If food and wine are your thing then hop on the wine trail in central Chile. Here terraced slopes of lush grapes overlook cellar doors where you can indulge your palate with some of the world’s great wines - truly nectar of the gods. Snow bunnies have the world at their feet, or in this case their ski boots, as Chile has some classic, world-class ski centres just an hour’s drive from the capital, Santiago. Have breakfast at your hotel, lunch in the ski fields and dinner at a swish city restaurant – too easy!

Nature lovers can immerse themselves in the beautiful surroundings of the Lake District a couple of hours south of Santiago as the crow flies. This is a land of crystal clear lakes and rivers and dramatic mountain ranges and it was here that a volcano in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain erupted with an unbelievable light show in June this year, shooting shafts of lightning into the heavens and painting the sky blood-red while belching a massive cloud of ash that travelled half way around the world ... nothing like an extreme volcanic storm to light up your nights!

For couples with a spirit of adventure, Chile offers three stunning destinations which attract more tourists than any other area. First, the breathtaking wonders of the Atacama Desert in the country’s north; the highest, driest desert in the world which amazes with its geothermal fields, geysers, salt plains and moonscapes.

Then there’s the wilderness of Patagonia, the southern most tip of the world, a spectacular area of mountains and glaciers, fjords and ice-fields, and, located 3,700 kilometres off the mainland, Easter Island, the world’s most isolated, inhabited island and a living museum whose evocative but obscure history still mystifies even the locals.


A Walk in the Desert – Atacama

Standing at the brink of a high cliff, drinking in the breathtaking view of the desolate plains of Valle de la Muerte and the majestic Andes mountain range on the horizon, I had to wonder what the Spanish explorer Diego de Almagro thought as he gazed across the same desert landscape, only from the opposite direction, almost 500 years ago.

In an epic journey of endurance, he crossed the Andes cordillera from Peru with a large contingent of soldiers and slaves in search of the vast gold treasures he believed awaited him in Chile, but instead of gold he found an inhospitable desert and a native population of hostile Mapuche Indians who were less than welcoming. Adding to his woes was the fact that nearly half his men had perished, frozen in the snow and ice during the mountain crossing, so, fair to say his impression of Chile couldn’t have been very flattering.

Poor Diego; after achieving the distinction of being the first European to cross into Chile and walk across the Atacama Desert, he ended up a few years later back in Peru a broke and broken man, never finding the treasure he sought ... if only he had known about the rich deposits of copper and other minerals that lay under his feet he might have given up the adventurous life of a conquistador and become a cigar-chomping mine owner instead!

Valle de la Muerte translates as Valley of Death - a name that resonates with this dried up landscape of grey volcanic sand and rock formations sculpted out of the earth by the strong winds, ice and water over millennia.

Standing here under an azure sky so clear and bright it looks as though it’s been photoshopped into the scene, I experienced an overwhelming sense of awe at the profusion of contrasting geological sights (such as turquoise lakes, steaming geysers, sand-whipped and carved rock formations, crusty salt plains, hot springs and snowcapped volcanoes), experienced after just a couple of days in this haunting, majestic land.

Located in the north of the country around 1500 kilometres from the capital of Santiago, this is the world’s highest, driest and oldest desert and it’s the first stop on our two week Chilean odyssey which includes a few days in both Patagonia and Easter Island.

It’s a two-hour flight and just over an hour’s drive from Santiago to the town of San Pedro de Atacama where we’re staying at Explora’s Hotel de Larache, a stunning five-star property just a few minutes walk from town.

Sprawled over 17 hectares with horse stables, observatory, four swimming pools – one heated, hot tub and a spa, the hotel was designed by award winning Chilean architect, German Del Sol Guzman as a series of hacienda
style buildings which radiate from a central square – the guest rooms and suites housed in the three, single storey arms.

The public spaces of relaxation lounges, bar, shop, viewing decks and restaurant are located in a separate, raised structure, which provides the most exquisite views of the enchanting, snowcapped Andean peaks. The decor is minimalist and the interior spaces vast but inviting, while the rooms and suites are extremely stylish and comfortably and colourfully furnished.

Explora Hotels is a company specialising in five-star journeys to remote areas of South America and offers a holistic experience to all its guests with everything included in the tariff, including five-star cuisine, wine, all tours and equipment. Each day you get to choose from a wide range of explorations, from trekking to mountain climbing, bicycling and horseriding accompanied by professional, bilingual guides who seem to be extremely knowledgeable about everything.

There’s so much to experience, we know it’s impossible to cover it all in the few days we have here so we cull ruthlessly and just choose the highlights. On day one after dragging ourselves out of a warm bed at 4am and rugging up for the bitterly cold, minus-degree morning, we embarked on a trip to the El Tatio Geysers which are located 145 kilometres away at an altitude of over 4,000 metres and reached by an impossibly rugged, bumpy road.

Watching the spectacular eruption of steam shooting from the bowels of the earth through over 80 geysers as the sun came up was pretty exciting stuff and made the early start worthwhile - even if my teeth were chattering and knees knocking with the cold. This is a popular day trip and there were people everywhere, some even taking a dip in the hot water pools, although we were warned against doing this as people have been scalded by the boiling waters.

On the way back we stopped for a swim in the thermal waters of the Puritama Hot Springs (much safer and deliciously warming) before calling into a small, rustic village whose name I can’t recall, or perhaps never knew, to visit an ancient church and poke around the handicraft shop. Driving along the long, straight highway that connects Chile to Bolivia, we were stopped by a herd of llamas idly crossing the road, one in front of the other, paying no heed to us as they headed toward the mountains looking very sweet with pretty ribbons tied in their hair.

Few places in the world could match the Atacama Desert for absolute wow factor and even though we’ve been to deserts in Arabia and Australia, driving through this landscape was like nothing we’d seen before. It really is what you would imagine the moon to be like and in fact, this was where NASA did some road tests before the moon landing took place.

The next day my husband opted for an adventurous, 20-kilometre bike ride which ended with a swim in a salty, buoyant lagoon, while I settled on a drive to see the 3,000-year-old petroglyphs (rock carvings) in the valley of Yerbas Buena, about an hour away. Little is known about the prehistoric carvings but being in the dry desert air has preserved them as though they were carved yesterday ... and I did wonder about a couple of them!

Another 20 minutes driving brought us to the small village of Rio Grande, named after the trickle of a river that runs through it – a pretty, tidy town with a lovely old church, stone houses and terraced orchards and
gardens. According to my guide, there’s only about 50 people still living
here because the young people leave as soon as they can to seek work in the closest city of Calama. No bus comes here even though there’s a new black ribbon of tarmac running into the deep valley, so if the local people want to go shopping in the big smoke, they have to hitch a ride or walk for hours to and from the main highway. Puts a whole new spin on the weekly food shopping trip!

The guides at the hotel come here to teach the remaining children English in the small school which has maybe 12 children, but in the 20 minutes we spent walking around the village, I didn’t see one person and I also didn’t see a vehicle - it was like being in a town in one of those creepy movies where the populace had been taken away by aliens - quite an eerie feeling.

Our separate activities were a fitting prelude to a stunning sunset walk through the salt plains of Salar de Atacama, the largest salt fl at in Chile situated just an hour’s drive from the hotel in the Los Flamencos National Reserve. This place was amazing; dried-up and very sharp salt crystals as far as the eye could see, only interrupted by a couple of shallow lakes where flamingoes danced around on their long, skinny legs. Walking through the man-made paths we could feel and hear the crackle of salt under our boots and taste it on our tongue - what a fascinating, totally unique landscape to be walking through.

Our guides timed it so we would be there just as the sun went into free-fall behind the distant Domeyko mountains, creating an incredible, luminescent light show over the Andes, changing colours from ochre to pink then orange and finally to red - spectacular!

And so, here we are on our final day, standing on the peak of a cliff enjoying the incredible view across the Valley of Death and thinking about poor old Diego when our guide José says we’re going to walk - or run - down the 200-metre high sand dune in front of us. A sudden panic comes over me at the thought of tumbling head-first down this precipitous dune where I’m certain I’ll break my neck or at least a leg or a shoulder but it’s too late – he’s gone, so we have no option but to plunge down after him sliding deep into the volcanic sand so our boots and pants filled with sand.

The trek down was actually great fun and I felt like a child again, playing in a giant sandpit, sorry when it ended on the valley floor so far below. On our last night after yet another superb three course dinner and wine at the hotel, we walked into the small town of San Pedro de Atacama through its almost deserted streets of cafes and backpacker hostels, souvenir and tour shops. The town, laid out by the Spanish in the sixteenth century looked sleepy and charming with its lovely plaza and postcard perfect church and because it was low season was almost empty - a far cry from peak tourist season when the streets are apparently crowded and alive with the bonhomie of visitors from all parts of the globe.

There was just time for one more activity before we left for Patagonia in the morning, so we wandered back to the hotel’s observatory where we were dazzled by the clarity and number of heavenly bodies peppered across the inky night sky. With little light pollution it’s the clearest in the world so it’s easy to spot (and make a wish upon) Sirius and Canopus, the brightest stars in the sky – the same stars poor old Diego must have fruitlessly wished upon so many centuries ago.


Into the Wild – Patagonia

What a difference a day makes ... from hot desert to icy cold snow! Our transfer from Atacama to Patagonia (2,500 kilometres from Santiago) took all day and half the night by air and road but the destination was worth the journey, even though it’s hard to believe we’re still in the same country.

Patagonia is a remote and beautiful land of pristine mountains, giant glaciers, icy blue lakes and unspoiled wilderness literally situated at the end of the world. It’s part of two countries - Chile and Argentina - but an area unique unto itself, and as Patagonians will tell you, “it’s a long way from Chile”! Actually it’s a long way from everywhere and therein lies its charm ... it’s so pristine, so wild and so pure that it will take your breath away.

Our destination had intrigued me from the time I first read a travel story about Patagonia with photos of Hotel Salto Chico sitting in isolated splendour on the banks of Lake Pehoe in the Torres del Paine National Park more than a decade ago. Sited on a rushing waterfall under the watchful gaze of the ‘towers’, three giant fingers rising like snow topped blades almost 3,000 metres out of the lush valleys and glacial lakes of the Paine Massif, I could tell that this part of the world and this hotel, with its stark, clean architectural lines was special, so I put it on top of my bucket list long before the term was coined!

Designed by internationally respected architects German Del Sol Guzman and José Cruz Ovalle and opened as the first Explora hotel in 1993, Hotel Salto Chico is everything you would expect; comfortable, homely, elegant, welcoming and glamorous. Just about every vantage point in the hotel - its guest rooms, dining room and public areas, is focussed on the spectacular, mesmerising view of the Massif, the lake, the waterfall and the surrounding hills and valleys.

It may be a long way from anywhere but the hotel provides all the modern day communication conveniences so the world is really a lot closer than you think. The hotel’s specialised explorations include around 20 half and full day treks - some to the top of the icy mountains and other easy and not so easy walks through the ravishing countryside of lakes and rivers where the air is so pure and the oxygen level so high there are certain plants growing here that are unusual to find anywhere else.

Stand-out treks include a full day to Greys Glacier where you get so close to it in a boat that you can almost touch the ancient, vivid blue ice-pack and an arduous climb to the top of mountain peaks for those fit enough where, if you’re lucky, you’ll see a cougar or at least its footprints. More gentle pursuits include photographic safaris to capture the images of the graceful guanaco, a relative of the llama, the crafty grey fox or the Andean condor which rules the Patagonian skies – whatever your level of fitness, there’s an activity to suit, including horseback riding which I put at the end of my activity wish-list.

Even though I’ve always wanted to ride a horse I’ve been too scared to actually do it, so it was a personal watershed moment when, after enjoying a fabulous lunch prepared by one of the hotel’s chefs at the horse stables, I found myself strapping on leather chaps and mounting a horse! It was probably the false courage of two glasses of wine (or was that three?) but I felt no fear as I hopped aboard a very large steed for an hour’s walk through the pampas with our gaucho leading the way – we even got to trot as we forded a small stream ... it was a ‘face your fear and do it’ kind of day for me and one of the best on our trip, so one should never say never!

The Patagonian weather is as wild and changeable as its landscape and is famous for its ferocious, gravity-fed katabatic winds that can rage for days at speeds of up to 150 kilometres an hour, so it wasn’t surprising when the weather changed from bright blue, sunny skies to grey clouds and sleet as we were trekking to Toro Vista Point not too far from the hotel the next day.

The walk up and down the hills surrounding lovely Lake Toro was pretty easy to start with but then a blinding wind came howling through the valley, ruffling the icy blue waters of the lake and hurtling a couple of birds backwards before swirling around our group of six, pushing us back on the path with such ferocity that we were bouncing off each other like bowling pins hit by a ball – I was the last pin and went down on my bum straight
into a thorny bush – strike one!

Later that day as snowdrops swirled around our heads, we scampered down the steep timber steps to the recreation area by the lake to enjoy a massage, followed by a swim in the heated pool and then a soak in the outdoor spa with a glass of champagne to toast the end of this part of our trip, for tomorrow we were off to the most isolated, inhabited island in the world which amazingly is still part of Chile!


Island of Mystery – Easter Island

The megalithic monuments of Easter Island called moai stand like silent sentinels gazing solemnly through painted-on eyes over this tiny island which sits almost dead centre in the middle of nowhere. Why are they here, how did they get to where they stand and why were they destroyed by the very people who built them are all enigmatic questions without definitive answers, but it’s this very intrigue that brings us, and so many other travellers to this tiny, blink and you’ll miss it speck of land sitting 3,700 kilometres off the coast of Chile in the vast Pacific Ocean.

After leaving Patagonia we spent just one night in Santiago, which looked fascinating and had a ‘definite return trip’ sign pinned on it, before the five hour flight to Rapa Nui, the indigenous name for Easter Island, where once again we stayed with Explora at the Hotel Posada de Mike Rapu situated in the midst of rolling green pasture in the centre of the island.

Stylishly designed by José Cruz Ovalle using natural, organic textures of stone and timber, it’s not until you’ve done a bit of exploring around the ancient sites that you realise that the hotel’s curves are based on the original native design of rock houses. This is the only five-star accommodation on the island and quite frankly, why you would stay anywhere else is beyond me given the quality of the private and public spaces, the food, the service and, best of all, their local Rapanui guides like Beno whose father and grandfather helped with past and present excavations of moai and who was an absolute font of local knowledge - it’s this sort of service that really sets Explora apart when visiting remote areas.

Beno was our guide for the three days we were here and it was through his eyes that we saw the history of his land unfold, as there is only oral history, passed from generation to generation, to explain what happened to the population of a once thriving nation of 20,000 or more to under 5,000 today.

Colonised by the Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands as early as the 13th century, their social strata was interesting in the way that higher castes lived in villages along the coastline whilst lower castes sited their villages in the interior. Their worship of ancestors manifested in the carving of moai which were then placed on a platform, or ahu, to protect their villages, with most of them appearing to be connected to the richer coast villages.

Records show that almost 900 moai were created, each taking up to one year to carve with stone chisels, so one of the first places we visited was Rano Raraku quarry to see where they were created out of the volcanic rock before being transferred to their designated ahu. It’s like an open air museum with up to a hundred moai scattered around the hills, most buried up to their necks and all sightless because it was only when they were placed on their ahu that the eyes were painted on. We also saw several unfinished carvings embedded in the rock wall, some half finished, others just started and wondered why the carvers had stopped, but even the knowledgeable Beno couldn’t provide an answer.

As we walked around the island we saw so many broken parts of moai- a head here, a body there, still lying where they must have fallen as they were being carted to their final destination but there were also others that had eyes, so they must have already been placed on their ahu ... there’s more questions than answers here, such as how did they cart these gigantic stone monuments, some weighing up to 80 tonnes up to five or six kilometres over rough and rocky terrain? Why are there moai with eyes lying broken and scattered great distances from where they would have stood and why were the moai abandoned after centuries of worship?

Local lore provides a few different scenarios on how they moved these giants ranging from hundreds of people dragging them on rope pulleys over timber rollers (they say there are no trees left on the island as they were all cut down to provide rollers and scaffolding) to ‘walking’ them side to side (which could explain the high mortality rate of sightless statues as they over-balanced and tumbled) to spiritual ‘mana’ moving them magically! They also think that there was a battle between different villages, probably caused by food shortages, and that the moai were smashed when they destroyed the villages which is why there are remnants everywhere.

One thing we do know for a fact was that in 1960 Chile was hit by the world’s biggest earthquake resulting in a tsunami which battered Easter Island and swept many of the moai kilometres into the interior, but this was long after the cataclysmic event or events of destruction had already taken place.

Today some of the moai are repaired and back on their ahu, drawing visitors from around the world and providing the islanders with one of their only streams of income. Of course there’s other things of interest here: the restored village of Orongo with its stone houses buried into the hillside and its ancient petroglyphs, the small town of Hanga Roa where most of the islanders live (as there’s no electricity in outer areas) and where you’ll find a museum tracing the Rapanui culture and a few interesting shops and restaurants; and the stunning landscape of volcanic, lake filled craters and rugged, rocky coastline punctuated in places by white sand beaches and groves of imported palm trees.

It’s a long trip to get here but you’ll find that the memory of walking around this open air museum and seeing these world-famous, mysterious monoliths with your own eyes and drinking in the mysterious history of the island and its people is well worth the pilgrimage.