My (brief) Chilean adventure...

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Part 1: The Atacama Desert
The first place that i visited was the Atacama Desert. After a tiring night travelling, as i forgot about the time difference between Chile and Peru and so the flight was only 3 hours and not the 5 hours i was anticipating, i arrived in my second South American country! The Atacama was amazing, although very very hot - even in the evening the temperature was over 25°C! San Pedro was a beautiful little town, full of white wash buildings. On my first day i saw the massive Salar de Atacama (salt plane, which is 200 x 100 km in area and bounded on all sides by mountain ranges and active volcanoes), the Valley of the Salt (and yes you can see the salt everywhere), Mars Valley and sunset at the Valley of the Moon. The next day i went further afield and saw the salt flats up close and the flamingoes at the lagoons there. We then journeyed up into the mountains to see two lagoons on the altiplato (Miscanti and Miñique) although the bus had a few problems and overheated and so for a while we didn't think we would get there, but after throwing water on the engine the driver carried on! We then explored the town of Tocano, a little oasis in the desert before returning back to San Pedro. My final day started very early, getting picked up at 4am so that i could get to the El Tatio Geysers while it was still cold in the morning so the temperature change between the air and the thermal waters was at its greatest to make the steam all the more impressive. And it was cold, -10°C, but good to see non-the-less. We then journeyed across the mountain range and saw the active volcanoes smoking away on the horizon and called in at some of the little towns on the way back to Calama where i was catching my flight back to Santiago.

Part 2: Santiago and around
So i arrived in Santiago and was met by Juan Pablo and Francisca - who were perfect hosts throughout my stay! They arranged for me to go over to the coast for the weekend and stay with friends of there's, so i jumped on a bus to Viña del Mar and was met by Luis who put me up in a hotel. The area was fantastic, Valparaíso is a coastal town set in a series of hills with beautiful coloured houses everywhere. You can take old furnicular trains up to the top of the hills and so i whiled away a day exploring all over. While Viña del Mar is a beach town, with a fantastic coastline and with the weather been nice and warm and sunny it was perfect. I then returned to Santiago and spent a day exploring the city, which i also loved (apart from the pollution which blocks the views of the mountains surrounding the city!). In the evening i was treated to my first Chilean football game as Juan Pablo and his 7-aside team played there last game of the season. A class game, which despite Juan Pablo's best efforts in goal they lost! This was followed by a great BBQ and a very good last night in Chile! My flight out the next day wasn't until the evening and so i spent the day exploring some of the wineyards around Sanitago, Concha y Toro (famous for its Castillo del Diablo) and the Santa Carolina (the odlest vineyards in Santiago).

Altogether i loved Chile, despite my the short length of my trip and will definately be back to see more. And i'd especially like to thank Juan Pablo and Francisca and all of their friends for making my stay in Santiago fantastic!

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Comments

[Master]

Saludos
Gracias por publicar fotos del norte de mi pais, espero que tu paseo por estos rincones te gustara. Saludos.

[fengyi]

beautiful views....
I love all these pictures, particularly those of valley of the moon, sunset at valley of the Moon..they gave me such as peaceful and calm feeling...amazing really! now you are in chile, are you tasting many types of famous white wines?