Chile - San Pedro de Atacama

A sleep in this morning and a late breakfast following quite a late night and an amazing meal last night. In true South American fashion dinner was at 9.30pm.

We spent the morning wandering around this cool town exploring the multitude of Artisan’s shops and all the little streets.

Around 4pm we went on a trip out to Moon Valley which is only about 10min drive from San Pedro de Atacama. Moon Valley is in the Los Flamencos National Reserve and is named as such because it’s rock and salt formations resemble the surface of the moon. First we walked through a system of gorges and caverns through the salt formations. At one point we stopped and listened to the salt crystals expanding in the heat of the sun, quite an eerie sensation. Next we drove on to the Great Sand Dune which is the largest dune in a field of dunes. On the way we briefly stopped at the Three Maries, which are rock formations that are thought to be over one million years old and have been formed by intense erosion processes. Forgetting how much climbing sand dunes hurt, we climbed to the crest for the panoramic view across the valley. The view was worth it! Our final stop in the Valley was a cool place called Coyote Rock, named because it resembles the rock out of the Road Runner cartoon, here we watched the colours change across the landscape as the sun set behind the Andes.

Tonight we enjoyed a traditional South American BBQ. Absolutely delicious!

Chile - San Pedro de Atacama

We travelled again today this time to San Pedro de Atacama. This town is considered an oasis in the desert as it lies in the heart of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. The drive into the town was very cool. The mountains and sand formations were like nothing we have seen before.

The town itself has a unique character. The streets are mud which have been covered in a salt layer to minimise dust, the houses are also made out of mud, it is fabulous.

Chile - Antofagasta

We woke up on the bus this morning to a completely different scenery. The hills were still everywhere but they were desert. There was absolutely no sign of plant life, gone are the cactuses that were plentiful further south.

Our night bus journey brought us to a town called Antofagasta, the largest city in northern Chile.

The town itself is a copper mining town and was once part of Bolivia. It is coastal and the seaside is quite nice but the town is really not that attractive. We spent the afternoon in the ‘largest shopping mall in South America and relaxing in our hotel.

We went out and enjoyed sunset at La Portada, which means ‘the door’ in Spanish. La Portada is a natural rock formation approximately 15km  from town.

Chile - La Serena

La Serena is one of Chile’s oldest cities and is situated on the coast. It is from here you can access the Elqui Valley and today that’s what we did. A minivan collected us from our hotel at 9am and took us out through the valley. 

The Valley is traditionally extremely dry and the mountains depict this. The unusual aspect of this that in the valley itself are fields and fields of green. The main industry of the area is agriculture. It once also included silver and copper mining but now they grow a variety of fruits and are most famous for their vineyards and Pisco distilleries. The Valley is also well known for its several international astronomical observatories.

Irrigation of the farms was made possible by the building of the Puclaro dam which was one of our stops along the way. We also visited a family owned and run Pisco distillery in the heart of the valley. This was really interesting as we toured the vineyard and the distillery learning the process of Pisco making and ended with a tasting :-) Pisco is made from muscat grapes which are first made into a white wine and then distilled giving a final product of about 40% which is similar to grappa. After the distillery we had lunch at a restaurant which cooks with the sun, the food was delicious. We then drove into some of the small villages which populate the valley. Of note was the village of Monte Grande where Gabriella Mistral was brought up and then worked as a school mistress. Gabriella Mistral was a Chilean poet, born in Vicuna, the ‘capital of the valley’, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945 and to this day is the only female Latin American to have won the Prize.

We returned to La Serena in the early evening and prepared for our overnight bus journey.

Chile - La Serena

Today we travelled to La Serena by bus. The journey was around 8 hours but not too bad. The scenery was very picturesque and the bus very comfortable.

On arrival in La Serena we went for a short walk to orient ourselves with town and then had a delicious Chilean meal for dinner. Our hotel is a quaint guest house run by a group of older ladies, it is very cute.

Chile - Santiago

This morning we took a free walking tour of Santiago. It was a fabulous way to see the city, learn the history, and discover areas that only the locals know about. The tips about where to go, what to do, and where to eat would have been handy two days ago but still useful... for next time :-).

The tour took 4 hours at a relaxed pace and took us from the Cathedral to the house of Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and was said at the time to “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language”. We discovered more areas of Bella Vista that we didn’t see yesterday as everything starts to open after lunch, the Telefonica building is actually shaped like a mobile phone (think 1999 Ericsson) and is an important landmark if you get lost because it can help you orient yourself to downtown.

We learnt about the Spanish colonisation in the 16th century and their war with the Inca’s (who had invaded from Peru in the 15th century) and the Mapuche people form the south.

Later today we met our tour guide and our new tour group... a total of seven people... and Jack is the only boy, except our Tour guide Alex.  It is so nice to be back in a small group. We start our new tour tomorrow.

Chile - Santiago

We walked to and then took the funicular up San Cristobal Hill this morning. On our way we passed through Bella Vista which is a funky artistic district full of cafe’s and bars as well as a cool artisan market. 

San Cristobal Hill is a landmark within the city and provides a beautiful panoramic view over Santiago. It is characterised by a statue of the Virgin Mary at its peak and has some beautiful gardens and picnic areas to enjoy. We made our way down the hill on foot which took a while as the maps were not all that clear :-).

After making our way down we explored the more residential area of Santiago we had ended up in. We then stumbled upon a fabulous Sushi restaurant where we enjoyed lunch... not very Chilean but delicious! On our way back to our hotel we discovered a great little artisan’s market where we spent a little time. The walk back also allowed us to see some of the beautiful parks that are scattered throughout central Santiago.