Chile....a lot of desert

We had thought that the Atacama, being just across the border from the desert we had travelled through in Bolivia, would be more of the same. We were very wrong. After crossing the border we quickly descended 2000m from the high Altiplano of Bolivia towards the immense Atacama plateau, the driest place on earth. It was flat. And sandy. And big.....very, very big.

We were staying in San Pedro de Atacama, a small, inevitably touristy, dusty town in the middle of the desert. Being the only place to easily stay it wasn't the cheapest of places. The prices in Chile in general were a shock to our system after Bolivia and Colombia. A three course Menu del Dia was now an astronomical £9! We had, therefore, chosen the cheapest accommodation we could find with a private bedroom...a hostel full of young people. On arrival we were shown around, it was immediately clear this was definitely a joining in type place. We decided to embrace it and joined both social evenings, thereby doubling the average age. We were accepted enthusiastically both by the other guests and the owners, two Chilean guys who spend most of the year working in France, just a couple of hours north of us. There were a significant number of French people staying. It was good to be able to communicate in a language we are more confident in. An enjoyable two evenings meeting and chatting to new people including a couple of friends, one of whom played chess in the Danish national team and the other for Switzerland. I didn't even know national chess teams were a thing. I suspect Richard did. We have met many younger travellers over the last five weeks which we expected but we had thought they would be mostly gap year types. In fact we have been surprised and not a little impressed by how many have either taken sabbaticals or just given up work to travel for an extended time, we get the impression that one of the longer term effects of the pandemic has been thr "life's too short" attitude. In Australia there is a scheme whereby teachers can take 80% pay for four years then have a year off and get paid the other 80% for that year. What an excellent idea.

Although we felt fairly proud of ourselves for negotiating these two hostel social evenings, we have since been informed by our hostel expert son that it doesn't count if there was no beer pong. 

We had one full day in the Atacama and despite  the hefty pull of the hammocks in the garden, we borrowed a couple of bikes and went off exploring. We cycled along a very bumpy track into a national park area where we were told there was no phone reception and to make sure we had 1.5litres of water minimum each. We didn't, but we do have some very clever water bottles with built in filters and there was a small river. Our route took us via bike and foot through the desert and up to a mirador for some impressive views of the large expanse of nothingness. Very worthwhile.

                         

The following day we left early to catch a bus to the nearest city, an hour and a half away. From here we were taking a 20 hour bus trip down to Santiago. We had booked the front seats upstairs which had business class style seats and great panoramic views. Fortunately we had packed plenty of food and drink as there was no stopping for this. There are cheap flights that only take a couple of hours but we thought we would see more of the country this way.....and of course, once again, queue avoidance. We can now confirm that the Northern half of  Chile is one huge desert.

After the usual red eyed bus station breakfast we caught a third bus for the two hour journey out to Valparaiso on the coast, a town which had been highly recommended. 

Had Valparaiso merited it's own blog post it would have been entitled, Valparaiso......wee and weed. These were the two overwhelming smells during our 48 hours here. Perhaps it was the murky weather and our disappointing accommodation, or the fact that we had visited Colombia and Bolivia first, but Valparaiso didn't capture our hearts in the way we had expected. It is another town full of street art, some of which is indeed impressive, some of which is mere vandalism. "Nice, but it's not.....insert any other South American place we have visited....." became our catch phrase. 

The front door of our accommodation 

We decided to leave earlier on our final day than originally planned to see something of Santiago instead, which hadn't been highly recommended. We were glad we did. We walked miles...shock. My turn to call the shots and I insisted that we visit the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos. I remember being part of the Amnesty International letter writing in the 1980s but I hadn't, as a teenager, really taken on the enormity of what the country went through under Pinochet. The remembrance watt for missing people was extremely poignant. Some interesting conversations about capitalism, socialism and dictatorship were had on our way to the airport.

This was our last day in South America, we now fly further around the globe for 11 days of family time and a wedding in New Zealand. We have had an incredible five weeks and are determined to return....with better Spanish and maybe not to Chile.