep, bears, moose, caribou among other things. There are also beautiful mountain vistas and river views. Jasper is a great little mountain town, which is a jumping point for hikes and the Jasper National Park. We stayed at the H.I hostel 7km out of Jasper ($27.50 CAD pp. for a 36 bed female dorm) which runs a shuttle to and from town ($5 CAD) several times a day in summer and twice a day in winter but there are often people from the hostel who are driving to and from town. The walk in to town is also very pretty. If you are hoping to head to Banff from here be warned that other than hitching a ride with another traveller (possible at certain times) there is only one company that do this and it costs around $120 for the relatively short journey. While you're in Jasper something worth trying is the Bear Claws from the fudge shop in town. Also if you're coming from Vancouver or Edmonton it may be worth getting some groceries there, as they are expensive in Jasper. Due to the characteristically late arrival of the Jasper to Vancouver train we ducked in to the local microbrewery The Jasper Brewing Company (here we go again with the beer) to sample some of Jaspers finest brews. This was to be our last train journey in Canada and was just a gentle overnight trip arriving the next morning at 9am. This is another very scenic journey and well worth the trip. We were heading for Vancouver and the other coast of Canada. Vancouver is a great city for food and has some good tourist hotspots such as Gastown, Chinatown and the Grandville Market. It is a very walkable city and easy to navigate. We have a couple of friends in Vancouver so we split our stay between a friend’s house and an Air BnB ($70.60 AUD) in a central location. They have a thriving gay scene and until marriage equality was achieved in the states it was the most popular LGBT wedding location in Canada. Just be careful with the weather in Vancouver, as it is often wet. We also highly recommend the walking tours here (listed on our walking tour page) of Gastown, which was really interesting and also finishes up close to a very cool microbrewery called Steamworks which was worth a visit. Our last stop on our Canadian Tour was to Victoria on Vancouver Island. This involves a bit of an obscure journey from the centre of Vancouver. To get to Victoria we needed to catch a bus to the train station a train to the bus station then a bus to the ferry port ($5.50 CAD for bus/train and $17.20 CAD in for the ferry). This is a time consuming journey but is a lot cheaper than the alternative, which is a bus then ferry for . It is also well timed and a lot easier than it appears on paper. Once you reach Vancouver Island by ferry it is another bus to Victoria ($2 CAD). The ferry journey is an hour and a half, which is just long enough to grab a good buffet lunch on board. Seems a little strange but it’s a good buffet and some actually catch the boat just for lunch. In Victoria we stayed at the Ocean Island Inn ($27 CAD pp. for a 6 bed dorm), which we wouldn’t really recommend but unfortunately the H.I in Victoria has a couples dorm that excludes LGBT couples that meant we could not in good conscience support them. Victoria is a sweet little town to wander around. There is a floating market/community on the edge of town, which is really interesting and even has a few resident seals. Also of note is another microbrewery called Canoe Brew whish is a lovely bar to while away an afternoon. Victoria brought the end to our Canadian tour. Canada is a beautiful country with some very friendly and generous people. The thing about Canada though is it is really designed to cater to the outdoorsy types. As neither Dani nor I are in to hiking and we did not have a car a lot of Canada is inaccessible. What we were surprised by in Canada was their craft beer scene. You hear a lot about Portland, Oregon and Belgium and as a Kiwi expat living in Sydney I was aware of the developing scenes in New Zealand and Australia but Canada has some wonderful microbreweries from Nova Scotia to British Colombia. If you are in to craft beer I would seriously think about Canada on your list. Budget Time $$ What it actually cost: 42 days = $5803.23 Rail Passes: $1607.70 Food: $1419.30 Drinks: $568.55 Accomodation: $1406.46 Car Hire: $233.81 (including 1 prepaid tank of petrol/gas) Transport: $230.86 (tolls and public transport) Souvenirs: $190.59 Entertainment: $103.91 Miscellaneous: $42.02 Petrol/Gas: $28.07 From a budgeting point of view Canada was another interesting one for us. Having pre-bought our rail pass across the country and booked a number of AirBnBs we were again considering daily expenditures that were without two of the main daily budgeting considerations. Again though, we were pleasantly surprised by how much cheaper things in Canada could be with a little consideration and careful planning. A couple of little tips to keep costs down should you happen to do a trip that even vaguely resembles ours. 1) Never buy food on the train!! It is ridiculously expensive and often fairly poor quality. Yes, some of the journeys are unfeasibly long but just make a trip to a supermarket before you go and stock up on food and snacks that don't need refrigeration! (On a side note, we are actually those seriously weird backpackers that travel with a mini travel kettle and re-usable 'keep cups'. This may look and feel a bit strange at times but on the train this proved to be a life saver when we could have free tea and coffee whenever we wanted throughout many long journeys we took!) 2) Research public transport options and walking routes before you arrive in a new place. Everything in Canada is on a large scale and unless you plan really carefully you will often find that your accomodation isn't always close to train stations or major transport hubs. After a long and often uncomfortable journey on a train/bus it is incredibly tempting to just take the easy option! To avoid the urge to just 'jump in a cab' and waste $20-30 make sure you have an idea of means and routes to get to your final destination that do not involve this terrible money pit option! This piece of advice is a good one to follow in all countries and all cities! It also stops you getting ripped off by cab drivers if you do resort to a taxi as you'll have a good idea of how far you should be travelling and therefore how long it should take and how much it should cost! 3) If you are heading to Jasper or Banff for a short trip try to buy your groceries before you get there. Both of these National Parks are out of the way and therefore all of the supermarkets have extortionately high prices for everything! 4) Consider the different tax rates in each province. Alberta has the lowest tax rate of all of the provinces in Canada so if you need to buy electronics or anything expensive while you are in Canada and you are planning on going through Alberta then wait until you get there...you wouldn't believe how much you could save. (Avoid provinces like Nova Scotia, Québec and British Columbia for these kinds of things) Overall, Canada was definitely not as expensive as we thought it was going to be. This was partly because we made friends along the way who offered us places to stay meaning we saved on accomodation and transport in cities, but also just because good planning and organisation meant we didn't fall into evil money traps. We did not skimp in Canada (as you can see from the amount of beer that we drank) but we were careful not to waste our money in this relatively expensive North American destination. LGBT: Canada is an extremely LGBT friendly nation, having recently celebrated 10 years of marriage equality and having their prime minister march in pride. In most cities we visited there was a very large celebrated community and everywhere we went there were pride flags in windows and rainbow stickers on doors. This even extended to smaller places like Halifax, NS and Jasper, AB. The only places we heard of any major conservatism was in Alberta and even then everyone we met was lovely. |
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