Santiago

We landed in Santiago on the 22nd April after a surprisingly good flight with LAN. Mention must go to the Singapore Armstrong's for taking us in for my collarbone to heal, otherwise the continent of South America may not have even been reached on the trip!

Landing in Santiago and getting off the plane we immediately felt the cold. Our bodies for the past 5 months travel through India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia (shorter than expected), Singapore (recuperating at the Armstrong's) and Australia had become accustomed to tropical temperatures!

One thing we were thankful of is the visa arrangements of the South American Countries. These arrangements are reciprocal in nature. The UK does not charge any person from South America to enter the country, so we ourselves do not get charged when entering a South American Country. However if you are North American you have to think twice about travelling to South American Countries with visas ranging from $110 to $400!! Luckily Sarah took her British Test!

Our Journey to our hostel was painless. Monday we designated our shopping day. Our main priorities were shoes and extra layers. Shoes quickly became priority number one as we were getting funny looks walking the streets of Santiago in flip flops. The next day prepared for the somewhat cooler conditions we took a train up San Cristobal Hill. The views of the city below were okay but seeing any further was impossible as Santiago itself is completely shrouded in fog. Being Sarah and I´s first time in S. America I think we had expected a little more, but really Santiago is just like any other European City.

Valparaiso

Valparaiso is our first real introduction to S. America I feel somewhere quite different from anywhere else we have been it is built on 43 hills and all the houses are different colours.

Next stop was Valparaiso. The Santiago bus terminal was completely civilized compared to those of India, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and Laos. We had pre-booked a hostel as compared with S.E Asia hostels seem to be spread all over town with no clustering so it is difficult to rock up and wonder around to find a good price. Our hostel took about 1 hour to walk to as it was right up in the hills, walking through Chilean ghettos we realised the main priority for the next day was to find a new hostel! After finding a new hostel we accidentally stumbled upon a free walking tour where we met some fellow travellers and learnt a fair bit about Valparaiso. One of the things we had learnt on the tour was where not to venture in the city; this was exactly where our previous hostel was located! That evening we went for dinner with a Dutch/Czech couple; Max and Jana whom we had met on the tour. One of Chile´s main dishes is Bife Pobre (poor man´s steak) this consists of chips, fried onions and steak with an egg on top, which suits me down to the ground. We then went to some local bars (where there were no other gringos) and drank beer and Terramoto (wine in a jug with pineapple ice cream on top, sounds worse than it tastes!). Despite Max and Jana wanting to go early somewhere the next day we were out till 4am.

La Serena/Pisco Elqui

We waited 10 hours for a bus at Valparaiso to go to La Serena! We arrived at 5am and had booked a hostel knowing we would have to wait the two hours till it opened at 7am to get in! It was so cold and after what felt like a year we made our way up to the hostel from the bus station where we had been waiting out the two hours, only to realize the clocks had changed and we had to wait another hour to get into the hostel!

After one night in La Serena we decided to go to Pisco Elqui a small village in the valley. In Pisco we went to an Observatory as this part of Chile is famous for the night skies. We saw Mars, Saturn, open clusters, closed clusters and a few constellations. We also climbed Elqui hill and took some sun downers at the local Pisco distillery. After a few piscos Sarah and Jesper (our Danish friend) were pretty tipsy.

San Pedro/Calama

After a short stay in Pisco we headed to San Pedro de Atacama. We got a bus to Calama with the intention of picking up a connection there. We picked up a cheap lunch menu, for a set price you get soup, a main and a pudding for around £1. After lunch we found a bus company Atacama buses and purchased a ticket. The bus station was completely empty but as soon as the bus pulled in a rabble of people appeared. Not concentrating and being pretty lax my day sack was pinched while at Sarah's feet! I ran around the block and people were telling me which way they had seen them go but it was in vain!!! We also missed the bus to add insult to injury!! I started to recount what was in my daysack:

• Diary of six months (hence long delay between blogs and no Australia blog)

• Head torch

• Penknife

• Vaccination certificates

• Alison's old iPod and headphones

• James Clavells Noble House (I had been lugging this monster around for a while and only had 100 pages left out of 1400!!)

• Chile Guidebook
• Cards & card game book

On the one hand I was very pissed off and upset at myself for being so relaxed, as in Asia we were far more cautious! But in these situations you have to look at the positives: Sarah's daysack contained the passports, camera and laptop. After a few hours and a few beers down I let it go. Maybe the relaxed attitude had carried on from our time in Australia or because we know Chile is the most economically developed country in S. America.

San Pedro a town in the middle of the desert right on the Bolivian boarder. It is very touristy as most people come here to cross the border into Bolivia on a 4x4 Salar de Uyuni tour (salt flats tour). We also met Nicolas a German guy who we had met at the observatory in Elqui, so we all decided to do the border crossing together. Booking a trip is much like doing a lucky dip on the lottery. You can do all your research but many people have complained of 4x4 drivers eating there food, being drunk driving them around the desert and of leaving people behind!!

Anyway we booked wit Estrella Del sur and had a fine trip. Our guide was a toothless Bolivian with a big bushy tash called Pedro and he was okay. We had really good group which makes a difference on such trips. A group can make or break the trip. You don't want to be stuck with O.A.P (some were sited during the tour), hippies or certain nationalities!! We actually ended up with a british couple from Wimbeldon who coincidently are friends with Sarahs older sister! Small world! The scenery on the trip was amazing lots of different coloured lagunas, the desert for miles around and snow-capped volcanos jutting out of the deserty landscape. All rounded off by bright blue sky. We also visited some geysers and hot springs along the way. Next stop Bolivia.