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Well here we go final blog from South America!! I wipe the tears from my eyes. I have to say I have had the time of my life. What an amazing country. From dancing in the streets to driving through bumpy roads for hours on end this has been the experience of all experiences! And one of the most amazing places I have ever seen.......the salt flats........
4 jeeps picked us up, again in the early hours (you get used to the guide saying up at 6am in this place) and off we set for a 3 day trip over to the salt flats. When told to cover our eyes for 15 minutes for a part of the drive, all thought 'okay this is where we get robbed' but it was to show the full extent of the salt flats. White white white, apparently they go on 12,000km wow!! Saw how the families package it up for resale and spent hours mucking around with cameras getting perspective shots. Check out the pringles tub (we also bought a pack of dinosaurs/dragons but these didnt work so well). We stayed the first night in a hotel made of salt. We had 2 hours of electricity so early night was had by all. Well, unless they were kept awake by me and my roomie playing finger puppets of the llama that spat at one of group. This had us in hysterics for quite a while!! hee hee.
We all knew the second day was going to be quite a rough ride, but 8 hours of being bumped around is not fun. Although I have to say the beautiful scenery was well worth it. Shame we had a driver who was a bit reckless and kept deciding to go off on his own route. This probably isnt the most sensible thing to do as if we broke down we would be stuck in the middle of the dessert. One of our group complained and then we spent the whole journey feeling bad cos we had got him into trouble. Saw the rock that Salvador Dali painted in one of his pictures. You could actually see the inspiration he would have got for a lot of his work. Saw a bright green and a bright red lake with flamingoes and then went to stay for our second night. Here we were told to get into our swimming costumes and then put over about 5 layers of clothes and sleep in these. The reason why, minus 15 degree temperatures and a wake up call of 4am!!! mmnnn great. All pulled ourselves out of bed and heading off to see the geysers. Shooting steam coming up from the ground and bubbling mud everywhere. Looked like something you'd see on the moon (not that I'd know). Then off to the hot springs we go. Just about managed to pull off the layers and run to the pool which was amazing, could have sat there all day!!
We then crossed the border for our last part of the trip Chilli. Must admit had only put Chilli on my route as it would take me down to Santiago for Oz. Glad I did as the place is warm, clean and really friendly. Men adore the foreign girls and in all places you just had to walk down the street and men would stop and go wow or try and talk to you. So good for the self confidence!! Started off in San Pedro, which is very much a tourist place where you can hire bikes, do sand boarding etc. Chilled here for a couple of days which was lovely. even bunked into another hotels swimming pool for the day. The highlight of this place, I must say was the observatory. Drove out to a house in the middle of nowhere to this amazing house. We all grouped round in what can only be described as their living room, although there was a hole in the top of the house with a massage hammock that you could imagine laying in just gazing up at the sky. A French guy of about 50 introduced himself and we all went outside to listen of stories of different star formations. We all agreed that if this man was a teacher at your school you would be a very lucky pupil as the way he desribed things were humorous and informative. We then looked through about 10 different telescopes in his garden and got to see Jupiter, amongst other things. Apparently all stars are suns and a shooting star isnt a star it is a rock falling from the sky about 3cm wide. So there you go. Over hot chocolate back in the house, I asked him about UFO's and he believes that there is definitely other life forms out there, but doesn't believe things appear in the sky and kidnap people and put them back. Totally amazing experience.
Finishing off in La Serena and then on to Santiago. Did the usual sight seeing things, like the Christ on the hill etc. However did decide to go to the vineyard one day (what an educated lady I am). It was apparently the tenth largest vineyard int he world. I do have to say that I recgonise the label, Concha y Torro. Saw one of the oldest wine cellars, where the owner was so tired of getting his wine stolen so he told the village that the place was haunted by the devil. The wine is now called cellar of the devil (cant remember the spanish translation, but it is sold in England). We then tried the different wines and had cheese platters and managed to become extras in a tv programme. Well, it was only the back of our heads while we sat at the bar drinking wine but it did mean they gave us free wine for the privilage. From here we went out eating and drinking and some of the guys had to carry our guide back to his room while he was kicking and trying to climb out of the window.
And here it was and is goodbye from South America. An 18 hour flight and here I am in Sydney. Off to Byron Bay tonight and then off to catch up with Chezza in Brisbane.
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