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The journey from Mendoza was definitely one of our favourites; weaving past mountains and rivers in a desert like landscape. We arrived in Santiago late, with no plans for a hostel, so we decided we would rather get straight on another 2 hour bus and head to the coast. We spent the next couple of days in Vina del Mar; the forecast was good but unfortunately the actual weather was the complete opposite, so after a couple of cloudy days by the beach (and a visit to a really good museum about Easter Island) we went straight back to Santiago.
We were recommended a hostel, Chilli hostel, as you get free dinner Monday-Thursday and a BBQ on Fridays. We arrived on a Friday and were expecting a free BBQ but unfortunately we did have to pay. However, it was a free bar for 2 hours so that made up for it and the hostel in general was really good! The whole hostel attended the BBQ so it was a great opportunity to meet people! We drank a lot of free wine, and were also given a Pisco Sours, Chiles' national drink. We all then headed to a nearby club (a
very cheap night as we didn't need any more to drink after the hostel!) and Hayden and I could not move from out beds until 2pm the next day!
All of the local museums are free on a Sunday so we booked a couple more nights and spent a few hours on Sunday at the National Art Gallery. We spent the rest of the day strolling around the lovely local parks as the weather was so nice! The next day we walked to a recommended second hand book exchange, we waited outside for a couple of hours, along with quite a few other people, as we were told it had sporadic opening hours but unfortunately it never opened! It was great weather again so we spent most of the day outside and booked a bus for the next day to La Serena.
Our final night in Santiago was quite eventful! We booked one extra night, this time in a private room at the top of the building. We were watching TV in our room around midnight when we heard a low rumbling noise that seemed to be coming from outside. Suddenly the whole bed started to shake and
we soon realised it was an earthquake! It took us quite a few seconds to realise we had to run to under the doorway and as we were on the third floor of an old building we started to really panic! The earthquake seemed to last for minutes and by the tima it finally stopped the bed had moved into the centre of the room! We ran downstairs where we were greeted with fairly calm looking staff, but they did say the earthquake was quite a big one. It turned out to be 6.6 on the richter scale, the epicentre being a couple of hours away in Valparaiso.
The following day we made our way to La Serena, to the sister hostel of Chilli hostel. We didnt plan to stay in La Serena long as the weather on the coast was still extremely cold and we had to make our way to San Pedro de Atacama to meet some friends for a tour to Bolivia! However, we did want to make a quick trip to the famous observatories there and learn something about stargazing. The next day we booked a tour for that evening and spent the day with
an Australian guy from our hostel; he wanted to head to the beach as he was a surfer & Hayden wanted to watch Champions League semi final, so we found a bar by the beach and spent a few hours there! That evening a mini bus picked us up and we drove for an hour to the observatories. The sky was amazing, we have never seen the sky so clear or seen so many stars! We had a great couple of hours; looking at different constellations and using a huuuge telescope to view mars and saturn!
Next stop, Atacama!!
Tips:
- Getting taxis in Chile is so confusing! Make sure you know the whole address of where you are heading as many places have 3 or 4 street with the same name!
- Because of the weather we skipped out Valparaiso, but from what we have heard it is definitely worth a visit if in Chile, friends have showed us photos of the amazing street art!
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