Thursday night [26/10/17], we're headed to Santiago de Chile, 14hrs 40mins and 7,248
miles away.
Chile extends over 39 degrees of latitude, for 2,700 miles top to bottom (for some idea of just how far that is, London to Moscow is in the region of 'only' 1,805 miles) and never wider than 115 miles apparently. You know what it means in advertising itself the world's narrowest country - even if that does conveniently overlook Malta, and Cyprus, and Brunei and ...!
It hugs the Pacific coast from northern borders with Peru and Bolivia in desert and high plain (sadly no time to get up there too. Next time!) to sub-polar Tierra del Fuego. And of course the spine of the Andes separates Chile from its eastern neighbour, Argentina. All this makes for extreme topographies, epic highways – including the southernmost part of the Panamericana highway which started in Alaska – and varied ecosystems and climates. We're hoping for peaks and lakes, meadows and glaciers.
From Santiago, we've four weeks in a campervan (I'm picturing something similar to the ScoobyDoo Mystery-mobile). The plan is to kick off our route southwards by crossing east over the Andes (and the border) to the wine region of Mendoza, a few days of slurping, and then continue southwards and around the bottom 'half' of Chile. We'll end that month by flying back from Patagonia to the capital.
We'll criss-cross the border into Argentina as the fancy - or roads - take us (Paragonia spans both Chile and Argentina as the continent contracts towards the point of Tierra del Fuego, and there'll be sights on both sides as we weave down), and expect our southernmost point to be Ushuaia (in Argentina), on the shores of the Beagle Channel.
At 55°S, Ushuaia is the most southerly city in the world (outside Antarctica - are there any 'cities' on Antarctica, I wonder?). Mind you, it's not as far south as that sounds - bear in mind that 55°N is our own Newcastle!
Chile extends over 39 degrees of latitude, for 2,700 miles top to bottom (for some idea of just how far that is, London to Moscow is in the region of 'only' 1,805 miles) and never wider than 115 miles apparently. You know what it means in advertising itself the world's narrowest country - even if that does conveniently overlook Malta, and Cyprus, and Brunei and ...!
It hugs the Pacific coast from northern borders with Peru and Bolivia in desert and high plain (sadly no time to get up there too. Next time!) to sub-polar Tierra del Fuego. And of course the spine of the Andes separates Chile from its eastern neighbour, Argentina. All this makes for extreme topographies, epic highways – including the southernmost part of the Panamericana highway which started in Alaska – and varied ecosystems and climates. We're hoping for peaks and lakes, meadows and glaciers.
From Santiago, we've four weeks in a campervan (I'm picturing something similar to the ScoobyDoo Mystery-mobile). The plan is to kick off our route southwards by crossing east over the Andes (and the border) to the wine region of Mendoza, a few days of slurping, and then continue southwards and around the bottom 'half' of Chile. We'll end that month by flying back from Patagonia to the capital.
We'll criss-cross the border into Argentina as the fancy - or roads - take us (Paragonia spans both Chile and Argentina as the continent contracts towards the point of Tierra del Fuego, and there'll be sights on both sides as we weave down), and expect our southernmost point to be Ushuaia (in Argentina), on the shores of the Beagle Channel.
At 55°S, Ushuaia is the most southerly city in the world (outside Antarctica - are there any 'cities' on Antarctica, I wonder?). Mind you, it's not as far south as that sounds - bear in mind that 55°N is our own Newcastle!
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