Here are a few panoramas from the famous port city and the upscale beach town:

Valparaíso

View from Cerro Alegre, Valparaíso

Concón dunes

View from the top of the Concón dunes

I got a little taste of Patagonia when I went to Pucón a few weeks ago. The small resort/adventure travel town is roughly 600 miles south of Santiago, about a 10 hour bus ride. The mountains, rivers, hot springs, waterfalls and lake were all breathtaking. But perhaps the most amazing experience I had in Pucón was climbing Volcán Villarrica. It took about five hours, but I made it all the way to the summit. It was very exhausting but I’m so glad I did it. In the experience of climbing the volcano, I learned a valuable lesson about wearing sun block in Chile (unfortunately the hard way). Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip.

Dense forests surround the volcano, very different from the arid north of Chile.

Natural hot springs, with many pools of all different temperatures, crop up around the volcano.

It's just the end of spring here, so flowers are everywhere.

Snow at the summit of Volcán Villarica.

Summit of Volcán Villarica

Snow plow seen climbing the volcano.

Colorful kayaks on Lake Villarrica

And a couple of panoramas:

I love the beach. Maybe it’s because I didn’t ever live near an ocean, but I am just fascinated by it. I could take a thousand photos of the beach all day every day and probably never get bored. For this past long weekend I went to the beach at Pichilemu, the surfing capital of Chile. Here are my favorite shots from this particular beach.

Last Friday I was either shooting or traveling to go shoot for 20 hours. It was a very long but fulfilling day, and the weekend trip to the beach was quite welcome.

 
 
 
This was a 28-hour piano concert that I covered for I Love Chile. Read the full story and see more photos here.
 

 

 

In the afternoon I covered a chocolate and dessert tasting event at a culinary school on the east side of Santiago. And yes, I did get to eat some chocolate, and it was delicious.
 

 

 

Later at night I went to the Vitacura neighborhood of Santiago to cover R&B artist Ana Tijoux‘s concert. She has some great stuff, and has also been a big supporter of the student movement here in Chile.
 

It was time for some (well-deserved) rest and relaxation at the beach in Viña del Mar, with a stop at Pablo Neruda‘s house at Isla Negra.
 

 

 

 

Before heading back to Santiago the next day, we stopped for a little walk about Valparaíso.
 

 

I haven’t been able to do too much traveling so far, just day trips here and there. Here are a few shots from excursions that I went on in the past couple weeks.
 
 
I went to Valparaíso with Bicicleta Verde as they work out a new business venture there.

 
 
 
Pomaire is a small touristy town about an hour away from Santiago that’s known for its “greda” pottery.

 
 
 
Last friday I went to the most eastern part of Santiago to see Villa Grimaldi, the Herbarium, and Los Dominicos artisan market.