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Santiago - Valparaiso - La Serena - San Pedro
After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived in the bohemian coastal city of Valpy. This city was once the capital of Chile and now it is the alternative, grafitti, stray dog capital of Chile. The buildings are often covered in corrugated iron sheets to protect from weathering and are perched precariously on the very steep banks. The buildings are full of cracks from prior earthquake damage and look like they will collapse any minute. They are being held together by spraypaint. Grafitti is everywhere, but its not the asbo "jez woz ere" grafitti, its very artistic and is allowed, even encouraged. The city is also full of funicular's. These are like cable cars on wheels that are used to transport lazy people up the steep slopes of the city. They are very old and rickety, but have been functioning without alterations for the last 100 years. We spent the first 2 days in our hostel waiting for the rain to stop. Our hostel owner said it was the worst rain he had ever seen for that time of year. The next day the temperature had increased by about 20 degrees. We did a walking tour of the city and despite being followed by stray and aggressive dogs, we learned loads about this peculiar city and world heritage site. We have had our hostel to ourselves in the evenings, so have enjoyed cooking our own dinner for a change. We would shop at the market stalls for food and stop at the nearby wine shop and ask the chatty shop keeper to choose a bottle of wine for us for about £2.50. He always made a good choice (whilst informing us how crap England will be in the World cup).
Eight hours on a bus later we arrived in La Serena. Not really sure why we stopped here, other than it was recommended in lonely planet. This small coastal city is very attractive, clean and has lots of old churches. The sea here was not very inviting, so we ventured inland to the very small towns that are known for producing pisco (the local fruity alcoholic drink), and offering star gazing tours. These towns are tiny and surrounded by barren desert. We did some nice walking here and enjoyed some quiet, something we have been starved of for the last 4 months. The night time temperature often drops below 0 and in the day it gets quite hot, so we often go out wearing ALL our summer clothes then spend the day removing and adding layers. We don't have winter clothes, so have improvised by wearing all our clothes at once plus I use my towel as a scarf and socks as gloves. Shelly also bought a hot water bottle and we both bought slippers.
Eating out in Chile, we have found that lunch is their main meal and many restaurants close in the evening. We have found the food to be quite simple without much flavor. In the evenings we have often just eaten cereal. Its also not easy to eat healthy food with many restaurants just offering pizza, chips, completos and burgers. When ordering coffee you are given a sachet of nescafe and some water. To compensate for their lame coffee, they introduced coffee bars called coffee with legs. The waitresses wear mini skirts and the customer is too distracted (or doesn't care) to notice what he's drinking. From a cultural perspective, I felt it important to sample some of this coffee, but wasn't allowed.
We left Serena via 18 hours on a bus. We have been very impressed with the buses in Chile. The seats recline almost into beds and they have toilets. We've had little problem sleeping on them. We arrived into San Pedro de Atacama. This is our last stop in Chile. This small town is again in the middle of desert, but its much higher up at 2500m. This is to be the beginning of several weeks at very high altitude. Snow capped mountains are everywhere and the night temperature is even lower. We ended up staying in the worst accommodation of the trip so far. It was the party hostal of San Pedro and felt like a crowded noisy student house on new years eve. No heating either which has so far been standard in this freezing country. We used our time here to plan our border crossing into nearby Bolivia.
We spent 2 weeks in Chile. This is less then we had hoped, largely due to the high cost of everything and the season. Being almost winter we couldn't see the glaciers in the south, so had to venture north. However, it has been a great introduction to South America. The language barrier has not phased Shelly, who has been effortlessly doing all the talking. I just stand behind her nodding to everything she says and hoping I don't get spoken to. You really need a minimum of basic Spanish to survive here. We have also found the Chilean's to be very helpful and friendly. Hope Bolivians are as nice.
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