Hola todos

Bienvenidos de SPdA. Can't be bothered to write it again!! If this blog seems a random witter, well thanks an 04:00 start for that...... Jeez, the things I do so you guys can travel the world from a computer screen

It's been a wee while since I wrote so thiis ramble may take some time. Hopefully it won't bore you too much..... I guess I need to go back to Santiago where I last wrote. My initial experience didn't suggest this to be 1 of the top 20 cities to visit as per a TV show I saw, and so it remains!! However, there are other things to add that improve it slightly. Firstly though Valparaiso (& Viña del Mar). Valpo is a brilliant place. Does that sound like a good start? It's a port by the sea built on a very steep natural ampitheatre. I had a nice hostel & again found being alone hard- not in the sense of emotions but actually being alone Five minutes after checking in a gorgeous 25 year old and her mum (both english) checked in & invited me to join them for lunch which became all day. Becky is doing a 1 year world tour, her mum was out for the hols and as both their birthdays were due they were going to Easter Island... Why did I so like Valpo? It's a very bohemian place (major art university there), full of street art including murals of great breadth & quality + graffitti art (most good), old ricketty houses of many colours, and the friendliest people ever. We ate out 1 night together (best pisco sour yet) and ate bread + cheese on a balony watching the end of the sunset. It is the first place I felt cold (the sea mist really was thick) 1 day but then sunny again. As it has remained, albeit a tad coller, not so wonderfully hot.... Boohoo. Still weraing T shirt and shorts or kilt tho' (more later ) I enjoyed the company of both Becky and mum (oops, forgotten her name) and the general feel of Valpo. Would and have recommended people go. Viña del Mar on the other hand is a dull concrete place..... Mind you, I still recommend a visit. ¡Por que? Porque you get a taxi or local mini bus and for around 50p you get an Alton Towers style ride....... wheeeeee. I did say I think chileano's are the worst drivers I've yet met didn't I? The thing I found odd about Valpo was the fact it has gyms.... the hill it's built on is so STEEP (much easier after 2 pisco sours) they need lifts and funiculars everywhere Old (100+ years) rail run things so why pay to go to a gyms when you can walk (or stagger) up these???? Doh. It takes all kinds.

After Valpo I returned to Santiago. I was able to enjoy it more by trying to release meyself from everyone else's fears of being robbed but it was still sadly in the background. I did enjoy visiting Nobel poet winner Pablo Neruda's house there and he went up in my estimation (not hard as I've never read anything of his) by being a Citroen DS driver (some may remember I actually went to Paris to celbrate this car's 50th birthday.... I did say it takes all kinds...) and having designed a house I like (not easy). I was also able to do a weekend of Biodanza (my dancing) which I enjoyed mostly. In the kilt of course- and somehow the Scots knew this within 2 days of me being there!!!! Jungle drums or what!!! There were 3 vivencia's, 2 very good, 1 so so. I only understood half the talks too. I made many beautiful dance connections (with old and young but not men as I did in the weekly class) and was able to spend more time with Katty. It is so nice to make deep connections with people that last years without any contact, and feel you pick them up as before. In Santiago I also bumped into 2 guys I met on the ferry (I did apologise for hurting them ), an Oz guy I'd spoken to a little, the other Swiss Mark with whom I had to go out and drink more pisco sours (is there a theme coming on???) + Boris from Koln who I met in Spanish school on the bus here. Then I left Santiago with no regrets for the place, and glad for a renewed connection. I am also more able and confident in my Spanish but have maybe hit a bit of a block as apprently I sound convincing so people only speak Spanish to me but their speed + my vocabulary let me down.

So I came here to SPdA. A 25.5 hour overnight bus journey.This is an amazing place. I will try to explain but bear with me if it makes no sense as in some ways it's so contradictory.... It is in the desert. From here you can do many visits (all done & to be detailed) locally. Including to a salt lake. On 1 side you have geological fault flat topped mountains, the other the Andes mountains including 3 volcanos (2 active) and other snow topped peaks over 5000 metres high. The sun has shone all the time (but it's not always hot!!!) and the sky is a standout feature for me being such a pure azure blue of such clarity and depth (and with perfect wisper thin clouds occasionally wandering across it) I could happily lie on the floor and stare up at it- apart from the fact I'd be a mess of sand and probably blind. Meanwhile at night the stars are so clear it feels like you can pick them out of the sky by hand- I could happily lie on the floor and stare up at it- apart from the fact I'd be a mess of sand and probably run over by some idiot on a bike or in a car!!! This place is unusual in that I chose to stay 4 nights- yes it's worth it. And for me the days have got better. There are 3 main attractions and I did them in this order:

1. Valle de la Luna, or Valley of the Moon. It's apparently like a moon scape. It's also in the sand dunes and the best bit was running down the side of a step dune. And I didn't fall over. If this is what the moon looks like then I'm not booking my trip yet, though others thought it their favourite trip. The end you join too many others on a ridge to see the sunset on a lunar landscape full of pink and other hues. Maybe the sun was tired but the colours disappointed me. So, not the best start.

2. Salar de Atacama y High Altiplana Lagunas- or Atacama salt flats and high altitude lakes. The salar isn't white!!! It isn't flat either being rough with chrystalline formations the look as if a digger went wild... There are small lakes on where I did see 2 of 3 flamingo's in Chile. They are fun to watch and very graceful in flight but there weren't many. Try to imagine: standing by a lake of flamingos in a salt flat in the middle of the dryest desert in the world covered by an azure blue sky surrounded by mountains made be techtonic plates shifting which include 3 volcanoes and other high peaks some covered in snow and varying temperatures (cold in shade, confy out). Sorry if I repeated myself but it was amazing if surreal.... Then up to high lakes at 4280m. And no altitude problems I am so pleased. They say the lakes are spectacular in colour but being colour blind I thought it rather like Scotland, such a beautiful place. But not much different from home. I did see Vicuñas- a kind of high altitude local LLama and a red fox too. I was also encouraged by others (these Oirish lasses & NZ bods) to prove I was a true Scot. Most of you will know what happened next. Much to the pleasure of half the group (those watching and who I have sort of become part of a group- Julie & Leonie from Eire, Kailty + Gav from NZ + Lisa from Chester) and especially the Braveheart watching guide (guessed yet??????) there was a self inflicted Marylin Monroe moment.... They now know I am a "True Scot". It was made more funny as the majority of the group didn't see 'it' and looked so confused at the hysterical laughter which lasted some 5 minutes.... Needless to say I was wearing the kilt. Interestingly, I've a new reaction to add to the list of shock/ outright laughter/ invites to talk / smiles- men wolf whistling me!!! Oh Yes!!! Though I think it was sarcastic. Then we visited a local indigenous tribe restaurant for a meal which was a typical and quite nice one. This 'sacrifice for you' trip started at 08:00. You are so cruel to me...

3. El Tatio Geysers...... guess no translation is needed. This is where you are really cruel to me. I had to be up at 04:00 today!!!! b*****, or some such phrase. This meant a 2+ hour drive to see the Tatio Geysers at their most active between 06:30 and 08:30. And they were. And they were amazing, for me (though not others) the best thing yet. And the sun rose adding to the galmour. We had breakfast by the geysers adding a surreal element. I regretted not wearing the kilt having been told it would be -11 degrees cold it was a measly -7.5 degrees. I mean, that's barely below freezing, and the steam would have kept 'my bits' warmer if wearing a kilt!!! Still I loved this place. The geysers shot up to 20 metres of steam + lesser water, the sounds are amazing and there was ice everywhere.... It was even higher than yesterday at 4350m and amazingly the extra metres were felt.. Not at all badly but it's amazing such a small height difference can be felt. And then there was the thermal pool with healing minerals from the earth which was fun to go in and not so bad to come out. Then the small (8 adult 1 child) native people village where I also ate Llama (very nice) and the 5 metre cactii like a fence on a mountain. And all the time that blue blue sky, heat and sand.

I am some 50km from Bolivia and tomorrow disappear of the radar for 3 days to get there. It's a special trip which I will relate later. Should be fun. A hint- the front of my blog has 2 pictures on it.... By the way, the picture attached to this blog is not me, I didn't sand board, but saw others do it (slow apparently)

Again I find myself in company. Travelling alone is an active choice- to be alone that is... In fact Julie and I met the first day, have done the same 3 trips & will be on the same trip to Bolivia too. Poor girl, maybe a psychiatric assessment of her is required. Or maybe I am more comfortable with me and this is coming through and I am benefitting from it. I like to think it's that latter point (that and my good looks of course )

So, on I go to Bolivia. I don't know what to find there. It will be cheaper and more ethnic. But I suspect less internet and inferior transport systems so travelling may take even longer... Oh goody!!!

Hoping you are all well I will regale you with how Bolivia reacted to a mad Scotsman in a kilt. In the meantime (back in kilt) I will go do a good impression of a Mad Dog and a Scotsman in the Midday Sun (did I say it was sunny here?????)

Love to all

Alan xx