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Published: August 8th 2007
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From NZ we flew over Antarctica to start our South American travels, beginning with Chile. We found it pretty amusing that due to the time difference we arrived in Santiago 4 hours before we left. Becky slept most of the flight (taking up three seats and squashing Gregor into a corner).
The thing that hit us when we first arrived was that it was soooo Chile! Actually, it was just plain freezing and very wet. It was so cold in fact that Becky bought another jacket (for the bargain price of 7 pounds!). When many people think of South America they imagine sun and bikinis. No such luck for us - we will be following the Andes and it is likely to be pretty cold for a fair portion of our trip!
Appropriately, our accommodation in Santiago was on the corner of Paris and Londres. We stayed in a beautiful, romantic old building with lots of charm. Unfortunately, there was no heating beyond the reception area. At least they provided lots of blankets; we used them all. Central heating seems to be a luxury that we will be doing without.
Santiago felt quite European and although the city
has grown massively during the last century to over 6 million people, it retains some charisma. Large parts of the central area are pedestrianised, usually with shopping galleries leading off them. There are lots of beautiful old buildings, particularly around Plaza de Armas and Cerra Santa Lucia, many of which are well maintained and really impressive. The really amazing thing though is that when you look up you see the snow capped Andes all around you (albeit they tower above a thick layer of smog).
We went to Cafe Haiti, one of the 'Cafe with Legs' outlets (not to be confused with the places with the blacked out windows). You are served strong coffee, by women in high heels and extremely short skirts. Not too surprisingly, it seemed popular with the local men. We were also amused by a street vendor tunelessly singing the theme tune to Dirty Dancing in spanish.
Although we left the UK over 8 months ago, this is probably the first time that we have noticed a major culture difference. Virtually no-one speaks any English and despite our best efforts we are really struggling to communicate properly in Spanish. It is probably not too
surprising as we only managed to reach week two of our 'Teach Yourself Spanish in 3 Months' book (which we bought 6 months ago). In some ways it is quite amusing but it is also really frustrating. Becky has decided that possibly the best way to learn is to watch US TV shows eg Smallville with spanish subtitles. Hopefully our language skills will improve as we go along.
After a couple of days in Santiago we joined our tour group and headed north to La Serena, a coastal town 7 hours away. We will probably encounter our fair share of chicken buses by the time we get home, however, this turned out to be one of the best buses that we have ever been on. It was comfortable, quick, well organized, safe, food and drink were provided and they even played recent movies (albeit in spanish). Not really what we expected from a South American country.
Chile is a really long narrow country, bordered by sea on one side and mountains on the other. As such, the landscape changes dramatically. From the capital city we passed some vineyards, then went through barren countryside to the seaside. The farmers
make use of whatever is available and plant cacti to form fences in some areas.
The centre of La Serena was pretty, however the beach was not so great, with quite a lot of litter scattered around and hundreds of seagulls. The main reason for stopping here was to go to the observatory. The stars were beautiful and we realised how little we know about astronomy. It was great seeing closed star clusters and at Jupiter with four of it’s moons (they think that there are about 100 of them). Our guide also had a fantastic laser pointer that reached right to the stars!
Leaving La Serena we had the first of our overnight bus journeys, this one taking us to San Pedro de Atacama, a small town near to the Bolivian border. The bus journey took a mammoth 17 hours! Here a group of us hired mountain bikes and went sand boarding on mdf boards. This caused much laughter amongst us but was also hard work, as you have to walk up the dunes each time. Gregor seemed to take to it pretty easily after a few trial runs. Becky didn’t do quite as well but at
least she saved the best for last - the only run that happened to be on video.
From San Pedro de Atacama we explored the Valley of the Moon and Valley of Death (which was originally meant to be called the Valley of Mars but there was a linguistic misunderstanding). The landscape was really bizarre: deep valleys with unusual pinnacles and strange shapes. After watching the sunset, which created amazing colours on the nearby mountain ranges, we ran (and did rolly pollys) down the huge sand dunes. It was great, particularly when it was topped off with some pisco sours and cairpirinhas when we got back. Not a bad way to end our time in Chile!
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james st. james
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saint peter of the atacama
you guys have had a wonderful trip thus far. i'm very jealous. just wanted to say a few things about your chile trip so far. the strange statue you pictured in the plaza de armas is supposed to represent the broken or disfigured identity of chile's native peoples. the picture towards la serena of a tower is of chile's larges mosque. chile has the largest palestinian community outside the middle east--numbering about 300.000-- and there's even a 1st division soccer team named Palestino, but 85% of palestinians are christians. you'll find plenty of chicken buses north of chile, don't worry. enjoy the rest of your trip. cheers!