Chile: La Ballena (28th November to 29th November )

Lorraine Chittock lives in a tiny town called La Ballena just outside of Guaquen

The ride from Santiago is only 2 hours on the motorway but we took the back roads through the mountains and the views and twisties were great. Joern was in his element riding a totally empty twisty road in excellent condition, and the weather was great too.

some nice scenery and twisties for Joern

we stopped to watch some Gauchos splitting a cattle herd

interesting cacti along the route

When we turned off into Guaquen the road turned into a dirt track and around a bend you could see Lorraine’s house up on the cliff. What a little gem, it’s hard to describe Lorraine’s place as words just cannot do it justice. The view is stunning and there is nothing nicer than sleeping to the sounds of waves crashing against the rocks overlooked by the house. The house itself is gorgeous; I just wanted to move in and never leave. It is very peaceful and her dogs are amazing I very nearly left with Boomerang packed into my suitcase. Lorraine is a great host and a very interesting lady to talk to. I think one could spend weeks talking to Lorraine about her life; she is a photographer by trade and has written 6 books. Her first is about her trip across the Sudanese desert with a camel train. The pictures and the story are just fantastic. This is not something many westerners have done especially a woman. She also spent 6 years living and travelling in North, Central & South America in a van with 2 dogs that she brought back from Kenya when she lived there.

some of the local horses in La Ballena that run free in the areas