Heading to Santiago- final destination

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Hey all!!

We have finally arrived in Santiago - the capital of Chile. Not much to recount of the way down!!

We spent three days and nights in San Pedro de Atacama. The town is located in the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world. It hasn't rained there for over 250 years. We has a very enjoyable lazy time there, went out two nights and spent a lot of time cooking!! On the last day there we went to the Valley of the Moon for a visit which is supposed to look like the lunar landscape. It was rocky, sandy and barren with salt crystals everywhere. We went for a long walk, and hiked to the top of a large sand dune to watch the sunset.

Our next stop was in Bahia Inglesia and we stayed at a lovely beach campsite. I ended up being the only person to camp due to everyone else upgrading to little chalets, but I pitched my tent in their garden!! It was a 10 hour drive across the desert to the beach but that didn't stop us from celebrating when we got there, we cooked a slap up meal and sat up all hours chatting after dinner.

Ther next day we moved down to La Serena, which is a beach resort city. Huge apartment blocks line the seafront along with restaurants and clubs. We were camping again, well Matt and I did. It was my teams turn to cook and we produced the best BBQ yet - surf and turf with prawn and veg skewers, sausages, potatoes, guacamole, salsa and cake to finish. Yum yum!!

The second day we spent exploring La Serena and the various coffee shops and markets. That night we went to see Mamalluca Observatory, an hour away. We were able to see the silhouettes of the mountain ranges around us, the sky as the sun set turning from pink to blue to navy, the dim lights of houses below us, and the stars twinkling as they started to come out. It was beautiful and atmospheric, and incredibly peaceful save for the occasional horse. We spent almost 2 hours stargazing, and spotting all the zodiac constellations. We saw Jupiter and Venus up close through a telescope and many different galaxies and nebulars. We also saw a shooting star!!

Today was a six hour drive to Santiago and we have just finished our orientation walk. Dinner is set for 8pm in a grill and we will be celebrating the end of the trip for five of us!!

nearly over!!
Orla

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Photos

lunar landscape
Atacama desert