My Year of Adventurous Travel

As this blog is called Charlotte's Travel Adventures, it seems only right to write a post about adventurous travel!

Of course, I like going on holiday to relax, and visiting places to see interesting sights...but travel is also about having new and different experiences.

The 15 months that I spent living in Chile were a time when I made an effort to go on some exciting and sometimes a little extreme adventures. Though of course, there were plenty of challenges during that time (which I wrote about in this recent post), I feel like I really made the most of it and had a lot of fun travelling and trying new things across South America.

Here are 5 of my biggest adventures from the year!

Indoor Surfing in Santiago

Though I'd tried windsurfing in 2016, I'd always wanted to have a go at classic surfing. Surprisingly enough, even though Santiago isn't by the sea, you can surf there - Mall Sport offers indoor surfing lessons, and Claudio and I took one in May 2022. 

This experience was actually the most extreme of them all, I'd say! You basically get have to try to stay afloat against powerful jets of water, and if you don't manage it, you get thrown across that big curved area you can see in my pictures. Though we had plenty of bruises and even a couple of scrapes afterwards, we had a lot of fun. 

A Speedboat Ride in the Pacific Ocean

Our weekend in Papudo was one of our most low-key trips away during my time living in Chile, but it was actually one of my favourites. We saw so many beautiful animals there, from adorable pet cats to incredible marine life. Plus, the town and its beaches are absolutely beautiful.

Our time there was mostly very relaxing, with the exception of a boat trip we took to Isla Los Lobos. To my surprise, the boat was actually a dinghy with an engine, and it went incredibly fast - it was fun, though I was slightly scared that either I or my stuff would fall in the sea!

But the sights we saw on that trip were incredible: Humboldt penguins, sea lions and even a beautiful dolphin. We finished off the ride with a jump into the water at a beautiful, secluded beach. It was such a memorable experience!

Ziplining in the Andes

Another extremely memorable experience was going ziplining in the Andes mountains. This was something I'd always wanted to try, and I was really excited about it...until we actually got there and saw it!

The experience took place at Cascada de las Ánimas activity centre in Cajón del Maipo, which is such an enchanting and beautiful place. But the zip-line is suspended 25 metres above the River Maipo and looks pretty daunting! We were both pretty nervous when preparing to set off, but it was such a fun and exhilarating experience!

In fact, we liked it so much that we did it again a few months later at Parque Aventura in Santiago. 

White-Water Rafting in Argentina

White-water rafting was another sport I'd wanted to try for years, and I took the opportunity to try it while renewing my visa in Argentina. Although my day at the activity centre was rather long without a lot to do, the activity itself was so much fun, and the landscapes of the Andes and the Mendoza River were beautiful. I definitely plan to go rafting again at some point!

Backpacking Solo to Machu Picchu

We had several adventurous trips during the 15 months, but the most adventurous was when I went to Peru for a week on my own with just a backpack. 

During my time there I took in the sites in and around Cusco, and travelled around the Sacred Valley of the Incas, before taking the train to Aguas Calientes and hiking up hundreds of stone steps to the famous citadel, Machu Picchu.

It was a trip I'd dreamed of for several years and took quite a lot of organising, but it all turned out really well. I had an amazing time!

In my opinion, trying new experiences and adventures like these are a great way to get out of your comfort zone and create memories that will last forever.

There are still several other adventurous experiences I want to try, such as surfing at a beach, paragliding, and maybe even scuba diving.

Perhaps there will be more extreme adventures to come on this blog!

Travel Tips: Ten More of My Favourite Beach Destinations

I still have a few more free days before starting my new job, and I don't have much planned, so I want to use the time to write my first Travel Tips blog post in a while!

This one is going to be a sort of sequel to a post I wrote in May 2021 about my 10 favourite beaches. At the time I wrote that post, I was living at home with my parents, the UK was still under some lockdown restrictions, and I was unsure when I would ever be able to move back to Chile (something I'd planned to do in 2020), as there were still very strict restrictions out there. During this extremely challenging period, my blog was a source of escapism for me, where I could reminisce about past travels and dream about future ones. The beach post was definitely one of my favourite ones to write, as it brought back some great memories, from childhood holidays to more recent trips.

At the end of the post, I wrote a list of the beach destinations I planned to visit once I was living in Chile, which were as follows:

- Zapallar (Chile)

- Bahía Inglesa (Chile)

- Iquique (Chile)

- Arica (Chile)

- Cartagena (Colombia)

- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Fortunately, in early 2022, I was finally able to get out to Chile and have my year and a bit living there with my partner, Claudio. During that time, we managed to visit four out of those six destinations - it would have been five, but unfortunately we both came down with Covid just before our planned trip to Bahía Inglesa, so that remains on our list for future travels in South America, as does Cartagena. 

After my time in Chile, I spent three months of this year working in Malta, so had the opportunity to visit even more fabulous beaches.

And now my previous list of favourite beaches is in serious need of updating! So here's a new list of ten of my faves, but made up entirely of beaches I visited in the 18 months between February 2022 and August this year...

Las Cujas, Chile

This is a beach not too far from Santiago that Claudio found out about on TikTok. The video he saw made it seem like a kind of secluded, "secret" place, which turned out to be far from the truth! But although it was very busy when we visited during the height of summer in February 2022, it was still a great experience to visit this picture-perfect beach with sparkling blue water, surrounded by vibrant green vegetation. We actually went there during my first week back in the country, and it felt like the perfect start to a year of amazing travels!

Read more here!

Iquique, Chile

Our first big trip of last year was to the city of Iquique, in the far north of Chile. This was the first beach destination located in the tropics that I ever visited, but it's not exactly a "tropical beach" per se - it's located on the edge of the Atacama Desert and has a dry, desert climate. That's not to say that the beaches there aren't great places to visit though - quite the opposite! The city has several beautiful beaches, which are ideal for surfing - the most famous being Playa Cavancha, a huge stretch of sand dotted with skyscrapers and palm trees, which reminds me of photos I've seen of Miami.

Read more here!

Arica, Chile

Arica is the furthest north city in Chile, right next to the border with Peru. We went there in June 2022 for some winter sun, as the weather there is sunny and nice all year round, which is not the case for the beaches nearer Santiago. The city has a huge beach, Playa Chinchorro, with big waves for surfing, but one of its smaller beaches, Playa El Laucho (pictured above), is probably my favourite beach in the entire country, as it's so picturesque and also has gentle waves which make it perfect for swimming.

Read more here!

Zapallar, Chile

This beach town near Santiago gets crowded in the summer (it's where many upper-class people have their summer houses) but when we went in the middle of winter 2022, it was so tranquil and peaceful. It has various examples of European-style architecture to look at, as well as some interesting rock formations, and is definitely one of the prettiest beaches in central Chile.

Read more here!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It was a dream of mine for many years to visit Rio de Janeiro, so going there with Claudio last December was really an incredible experience. Even though the weather was bad for most of our week there, we still enjoyed swimming and spending time at the city's beaches, of which there are many. Copacabana is a very lively beach and the perfect place to enjoy a caipirinha, but our favourite beach was Ipanema/Leblon. The view from Pedra do Arpoador of the beach and Morro Dois Irmãos is absolutely breathtaking.

Read more here!

Arraial do Cabo, Brazil

Our last day in Brazil was spent on a boat trip around the paradise that is Arraial do Cabo, a few hours away from the city of Rio. On this day, we were lucky to have sunshine at last! During the trip, we visited two beautiful white sand beaches, one on an island and one on the mainland, and we also jumped out of the boat at one particular spot to snorkel around a coral reef, where colourful fish were swimming. This was definitely one of my most special travel memories of all time!

Read more here!

Papudo, Chile

Our trip to Papudo in January was actually another one of my favourite travel memories. This beach town to the north of Zapallar has some stunning beaches (such as the one pictured above) as well as some incredible wildlife to spot. We took a rather extreme speed dinghy trip to a nearby island, where we were lucky enough to see some adorable penguins and sea lions! But most special of all, we saw a beautiful dolphin jumping in and out of the water.

Read more here!

Frutillar, Chile

This beach is somewhere a bit different to the others on the list. For one, it's not by the ocean or sea, but rather by a lake, specifically Lago Llanquihue, one of the largest natural lakes in South America. In addition, it's generally not a beach you'd visit for sunbathing and swimming, as it's located in the south of Chile, which is cold most of the year! But it's absolutely one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to - it has stunning views of the snowy Volcán Osorno across the water and is surrounded by lovely architecture.

Read more here!

Viña del Mar, Chile

Even though I'd visited Viña in both 2018 and 2020, it didn't make it on to my initial list of favourite beaches, for whatever reason. But anyway, it's going on this one! Viña del Mar is one of Chile's biggest and most popular beach destinations, and it's also one of its best. Not only does it have some beautiful beaches, such as Playa El Sol (pictured above), but it also has some fabulous architecture to check out, including several castles and palaces!

Read more here!

Ramla Beach, Gozo, Malta

Of course, I also have to include a beach from my months in Malta on this list. Although the island of Malta is very rocky and doesn't have many sandy beaches, its sister island Gozo has several. I had a great weekend in Gozo, which is a very beautiful and peaceful place, and especially enjoyed visiting Ramla Beach, which has some of the clearest water I've ever swum in.

Read more here!

It has been fun compiling this list of ten more of my favourite beaches! If I had to make an overall list of my favourite beach destinations from this list and my previous list, my top ten would probably be: Rio de Janeiro, Arraial do Cabo, Arica, Papudo, Algarrobo, Slano, Zapallar, Frutillar, Ramla Bay and La Serena. But I'll probably change my mind sooner or later, as I do about most of my Travel Tips lists, haha!

Hopefully, I'll be updating this list again in the future, because I plan to visit plenty of beach destinations within the next few years. Claudio and I want to do as much travelling as possible before having kids, including visiting Southeast Asia, Australia and Mexico. I'm hoping we can do at least one of these trips in 2024, which would be really exciting!

That's all for today, but I'll be blogging again next weekend, if I have the time. See you soon!

Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

Viña del Mar

A few days before I left Chile to go back to Europe, Claudio and I found the time for one last little trip. It's always nice to go to the beaches in the Valparaíso region, even in the colder months, so we decided to go to Viña del Mar, which is the biggest beach city in central Chile.

We wanted to visit some castles and palaces, especially Palacio Vergara, a palace in Quinta Vergara park that neither of us had visited before. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the entrance to the park, we were told that the entire park had been closed for some anime event, and we weren't allowed to enter even just for a couple of minutes to see the palace, despite the fact that the event wasn't even taking place in that part of the park. In my opinion, it's completely stupid to close the biggest park in one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country on a Saturday because of some niche event, but that is the way things are in Chile sometimes...

In the end, we were only able to see a few glimpses of the top of the palace from outside the park, which was really disappointing, because I don't know when I'll get the chance to go back. However, I know I'll be back at some point in the future, whenever that may be, so it will just have to wait until then.

It wasn't the best start to our trip, but we decided to make the most of the rest of the day, starting by going to see a genuine moai! This is one of only a handful of moai that can be found outside of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and it may return there in the future, so it was quite special to see it. Although I would love to actually go to the island someday, flight tickets there are very expensive, so I was happy to experience a bit of the Rapa Nui culture in continental Chile.

It was also nice to see this very French-looking palace next to the moai.

Next we went up into the hills of the city to visit Castillo Brunet and Cerro Castillo presidential palace. I had visited both of these places during my Year Abroad, but Claudio hadn't seen them up close before, and he was very impressed by them.

Up on the hill, we also had amazing views over the ocean and of this white building that always makes me think of Barcelona.

Of course, no trip to the beach would be complete without a walk along the sand and a paddle in the icy sea! We had a lovely walk along the city's two main beaches, Playa Acapulco and Playa El Sol, and watched the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean - this is definitely something I'm going to miss about Chile!

Afterwards, we drove over to Reñaca and Concón to enjoy some more nighttime beach views.

Finally, we went back to Viña itself to see Palacio Rioja. This was a palace neither of us had seen before, and we were both super impressed with it - it's so grand and beautiful!

By this point in the day, it was too late to go inside, but hopefully we'll have the chance to do so in the future! We both definitely want to come back.

To conclude, this day in Viña and the surrounding area was a nice way to finish off my South American travels. I still have some more to write about my last weeks in Santiago, so that will be coming next!