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With Asia and Oceania now done it was time to get onto our 3rd and final continent, South America.
So from Auckland we flew into Santiago. Here i was greeted by 2 sniffer-dogs. The first one, a young frisky golden labrador (at least i think it was. im not the best with dog breeds. it was blonde, had 4 legs and a face, so yeah...pretty much a golden labrador) took some interest in my hand luggage which was sitting on the floor infront of me. It came from behind me forced its way through my legs, much to the amusement of the rest of the flights passengers who were all standing round watching by this point, and took a good sniff around my bag. Knowing there was nothing illegal in there i didnt worry too much, but when the second dog, a black labrador (4 legs and a face but this time with black fur) started pawing at it and the security guard demanded a search i turned a little aprehensive. Fortunately he found nothing and i was allowed to leave the airport myself.
Thankfully James knows a bit of Spanish from school and was able to get us a
taxi to the hostel we had booked. While the negotiations were going on i stood by, stroked my chin and added "si" when it seemed appropriate. Hopefully i would pick up some more as the weeks went on. We shared a taxi with a girl called Louise who would stick with us for a few days.
We only spent 1 full day in Santiago and decided to spend it doing a city bus tour. We hopped on and off a few times as we went around. We had food in a big shopping mall where we all had to use our first Spanish to order our meal. i managed to blurt out what i was after and thought all was good until she said "Nombre?". I wasnt expecting it and i panicked. Assuming she meant "table number" i spun around and pointed to where Luke was sitting, but when i turned back round she was shaking her head and simply said "name?". "Aaaaah i see. Andrew.......I mean André" I replied.
At Bellavista we got off and took the Fenicular up to the top of the hill that overlooked the city, some awesome views were to be had. After
we came back down we took a wander past the uni and had our first taste of South American beer on a strip of student bars that lined the streets. Nice and tasty, nice and cheap.
We went back to the hostel and headed out to try and find some food nearby, but there was anly a Chinese takeaway in the area, it would have to do. The menu was fully in spanish. We figured out that ¨pollo¨was chicken but the rest of it was a guessing game. It worked out allright in the end and we all had a good feed.
The next morning the 4 of us and Louise got the bus to La Serena a small seaside town up the coast a bit. We took up on some guys offer of a hostel when we arrived at the bus statiton and headed to our digs. That night we had a nice bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc made some pasta and played some cards. Louise taught us a new game, it has a swearword in its name so for the record wel call it "A game like snap where you have to try and get rid of
all your cards and not mess up, because if you mess up you have to pick up all the cards and the person with all the cards at the end is the loser".
The following day we went to the beach, but as it was low season there was nobody there. This would also explain the numerous strange looks we got walking there wearing our flipflops, shorts and shades. With no talent to look at and nobody to play football with we just kinda lay there for a while until it got too cold.
The next morning we went to the market, said goodbye to Louise, and caught the bus upto San Pedro de Atacama, a little town in the middle of the atacama desert. It was a very cool place (character-wise not temperature-wise). We met a guy called Fillipe at the bus station who took us to his hostel. On day 1 we wandered round the town and had our first taste of a South American market. Llama gear everywhere! Hats, gloves, jumpers, leg warmers etc etc.
Day 2 Fillipe took us into the desert for a spot of sandboarding. It was a case of no experience necessary,
just strap the snowboard to your feet and let rip down the dunes.
My first run was good and got quite far down before falling. Its quite a heart sinking feeling you get when you get down to the bottom and look back up. Not a cable car in sight you have to make the ascent on foot. Climbing a steep sand dune in boiling heat, carrying a snowboard at 8,000ft above sea level is not easy.
My next few runs were pretty damn good, reaching allthe way to the bottom a couple of times. When it was time to go we all decided to do one more run...not a good idea. i was flying down the slope, the fastest id gona all day, when i caught my toe-side edge and took a monumental bail. i flipped over 2 or 3 times, coming to rest a good few metres further down the slope. I had to give myself a minute or 2 on my knees with my head and hands resting on the sand. I was seeing stars and was a bit dzed for quite a while after. In hindsight its a very dangerous sport, sand is not as forgiving
as it may appear, and if something happened to you that far away from civilization you might be in trouble. But it was fun nonetheless.
For sunset that night Fillipe took us to another spot in the Valley de Luna where he poured us a Pisco Sour (traditional chilean drink) and we all watched the dessert turn a deep red and we all felt the air turn cold.
That night we went out with some other people to another hostel before trying and failing to find a "desert rave" which sometimes happen in the area.
After being in bed for a few hours that night I woke up and shouted the contents of my stomach into the toilet. Janie and tracey my 2 medic friends from home said via facebook that it might have been concussion from sandboarding, but when i asked them if concussion could come out of your bum as well, they agreed with my theory that it was a stomach bug.
The following day, and feeling a good bit better, we caught the bus to Arica in the far North. By the time we arrived i was feeling better but the other guys guts had started
playing up.
There wasnt much to report from Arica, just another little town (which boasts to be the dryest on the planet). After a couple of recovery days we crossed our first South American border into Chile. What magical adventures would the team get up to? Find out next time on Andy´s TravelBlog!
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anonymous
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Enjoyin your blogs Andrew .... Keep it up!! Sounds lik your havin a right carry on! take care. Elaine.