La Serena and Atacama Desert

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Hey everyone, i hope this finds you all well. quick update which will be my last from chile, tomorow i cross the border, hopefully into peru. chile has been great, La Serena was amazing little beach town that could have been anywhere in the world and was not in keeping with the general standard here, huge mall and really western. we went on a trip to the pisco brewery the national drink, and the elqui valley which was amazing and really some of the best scenery and little towns i have sene so far. we ate a 3 course lunch at a solar powered resteraunt whee all food is cooked in by solar outside, amazing. Later that evening we went to an observatory which has some of the clearest night skies in the world. All the major telescopes are in chile and will continue to be in the future which i didnt know. we seen alot of constellations and then seen saturn which was incredible although it looked like a sticker it was that clear through the telescope. it was a great day out. we left la serena the next day for the atacama desert which was an all night bus of 16 hours follwed by the worst journey so far on a hole of a bus accross the desert. t was worth it though, this is the dryest place on earth or so they say and the views where incredible. we went on a little trek through the desert and went dune running which was great. we then watched sunset over the valley and seen the landscape of the desert completely change, from 30 degrees to minus is the norm before and after sunset. we had a great meal in the desert town too, one of the best steaks ive had yet but im sure that will change when i get to argentina. okay so this was the point when Richard who we were travelling with left for bolivia and we headed north to iquique,

In Iquique we hada look around and generally explored. we then went to the harbour and there were sea lions chilling on the jetty, getting tormented by a stray dog, sort of sums up the place really. we then got in a coletivo to zona franca, a ringfenced area that is tax free, so tvs and all kinds for next to nothing, if only i could fit a few in my backpack. new cars cost about 3000 quid there is amazing.

Anyway from there to arica and then across the bordre to peru, ill explain about that in the next one, adios amigos

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