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Thea and Lizzie's travels
So after being stuck on a plane for over 12 hours we find ourselves in Santiago, slightly different to New Zealand! We stayed at a ¨"hotel" and I use that term very loosely called Hotel Noveau and it was far from new!! It was an interesting place our room failed to have ceiling and it would seem that although there were many loos people still felt the urged to s*** in the shower- not impressed! So we got to Santiago at four in the afternoon and in an attempt to combat jet lag we went for a really good Mexican meal and managed to stay up till a respectable hour. This great plan however backfired badly as we slept through until 3.30pm the following day- quite impressive I thought, though in our defence we had been up for 28 hours! Santiago itself is a gentle start to South America as it has a very Mediterranean feel to it. It had some beautiful architecture and the plazas were pleasant to chill in; however this was all Santiago really had to offer and after a few days we were more than ready to move on. Oh but I should say that the walk up Santa Lucia was amazing- it's a man made hill in the centre of Santiago and was really beautiful and produced some great views and the museum was also good so not all bad! We soon became aware of three things very early on, one: it is so expensive, drinking is the same as home, two: and this annoyed me (lizzie) a lot there is no decent food its all fast food hot dog things, three: they have absolutely ridiculous horns/ sirens that quite literally go through every possible noise from the normal to the bazaar!
Ok so from Santiago we headed to La Serena in the morning and we were lucky we even got there seeing as we slept through the alarm and woke up half an hour before the bus was meant to leave- panic would be an understatement! Seriously cant explain how messed up our sleeping was at this time still! The ride to La Serena was beautiful, five minutes out of Santiago and you are in the mountains. Plus there were loads of cacti everywhere! We arrived at 6pm and went straight to a hostel we had picked out called Maria's Casa. Slight problem of there being no room and no room in most other hostels but luckily they said we could sleep on the sofas! Oh and when I say sofa I mean Thea got the sofa and I had the chair! La Serena was a really pleasant place and the hostel we stayed at was so nice Maria was the perfect aunt- as the guidebook states; she made us tea and toast after our night on the chairs/sofas. We also found a great café- becoming a recurring feature, where they made us fresh scones so good!! It was also in La Serena that we met two English boys one of whom was an interesting character who played polo with Prince William and well lets just say he thought rather a lot of himself plus was very friendly with his cousin!! The other was actually really funny and had a mutual friend that I knew which was strange but cool. We also met two English girls Lottie and Sophie and the six of us all travelled up to San Pedro De Atacama. So after a 16 hour bus ride we make it to the middle of nowhere, the drive was the best yet just miles of desert plus the bus was so comfortable we were lost in the seats!! We all stayed at the same hostel, which seemed really nice! The boys and us went horse riding that day for a couple of hours which was so much fun. We were quite literally in the middle of nowhere surrounded by some classic composite cone volcanoes, which got Thea all excited!!! That evening we "hit the town'"!!! Thea and I had a s***ty meal but had a good night with the girls, I, Lizzie meet a local called Christen and managed to successfully make a tit of myself when he tried to teach me the salsa but he didn't completely disown me so I couldn't have been that bad!! However, it started to go down hill when we had twenty pounds in pesos nicked by the waiter and then when we got back to the hostel Carlos thought it was the perfect time for a in deep political chat - not the best when pissed! Carlos was a forty-year-old guy who lived at the hostel who spent more time pissed than sober and like to slag most people off! Oh and we soon found out that my door didn't work so Thea and I had to crash together- comfortable, seems to get into my room you had to use the window- very funny when people were drunk!!! The following day we both woke up with dodge bellies! At least we went one-week sound! We did very little that day, as still not sleeping, granted the night out might not have helped! That night we went to look at the stars with Lottie and two English people we had met- Shawn and Louise. It was so cool, we spent three hours outside, learning about the stars and how it all works, and the telescopes were amazing and it was so interesting. Plus the guy was really good, a French man that was so enthusiastic and made the evening so good! The next day things started to go down hill, I felt minging and Lottie had really hurt her back, we took her to the hospital and after a rather large injection in the bum she was still no better. We had planned to do a tour to Bolivia for Saturday but had to cancel. Saturday was spent doing little, I was in bed for most of it and Thea and Sophie tried to help Lottie but it soon became clear that she was not going to make the tour, so the three of us left standing were planning on going the following day. That one again failed as my belly took a turn for the worse!! But Sophie still went; seriously thought the tour was never going to happen! However on Monday Thea and I managed to get and go, but you will have to wait till the next post card to hear the antics from that!! Should just tell you a little bit about San Pedro, basically it was the as close to the Bolivia boarder as possible and was the place where most people saw the desert etc, as such it was really touristy. But the people we met there were really nice and as it was such a small place you soon got to know the locals. It was really interesting to chat to them about it all, as many were young and so work in places like San Pedro for a few years to earn some good money and then settle somewhere else. Also though such a small place it was party, party, all day was "happy hour"!! Shame the drinks were as expensive as home! Though it was so intense with travellers it was an amazing setting and was fun!! Hope all is well at home and you are all well, take care love us xxxxx
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