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Published: October 25th 2007
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Hi everyone,
At last we are able to update our blog after a couple of weeks. The thing is, in Chile, it is very hard to get to a computer with a CD ROM facility let alone one with a burner .
Anyway, after leaving Pucon with some fantastic memories, we headed to Curico ( South of Santiago ) hoping to visit a lot of vineyards as it is wine making country. We arrived there at 5.00am, managed to get a room in a hotel without extra charge, and slept. Buses aren´t as good as in Argentina. Well, services aren´t. In Argentina, you get these fantastic double deckers where services are better than in some airline companies. You get hot meals, drinks, movies and they serve you cognac or whisky during the movie... Here, the buses are as good but you have to bring your own food. Disappointing!
What to say about Curico? It´s shite! Boring old town, rough, dirty, scummy.... Not worth a visit. It´s a shame as it is the capital of wine in this area and it has nothing to show for it. The only thing we managed to do was to visit Miguel Torres winery. Again,
disappointing. You can´t visit unless you pay a considerable amount of money, and if you want a sip of wine, you have to pay for it. You almost have to pay the staff to get a smile on their face. So, it was back to town, realising it was a worthless trip. Needless to say we booked our next bus to the north.
Chile is expensive! We miss Argentina. I mean it is still cheap compared to Europe but our small backpacker budget was getting dented day by day. So we decided we weren´t going to spend a month in Chile as initially planned, and instead, head to Bolivia. We weren´t initially going to do that but we met so many people telling us it is the undiscovered territory and it is stunning. We followed their advice.
We spent an extra week in Chile visiting La Serena, then went to San Pedro de Atacama where we will take a 4x4 to cross the Salar de Uyuni and get to Uyuni in Bolivia.
After leaving Curico, we needed to go to Santiago de Chile to catch our bus to La Serena. As we got there, we found a
Pukara de Quitor
Archeological site nice hostel and Renata immediately made an impact. She got on so well with the landlady that we got the room cheaper than anyone else. Not only that but we got coffee and sandwiches on arrival and all our laundry washed for free! All the other backpackers were stunned by the treatment we got and got jealous ( in a friendly way ). All that because Renata is Czech and the lovely landlady loved Franz Kafka. We loved our stay there. We also went to "La Valle Elqui" where they make the traditional Pisco. Pisco Sour is the national drink. Strong! But we didn´t go just for that, of course not! The region is beautiful, the village very serene and spiritual. It is like an oasis in the middle of the valley. So green, because of the wine being grown for miles along the valley!
The next day was spent in La Serena where we visited the Pacific coastline and the 5km long beach and La Serena´s many parks.
Next trip was San Pedro de Atacama: Finally the desert! Our last destination in Chile.
San Pedro is gorgeous but full of tourists. It is a typical Atacamean village built
on an oasis. It rains 7 days in the whole year. It is extremely dry and you start having mild altitude sickness feelings.
There is lots to do here like the Tatio Geysers, Salar de Atacama, Valle de la Luna. Pukara de Quitor... We didn´t do any of that! There is a reason for that: 1st: we didn´t want to fall into yet another tourist trap, 2nd: As we are doing the Salar de Uyuni, we will see more or less the same landscapes, but Salar de Uyuni being 100 times better.
Instead, we hired some bikes and headed to la Valle de la Muerte ( Death Valley ). Doesn´t sound promising, does it? It proved very challenging! It is not your average road or bike trekk. The paths are very sandy and bumpy, the sun extremely strong to the point that Renata had a sunburn ( guess where ) on her feet as she was wearing sandals. She had been applying cream all over her face and body, but forgot the feet. Another lesson! I guess the valley carries that name for a reason. We also went to Pukara de Quitor ( an archeological site ) when my bike
gave up on me and I lost the pedal. We had to take it in turns to pull one another in this difficult terrain and heat. We make it at last. That was good teamwork! In the evening, we indulged ourselves to a bottle of red. I think we deserved it!
See you in Bolivia!
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