Moon river

We took a trip to the lunar valley! This trip consisted of a few different stops, the first offering views over the atacama desert, the driest desert in the world according to humidity levels rather than rainfall!

Salar Atacama

Katie on a big rock

The second point of interest was death valley, so named because no life has been recorded there! We walked along the top of the valley before reaching the top of a huge sand dune, and being the I know better type, I didn't take of my shoes and socks for the run down the hill. by the bottom of the first dune I had half of atacama in my boots, but with some bigger jumps down the second dune I reached the bottom with only two thirds of the desert squirting my feet.
From death valley we were taken into the lunar valley national park, the park takes it's name from it's lands likeness to the surface of the moon. Our first stop here was at the salt mountains, the guide hushed us all, and in our silence we could hear the contraction of the salt as the mountains cooled from the days heat. We could also see crystals of salt in the rock!

The Salt Mountains

After a small walk we where back in the bus and on route to our final stop, a hill overlooking a large canyon, and a vantage point of the setting sun! The colours where fantastic, all sorts of reds, yellows, oranges and browns.

Top of a sand dune

The Ampitheatre

The moon rising above the Lunar Valley

Considering this was our cheapest trip, it was certainly value for money!

Starry starry night

On Saturday night we made our first outing from San Pedro de Atacama, a small 8km bus ride took us out to the edge of the desert, and onto a ranch! Only this ranch was slightly different, instead of animals and crops, the surrounding fields were filled with bright white domes, and the garden infront of the ranch contained 10 telescopes!

When we climbed off the bus we were greeted by loss an eccentric Canadian astronomer. the first part of the night involved an explanation of the night sky, both past and present! Loss pointed out the southern cross, and the amazingly bright Jupiter, and he then proceeded to point out the constellations of the zodiac with an industrial strength laser pointer!

After the mini astronomy and astrology lecture, we moved onto the lawn containing the telescopes, one pointing at Jupiter, on which we could see its moons. One trained closely on the moons surface, and another showing the whole of the moon! The remaining six telescopes where showing a number of star clusters, tarantula nebulous, both of the Magellan nebulous, and the brightest star in the night sky Sirius, this glowed a vibrant blue colour! As a close to the evening a French guy joined us to aid with the taking photos of the moon through one of the telescopes!

Once the outside things where completed, we moved indoors and drank hot chocolate were Loss explained about different projects the site is involved with, one being ELMER the second most expensive science project, behind the LHC at CERN!

Chile fact: the south pole is 23 degrees above the horizon when viewed from chile!

Under my big favela

In our previous blog I said about drinking terremotas as one of our remaining aims for Santiago. that, however did not happen as the times we attempted to go to the specialised bar it was closed. In the mean time, southern chile was hit by a real life terremota (earthquake) on the Sunday, fortunately no damage was done!

We left Santiago for valparaiso, or affectionately known as valpo, with all the promise of parties and beaches. We arrived and were found to be a little disappointed. the nearest beach was a good 20min walk, and not all that nice. We did, however, find a cool little indie bar showing music videos of Glastonbury highlights! Valpo itself was a real ramshackle place, no real order, and the whole thing seemingly thrown together, and painted in whatever colour was going cheap. From the beach the town looked like a huge favela climbing the hills overlooking the port!

We took a day trip to the nearby viña del mar, a much nicer, and a more true seaside resort! Mile upon mile of beach, with a nice artesian Market running in the prom!

From valpo we travelled north to la sereña, again with the promise of a beach, and it did deliver a hugely impressive stretch of sand covering the 10km of coast between la sereña and coquimbo! The only let down was again the 20+ minute walk to the beach, this was for safety as the land in between the coast and town was like no mans land in the event of a tsunami! Another strange thing about la sereña is the weather, every morning you wake up and it's cloudy then around 2 o'clock the temperature noticeably rises, and at the latest 4 o'clock and we have glorious sun! And our hostels balcony offered some amazing views of it setting!

One of the highlights of the stay in la sereña was a visit to the archaeological museum which homes one of the moai men from Easter island!

The Moai Man

Coquimbo has a large port and a large concrete cross, which towers above the town, but the main draw from the street signs appears to be a football stadium that hosted a world cup match In 1962! The port in comquimbo has a large fish Market selling some obscure seafood, including piure, some sort of coral, it didn't look all that appetising. As per punta del este we saw some sealions in the port, but this time instead of battling seagulls, they had pelicans to contend with!

Pelicans, and Sea Lions

The Big Cross

Currently we are in San Pedro de Atacama, having made the 16hour bus journey. The weather here is lovely and warm in the day and dropping into minus at night! We have a few trips lined up here but they can have some airtime of their own once we have done them!

Inactive Volcano in the Atacama Desert

Chile fact: chile is the worlds largest exporter of copper!

Pisco sours

Now tomorrow is our last day in Santiago, 13 nights here and my how they have flown!

After leaving pucon and the volcano (copyrighted band name!), we travelled to a small town by the name of chillán, with no notable sights or sounds, except for it being the birth place of Bernardo o'higgins the man who led chile to independence! It also in the past has been bruised, battered and destroyed by earthquakes, so the buildings in the town aren't very tall! We spent our time in Chillán, fighting our way through Christmas shoppers, and hard sell PR people for restaurants in the central market!

We travelled to Santiago on 21st December, to stay for just about 2 week over Christmas! Prior to Christmas we went on a free walking tour of the city (highly recommend these tours, they do them in lots of European cities) this tour showed us the important sights, and Plaza de Armas, the square around which Santiago was built! Also in the now centre of the city, there is a park built on a hill, that divides the old from the new, this park was initially a big rock that was just in the way until some local farmers planted grass and trees on it!

As well as the walking tour we visited Cerro San Cristobel, a monument ribeye virgin Mary, seated some 200m above the city! This gave us a huge panoramic view of the city, and it was only then we realised the extent of the city and how small a percent we would get to see!

New years eve we spent eating a traditional Chilean meal, with the owners of the hostel, which also included pisco sours, and Champagne! From the balcony of the hostel we where able to watch the 20+minute firework display in La Moneda (the presidential offices). We had planned on venturing out to the square but upon seeing the crowds on tv we were glad we hadn't!

In Santiago there is a huge shopping centre, that we were forced to visit! But that story is for another time! The reason I mention the shopping centre is because of the music in Santiago, nowhere else in the world, when walking into a department store have I heard Good Enough by Dodgy, followed by pulp followed by every imaginable Mid 90s Brit Pop band, it's ace!

Now, for our last day we plan to visit the pre-colombian art museum, showing work by the mapucho Indians. We also need to buy our bit of tack! And our finally task is to drink terremote, a local cocktail in which pineapple ice cream is a major ingredient! Terremote means earthquake and the drink is called so because the first time you stand after drinking the cocktail, the floor feels like it is moving like during an earthquake! Will update you on the effects next time!

The only downside to Santiago, has been the people! Surprisingly car drivers are Well mannered and follow the rules of the road, and stop at zebra crossings and green men! However pedestrians are horrendous, three people walking towards me I have to step onto the road so they can stay Side by side, I'm penned in against a wall with nowhere to go they walk into you, at one point we saw a lady shouting at a man who clipped her heels with his bright red blind mans stick! It's unbelievable!

And finally how could I forget about Cafe Haiti or coffee with legs as it is affectionately known. About 20 years ago Chile did not import any coffee, and the home grown stuff was pretty dire, so a upcoming business man saw a hole in the Market and an incentive for folk, mainly men, to drink coffee! They opened a cafe with blacked out windows, and a long high table with no seats, he employed only good looking women, who served the coffee and flirted with the clientele, wearing only a bikini! If that isn't enough a number of times a day happy minute was called, the door locked and the "waitresses" shed the bikinis! These days there are cafe Haiti in all the business districts and both men and women are found there, they also serve the best coffee from around south America, and the girls now wear a dress that is exceptionally short, and shows off their legs, hence the brand name of "coffee with legs"

Chile fact: There are more than 2,000 volcanoes in Chile, of which 50 are actually active.