San Pedro de Atacama, La Serena and Santiago

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We got a transfer across the Bolivia/Chile border which was basically a bloke called Oscar driving a pickup truck. THe drive took about half an hour, and, like the salt flats, the landscape looked like you were on another planet. Straight away we noticed Chile was bit more civilised than Bolivia- they had roads- tarmac roads! We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama about 10am (we got up at 5am to go to the hot springs so it felt like lunchtime at this stage). We had to get our passports stamped at the migration office, so we joined the queue which took forever. Once we got our stamps, Oscar dropped us to the TurBus office, as we were planning on getting an overnight bus (yes, another one) to La Serena, a small town that is known for its star observatory. It also meant that we could cover more ground now, and only have to face a 7 hour bus journey (which by now was small fry for us) to Santiago. We booked ourselves tickets for the night bus to La Serena, left our bags in storage (in a shop at the "bus station"- it was a yard) and set off to look around the town and get something to eat.

We were instantly charmed by San Pedro, and slightly disappointed that we weren't staying longer. It was a quaint town, with lots of cafes and gift shops- real touristy- and dust tracks for roads. THere was little traffic and the atmosphere was so laid back. We had something to eat in a little cafe then had a wander around the town, before getting some dinner. Dave made a friend, a kid of about 4, who decided to kick his football to him. We got on our bus to La Serena about 7pm.

We arrived in La Serena feeling worse for wear. We hadn't a proper nights sleep since Cusco, and we were starving. We spotted something in the distance...a big yellow M. We headed straight for McDonalds and indulged ourselves in a couple of big Macs. Yum! After our feed, we walked to our hostel "El Arbol", in a little housing estate just outside the town. The hostel was actually a guesthouse- and really really nice. It was a welcomed luxury after a number of days on night buses and the salt flats! We immediately went for a nap and slept for hours before having a well-overdue shower! When we woke, we went to wander about the town to have a look around. We were really impressed by La Serena, its a lovely town and very European. We had a walk around the square and the shops, and enjoyed the town. That evening we ate in a family-run restaurant and had steak and chips- that mama cooked in the kitchen. When we asked for wine they had to dust off the only 2 wine glasses in the place!

The following day, after breakfast, we went to book an observatory tour for that evening. It was pretty cloudy and the girl said the tour probably wouldn't go ahead, but we booked it ayway. We then grabbed a coffe and then went to rent bikes to cycle along the beach road to the next town, Coquimba. We went from one tourist office to another, and finally found somewhere to get the bikes. We cycled all along the promenade, and saw lots of sea birds on the way, including Pelicans and Black Vultures. We arrived in Coquimba and were less than impressed. It was a bit of a dive so we just had a quick look around. We saw the statue of Bernardo O'Higgins, a Chilean guy of Irish decent who became the first president after Chile became emanicpated. We're always like a good oul emancipation! We met a local and asked where the best places to eat were, and he pointed us back the way we came- along the beach- so we headed back towards La Serena. We stopped in a seafood restaurant called Tito Cocos, and after locking our bikes, the guy in the carpark who was washing the cars promised to watch them for us (?). After our lunch we came back to find the bikes in one piece, and tipped him, for which he was looking at us expectantly, for keeping an eye (Cowboys, Ted. They're a bunch of cowboys!). We cycled back to La Serena and got ready to head to the observatory.

A gang from our hostel were going too, so we all got picked up around 7. The drive to the observatory was a good 1.5 hours. We stopped off in the nearby town, Vicuna, to get a snack. We arrived at the observatory and our guide took us up to this massive telescope inside a dome. First thing we saw was Saturn, which looked like a sticker! We also saw Mars, as well as loads of star clusters. He explained that some of these stars mightn't even exsist anymore, but because the light takes so long to get here, we are still seeing them. He then took us outside and showed us some constellations, the Southern Cross, O'Ryan's belt, The scorpion, Virgo, Libra, etc. The Incas also had constellations, but they usually described the shapes of the spaces between stars, such as the snake and the baby Llama. Our guide showed us how to navigate using the Southern Cross (I have to say Polaris is easier!), then he pointed out what looked like individual stars, but when we saw them through the telescope, they were actually clusters of stars. We saw the "Camino de Leche"- the Milky Way, which looked spectacular- it was a white streak across the sky. There was no moon that night, which was great as there was no light pollution. Chile is the best place in the world to view stars, due to the clear skies and the lack of light pollution. Most of the telescopes in Chilean observatories are funded by European and US research companies. There's very few places in the world where you can view the sky properly, because there is too much light pollution from human settlement. Anyway, we all fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hostel. We headed to bed as soon as we got back, as we had a bus to catch to Santiago the following morning.

After a pleasant 7 hour bus journey, we arrived in Santiago- our final stop in South America before we hit New Zealand. It's a nice city, a bit smoggy but overall really nice. We got a metro from the bus station and had a 20 minute walk to our hostel- "Blend". We were only staying one night there, we were catching a flight to Auckland the following night. We arrived at Blend, and were welcomed by Rudi, the owner. He showed us around and said he would cook us breakfast at any time the next day.... lie in! A couple from England, Tom and Lillian, had lived at Blend for a few months and now had their own place. They were at the hostel to watch the Chile football match. We went down to the living room to watch it with them and Rudi gave us a couple of beers. There was also an American guy there called Zac, who had lived at Blend for a while too. He was adding his own commentary (Gooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll!) and was slagging the footballers who kept diving and feigning injury ("You wouldn' get this in basketball!"). When the game was over we headed out for dinner to Los Vacas Gordas ("The Fat Pig") and celebrated our last full day in South America. We headed to Paddy's Irish Bar to meet Rudi and the gang but they weren't there so we went back to the hostel which was probably a wise choice as we wanted to see as much as we could of Santiago the following day.

The next morning we got up around 12 and Rudi cooked us eggs and made coffee. We decided to go and watch the Ireland vs Croatia match. Rudi recommended an Irish bar called "Dublin". We walk through the park and across the river and found Dublin in a place called the Patio. The Patio was like a square with loads of bars, restaurants and shops. When we arrived there was a Peru match on, so we asked a girl there about the Ireland match. She sent us upstairs and said the lads up there will put it on for us. When we got upstairs, the barman said no, they were showing the Peru game and all the tellys were synced so they couldn't have the irish match on one screen. We were pretty baffled that the "Irish" bar wasn't showing the Irish match, so we wandered off looking for somewhere that would show the match. We were unlucky, so decided to go back to Dublin and insist on them putting it on (Dave was getting pretty pissed off by now!). So we asked another barman to put the match on and he said it wasn't starting for another half hour, that we should have a drink while we are waiting. But we weren't buying anything until they put the bloody match on- it had already started! Eventually he did put it on- on ONE tv (synced my swiss!) and we sat down with menus to order a drink. First thing we saw- Guinness. We have to have one of those! So we ordered 2 Guinness and he said there was no Guinness. We ordered drinks and food, watched the match (lets not talk about that) and then when the bill came yer man had put his own tip on it and added it to our total!(Cowboys, Ted. They're a bunch of Cowboys!).

After all that we headed up this big mountain, on a tram, where you can look out over the city. On top of the mountain was a statue of Mary, a bit like Cristo in Rio but not as big. There's a church aswell, and a place to light candles. We got up there in time to see the sun going down over Santiago which was really nice. We took a few photos and headed back down the mountain. We hit McDonalds on the way back to the hostel (2nd time in a couple of days!) and then went back to Blend to shower and pack our bags. Rudi had let us have our room for the day. Once we were packed up and ready to go, we said our goodbyes and headed to the Metro station where we got a train to the bus station. We got a bus to the airport and checked in, went through security and relaxed until we were called for our flight (must say we were relieved there were no problems!). We were so sad to leave South America, but also excited about the new experiences that awaited us in New Zealand.

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Photos

Black Vultures
These are seen all over South America. These ones were drying out their wings on the lamposts!

Pelicans
There was so much birdlife on the beach between La Serena and Coquimbo

Comments

[Angelica]

San Pedro de Atacama
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