We have visited Chile before, back in 2004, when we went trekking in Patagonia. This time, we wanted to concentrate on the Atacama Desert and the northern coastline. Like our previous South American holiday (to Brazil), this trip was put together impeccably for us by Simon Williams from Humboldt Travel. We arrived in Santiago, landing … More Chile 2026 – Part 1 – Valparaiso and Matetic Vineyard
We were picked up from Matetic Vineyards and driven back to Santiago for the flight to El Loa Airport in Calama. The flight took us over some spectacular scenery. At the airport, we were met by Chris from Awasi Atacama who was to be our guide for the week. We immediately warmed to him because … More Chile 2026 – Part 2 – The Atacama
Transfer to Iquique After a week at Awasi, we headed through the desert to Iquique on the coast. Whilst the Atacama is a very mainstream tourist destination (and understandably so), the northern coast of Chile is a slightly more offbeat choice. Iquique is a seaside resort, but primarily for domestic tourists. However, this city seems … More Chile 2026 – Part 3 – Iquique and Humberstone
Arica The drive from Iqueque up to Arica by the Peruvian border took almost as long as the drive from three days earlier from San Pedro to Atacama. Lots of wide spaces and some wrecked cars in the desert – and the occasional geoglyph. The picture to the right below is the Tarapaca Giant. Just … More Chile 2026 – Part 4 – Arica, Clos Apalta and Santiago
Why Finland? Finland had been somewhere we had wanted to go for a long time. Motor racing had played a part in that. Finnish racing drivers had seemed very dashing; we’d watched Mika Häkkinen racing against Mika Salo in British Formula 3 and seen them both progress to Formula 1. JJ Lehto had been spectacular … More Finland
We had thought long and hard about whether to visit the North or South Pantanal. The big attraction of the Pantanal is the opportunity to see wildlife and the biggest attraction for most people is the opportunity to see Jaguars. The area around Porto Jofre, in the north, has the reputation of being the place … More Brazil 2025 – Part 3 – The Pantanal
We stayed in São Paulo both before and after our trip to the Pantanal. It’s very much a working city, not a tourist destination, but it’s an exciting place to be with plenty of fabulous restaurants. The Fasano This is the most glamorous hotel we have ever stayed in. We loved the mid-century styling. We … More Brazil 2025 – Part 2 – São Paulo
After going to Rio de Janeiro and Ilha Grande in 2015, we had intended to come back to Brazil – with a particular interest in seeing Sao Paulo and the Pantanal. We were also keen to revisit the Atlantic Coast. After a lot of internet research, we ended up having out trip put together by … More Brazil 2025 – Part 1 – Paraty
For a long time, we had been thinking about doing a big trip to celebrate Annette’s 60th birthday – and we finally settled on going to Namibia (which we had visited once before, in 2002). David particularly wanted to go to Shipwreck Lodge on the Skeleton Coast. Annette talked to quite a few safari specialists … More Namibia 2025
Since my friend Dick is a keen cyclist and I’d done one cycling holiday in Finland, I thought it would be fun to do a cycle trip together. I was keen to do part of the Baltic Sea Cycle Path, and the section from Lübeck to Stralsund looked varied and interesting. We chose an organised … More Hamburg and the Baltic Sea Cycle Path from Lübeck to Stralsund
Peregrinamur 