Author: Joel Griffett
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George Hicks and the upside-down anchor (Antofagasta Part 3)
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. Walking back into town late on Saturday afternoon I spotted the anchor as two buildings parted and the ominous Martian hills came into view once more. I had read about the anchor before, mentioned in passing in the late Michael…
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The Arab of Antofagasta (Antofagasta Part 2)
I don’t know how I managed it but I did. Halfway round the world, as far from Makkah as possible and here I was on a Saturday afternoon sat outside an Egyptian’s shop with Nelson drinking thick black coffee flavoured with cardamom.
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Antofagasta Part 1
It is still very much an industrial city to this day, far off the tourist trail and even more so off the backpacker trail, making my presence slightly peculiar as always. Only the high-rise apartment blocks would have seemed alien to Cornishman George Hicks, who worked for the ‘Compania de Salitres y Ferrocarriles de Antofagasta…
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Taltal: on the road to nowhere
The towns got smaller, the accents got even more cryptic. Brand new 4x4s made way for rickety old pickups. I was in the campo now.
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Caldera: existential dread in the desert
If I wasn’t questioning my life choices before setting off from the hotel, I was now. I spared a thought for my friends back home in England, most of whom have actual jobs, relationships and even houses, and here I was stood at a petrol station at the edge of the desert, holding a dusty…
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Copiapó: the beginning of the end of the world
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. After 5 weeks away I arrived back in my favourite place, Santiago. A week was enough first time round, now just one night seemed excessive. I had grown so used to the tranquillity of Pucón that when I emerged from…
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Detour No. 1 continued: The Permanent Resident of Pucón
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. I think I live here now. Looking back, I might have been born in Pucón and I’m certainly going to die here. I genuinely struggle to remember what I did before I arrived here. Why am I Chile? Wasn’t there…
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Detour No. 1: Pucón and Volcán Villarrica
I couldn’t appreciate the summit properly due to a mix of toxic fumes and the genuine fear that the wind would suck me into the sky for a brief, glorious moment, until physical reality pulled the plug and sent me hurtling down the slope to an early death.
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Widening the Trevithick Trail: the voyage that never was
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. As much as he was cursed with bad timing, Richard Trevithick also liked to make his own life as difficult as possible with a mix of defiance and belligerence. It appears that Don Ricardo was itching to escape from the…
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Valparaiso: the trail continues…
The groundsman and an elderly woman talked quietly facing a tomb, eyeing me slightly as I did the rounds. I found a bench in a quiet corner and sat for a few minutes to write these thoughts down in my notebook. I pondered on the prevalence of headless angels. Was it a deliberate act of…
JOEL GRIFFETT 