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La Serena
The group Places Visited: Santiago (Chile), La Serena (Chile), San Pedro de Atacama (Chile), The Desert (Bolivia), Uyuni (Bolivia), Potosi (Bolivia), Sucre (Bolivia) & La Paz (Bolivia)
So the last 18 or so days have been back on another tour, making my up from Chile into Bolivia. It has been strange going back to having someone else organising all the travel and accommodation after the last month or so or travelling by myself, but also nice and stress free.
Things kicked off in Santiago, which I found a strange city for a couple of reasons. Firstly the constant low level cloud that seemed to engulf the city and restrict any views (I later found out that this was not actually cloud but in fact smog - nice!!). The second problem i had with the city was the fact that i don´t actually remember much of my time there. On my first night out with my new group - despite not drinking very much at all - i have a complete memory blank for most of that evening and had to endure the slow drip feeding of my somewhat questionable conduct from that night (complete with photographic evidence) for the next few
La Serena
In the tasters room during the Pisco tour days. It may seem unfair to blame Santiago for this but i insist to this day that my drink must have been spiked, much to the amusement of the rest of the group.
So with a great first impression made, we headed off to La Serena, a small town on the coast a few hours north of Santiago. Here we did a tour to the Elqui valley which had some stunning scenery, and then took a tour of a Pisco factory. Here I managed to make my bag even heavier with a couple of essential purchases!!
We then had lunch in a ´solar´ restaurant, you know me, all about saving the planet. Here i got to enjoy my first taste of goat) one of many different meats tried on this trip) which had been very slow cooked in a solar oven... and I was a big fan. A new meat tried and enjoyed, bring on the guinea pig in Peru.
That night went to an observatory (apparently the skies over La Serena are some of the clearest in the world) and spent the night viewing the stars which was quite a nice change from the usual evening activities.
The Moon
View through the telescope on our observatory evening Next stop was San Pedro de Atacama, the Chilean border town with Bolivia, sitting right on the edge of the Atacama Desert. We stayed a couple of days here before making our way into Bolivia. San Pedro was a very interesting town, built in the desert; it had a very basic look and feel but was a great place to stay. Here we did a tour of the ´Moon Valley´(named as it has a very vague resemblance to the surface of the moon), swam in a salt lake (which was more buoyant than the Dead Sea) and then tried our hand at sandboarding - amusing photos included.
Then it was time to cross into Bolivia, where we changed transport into the 4x4s which would get us to Uyuni and the salt flats in the next 3 days. The 3 days we spent crossing the desert were incredible, we reached some impressive altitudes (the highest being 4,800 meters) and i was amazed at how much it affected me. First there were the headaches and then the fact that walking 10 paces had you panting like you had just run a marathon. But all in all it was an incredible experience;
Moon Valley
A dubious likeness stunning scenery, swimming in thermal baths and enduring some of the coldest evenings I have ever experienced!!
And it was made all the more worthwhile when we reached Uyuni and the famous salt flats. It is incredible to see absolutely nothing on the horizon, which does allow for some great false perspective photos (my favourite is included).
After Uyuni, we made our way to Potosi, which has a claim to fame of being the highest city in the world at 4,100 meters. Luckily I was a bit more acclimatised to the altitude by this point, unfortunately this was where I picked up my first bout of ´travellers stomach´. Needless to say I was out of action for a couple of days but I did manage to drag myself out of bed for a tour around the silver mines that overlook the city. This was a really humbling experience as the conditions in the mine were awful - tiny tunnels, really hot and a lack of oxygen made it very uncomfortable for the couple of hours I was there so I have no idea how these people do it day in day out.
From Potosi we headed to Sucre
Moon Valley
A pensive moment which is the constitutional capital of Bolivia. I really liked this city as it was quite relaxed but had a great nightlife too. We managed to find a great bar which was high on a mountain side and overlooked the whole city. It was fully equipped with deck chairs to enjoy the view and the sun, needless to say we whiled many hours away here. I also managed to find time to fit in a trip rock climbing and a quad biking tour or the surrounding countryside. All in all this was a great couple of days and we also managed to fit in a couple of birthdays here which made for some interesting evenings!!!
So then our final stop was La Paz, the "other" capital of Bolivia. This was a massive sprawling city with bustling markets and loads of tourist bars and clubs. Here I succumbed to the traveller pressure of buying quite a lot of knitted Lama wool clothing that you see almost all tourists wearing in South America. I'm not sure is this sort of stuff will be acceptable back in the UK but I will certainly give it a go. I also got tempted into
San Pedro
The basic look and feel of the town purchasing a leather jacket, I think I look great in it but again I imagine I will have the piss taken out of me mercilessly back home that it may have an early retirement.
And so the final thing to do in La Paz was to cycle the infamous 'Death Road'. This was the incredibly thin road which sits perilously on the side of a mountain with a rather large drop on the other side (some of you may have seen it in one of the recent Top Gear challenges). Well as you may have guessed I survived it, but it was a great experience and incredible to think this used to be a major road up until four years ago.
So, tour now finished I will make my way to Cusco where I begin my Inca trail trip in a couple of weeks. Look forward to letting you know what that is like in a few weeks time
All the best
Charlie
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jo
non-member comment
thought provoking blog
I was very excited to see a new post and as usual scrolled through 1st time, just looking at the photos. This is not rudeness on my part but signifies the wonder of your photos- they just blow me away. I am not sure whether this is more to do with your skill with the camera or what south america gives you to work with. Anyway, having been stunned by the photos i went back to read what you have to say. In general it is just great to hear what you have been up to but I do have a few concerns. Firstly black outs are not good- although I am giving you the benefit of the doubt; if you say you didnt drink that much, i will not question that and just feel sympathy for you being spiked. Secondly i am not sure how you can question the likeness of the valley to the moon- it looked pretty good to me. I would just go with it, maybe even come up with a convincing back story to explain that you were actually on the moon? Thirdly I would like to say that i am sure that if you think you look good with you new clothes- i am confident you could carry it off back here. Maybe even start a new trend. Lastly, I am concerned there were no new potential careers in this post- I hope this was a temporary blip! Keep up the good work with the blog. xx