Heading north - Copiapo

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hmm, this is our first blog entry so treat it as experimental! We left santiago on monday night, and after an emotional send off we settled down to an 11 hour journey...what chileans call a marker pen journey, cos you have to paint your bum crack back on afterwards. This journey took us to our first stop on our trip from Chile to Venezuela- the city of Copiapo...which Darwin didn´t rate much (he said they were all obsessed with mining and it was quite dull) and nor do we really. It is however notable for the astonishing numbers of pregnant women (maybe its something in the water?) and for a serious lack of local conversation skills. Maybe the lack of talk has something to do with the number of babies and pregnant women...the scenery is also pretty stark, all brown, bare mountains rising up into the blue sky. There are a few abandoned mines around the city, but it´s not what you´d call pretty. There´s a nice town square though, and even on a monday afternoon the place was packed with schoolkids (they are never in school here either!)

We decided to make the most of our time here and headed to the coast, to a place called bahia inglesa (apparently an english pirate called Edward Davis landed here in the 17th century). The beach is gorgeous, all white sands and turquoise water, although nowhere near as big as they make it look in all the photos. The water, as in most of chile, is bloody freezing, but still lovely after a 6km walk in the desert. Back in Copiapo we checked out a couple of museums dedicated to local history and things, and found out that this is where the brits built the first railway in chile, on account of all the silver and copper mines in the area, as testament to this a couple of steam engines stand outside the old railway station, one of them built in Gateshead on the Tyne. Also this place marks where the Spanish conquistadors entered chile after they nearly all died crossing the andes (apparently their frozen horses are still up there in the mountains somewhere).

However, Copiapo is not particularly amazing and we will be heading even further north to Iquique (another 13 hours in a bus) where there is loads to see and do. It feels weird to be out of santiago, but still in Chile. Sad to think that we won´t be seeing so many family and friends until the next time we head back to Chile. It´s also frustrating that there are so many unanswered questions, like:
Why do chileans never sit in the window seat on the bus?
How come they think that english people all stop work to drink tea at 5 O´clock?
Why do they call coffee with whipped cream on top cappuchino?

These questions will all remain unanswered for the moment, but in the meantime - onward to Iquique.

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Photos

Copiapo train station
yep, not a lot going on here...

Comments

[Liza]

Chilito lindo
Nice to know what you guys are up to at last! I'm looking forward to all your blog entries - hopefully you'll also put some photos up soon. I loved the 'marker pen journey' comment, Chilean humour, eh?! Take care, and write more soon. Liza xxx

[anonymous]

Sitting preferrence: It's easier to get off. In the window seat, when you need to get off the bus, you'll have to bother the person sitting on the aisle seat. Just a thought.

[Teco]

Chilean sit in the windows seat on the bus...
Maybe, is the most dangerous place......when they up set or crash.....

[Erica + Lucy]

Hola!!!!
Cristina nos paso la informacion de vuestro viaje y nos alegramos mucho de saber que estan disfrutando de sus experiensas turisticas. Yo y los ninos salimos el martes para Orlando (disney) por 2 semanas. Buena suerte y abrazos de Erica, Lucy y familia x x x