Bridget McNulty

USA to Chile…

// March 25th, 2009 // Inspiration, travelling

After JAPAN we’re off to the USA, starting in SAN FRANCISCO on the 17th of November, and then driving around BIG SUR for a week. The scenery there is astounding – ancient trees, raw beauty and stillness – with no traffic lights, banks or shopping centres… Heaven. The plan is to drive from Big Sur to FRESNO, and from there through YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK and DEATH VALLEY to LAS VEGAS! I’m pretty sure Vegas will be overwhelming and exhausting, but you have to do it once, and it seems a waste for that once not to be now. We also want to see the GRAND CANYON, I’m excited about that.
After all that driving, our plan is to fly to MINNESOTA, the land of 10 000 lakes. Why Minnesota? We’re not sure really, but it’s supposed to be extraordinarly beautiful, and it has the Mississippi River and lots of stars, and MINNEAPOLIS is apparently full of cool things to do. It’s also the artiest town on the prairie, and the most charitable place in America! We’ll be in the USA for Thanksgiving (on the 26th of November), which makes us very very happy! We love feasts.

Next stop after the USA is MEXICO, on the 17th of December, our festive country of choice for Christmas and New Year. We land in MEXICO CITY, a vibrant and exciting city that some say is too hectic and others say is just wonderful. We’ll explore there for a few days, making sure to spend a good chunk of time in the amazing Anthropological Museum of Man, which is supposed to be incredible. Then we’ll catch a bus from there to OAXACA, a beautiful colonial city with great crafts, great ruins and great food. Sounds like a great place to spend Christmas! We also want to visit TEOTIHUACAN, 50km north of Mexico City, the site of two vast pyramids – the Piramide del Sol and the Piramde de la Luna. And then we’ll head back to Mexico City for their famous New Years Eve street party!

From MEXICO we fly to SANTIAGO in CHILE, arriving on the 3rd of January. Santiago is described as loud, dirty, cultured, quirky and ambitious, so once we’ve had a few days to work out which of these traits win out, we’ll head to VALPARAISO, the most unique city in Chile and a World Heritage Site. From the flat city centre you can take ascensores (funicular elevators) up steep hills, and wander around a city of faded grandeur and spontaneous bohemian charm. It sounds right up our alley!
From there we’ll travel to PUERTO VARAS for the Lake Crossing over into ARGENTINA. It can take one to three days, depending how fast you want to do it, and you cross over the Andes in three boats and four buses. The scenery is supposed to be out of this world…

A view of Chile from Lonely Planet… Wow!