The journey into Chile was once again by bus which meant we could take in the views of the Andes which we had to cross in order to get from Argentina to Chile. The views were very impressive and the roads were a feat of engineering as we snaked our way up,down and through the mountains. Once at the Argentina/Chile border we disembarked to go through immigration where I foolishly left two bananas on board the coach. Transporting food between countries is a no-no and I only realised in the queue for passport control when it was too late. I hoped the border guards would just dispose of them without fuss but they waited until we had two coach loads of passengers in the immigration room before walking in and shouting out for the owner of the rogue fruit. I tried to ignore them but eventually had to sheepishly own up and squeeze through the group to be chastised in spanish by the guards as they dumped my bananas into a bin!

The rest of the journey was free of more fruit crime and we arrived in the port town of Valparaiso on time. After taking a taxi to the hostel and settling in to our room, we headed out to explore our latest destination. Valparaiso is the major port in Chile and the size of the ships in the harbour backed this up. The harbour and docks were a hive of activity along with lots of smaller boats shuttling tourists back and forth on harbour tours. Sarah soon tired of the view so we headed to the main square for a beer. There were several homeless types around the square and we were approached a couple of times by beggars. The owner of the bar explained that the square could be dangerous after dark so we decided to head into the town centre where it was a little safer. We found a decent looking bar with what seemed like a good menu but it turned out that we'd come on the regular chefs night off so ended up with two plates of starters and lots of cheese as that was all that was available!

We decided to brave the mean streets on the walk home as there were still lots of people around but it was quickly apparent that it would be quite easy to be mugged due to a serious lack of street lights. The town was effectively on two levels with the port area surrounded by steep hills which could be reached at multiple points by either steep steps or a series of funiculars which were installed in the early 1900s. We decided to take the automated route and took the nearest funiculer to the old town area of the city. The area was a huge ramshackle collection of one and two storey buildings in a wide variety of pastel colours and very different states of repair that stretched as far as you could see. The roads and paths were very windy and steep in places and we worked our way through the area taking in the views for most of the day before ending at a lovely area of the town where there were lots of small bars and trendy restaurants. We opted for a Lonely Planet recommendation for dinner and had a lovely meal and a few glasses of Chilean wine before walking back home through the windy streets.

Vina Del Mar was the location for our adventures the next day and it was very different to the rough and ready feel of Valparaiso's port area. 'Vina' is supposedly where lots of the well-to-do Chileans go on holiday and it was certainly very nice with a busy beach and several upmarket hotels along the seafront. As we walked along, we found a huge crowd of youngsters shouting and screaming outside the Hilton (where else!?) and after asking one of the many guards, it turned out that the Chilean equivalent of Britney Spears was due to arrive for her part in a big music festival in the town. As we were told later, the Hilton is where all the stars stay when they come to town and the festival is the biggest in Chile and started in two days time. What a shame we were leaving the next day!

We'd found out while we were in Argentina that our trip to Macchu Picchu had been cancelled due to the heavy rain in February and after several emails and much debate we had decided to change our booking to a 3 day trip to Iguassu Falls instead. We had plotted our route to Iguassu taking in Bolivia and Uruguay on the way so we set off for stage one of the new plan the next day and headed for another coastal town called La Serena. After the delights of Ruta 40, the main reason for this pit stop was simply to break up what would have been another 24 hour plus bus journey and it proved to be a good move as La Serena was a lovely town with a lively market. My initial thoughts that we were staying close to the sea turned out to be a fish market a few doors away and the beach turned out to be a little disappointing (and 40 minutes walk away!) but the hostel was comfortable and weather was good so it wasn't all bad. We booked a trip to an observatory on our first evening and it proved to be much more interesting than either of us expected. Unbeknown to us, the north of Chile is a hotspot around the world for stargazers and at one point was home to the world's biggest telescope....interesting eh? We were shown around the observatory and then our guide pointed out the major planets and constellations in the night sky which was truly spectacular given the observatory's remote location. Ask me about Orion's Belt and the southern cross when I get home!

We had a couple of relaxing days around La Serena and neighbouring Coquimbo before taking a bus up to San Pedro de Atacama which is described as home to one of the driest deserts in the world. When we arrived the weather was certainly worthy of a desert with very hot sunshine and after a long 20 minutes of searching laden with backpacks, we finally found our hostel. We'd used a different website to book our hostel here and when we arrived we were told that our double room was not available and all that was left was a 4 bed dorm room. Not happy! Within a couple of minutes, a Swiss chap joined us at reception to complain about bed bugs in his room so we grabbed our deposit and made a sharp exit. After another hot walk we luckily stumbled upon a nice hostel in the centre of town and settled in there instead. A quick walk around town was enough to realise that this was a town that existed solely for tourism although many of the old buildings remained from when the town was home to salt miners which also gave it lots of character. We quickly booked ourselves on a trip to the Valley de la Luna (Moon Valley) which was a few kilometres out of town and on our way there our guide explained how dry the area was and how they get only 1-2 days of rain each year. By the time we arrived it was raining! The scenery and sunset were quite spectacular though.

Our new plan involved a trip to the Bolivian salt flats and there were many companies in town offering a wide variety of trips. Lonely Planet and the local tourist office had warned against bogus operators but it proved hard to tell the good companies from the bad so after much deliberation we simply went with our gut feel and opted for the friendliest (and most expensive!) company. Despite being stuck in the middle of a desert, San Pedro had grown in attraction as the days went by and it was no real hardship to find we had to wait an extra day for the scheduled departure of the trip. We just kicked back and had a relaxing time eating and drinking at some of the remarkably upmarket bars and restaurants in town and even made use of the table tennis table at the hostel!

Our trip to Bolivia would start at 8.30am the next day........