Blogs from Antofagasta, Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America - page 4

wonderful and odd. Chile compared to Peru and Bolivia is very mod in a way unlike, I don't know, what you might expect in South America. It's very mod in a not good sort of Western way (just an opinion). What I mean is that in the towns - not talking of the tourist places to visit, hike, swim etc - there are malls and lots of fast food and ample options when it comes to variety of food. And after Bolivia it was hugely welcome, big portions of foods, and then we discover Ripley's (department store) food court on the top floor with KFC and other options like Doggies hot dogs! Was good for the moment but after eating fast food for a few days we decided not to eat KFC again. The main reason ... read more

Since I am horrible about writing journals I figured I'd just post some of many photos I have. Here is where I lived for 6 months in pictures.... read more

When we arrived at the house I couldn’t see much except a big wire cage (the "garage") in front of a bright yellow gate that was in front of a bright yellow house. The gate led into a tiny patio and then we proceeded to go through two more doors until we were finally inside. Once I entered all I could see was a long hallway with doors off to the right. Dodi (the 8-year-old son named after Dodi Alfaed) showed me into the second room, his room, decorated in blue with toys and drawings everywhere. He then proceeded to tell me that this was my room. He was going to share his mother’s room. I dropped off my bags and was led out towards the small living room. On the way I met the grandmother. ... read more

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 ... read more

Justin here - Well, so much for putting pictures on this travel blog. We have a lot of really cool ones, and we finally bought a cord to connect the camera to the computer... but when we finally plugged it all in, a message came up saying that we had to change the setup of the computer to connect the camera to the USB port, and on a computer that´s completely in Spanish... I have no idea how to do that. So unless my resident ghost steps in to help, magically fixing the computer, I guess we´ll have to do without pictures. Oh well. Today was pretty fun. We spent it all in Antofagasta - we were trying to go to Viña del Mar tonight, but it didn´t work out, and so we stayed here in ... read more

To begin with, I have to say I feel somewhat vindicated for the whole being sent to Antipasta, aka "I just dont like that place (actual quote from Chilean)", Chile. And it wasnt just friends- complete strangers openly expressed their disbelief that I would willingly board an aircraft which I knew full well was headed for Antofagasta. But in the end you can´t argue with year round sunshine, people, and furthermore, I will never find a mushroom growing on my clothes . . . So what that I am living in the driest desert in the world, choking on dust kicked up from a mixture of the 23,984,723,847 surrounding mines (rough estimate based on # of mining trucks I see multiplied by # of times I am almost run over by them daily)?? As I see ... read more