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Published: July 21st 2008
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Santiago
View from cerro San Cristobel Santiago (and the arrival of Julie :-)
Santiago is overlooked by the Andes which would make a really beautiful setting for any city. Despite being the capital of Chile I found it had a relaxing and chilled out feel about it, with plenty of green spaces and viewpoints that overlooked the city, such as cerro San Cristobel with it´s huge statue of Jesus and views of both the city and the Andes. They played classical music up there, which made it a great place to just sit and chill. The people we met were very friendly, especially Christina, whom we met in the cathederal in Plaza de Armas, she told us about the festival that was going on at the time, her city and her family, all in broken English and Spanish, she seemed delighted that we had come to visit her country and we were truly delighted to have met her!
Well you cant go to Chile without visiting a vineyard! we decided to make our own way and not do an organised tour. It was a great feel of achievement to have arrived there by navigating our way through their subway system and local buses especially with
Santiago
Conch Y Torro vineyard - could someone pass us a straw! my limited Spanish! We went to the Concho Y Torro vineyard and after a breif and to be honest not very informative tour we went to sample some of their wines. This was where we we especially glad not to have gone with a tour group, as we could take our time and sample quite a few of their wines, and yes we did get a bit tiddly!
San Pedro de Atacama
It took 24 hours to arrive by bus from Santiago, and the first of our many long bus rides, actually it wasn´t really as bad as I thought it was going to be. San Pedro is a lovely little town, all be it a little touristy with dusty roads and a quaint square. We took a tour of the Lunar park, so called as it resembles the surface of the moon! The landscape was full of crators and gorges and very dry, they were formed by the wind, and rivers that had previously ran through the valleys but have now long gone. We had to climb up a steep sandy hill to watch the sunset which was unbelievibly hard work at such altitude.
San Pedro
San Pedro de Atacama
Valley of the moon at sunset de Atacama to Uyuni
We did this in a 3 day tour arranged in San Pedro in which we travelled in a 4 by 4. The landscape as we drove through was very dry but surrounding us were the Andes which made for a spectacular backdrop. We visited lakes in which we saw pink flamingos and reflections of the overlooking Andes. I really dont think I have been anywhere so beautiful. The first night we stayed in a refugio which was 4,700 metres above sea level, it was our first time at such a high altitude and we all woke with splitting headaches which our guides told us were quite normal. The following night we spent in a refugio that was built soley out of Salt! the walls, the beds, the tables and chairs, it was really strange! We convinced the guides to get up at 5.30 in order to see the sun rise over the salt plains, this took a lot of persuading with quite a few cans of beer being handed over before negotiations were over! But it was worth getting up so early to watch the sun shed it's orange glow over the pure white landscape.
Bolivia
Lago Verde I could never have imagined the vastness of this pure white plain had I not seen it, people have referred it to what they would imagine heaven would look like, I can see why, not just because it's so white but because there's a tranquility there that really put's your soul at peace - breathtaking! We also had great fun with taking photo's and playing with shadow's.
La Paz
La Paz lies in a steep canyon so everywhere you walk you either have to go up or downhill, which was really hard work with the altitude. If though most of the people here dressed in western clothes there were many women who continued to dress in the big skirts and bowler hat's, their clothes are so bright, it was lovely to see, you really felt as though you were in Bolivia here. We visited the witches market where we found llama feotus's, dried armadillos and a number of strange powder's and potion's! The llama feotus was particularly morbid as they were fully formed!
Lake Titicaca
This was such a lovely change from the hustle and bustle of the city, the lake itself is an unbelievibly deep
Bolivia
Salar de Uyuni blue . We went directly to the Isla del Sol which is the biggest island on the lake. When we arrived we found that we had to climb up steep steps in order to get to the accomodation on the island, we were whacked, so hired a donkey to carry our backpacks up, we only wish it could have carried us as well! We stayed at accomodation that was attached to a local house up on the hills, which gave us a real insight to village life, we spent the first hour gazing out of our window watching the villagers herding their llamas and goats, we actually felt quite privilledged to be there. The next morning we walked over to the south side of the island which took 3 1/2 hours, the scenery on the way more than made up for the walk which again was exhausting due to the altitude.
The Yungus
At this point of our trip we were in desperate need of some warm sunshine, even though the days had been bright and sunny, there was quite a nip in the air and the nights were really cold. The Yungas are to the south east
of La Paz but at a much lower altitude which made the climate tropical. We went horse riding there which gave us a great opportunity to see the lush countryside. There they grow coffee, banana's and ...coca! our guide even pointed out a farmer tending to his coca field.
Iguazu Falls
Not quite in Chile or Bolivia but since the photos were on the same disk..... We flew from La Paz to Ascusion in Paraguay and caught the bus over to the Brazil side of Iguazu. You get a great panoramic view from the Brazilian side, it was astounding to see the great expanse of the falls. We then travelled to the Argentinian side where you get a really close to the falls, they have built a bridge so that you are in fact only a few metres from the downpour of water. We took a boat ride that actually took us right under one of the falls, the pressure from the water was astounding, and we did get rather wet!
Sorry this update took so long and is so long.
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