Arica, Santiago & Valparaiso

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After the hike in Colca Canyon, it was time to say good-bye to Darran (after travelling with him for two months) as he was on his way to Bolivia. The two of us and Linsey then set off to Arica in Chile.

From Arequipa we took a bus through the Atacama Desert to Tacna, a Peruvian town close to the Chilean border. The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau and is the driest desert in the world. Tacna is situated in the middle of nowhere and it is unimaginable why anyone would want to settle in such a dry, remote and hot place. From Tacna we took a por supuesto (an old and huge American car) to the border. The formalities didn´t take more than 20 minutes which was quite impressive. The trip to the border was uneventful except for witnessing a car being chased by the police in the desert between the Peruvian and Chilean border.

Arica
Chile is a world apart from Peru as it is very much a First World country and in our eyes, very sophisticated, with string quartets playing on the street, loads of cafés and bars with good wine and even sushi. No more almuerzos, consisting of rice, plantains, beans and fried chicken for us!

Arica is a smallish desert town on the Pacific coast and we stayed there for two days. The town of Arica doesn´t have much to offer except for a pedestrian shopping alley. It is described by the Lonely Planet guidebook as an "urban beach resort" but unfortunately, we didn´t make it to the beach as we opted to sample the local wines instead. It is a shame, actually!

Santiago
We managed to find cheap flights with Sky Airlines from Arica to Santiago. This was refreshing as we seriously needed a break from buses. Santiago is surrounded by mountains and immersed in dense smog. It is indeed a first world city with very efficient metro-bus and underground systems and it is surprisingly clean, apart from the smog.

We stayed in Barrio Brasil in a very cool hostel called La Casa Roja. The hostel is a huge and grand old mansion with wooden floors and pressed steel ceilings. As it was very hot in Santiago we spent the next two days next to the hostel´s swimming pool, drinking ice cold beers and wine and not doing much else.

One evening we met with Erick, our Spanish tutor from South-Africa, who is originally Chilean and was in Santiago to fetch his ailing mother. We had a lovely dinner at his friend´s house after which he took us for a drive along the tree-lined streets of Santiago. Santiago has many modern and old neighbourhoods with huge colonial style mansions. It was good to see Erick again and also a bit more of Santiago.

We did not take one photo of Santiago, so none will be uploaded here.

Valparaiso
From Santiago we decided to visit the famous and must-see town, Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a quaint, bohemian town on the coast, just south of Santiago. The cobblestoned streets in the old town are lined with colourful houses, mansions, bars and cafés. Some walls are decorated with ¨stylish¨graffiti and other forms of urban art. A multitude of cables and wires criss-crossing over the streets and between the buildings sometimes spoil the view.

We stayed in a small hostel/family home in the old town which felt more like a home-stay as a hostel as we shared a kitchen and bathroom with the resident family. We planned on having a nice day on the beach but the beach was a huge disappointment as the beach wasn´t very pretty and the water was freezing cold. Instead we had a seafood lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the ocean and strolled through the local fisherman´s wharf. There were thousands of seagulls flying overhead and LM was fortunate enough to have a bird pooping on her head. All the locals kept on saying ¨buena suerte¨ (good-luck) but we still have to see if this proves to be true.

Besides eating and drinking there isn´t much to do in Valparaiso. We also found the good restaurants a bit pricey so our stay in Valparaiso was short and sweet.

We returned to La Casa Roja in Santiago for one night and flew to Punta Arenas the following day.

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