A Chilean Odyssey

 
1/4
10 April 2012

There are perfect conditions for looking at the stars, and they exist in Chile. In the past weeks, science writers have been flocking to the Atacama Desert to look at Alma, the biggest astronomical project on the planet.

Then, days ago, French mountaineers crossed one of the most remote and dangerous regions in the world. This was also, as it happens, in Chile.

The extreme contrast is what makes this such a remarkable country. A long thin line along the edge of South America, with the Andes on one side and the Pacific on the other, it is the country's geology which makes it such a Brian Cox playground.

Throw in an exuberant, contemporary economy and culture, the product of a jagged history of Pinochet's market economics and Marxist poets and artists who defied his thuggish regime, and you have one of the most fascinating holiday destinations in the world.

Luxury adventure is a booming part of the travel industry. Those French mountaineers who crossed the Darwin Cordillera mountain range all said that their dream afterwards was " a good hot shower." This is the concept behind Explora, founded by successful businessman and philanthropist Pedro Ibanez. His missionary quote is: "I believe that the more remote and mythical a place is the more impact it has on you."

Explora has one hotel in the middle of the Atacama desert, within sight of the Alma project, a second in the far reaches of Patagonia and a third project on Easter Island.

My trip to Chile was ambitious but quite without hardship. The schedule was demanding on distance but kind on dinners. We flew via Madrid, arriving in Santiago early Saturday morning. We were whisked off to the fashionable W Santiago, the hotel company's first South American outpost, in a quiet, expensive district overlooking the Andes. The Mojitos are recommended, the service hip (which is not the same as helpful).

We caught Santiago's famously efficient metro downtown and wandered round the Plaza De Armas and El Centro. In a side street bar we sampled the nation's signature dish Porotos Granados, a bean stew which never tastes bad.

The following day, we flew to Calama airport, a windswept mining town in the north. It was near here that 33 Chilean miners were rescued before the world's television cameras last year, giving the country human as well as geological interest.

Mines are a big part of Chile's economic prosperity. China's ceaseless demand for minerals works in Chile's favour, particularly since it has acquired some disputed territory from Bolivia.

We drove for an hour and a half through featureless red desert, the road ahead forming mirages of water in the distance. Parts of the Atacama Desert have never registered rainfall. A cloud in the sky would have people out on the streets. All the celestial action happens at night.

We reached the picturesque oasis town of San Pedro with adobe buildings and a pretty central square. Set on the outskirts, Explora's Hotel de Larache, which opened in 1998, is a low ranch entered via a stable block.

The principle of Explora is to avoid ostentation. The whitewashed, wood and stone rooms are unremarkable except for the panoramic windows, which look out at the volcanic mountain range. This is a place for sunrises and sunsets. The lighting and colours are like nothing I have seen before.

A simple wooden decking path leads past grasses to three long thin glassy swimming pools. Drinks and delicious canapés are served at the bar before dinner. The outdoor life makes you ravenously hungry and tired, so the two great luxuries of the place are the food and the beds.

San Pedro is 2,500 metres above sea level so it takes a day or so to acclimatise to the altitude. The guests joining us were eclectic - North and South Americans, including the daughter of the president of Chile and those from the Northern Hemisphere. All have the serenity (and money) of those who understand the good life.

The first evening we were plunged into a barbecue and fireside dancing, the beef and lamb cut in hunks from roasting beasts. Before dinner, guests meet their guides in purposeful huddles, to discuss the next day's activities. This is no place for the idle.

We set off after a breakfast of pancakes and strawberries to the Valley of Death, thankfully a mistranslation from Valley of Mars. It looks like either, squeezed between mountain ranges and shaped by volcanic movement. It is like walking on pottery. The strangest pleasure was running barefoot down the hot pink dunes watched by sand boarders and horse riders beneath.

In the afternoon, we went to the famous salt flats at Salar de Tara. The white salt lake 4,300 metres above sea level is a contrastingly weird landscape to the valley, turning mesmerically rosy pink as the sunsets behind. Flamingoes, reflected in the glassy water, pink from the shrimps they consume, become silhouettes.

We return in silence, to the warmth of the bar and the fire at the lodge and a delicious three-course dinner, with excellent Chilean wine.

The following day, we mount elegant horses - the owner's pride and joy - and head for the Moon Valley with its open spaces for galloping and exploring the ridges and crannies.

In the afternoon, we hike along the "cactus" canyon. The 100-year-old cacti tower above us as we scramble over the warm river (heated from the thermal springs up stream) past the waterfall, down into the shadows, up into the sunlight as if we were hobbits.

But the highlight of my trip is a look inside the hotel's private observatory with $20,000-worth of clobber. Although the Milky Way is as visible to the naked eye as it was once to Shackleton, the telescope reveals invisible star clusters many light years away.

The following day we left before dawn to reach the celebrated Geisers de Tatio for 8am. It was freezing and bleak as we parked up. And here was another apocalyptic landscape, holes in the ground spitting and spewing great gusts of steam, like so many angry kettles.

A group of Japanese tourists had stripped off and plunged into one of the warm pools.

We kept our dignity, eating warm scones and coffee provided by the hotel, on the way back stopping at private thermal pools, which trickled, through a loch system into several others. The sun was high, the grass wavy, a handsome picnic provided as we paddled and lay in the mineral-rich water.

Then it was back to Calama and to Santiago for a night before our second Explora destination in Patagonia. We stayed at the base of the Cerro San Cristobal park, in the smart, bohemian Bellevista district. The boutique Aubrey hotel, opened last year, is furnished as if from Architectural Digest by a sunny mannered Australian-born Londoner. I loved it.

After a glimpse of city life, we took a four-hour flight to the far reaches of the world. Punta Arenas airport on the Magellan Straits is where journeys to the Antarctic start. The scenery is sparse and wind-flattened.

We drive for five hours, arriving at Torres del Paine national park just after midnight. Comfortable and unfussy, the Hotel Salto Chico, is a low-lying lodge perched on the banks of a waterfall, beneath soaring snow-covered mountain horns. We awoke in wonder at the view.

We took a guided walk towards the mountain range, the wind almost lifting us like air balloons. The wildlife is good, herds of bashful guanacos, and foxes. Condors glide over the mountains, as do buzzards and hawks.

The coup de theatre of a visit to Hotel Salto Chico, however, is the five-hour hike to the glacier. Setting off as the sun is rising, in a boat across the lake, you follow mountain paths through woods and dales until it starts suddenly to turn much colder. There is the first view of the pale blue icebergs floating in the lake, and beyond that the glacier, as if time itself has frozen.

Two hours later you arrive at the pebbled shore and see the glacier at close range, one of the most magical sights on earth. A ferry picks us up and we chug yards from the enormous icy tunnels and blinding peaks.

Before we leave, we have one more walk on a day so still and clear that the mountains are reflected in the lake.

We return to Santiago as if from another world. Primeval, awesome, never forgotten.

Details

Original Travel tailor-makes trips to Chile: 11 nights from £5,190pp with one night B&B at the W Hotel Santiago, two nights at the Aubrey, four nights half-board at Explora (with excursions) Atacama and four nights half-board at Explora Patagonia, international flights (via Madrid) and domestic flights with LAN and
all transfers.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in