Buenos noches!

Check me out with all my Spanish (that's still about the extent of it and I'm only about 30% sure what it means)! I arrived in Santiago, Chiles capital on a Sunday, I had a wander and I stumbled upon a little festival nestled among some seriously awesome architecture, government buildings and the like, where there was a carnival atmosphere with a live musician and street dancing and other such joyous sights. After soaking up the spanish-ness of the whole situation I then headed up to a monastery on top of a mountain (that's the story I am sticking to but it is probably classed as a moderately sized hill). It had nuns and everything though, a big statue and some wicked panoramic views of the city and surrounding mountains.

After a few days there I headed north to La Serena, the bus journey was pretty epic, we wound our way through some wicked scenery, the sea on one side and some snow capped mountains on the other, I don't really know what I was expecting of South America but the scenery has blown me away......I think it's because I like really really big hills. The city itself was a lot more rural and what I wanted, mud huts and single story building rather than sky scrapers that adorned the capital.

In La Serena I visited a space observatory, apparently Chile is one of the leading places in the world for such things and I saw some pretty epic constellations and stuff through some bad-ass telescopes, when we looked at the moon though, I half expected it to spin round and a shaving foam clad Noel Fielding to start saying "Neil Armstrong, a'walking on me face....." in a sing song voice. There you go folks, The Mighty Boosh has officially ruined star gazing for me, it did make me chuckle to myself like a loser though.

I was then onwards to San Pedro Atacama, supposedly the driest place on earth, not sure if that is definitive but my fire making skills were exquisite and I usually struggle to light a match so I think there is probably something to it!

Here I booked on to a geysers (the steam spouts like on that rice advert) tour that set off at 4am, now having a nice little rum the night before is just a sociable way to mingle with the other hostel guests, rinsing a bottle of wine solo, finishing a bottle of pisco and a bottle of tequila as a team can probably be regarded as excessive. The joke started probably around half past 9 "haha let's stay up drinking till the tour starts".....brilliant, that's exactly what happened, with a salute to poppa spence every time a drink was had, log put on the fire or anything vaguely significant occurred, as it was his birthday post midnight, happy birthday fatherbear, sorry for the drunken messages and being a bad son on account of my absence! When the time hit 4 and whilst I was running around like a giddy drunk child getting my stuff together, Walt, another tour hopeful managed to upset the tour company badly enough for them to turn around and drive off immediately, without any of the tour party.....whoops. It still remains a mystery what was actually said, our memory remains a little hazy. This then led to several days of ridicule from the rest of the hostel which I found rather amusing, Walts completely sober girlfriend however did not share my attitude!

It wasn't the end of the world however as I was about to embark on a three day colossal adventure to see all sorts of bits and pieces!

I was up, dressed and ready for my tour a good hour early (learnt from previous mistakes!). We headed north into Bolivia, the immigration was a gate with a mile of desert either side (not the hardest border to cross under the radar!) and we ascended to some seriously big boy altitudes, passing mountains like you pass Greggs' in Newcastle, the first day we hit some amazing lagoons and some thermal baths, the outside temp was single digit degrees so it was a rather audacious way to warm up. We reached our hostel for the night at around 5000+m up, the temp dropped to around -10 in the night which was less than pleasant but the sunset made up for it and was definitely worth braving the cold!

The next day, after our stocky Bolivian guide had fixed the spare tyre, driving over it with the car and using a pick axe (resourceful little b***** who I wouldn't say left us brimming with confidence) we were on our way to some more lagoons with flamingos and llamas to keep us company. We then rounded an active volcano that was kicking out steam and I finally managed to experience some geysers! We then headed for our hostel near the salt flats complete with engine warning light popping up to say hello and our guide raising the bonnet at every stop. The hostel itself was primarily made of salt; chairs, tables, walls, floor, bed bases, everything!

The next day we hit the salt flats, the only was to describe this is a desert made of salt, absolutely spectacular and also very very odd, here immature photos were taken and I pulled the old nudity out of the bag, I felt it had been far too long since my pearly white bum has been draped over the Internet so decided to remedy such things! We encountered some 25+ foot cacti and a railway grave yard on our route through to Uyuni were the tour expired.

Needless to say after such hardcore conditions where the altitude well and truly kicked my arse, little sleep was had and so much awesomeness was witnessed I was ready for a good nights sleep. Me being the special kind of person I am I then proceeded to book a bloody night bus that evening up to La Paz!

As this is written I am festering in my pants enjoying a well earned (in my opinion!) day of rest, recuperating. I have so far avoided kidnap and b*****y from the banditos and am still alive I am pleased to report......touch wood!

First impressions of La Paz are positive, hopefully I will get to explore more, I have however, booked onto a mountain biking tour down 'Death Road' tomorrow so thought I ought to squeeze in a blog before I back flip off a cliff to my doom or something tomorrow!

Stay tuned for news of my survival!

Hope you enjoyed the read and this blog finds you well.

Luke. X