Chilly in Chile

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- FOOD: 3 course free meal served on the bus! Such a nice salad, great food all round with avocado in nearly everything, desert at last, pisco sours and LOTS of Chilean wine

- AREA: Smooth bus journey but complex border crossing. Tiny, dusty town with a very touristy feel but with a perfect hostal. Restuarants with tables around open fires. Expensive (drinks at near to London prices).
El Tatio geyser which is unmissable with a thermal bath; fake village?; Valle de la Luna which must be seen at sunset (intense colours). Archeological museum (lots of mummies)

- PEOPLE: 3 roommates who knew friends from Sucre, new friends with plenty of travel tips, friendly locals, MANY tourists.

- WEATHER: FREEZING when the sun went in.


Sun 5th June: I got up at the same time the boys sharing my dorm got in - thank god as one of them was making the grossest noises in the bathroom which would have kept me awake anyway (luckily there was another bathroom I could use).

I was amused to see a million other backpackers at the bus terminal all getting on buses to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile - I've really hit the gringo trail now. It wasn't so good to have a 12 hour bus journey during the day but I managed to sleep a bit due to the wonderful smoothness of the roads (even on the mountain roads). And we even got served a 3 course lunch for free as part of the service - fab.

At customs, I had to fill in 1,000 forms and have my shoes sterilized. My fruit got chucked away but not my coca leaf tea bags. After all the fuss, my bags just got skim searched.
I discovered at this point that I was the only person walking into town from the customs point which worried me a bit as I had no idea where I was going and appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. But the road lead straight into 'town' (it's tiny) so all was ok.

I actually looked at the Hostel International can you believe after all my ranting, but instead put the guide book away and just went with instinct and found a gorgeous place with a big room, separate beds (none of this triple bunk in a cramped room lark) and a bathroom I'd be happy to have in my own flat. For the same price. It was great to find my 3 Israeli roommates (all 21 of course) knew Nira and Shira - my friends from Sucre! Ahhh, small world.

The town was much smaller and dustier than I was expecting and had no ATM's. It has a very touristy feel but is quite sweet. Found a lovely restaurant where I sat near to a fire in the open (it was really cold) eating salad - not quite the food to have in the cold but REALLY nice.


Mon 6th: It was quite cold at night but hot in the day. I walked slowly (can't seem to walk at any other pace these days) around the town - all the cafe's have a nice Brighton type feel about them with tables in sunny courtyards. Even though the money here is in the 1,000's, I could still work out that Chile is very expensive! Still, the banana licuado I had was the nicest yet.

In the afternoon I went on a tour to the Valle de la Luna. I met 2 nice woman who had years experience of travelling on me - I learnt loads about future destinations! The tour was good - we stopped by a huge crater formed from when the earths plates pushed the land up, creating steep, sharp edges.
There were so many patterns on the crater from when it used to be a lake and lots of smooth rock formations from wind erosion. We saw all the different layers of volcanic rock and then climbed the sand dune where the sand sloped steeply down either side in time to see the sun set over the mountains. AMAZING and lived up to my expectations - the colours changed from intense orange to red to purple. It was well worth it.
I went for dinner with Lee and Win to a nice little dark, cosy restaurant with a fire outside where we shared a delicious antipasta (great if you're a veggie and lots of lovely avocado), a 3 colour tortilla (all presented very well) and lots of Chilean wine (they were such a bad influence on me...).


Tue 7th: Thank god I had the room to myself last night as after strolling in a bit tipsy, I had to get up a few hours later at 4am to go on a tour to El Tatio Geysers. This geyser covers a huge expanse where there are loads of holes of steam and boiling water but is only active before sunlight, with the steam getting more active as the sun rises but stopping during the day.

It's a very dangerous area as there are so many holes where it's bubbling quietly away and then suddenly gushes upwards with clouds of 80 degree steam.
It's also a dangerous area as it's 4,400 metres high and climbing to that altitude very quickly meant I nearly fainted and another girl on my bus actually did. Lee and Win felt a bit funny too (perhaps the wine last night didn't help us as we'd been warned not to drink!).
Luckily Lee with a medical profession knew what to do with the oxygen as the guide was nowhere to be seen (great health and safety regs).

I recovered in time to go into the thermal baths (after not going in Uyuni I felt I had to). Not many went in but the water was lovely and warm although boiling in parts.

Our tour back lead us through what we thought was a fake village as only 10 families are supposed to live there but the one street looked very new and had street lights! There was only one confused old woman there and a puppy and the promises of empañadas didn't materialise.

Lee and I went straight to lunch at Cuna restaurant which was fantastic. We were the only people in a nice sunny courtyard where we had el menu del dia which included a delicious desert (my first desert in ages).

We went to the archeological museum which contained lots of ceramics, tools, jewellery of the different cultures throughout history and also quite a few mummies. The best one is named 'Miss Chile' - she has long black plaits, quite a lot of skin showing and is clothed. All the mummies were in sitting, cramped up positions which made them an even stranger site.

After our hard afternoon of doing nothing, we had worked up enough appetite for another 2 course meal where I tried pisco sours for the first time (very nice Chilean cocktail). We were so busy drinking and chatting to another girl that I nearly missed my bus! Which was gringoed out, with an incredibly jobsworthy man checking the tickets about 5 times and making sure at midnight I changed my seat (don't know why I was issued 2 tickets).

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