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Mon 5 March
5 March second time round just about! Having left New Zealand at 5.30pm we then flew for 11 hours yet arrived in Chile at 12.30pm..... on 5 March! Passing over the International Date Line has made us older than we actually are (although I guess it all works itself out with the time that we´ve lost travelling to places before this). After our long flight we were very pleased to find out airport transfer waiting for us to take us to our hostel, La Chimba. Despite having had no sleep for over 22 hours we decided to have a walk into Santiago and I have to say it was really nice to be back in a place where it felt different (Oz & NZ were quite like home but with better weather!). Having said that we soon realised that we should have learnt a bit of Spanish before we ventured to South America! We walked through an area selling really cheap clothes, sat people watching for a while, then managed to get some food in a food court (even sálmon is not pronounced like salmon!). We were told to try and get used to the time difference by not sleeping at strange hours so not wanting to go to bed too early we decided to join in with a wine tasting at our hostel. 11 bottles of wine later (shared between nine of us may I add!) we realised that Ed is a cheap date! We had to say which three we enjoyed the most and Ed picked the three cheapest!
Tues 6 March
Got up and headed out after breakfast. I thought we had slept in really late and it was late afternoon by the time we headed out, only for Ed to point out that I had my watch on UK time so I thought we were five hours ahead then we actually were! This time change thing is obviously getting to me! We had a walk to the Metrolpolitan Park where we got on the funicular railway up the San Christobal Hill to see a huge statue of the Virgin Mary. The best bit though was the view of Santiago, it made me realise what a huge city it is. Wonderful views of the dusty red Andes although it was quite hazy. We then got on a rickety old cable car which I hated! It only cost the equivalent of a pound..... I just kept wondering how they can maintain it for that price and was expecting it to fall to the ground at any point! Anyway, need less to say we did get to the other end safely so we had a walk around the park then did the same journey back and headed back to the hostel. We then went to a traditional Chilean restaurant where we had stuffed salmon and rockfish which unfortunately were nothing to write home about and not even cheap! We were really pleased to hear from a girl at the hostel that she (and three friends) were held up at gunpoint last night as they were walking home so we won´t be venturing far after dark (but then again it´s probably just as likely to happen in London anyway!).
Wed 7 March
Jetlag has set in! I couldn´t get to sleep, then when I did one of our room-mates came crashing and banging into the room at 3am and I then laid awake until 4.30am.....grrr! We walked into Santiago with a view to booking a tour or bus to visit somewhere else. After an hour and a half sat with a tour agent we eventually escaped and decided his tours were too expensive so we wouldn´t bother! Another tour company we´d contacted actually came to our hostel to see us though so we booked a three day tour with them. Although we were told the water in Santiago is safe to drink I am not so sure as I am not venturing too far away from places with toilets at the moment..... lovely! Bottled water it is from now then! The hostel is in the Bellavista area which is the bohemia of Santiago apparently. We went out for a meal and just walked a few blocks away and were amazed to find streets of restaurants, bars, shops, where some of the waiters speak English - whohoo!! Had Lomo o Pobre - fillet steak, chips and fried onions for five pounds, what a bargain (well compared to home at least).
Thurs 8 March
Laid awake until 4.30am again listening to the sounds of Santiago! Did manage a few hours of sleep in the end thankfully. We had to move hostel as La Chimba is full, so we walked to the Bellavista Hostel, not quite as nice and we are in a 12 bed dorm but it does have a rooftop terrace which will hopefully make up for it. Walked into the centre of Santiago on a mission to exchange or sell our Australia Lonely Planet (mission unaccomplished!) and wandered around aimlessly just taking in the sites and sounds of the city. In the evening we made the most of the roof terrace and shared a few beers with some fellow travellers. We also managed to cook something ourselves (tuna pasta, how exciting) which is the first time since Australia I think!
Fri 9 March
Three hours sleep, I think I need sleeping tablets! We were collected at 9am by a tour company, Patacam Experience, for our wine tour of the Aconcagua Valley (well, we couldn´t come to Chile without going on a proper wine tasting could we?). It took nearly two hours to drive to the first vineyard, I saw some of the beautiful scenery but also managed to catch up on a bit of sleep despite the minibus appearing not to have any suspension! Sanchez de Loria vineyard is a small family owned business which has been around since 1890 and is one of the oldest vineyards in the area. We saw the area where the wine is made (huge oak barrels) then tasted some of their wines which were all very nice. After that we drove to the colonial town of San Felipe where we had a quick look around the town square and at the church which is one of the oldest in the area as it has somehow survived several large earthquakes. We then had lunch at a restaurant in Almerzo where we had the choice of chicken or rabbit, we both chose chicken but did try the rabbit which was a bit like very chewy chicken! We then visited the San Esteban vineyard, a much larger commercial set up although there cheapest wine was still only the equivalent of 1.90 pounds. We then went to Cerámica Manque where we met the local potter ´Condor´ who showed us how to throw a pot, a few people on the tour had a go and made a big mess of it! We then drove back to Santiago. A long but very enjoyable day.
Sat 10 Feb
I actually got a decent nights sleep at long last, hooray! We were up and ready to go by 9.30am when we were collected by another tour company (www.pachamamabybus.com) for a three day tour north of Santiago. It was a massive 470km drive to our first stop at La Serena, although we had a two hour stop for lunch at a small fishing town called Pichidangai. We had a walk along the beach where the sand was golden, literally! There were gold flecks in the sand but our guide did explain that it is not real gold so we didn´t bother stealing any! We then continued the journey to La Serena, Chile´s second oldest city, founded in 1544. Unfortunately we didn´t have time to walk around the town so we had a walk along the beach. We then drove to our hostel in Vicuña, which is at the end of the Elqui Valley. There were only two other people on the tour, Sabine (German) and Jeanette (Canadian), and our guide, Jorge and our driver Rodrigo but it was pretty cosy all sharing the same room at the hostel! In the evening we went on a tour of the Mamalluca Observatory, a short drive up into the nearby mountains. Chile apparently has the clearest skies in the world and they definitely didn´t disappoint tonight. We stood ourside first and the guide pointed out Venus and a few star constellations, then we had a look through a telescope at some star clusters and the Milky Way. We then went inside and looked through a much bigger, stronger telescope - we saw Saturn and it was so clear it looked unreal! It was amazing to see and I will be having a look at the website they showed us when I get back (www.starrynight.com), just call me Patrick Moore from now on (I have become fascinated by the sky!). We eventually got back to Vicuña at 11.30pm and went out for dinner! After the meal we went to a club called Club Kharma - there were about 10 locals in there, a few salsa dancing so of course we fitted right in! After a few Pisco Sours, Jose managed to drag us all up for a dance. By the time we left at 3.30am it was rocking - there must have been 30 people in there!
Sun 11 March
We all had a lazy morning after our busy day and late night yesterday. We drove to a town called Monte Grande, a bit of a shrine to Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean woman who won the first ever Nobel Prize. We then drove to Pisco Elqui where we had a walk around a small artisan market and heard about it´s ´special´powers! Apparently a lot of people who live there, live to 100 or more. As if that isn´t exciting enough, there have also been several UFO sightings, apparently one in 1992 was even confirmed by the Government. Even the toilet signs in the restaurant we went to were alien figures! We then spent the afternoon horseriding in the Elqui Valley. We got to choose our horses, I chose Carisal who I was told was ´soft´which I learnt actually meant lazy! Jorge told us we had to act and feel like cowboys and not be afraid of the horses so off we headed up a great big hill all thinking we were Clint Eastwood! The scenery was absolutely spectacular, red, dusty desert covered in thousands of cacti. We got to the top of the hill and had the most amazing view of the valley below. We were then told that we were going to ride down the very steep side of the hill in front of us. It was actually a lot easier than it looked, we just sat back and let the horses do the work! When we got down Jose told us that they only let around 50% of people who do the tour ride down the hill, it all depends on how well they have handled their horses up to that point, so we can´t have done too badly. We got back to the town, had a well deserved jug of fruit juice then went to the local Capel Distillery, one of the local Pisco makers. We had a look around the distillery then tried some of the Pisco drinks, most of which were disgusting!
Mon 12 March
We left the hostel at 8.30am and drove to the Fray Jorge National Park. It is a unique place in Chile as it has a rainforest in the middle of the desert, caused by the coastal fog getting trapped by the leaves and moss then dripping onto the ground making it wet enough to support rainforest plants and evergreen trees. We had a couple of short walks around the park - we saw an owl, horses, donkeys and goats so nothing too out of the ordinary! We then drove back to Santiago, with a brief stop for coffee and an empanada (local deep fried pastie type dish), arriving back into Santiago in the madness of rush hour - how I have missed things like that!
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