Greetings from Santiago!! We`ve been in Chile for the last few days now, travelling from San Pedro de Atacama in the north at the end of our Salar de Uyuni trip to Valaparaiso on the coast near Santiago, and now here, just in time for our trip south, which starts tomorrow. So far Chile is hurting the wallet compared to the cost of living in Bolivia (and we still can´t believe we missed out on all the political unrest by a matter of days, gutted) but all three places have been brilliant in different ways. San Pedro is an oasis in the driest desert in the world. After spending the first night by an open fire and drinking beer and mango sours, we visited the Valley of the Moon, walking through weird rock formations that were cracking in the heat and up to the top of some dunes for a gorgeous sunset. Then onto an observatory to make the most of some of the clearest skies in the southern hemisphere to look at the stars a bit better. By the time we reached Valparasio more than 24 hours later (on the bus) later, we were desperate to be back at sea level. After three weeks at altitude the novelty of being able to take full lungfuls of air, climb stairs and even turn over in bed without getting out of breath took a while to sink in. We spent our time watching the port from various bar locations and trying out the seafood, including locos, the local abalones.After that Santiago was a shock - so many people, all rushing round with a purpose - while we were trying to get to grips with it all. But once we left behind the centre and found the Barrio Bellavista, one of the more bohemian, studenty areas it was a lot more fun and we even managed to find Chris a middle eastern restaurant so he could fulfil a longstanding hummus craving. Tomorrow we join our trip and start the journey south towards Tierra del Fuego. Christmas will be in Pucon, under the shadow of a live volcano, crossing to El Calafate in Argentina for New Year. Happy Christmas!!Laura & Chris