Chile

Hola!

Since our last post we have travelled from the northern part of Chile to Santiago.  After San Pedro de Atacama, we took the bus to two beach towns: Caldera and Bahia Inglesa.  I think we found about the only hostel in Caldera and were lucky that we drove past it on the way into town.  It was a really cool little fishing town with many different coloured boats in the harbour and a great fish market with fresh seafood and ceviche (which fortunately did not make us sick!)

Caldera

Right outside the fish market in Caldera - waiting for some scraps perhaps?

Bahia Inglesa was about 5 km away and had a very different feel.  There was a beautiful white sand beach to relax on and look out at the turquoise coloured water.  The town was pretty dead at this time of year but it was nice to have the beach almost to ourselves.

Our next stop was La Serena.  The city is right beside the Elqui Valley and is world-renowned for its observatories and stargazing.  We went to the Mamalluca observatory and were able to see some of those things missing from Northern night-time skies like the Southern Cross.  We were also able to see nebulas, the milky way, and Jupiter.

We also did a tour of the Elqui valley for some pisco tasting.  We tried one pisco that was 70% alcohol and left our throats very angry.  The mango sours that followed (only for little girls as we were told) were much more appealing.  During our tour we had lunch in a restaurant that uses solar ovens to cook all of its food.  We may have to build one for ourselves as the meat was unbelievably tender and delicious!

Solar Ovens in the Elqui Valley

After La Serena we arrived in Valparaiso and we loved the city.  We stayed in a great hostel (Casa Verde Limon) that had some circus elements to it such as a trapeze.  It was so interesting to wander the streets in Valpo and see all of the graffiti and different coloured houses.  It was quite the bohemian wonderland.  We also visited the nearby beach resort town of Vina del Mar.  It was a beautiful place too but had more of a European feel to it.  Interestingly, we read that Valparaiso can be dangerous but were later told by a Chilean that all of the pick-pocketers from Valpo go to Vina del Mar during the day because that is where all the money is!

Our last stop in Chile is Santiago and we have been enjoying the city for the past couple days.  We did a walking tour of the city and were lucky enough to be here on a Sunday when many of the museums are free.  The most interesting one that we went to was the museum of human rights which focuses on Chile from 1973 to 1990.

Tomorrow we are off to Mendoza for some (and by some...I mean a LOT) of wine-tasting!
 

Salar de Uyuni

Hello again!

We have arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile after a 3 day tour from Uyuni.  There a lot of mixed reports from other travellers on their tours in this area but we were pleasantly suprised with ours.  Our first day we went to the Salar de Uyuni (we could not wait to try our luck at taking some of those infamous salt flat photos) and Incahuasi Island.  It was such an incredible place with white salt stretching out to the horizon against a bright blue sky.  At the end of the day we stayed in a hotel made of salt which was also quite interesting.

Train Graveyard

Salt Hostal

Our second day we explored some areas around volcanoes, visited different coloured lagoons filled with hundreds of flamingos, and saw the Arbol de Piedra.  It was amazing how much the landscape could change within an hour of driving! Our second night we stayed in a freezing hostel with stone beds.  We had heard from a number of people that this night would be freezing so we opted to rent sleeping bags in Uyuni and I would say that it was the best 30 bolivianos I have ever spent.  If you go on this tour, I also suggest bringing some of the foot warmers you buy at ski resorts.  They were perfect at the bottom of the sleeping bag and kept my feet nice and warm!

Arbol de Piedra

Our cold stone hostel

Our last day on the tour we visited some geysers, laguna verde, and went to some hot springs.  I had confirmed with our guide that there would be a place to change at the hot springs but to my surprise, there was no such place.  It was quite the experience trying to shimmy into my bathing suit while Adam covered me with his jacket...

Yesterday in San Pedro de Atacama we met up with some friends from sucre and we all tried sandboarding in the death valley.  After getting our two wheel drive van stuck in the sand for quite some time, our group effort finally paid off and we were on our way to the big dune.  It was quite the experience and we are stilling finding sand everywhere!  After sandboarding we went to the valle de la luna to watch the sunset with some pisco sours before exploring some salt caves.  

Valle de la Luna

We are leaving San Pedro today to hit some beach towns further south before heading to La Serena.

A few more notes on Sucre in Bolivia: they have the best chorizo sandwiches you could ever imagine in the central market.  You must go to the stand 7 de lunares if you are in town.  They also have great juice and fruit salad stands with some exotic and delicious fruit (Try the starfruit juice with milk!).  We also went to see a Bolivian folklore and dance show called Origenes here that we would highly recommend.  In true Hunter sister fashion I was pulled on stage at the end of the show to dance...

Bolivia So Far

So it has been a while since our last post, but we have been busy.  We have made our way through Puno, Copacabana, La Paz, Cochabamba, and have just arrived in Sucre.

In Puno, we took a ferry out to the floating Uros Islands made of reeds on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. We saw the houses of some of the locals and learned how the islands are built and maintained.  some of it felt a little bit hokey and perhaps exploitative of the people but it was still interesting to see.

Puno itself was not a very exciting city so we only stayed a couple of nights before heading to Copacabana in Bolivia.  From here, we visited the Isla del Sol - thought by some to be the birthplace of the Sun and the first Incas.

So close to the clouds you could almost touch them

Copacabana was a fun place to relax and take in the sunny weather.  It was a nice little beach town and a good place to start our travels in Bolivia.  Our only complaint was the army of ants in our hostel - fortunately no bites were found.  After Copacabana, we took a bus/surprise ferry to La Paz.  After driving through El Alto, we began to descend into the city and the views were incredible.

Our favorite snack: Tucumanas on the Prado.  50 cents for an amazing lunch!

Valley of the Moon outside La Paz  (Mom- turns out the reports of muggings were exagerrated )

We found La Paz to be quite interesting, especially the midnight parades outside of our window with ear splitting firecrackers and drums galore.  

After a few nights in la Paz, we made our way to Cochabamba - home of the biggest Jesus statue in South America.  It is slightly taller than the Christ the Redeemer in Rio as that statue was built to a height of 33 m representing the 33 years of Christ´s life. Cochabamba reasoned that he lived for 33 years and a bit so it was necessary to build their own statue just a little bit taller. Another highlight of cochabamba was the 15 cent popsicles and summer weather.

The half order of beef at Casa de Campo in Cochabamba.  It was difficult to walk after...

after 1200 steps to the Jesus statue...turns out bags of water are cheaper than bottles.

Plaza Colon filled with little electric cars for the kids

We will end this post with a note about our night bus to Sucre.  We were upset to find that we would be spending a 10 hour bumpy bus ride on a standard bus with no sleeper seats.  During this bus, Adam discovered a new formula for calculating the standard of living in a country: quality of the roads + how creepy the two guys on the bus behind us are.  

We will be spending a few more days in Sucre before heading to Potosi, Uyuni and the Salt flats.