San Pedro de Atacama (elevation 2438m)

Day 1

We managed to secure our last freebie flight to get us part way to San Pedro which is Chile’s No.1 tourist destination due to its spectacular deserts, scenery, volcano’s (that I won’t be climbing!), lagoons and geysers. At an elevation of 2438m we were also going up in the world.

Grabbing b/f, we took a taxi to the airport where we caught a flight to Antofagasta. The flight was only around an hour or so but they had upgraded us to exit seats which was nice for Glenn.

Arriving in Antofagasta, we managed to find a shared transfer to the bus terminal in town. Not sure if Glenn has spoken about these before but usually at airports, there are options for expensive taxi’s as you come out of security. But if you walk a little further, you can usually pick up a shared transfer which is typically a people carrier or a small minibus. You need to wait for the car to fill up before you leave but it doesn’t take long and it’s a much cheaper alternative and safe.

Antofagasta is a big industrial town in the middle of the desert, from what we saw on the drive, it’s not a place we would want to spend any significant amount of time in. Lots of rubbish, lots of make-shift tents on the beach for the homeless, something about it just made me feel a bit uneasy.

We had pre-booked our tickets and realised we were well ahead of time so when we arrived at the bus station, we headed to the counter to try and change to a bus that we could see was going shortly. After a long conversation and a lot of head shaking at the counter, we soon gave up on that Idea and settled in for the 2hr wait.

We grabbed some lunch, a Chilean favourite, which consisted of burger rolls stuffed with meat, Avocado, tomato and mayo. Note anything with Avo, tom and mayo has Italiano in its description, not because it will reward you with the delights of Italian cuisine, but because it has the colours of their flag. I gave up on mine so Glenn was soon eating two Chilean favourites!

The bus left around 2:30 and we were soon heading off on our 5hr journey through the desert, if felt more like you were on the moon, totally different landscapes from what we had previously seen.

We arrived in a tiny, dusty town around dusk. The bus terminal, which was pretty much just a car park, was just outside of town which meant we had to drag our bags through dusty streets, with the odd dog following, until we came to the main plaza and finally located our hostel.

It’s worth noting here that all the accommodation in San Pedro is way overpriced and pretty poor! It’s the No’1 tourist destination so I guess they can charge what they want. You are in a desert so you don’t expect 5*, but we did pay a lot of money for a tiny room with ill-fitting patio doors and no windows which meant you couldn’t open a door and get air in at night for fear of someone walking in. Smelly blankets, constant footfall past your door in the middle of the night with people getting up and using the bathroom and music played up until around midnight. Things that don’t bother you if you paid cheap, but piss you off when you’ve forked out a lot of money! The good news was that we were right in the centre of town. Plus, whilst the accommodation was expensive, the excursions were much cheaper than what we had found in Pucon.

Locking up, we went for a stroll around town. Whilst touristy, San Pedro has a lovely feel to it. I would say though if you are a lone traveller, best to pay a bit more and stay close to town as the lighting is bad and the streets are narrow and dark.

We turned a corner and could hear rock music, Glenn was drawn to this like a moth to a candle and we were soon sipping beers in San Pedro’s only bar. The bar was tiny with lots of locals and really cool tunes, when the power didn’t cut out! We loved it and as it was late, we decided to stay and order pizza. The only thing that spoilt the ambience was that the litre bottles of beer they gave you had twist caps which were impossible to get off, causing Glenn to go bright red under the strain of trying to twist them off, then a deeper crimson when we had to relent and ask the barman/woman to remove them.

Fed and watered, we headed back to our sweatbox for a fitful sleep.

Day 2 - Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon)

Feeling a bit travel weary and after a restless night of listening to the hostel staff partying and periodically removing one of the 12 blankets off our bed…everywhere in Chile, expect at least 4 blankets which feels like you have a dead weight laying on you…we decided to have a lazy morning, late b/f and try to sort out our failing technology.

As with anything to do with tech or banking, this put Glenn in a not so good mood. By lunchtime, I suggested we just head out, look around town and see what we would be doing over the coming days. The only thing that outnumbers the tourists and dogs in San Pedro is the number of make-shift tourist offices. We had heard that there were a few dodgy outfits so we went in search of one that looked pretty good on trip advisor. After trudging around for a bit, failing to find the office and Glenn’s mood not improving in the heat, we headed to the bar for a bottle you can’t open which seemed to do the trick!

In the bar, we did a bit more research and then headed to another tourist office where we arranged some trips for the coming days. As one was later the same afternoon, we headed back to the hostel to chill and wait for the excursion.

Being in the desert, the days are hot and the nights cold. However, around 4pm the heat seems to be at its maximum, when you feel like you are walking through treacle, even the dogs clear off to the shade! We headed to the tourist office with our bag of sunscreen and water and boarded a coach to Valle de la Luna for our afternoon trip.

The coach was a mix of Europeans and South Americans. The guide who spoke some English, briefly explained the itinerary and we were soon speeding off into the desert. We stopped at a magnificent rocky moonlike landscape and was told to leave our water on-board as we would be doing a short trek and would need both hands. It was an easy trek but to let him know if you were claustrophobic.

We got to the mouth of a crevasse, where a rather large Chilean woman had 2^nd thoughts and went back. The trek itself wasn’t bad (not when you are used to climbing Villaricca!) but it was extremely hot and you had to negotiate through narrow crevice’s and climb quite high on hands and knees across hot and jagged rocks – it was amazing and well worth it. However, there was a beautifully turned out Italian couple in our group who I guess were in their mid 60’s. She really struggled and we wasn’t sure she would make it. Luckily someone in the group ignored the order not to bring water and could share with her to get her through the trek. Poor cow, I know how she feels!

Back on the bus, the next stop was a short climb up to a viewpoint and cave you could climb down to (Italians and fat lady stayed on the bus). Then onto an outcrop of rocks which I think were called the 3 sisters, (Italians and fat lady stayed on the bus).

The final stop was a viewpoint to watch the sunset (Italians and fat lady got off the bus) with sand dunes and volcanos in the distance. Unfortunately, my phone had died at this point so not sure if the pics off the camera will do it justice.

It was an enjoyable trip and we arrived back in town around 8:30. Opting to just get a quiet bite and an early night as we were up again in the morning, we headed to a café for some food and then off to bed. Sadly, leaving our bag with all our sunscreen and water in the café (Glenn not Shel!)

Day 3 – Salar de Atacama, Laguna Chaxa & Laguna Cejar.

After another noisy night, we were up and ready for our 7am pick up. Realising that we had left the bag in the café and desperately in need of sunscreen for the day, Glenn quickly headed to the not surprisingly closed café to see if he could get it. We would have to rely on a few generous fellow travellers to share their cream or burn! We were greeted by the same tour guide as the evening trip, then went around town collecting others.

We drove for a while before we came to a small village, famous for its tiny church which had a roof made from cactus and the plan was to take a look inside. The Church was closed, so after a while of standing around with the guide quizzically scratching his head, we boarded the bus and moved on.

Next, we came to the Chilean salt flats which are created by movement of the earths plates and sea water becoming trapped between mountains which then crystallise into salt. It was stunning, with layers of mountains in the background in varying colours. There were some water holes here where 3 different types of Flamingo’s were feeding off the algae. We sat watching them, taking some pics before heading back to the van for a simple but nice b/f of bread, ham, cheese and cake.

The bus climbed for quite some time (not sure how high) until we came to a view point of two lagoons where Vicuna’s were drinking (type of Llama but with bigger hearts, adapted for the altitude) and again, stunning scenery. We got off the bus at both points and wandered through taking more pics.

Next stop was a one dog town in the middle of nowhere with a little church. Not sure why we stopped here other than to buy the wares the village women had to offer.

The final stop was the line of Capricorn where we jumped off for a quick pick before heading back to San Pedro around 2:30. After going to the still closed café, and buying some much needed sun-cream,  we headed back to the hostel to have a rest prior to our next excursion in the afternoon.

The afternoons trip was to see and swim in some more lagoons. To be honest, we were both a bit tired but we donned our cozzies and headed to the agency through the 4pm heat. The bus was packed and we were the only non-native Spanish speakers.  I sat away from Glenn, next to a Chilean woman who merrily chatted to me in Spanish, with me nodding, smiling and understanding the odd word (I did try!). We got to the first lagoon which was only about 20mins outside of town and had to pay an exorbitant fee to get in. The guide explained to the group in Spanish what the plan was, then took us to the side and explained to us, again in Spanish,  but with more finger pointing. The gist was we had around an hour, swim in the first lagoon but don’t submerge your hair, don’t swim In the 2^nd but take pics.

We headed to the first lagoon, which has the same consistency as the dead sea enabling you to just float. It was freezing but once in, you could just bob about and watch others plucking up the courage to get their shoulders under.

Being the brits we are, and not wanting to be late, we headed back to the open showers to remove the salt. Learning from our mistakes on the rafting trip, we had come prepared with towels and shower bubbles! I was merrily soaping up and cleaning off when a small Chilean woman started shouting at me and pointed to a sign… evidently no bubbles were allowed!

We dried off and headed to the 2^nd lagoon to take some pics before boarding the bus with 5 mins to spare. We then waited a further 30 minutes for a Chilean family who, deciding they had their own schedule, ambled back without an apology for keeping the group waiting. At least I had my new Chilean mate chatting to me for company.

After another entrance fee, we went to another lagoon where only a handful of people were swimming. I think nobody could be arsed to get wet again and there were no showers. Again, we waited for the family before we could be off again to our final destination.  

By now, tired, hungry and having a bit of a cob on, I asked the driver what time we would be returning to San Pedro. Realising I wasn’t quite enjoying myself, he suddenly broke into excellent English and he buoyed me along with a promise of pisco at sunset and more importantly, he started to manage the tardy Chileans.

After paying our final entrance fee, we walked down across salt flats to a water’s edge with amazing views. We were here for a while so Glenn and I larked about taking silly pics before returning to our bus for a sunset Pisco and snacks. Back on board, we reached town around 8:30pm.  The final stop was lovely but with all of the additional entrance fees, we are not sure if the price warranted the trip. It was so close to town you could probably arrange your own transport and do it cheaper.

Unfortunately, the café with our bag was still closed. We were very hungry so went to a place opposite which offered a Menu de Dia at a reasonable price. Sadly, we discovered the Menu of the Day was very small and we retired to bed, both still hungry!

Day 4 -Geysers Taitom (4300m)

5am pick-up meant it was still dark when we left San Pedro. Our guide couldn’t speak a word of English but was lovely, made lots of jokes (from what we could make out) and soon we were off on our long journey to see the Geysers at sunrise.

95k out of town, and at 4300m, Geysers Taito are the highest in the world. The Geysers are at their best at dawn break so you can appreciate the light thought the gurgling and steaming clouds. It was bloody freezing but we were prepared and well wrapped up. We had seen Geysers in NZ but whilst not the highest and NZ claims, they were more spectacular due to the backdrop of mountains and volcanos.

We made our way around the park before arriving at a hot spring where the brave was donning their swimmers and jumping in. We had forgotten all about the springs and didn’t bring ours with us. But to be honest, given our track record of being bored after 5 minutes, I don’t think the effort of jumping in, then drying off in the freezing cold was worth it. However, the setting was stunning!

Back at the van, we had our usual b/f and got chatting to two Brazilian bikers who were on a road trip. They had biked from Brazil, through Argentina and into Chile a massive road trip that we commented that their backside must be really sore!

Back on the bus, we then made our journey back to San Pedro, stopping at various view points and a pretty town with an authentic church and buildings along the way. We were treated to some sightings of Ostriches, Vicuna’s and a South American Kangaroo. He moved too fast for us to get a pic but they basically look like and overgrown rabbit or a shrunken Roo.

We really enjoyed this trip and were back in town around mid-day. Knackered from the back to back excursions and early starts which now complete, we both felt high on the freedom we now had to do things, or not do things, under our own steam.

First though, we had some chores, the missing bag was the first stop, finally the café was open and we managed to get the bag back. We then headed to an agency to book our bus to Bolivia, then sourced a hostel for an additional night as we both thought we could do with a bit more time here before taking the long road-trip to Bolivia. Changing out of our layers, we then headed to the only bar in town with bottles you couldn’t open for a well-deserved Cerveza or 3!

It was really lively and we were soon chatting to other groups in there (who equally couldn’t get the bottles open) and sharing a few beers. I think it was the relief of not having another 5am start but the beers went down well with Glenn and we were back home around 5pm with Glenn taking a cold shower to try (and fail) to sober up a bit.

To his credit, after a small nap, he bounced right back and we could grab a bite to eat before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Day 5 – Star Gazing

Our plan was to stay an extra day to chill, but also to try and get our banking sorted. We hung around our hostel until 12pm where we tried and failed to do this!

Checking out, we then moved to a hostel a little further up the road which was fantastic. Quiet, clean, and cheaper than the last! It was too early to check in so we left our big bags and went off to do some chores.

We picked up some water and snacks for the trip to Bolivia (told you needed at least 2litres each due to the altitude), went in search for a good rate to change money into Bolivianos, had a wander around the pretty plaza and church and then booked a trip for the evening.

We had stayed in touch with Stephanie who was the French lady we met in Valpariso and La Serena to share tips. She was heading to San Pedro so we arranged to do the evening Star Gazing Astronomy trip together to A: share tips and say goodbye, and B: keep us out of the bar.

We met up and headed to the agency where after a short journey, we arrived at the Astronomy site. The site was set-up with 3 huge telescopes and a very lively guide who gave great explanations in Spanish and then in English. He pointed out the various constellations and clusters before we moved onto the planets.

The first was Saturn. Rather than seeing a pink planet with a ring around it, we saw a white blob! not that impressive. Next Mars, where we got a much clearer picture and an explanation that amazingly, today we have the technology to re-create an environment on Mars where we could live. Today! we knew there were plans for trips and communities set up in Mars, but didn’t realise how close we were to doing it.  So, in several years, when we’ve finished buggering up this planet, future generations will have post codes ending in Mars.

The final and most impressive was the moon where we got a detailed look at the craters and landscape. Interestingly (or not?), the dark side of the moon is where the many craters are. Gazing done, we then retired to a little hut where we had a bit of an educational slide show and hot chocolate before heading back into town.

Here, we said goodbye to Stephanie and headed to the only bar in town for a farewell bottle of beer you can’t open. It was late, quite raucous in there and we probably had a beer too many given we were up with the larks the following day. So much for star gazing keeping us out of the bar!

Shell's 1 Year Update

So here we are already, it’s hard to believe it’s been one year since we were sitting at Heathrow airport, waiting for our flight to Shri Lanka. Our lives packed away in boxes, jobless and homeless through choice. Would we do it again? YES YES YES! Do we want to come home yet? NO!

Brexit and Trump! The western world has gone mad! We honestly thought both were hoaxes when they were drip fed to us through online media. World please sort yourself out, or at least try and gain some control before we get back. Please?

And it seems the world is now a little lighter on talent: Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Victoria wood and even old Terry Wogan, Miss World and the Eurovision will never be the same! We are enjoying our protective travel bubble and despite Brexit weakening the pound and killing our budget, we have decided to delay our return until March. YAY! We will miss our family and friends at Christmas, but when will we truly have the freedom to do this again?

A couple of newlyweds we met, after finding out that we had been travelling for a year together, asked us what we had found out about each other. We looked at each other quizzically and finally answered, nothing. In truth, when you have been together for nearly 10 years you already know each other’s foibles and quirks. I still get ratty when I’m tired, Glenn still has a low tolerance of stupid people and banks. The only real thing to come out of it is Glenn can’t hide behind the ‘I can’t cook’ thing any longer. He makes a mean Chilli, I just need to introduce him to some more recipes!

We tend to use each other’s strengths and allocate chores accordingly. Anything people related is me, anything financial related is Glenn. And planning we do together, it works!

It’s amazing to think what we have achieved in 12 months of traveling. Only when we look back through pics and blogs do we really appreciate what we’ve experienced together. We’ve visited numerous islands and 14 different countries with multiple languages and cultures.  We’ve climbed mountains, volcano’s and been engulfed by sulphuric clouds. We’ve experienced numerous sunsets and sunrises and temples aplenty.  Thrown ourselves out of planes, bungees and rafted grade 3’s. We’ve faced Komodo Dragons, bears, Orangutans, elephants, Cassowaries, Rhino’s and more.  Been attacked by killer cows, monkeys and survived Baboo. We’ve dived with turtles, sharks and whale sharks. And we’ve laughed a lot! All of this with still another 4 months left on our journey together to discover what South and Central America has to offer.

So, Brexit, Trump, you have 4 months to sort your shit out or we are going to live in Oz!

 (not really Mum and Sandy)

La Serena

Day 1 – Another Long Coach Journey

Once again, it was a very early start as we had to get to the coach station by 8am, this meant that we had to miss breakfast.  There was no one at reception to book a taxi with so we started to drag our bags down the street, we checked the funicular but this still wasn’t operating.  The upshot of this meant we had a long walk down to the bottom of the hill, at least it was downhill which we hoped we wouldn’t encounter any dogs that took offence to our wheelie bags!

 

At the bottom, we searched the streets for a taxi without much success. In the end, Shell and I split up on two separate streets and eventually Shell managed to flag down a pretty miserable cab driver.  It was only a 15-minute ride but we were pretty glad we did it as we passed through a packed pretty dodgy looking fruit market with mean looking men along the way.

At the coach station, we had some time to kill so we grabbed a coffee whilst we anxiously tried to work out which coach would be ours.  We thought we had done something clever by getting the windows seats on the top deck of the coach. Because it was a whole day on the bus, we thought we would be able to have a good view of the scenery along the way.  However , when we boarded and took our seats we found that the windscreen was completely covered in advertising transfers which obliterated the view.

Never mind as it was going to be an 8 hour journey (Chile has the longest coastline in the world) I thought it was the ideal opportunity to catch up with some blogging whilst Shell did some research.  It was a good idea until after an hour or so of trying to get the laptop to fire up and it repeatedly freezing I realised that the PC had given up the ghost. Yet another bit of tech that was failing (we’re now getting fed up with niggly problems) (more Glenn than Shel!).  So, we had no other option to read and try and get some rest during the journey.

We tried to enjoy what scenery we could see and late in the afternoon we found ourselves arriving in La Serena which is famous for being Chile’s 2^nd oldest city and It’s Pisco vineyards and international observatories for stargazing.  Also, apparently, the top place in the world for UFO sightings!!

At the coach station before heading for our accommodation, we thought we would book our onward travel for when we left La Serena which was easier said than done as we were not trying to book a coach from La Serena but from the next town where we were initially flying to. After a short while we eventually got ourselves understood and managed to get the tickets we wanted.

From the coach station, we then had a bit of a uphill walk for about ½ mile until we found our hostel for the next two nights.  Check-in took a bit longer than normal as they still hadn’t cleaned our room, but ½ later we had got into our room which wasn’t too bad and locked up our bags and were heading back out.

On the way, we stopped at reception where we were able to book a day tour for the following day, before heading out into town to find a bar.  We walked around for quite a while, the town was quite characterful but it seemed to have a lack of pavement bars, in the end we had to settle to sit outside a pizza restaurant to get a drink.

 

Whilst we sat outside the pizza restaurant we took the time to do a bit of internet research to find where the bars were hiding.  We were in luck as we soon found a bar that was around the corner that was cheap and very popular with the student population of the town.

After a couple of diversions, we found the bar, which looked non-descript from the outside, but as you entered it was a nice little courtyard full of locals that was playing some pretty good music.  So we found ourselves a seat and had a few drinks whilst we decided on what our dining options were for the evening.

 

In the end, we thought we would chance a little café/restaurant that we had spotted on the way to the bar, however when we got there we found it to be closed.  We looked around for a bit and found a large parilla restaurant where we ordered the bar-be-qued meat (which the waiter up-sold us) and a bottle of red.

As had happened before,  a huge mound of meat turned up and between us we struggled to eat it all, but we did manage to finish the nice bottle of red before returning to the hostel to turn in for the night.

Day 2 – Pisco Tour

It was again another early start but at least we managed to grab a bit of breakfast as it was a buffet style affair that we could help ourselves to and it wasn’t too bad (no eggs though).

We waited in reception for a while before we were picked up by a mini-bus and on boarding it we were surprised to see Stephanie, the French lady we had met on the Valparaiso walking tour was aboard to.

Driving up the road for a short while we then stopped and the driver/guide got us all out where we had to do a little introduction to the whole group, which I managed to do with the little Spanish I have.  Once again,  we were vastly outnumbered by the local tourists on-board, but at least we had Stephanie to chat to, who had excellent English.

Boarding again and driving down the road for 15 minutes we then had our first stop which was at a mango plantation which had various mango related products.  After a little tasting session, we then got chatting Stephanie for a bit, which was good as we were stopped for 30 minutes and there is a limit to how interesting mango’s are!

It was fairly overcast as we entered the Elqui Valley proper, but our guide assured us that when we passed a certain point the weather would completely change. In the valley it was very interesting as the guide pointed out that all the fields were irrigated from the river that ran through it. Done by a maze of rubber tubing with little holes in them.  The range of produce was incredible from any vegetable you could think of, to all the fruits including vineyards.

As we progressed through the valley as promised the weather completely changed and we were soon bathed in blazing sunshine.  The next stop on the tour was a very large dam which was constructed to control the run off from the mountains so they could control the river flow to ensure that it didn’t dry out and the fields were irrigated all year round.  We stopped here for another ½ an hour where we walked along the dam so we could take some pictures, but it was very windy there so after a few snaps Shell and I headed back to the minibus where we waited for the rest of the group.

 

The next stop on our itinerary was the primary village in the region where we stopped for about 45 minutes.  We walked around the square for a bit, where there was yet another government pay protest going on, before finding a little restaurant nearby where we had a cold drink.  Whilst we sat there Stephanie joined us as she had the same idea.

Heading off again we drove through the valley where the guide pointed out a few of the Nasa observatories before heading into another valley.  Halfway through the valley the guide headed up a small rocky track where he stopped at a viewpoint so we could take some pictures of the valley and the multi-coloured mountain slopes.

From here we then drove further through the valley passing through some very picturesque small Chilean villages.  After about another hour we stopped at what was billed to be the highlight of the tour which was the oldest Pisco manufacturers in Chile.

Pisco is the local spirit which Chile is famous for (but it is actually Peruvian in origin) and is a type of brandy. 

We waited around in the distiller’s courtyard for a while before the guide took us through the distillery and talked us through the distillery process. We learned a few things, however it wasn’t the most interesting of attractions.  The most interesting thing was that one of the original owners had built himself a little bar in the cellars where when he returned from foreign trips he invited his friend to indulge in his produce.  Also,  being somewhat as a poet he had poems (some complimentary/some not) which he had written about his drinking partners adorned on the walls.

It was time for what we all had been waiting for, which was the actual Pisco tasting.  We were all given small shots to try, the first one being the raw Pisco spirit, which actually tasted to me like tequila, not that great.  After this we were then given a shot of the Pisco wine, which was much better and reminded me of a sort of Sherry/Port.

Next up was lunch in a quaint little village and we were shown to quite a large restaurant where we were treated to a traditional three course Chilean meal.  It was nice because we were given options for each course and whilst we ate there was a traditional Chilean band playing.

After lunch, we were given another ½ hour to have a look around the village which had a very quaint little church and square and a somewhat touristy craft market nearby.  As it was very hot by now, Shell and I walked around for a bit taking a few photos and accidentally gate crashing a wake in the church, before finding some shade in the square whilst we waited for the minibus to pick us up again.

It was now time to return to La Serena and although the tour did not have that many great attractions (we’re a bit spoilt by now) the guide more than made up for it with his enthusiasm and giving us a lot of interesting information along the way.  It was also nice to catch up with Stephanie and get to know her better.

It was early evening by the time we got back so we headed to the bar from the previous night to have a few drinks before turning in for the night.

Valparaiso (Valpo to its friends)

Day 1

Our bus wasn’t until the afternoon so we had a leisurely b/f, packed and headed to the Bus Station around noon.

 

Our destination, Valparaiso, Is a port town around 2hrs away from Santiago. It was the last port before Cape Horn for ships to stock up until the Panama Canal opened and the trade died away.  Today, it’s more famous for its colourful street art, and funiculars that take you up and down the many hills and Barrio’s. So much so, it’s now a UNESCO heritage site (learnt all that on our walking tour). Interestingly, the many cruise ships that stop here don’t get to see the street art and Barrio’s as they are whisked off on pre-organised wine tours etc, shame!

 

I had read that Valpo had a higher crime rate than Santiago so when we arrived at the bus station, we opted for a cab rather than negotiate the streets with all our valuables. It was a good choice too, as it would have been a steep climb to our hostel.

 

We had chosen well, the Barrio we were staying in was really funky, we could see a lot of street art on the way in. The hostel, whist a bit cold, was lovely too. We had a huge room, with an anti-room that led to our bathroom and a patio.

 

We locked up and headed out to explore the streets. We quickly found the funicular that took you down to street level but it was closed so we decided to spend time wandering around the Barrio itself, taking a few pics and seeing some of the remnants of Halloween (check out chuckie hanging from a doorway). We then had a beer and shared a plate of sushi before heading back to the hostel to rest up until the evening.

Evening came and we headed out to find some food. We hadn’t been to an ATM so funds were a little limited. We opted for a cosy little restaurant, sat down, looked at the menu prices, then looked at each other and quickly left. Finding one more in our budget, and still pretty cosy, we had a nice meal and a cheap bottle of wine before heading back for the night.

 

Day 2 - What a Prat!

 

Scrambled eggs for b/f which is pretty unusual in Chile as its typically a very dense roll, jam, and if you’re lucky, ham and cheese is the typical fayre. We had our fill and then headed down towards the meeting point where we would join the free city walking tour.

 

Once again, the funicular wasn’t working so we negotiated our way down long narrow steps, stopping to take some pics of some of the street art along the way.

We found an ATM so that we would be able to pay the guide something should he be good, and then sat in the square to wait. Here’s where we noticed the number of dogs! There seemed to be more dogs in Valpo than there were in Santiago.  I counted at least 14 dogs lazing around in the sun, just in the tiny square we were in!

 

We met the guide who spoke excellent English and were introduced to two other people joining the tour. A lady called Stephanie from France, and another young French fella who’s name I can’t remember, they were travelling separately. The guide also gave us some guidance on the dogs who liked to the follow the tour, there was a usual crowd that liked to take their morning stroll with tourists but we were asked not to encourage or interreact for fear that the dogs would soon outnumber the tour group. So off we set, myself, Glenn, 2 Frenchie’s, a tour guide and about 3 dogs.

 

We headed back to the funicular that took us to the Barrio we were staying in. It was still closed and we were told it was due to government staff striking against pay. It happens the same time every year, funiculars stop, museums close and rubbish piles up on the street whilst workers have a bit of an unpaid holiday, do a bit of lively demonstrating and have a bit of fun until their union negotiate an extra 2%. So instead we opted for the steep climb back up to the Barrio we had come down.

 

At the top, we were greeted by 2 more dogs that regularly waited there to join the tour. The tour guide took us down streets we hadn’t seen, pointed out interesting architecture, and showed how some of the artists incorporated the architecture into the design.  E.g. a chimney would become a nose of a face, using weeds and plants as part of the picture.

We were also told that there was a lot of respect for the various muriel’s and artists wouldn’t paint over each others with tags etc. For this reason, the various hostels, houses and restaurants sometimes commissioned artists to paint their buildings so they could have something arty and not a mishmash of various street tags.

There was one house which was shaped like a boat and remained white, only because the house owner had to regularly paint it and remove the various tags that would appear daily.

 

After descending from the Barrio and another dog joining us (we were now officially outnumbered), we had a break at a shop that served us some free Pisco. I think in the hope that we would purchase some Empanada’s but both still full of scrambled eggs, we opted for the Pisco only. Bit early for alcohol, even for us, but who’s going to turn down a free drink?

We then crossed into another Barrio, again with great street art, winding streets, and a staircase painted like piano keys. We were told the artist came back regularly to maintain it but was arrested as the stairwell was government owned and he didn’t have a licence. There was such an outcry the government had to give in and released him.

The tour ended in the main plaza where we stood beneath a statue of los Heros which held a statue of Captain Prat and 3 sailors. It turns out that Prat captained a wooden ship in a battle over land against Bolivia. Bolivia, having a ship made of steel meant Chile’s chances of winning the battle were slim. Prat decided their only option was to sidle up to the Bolivian ship and then jump ship and take the crew hostage. The time came and Prat shouted the order. Only Prat and 3 sailors jumped, the rest of the crew, not fancying their chances, remained on the ship. Prat and the 3 sailors were promptly killed. The story of their heroism (or stupidity?) soon spread which led to more and more people signing up and Chile eventually winning the war.

 

Now, and I really hope this is true, the guide told us an English linguist joined his tour and he researched the term Prat and confirmed that the story of Captain Prat is how the term ‘you prat’ entered the English language. MAGIC!

 

After the tour, we found a bar to have a quencher before heading to the ferry to take a trip around the port. We sat people watching for an hour, soaking in the sun when the French guy who was on our trip appeared. We had a chat and he explained he’d just come back from the ferry and the trip was pretty lame. So, we had another beer or 3 instead!

Now feeling pretty hungry, and a little unsteady on our feet, we thought it would be a good idea to negotiate the steps to our Barrio before it got to dark. We headed for a restaurant and was eating a meal when we spotted an older couple we had got chatting to in Santiago. Full of beer, Glenn bounded over to them and had a chat, returning to say that he had arranged for us to meet them after for a beer. Now I don’t know whether we lost sense of time and left early, or they wisely decided we were a little bit ahead of them and decided not to show, but we never met up with them and headed back to the hostel.

When we got back to the hostel, we tried to book a taxi for the following morning but the very unhelpful guy said that we would have to wait until another staff member started. We fell into bed (around 7) and Glenn woke up and tried to book again (around 10) but nobody was there. It’s going to be a long climb down tomorrow with our bags. And did I say the stray dogs don’t like anything on wheels and chase you down the street?

Santiago

Day 1 – Nearly Scammed!

After an 11 hour overnight coach trip with fitful sleep we arrived in Chile’s capital at 7am in the morning and had to work out where our hostel was.  We quickly located the metro system and purchased a Bip Card to travel on the metro.

Jumping on the tube we only had to travel about 7 stops which took us just outside the area of Bella Vista where we were staying.  Emerging from the station we sat down and had a fag whilst Shell fired up her mobile so we could find out where our hostel was.  Whilst we sat there a down and out rocker came over to beg for some money but ended up just getting Shell’s cigarette whilst swaying and holding onto my bag, I made sure I was also holding onto it tightly.  Welcome back to a big city!!

We then walked around in search of our hostel which took some time as it was about 1/2mile away and down a back street, it also didn’t help that there was no signage for it and that it was well and truly locked up.  Deciding we had the right place we rang the bell and after a few bolts slid back we entered the hostel, but as we were early we could only store our bags there and we kept hold of our valuable’s in our day packs and headed out to find a coffee.

Everything was pretty closed but we did manage to find a little café which served some machine coffee. After the caffeine injection, we then caught the Metro to the main plaza as we had seen there was a free walking tour there (which we love) which would fill the time before we could check in, plus give us an orientation of the city.

 

Arriving early at the meeting point in front of the cathedral and spotting no red t-shirts I suggested we walked around the back, just to check that it wasn’t the front.  Walking around the back we could see that it must be the other side so we headed back to the plaza only suddenly to be soaked up the back with bird poo or builders waste.  It appeared to be muddy water that had covered our trousers & tops, suddenly a very helpful woman appeared and produced a toilet roll from her bag and started to clean Shelley up, it was then that I clicked that it was a scam (luckily I had read about it in our travel book a few days earlier).

Whilst trying to clean Shell up, Shell handed me her bag, suddenly the woman wasn’t interested in cleaning up Shelley now and turned her attention to me.  Starting to clean me up she insisted on me putting my bags down, which I did but held on tightly to them, alarm bells now really ringing I picked the bags up, shrugged off the woman and said to Shell that we should just get back to the plaza very quickly.  As we walked quickly I noticed the woman in conversation with a younger male accomplice?

Back at the plaza we thanked our lucky stars that we twigged this scam as we had all our valuables in our bags, the only annoying thing is that we had two pairs of clothing with embarrassing stains on them which may or may not come out.  Again, welcome to the big city!!

Around 10am we spotted the guys running the free tour so we stood around waiting for it to start, as we did so we got chatting to  a UK ex-pat who was living in Hong Kong and visiting her daughter who was living here.  She attached herself to us throughout the tour as she was on her own, but she did like to natter whilst we were trying to listen to the tour guide!

 

The tour started in the main square and we were given the story of Chile’s independence from Spain and shown various historic building in the plaza before heading down some street being told various facts and stories, the guide was very good.

One interesting stop was a coffee bar and the guide gave us the low-down on what was known in Santiago as ‘Coffee with Legs’.  Apparently, coffee in Chile is so bad that some entrepreneur decided that in order to get punters into the coffee bar and to take their minds off what they were drinking,  he introduced scantily clad women to serve up the brews.  The idea caught on and the bars became more and more risqué, some with darkened windows where the waitresses were topless.  It escalated to the point where one coffee bar had a happy minute (at any point during the day, designated by the owner) the doors were shut and the waitresses were naked for a minute!   At this point the government cracked down on it and some regulations were put in place. However they are still serving up coffee dressed in basque’s and we were invited to peer through one window where we could see ladies in a state of undress serving coffee’s surrounded by well heeled businessmen. So in Santiago if your boss says he’s popping out for a coffee, you know what he’s up to.

 

 

We then headed through to the government area where we were given a very interesting history lesson on General Pinochet and the last revolution/coup in the 90’s?  where the army rolled tanks into the square and together with the air force took over the place.

From here we headed down some more streets until we stopped in a pretty little area where we took a break in a nearby café where we had some Empanada’s and a beer to wash it down.

After the break, we walked back through the Bella Vista area where the guide pointed out markets, the cheap student area. He informed us about the cheapest places to drink and information on the various local beverages (a volcano and tsunami), also the various local dishes we should try.  It also turns out that Chileans have very sweet teeth with sugar on everything, which also extended to having lemon juice in their beer with the glass rim being dipped in sugar – yuck!!

 

 

Three hours later we were at our final stop of the tour which was Chile’s most famous poets (don’t ask!) house or at least the house where he kept his mistress.  It turned out to be a real bonus as we realised that our hostel was about 40 yards away – result.  The tour was one of the most interesting ones we have been on and if you ever find yourself in Santiago I would highly recommend it.

 

Paying the guide what we thought the trip was worth (that’s the way with free walking tours) we then headed back to the hostel to check-in.  The room was pretty pokey with just enough room for a set of bunk beds. The top bunk with about a couple of foot clearance from the ceiling. Also, checking the shared bathroom, we discovered that it was very dirty, which Shell pointed out to the receptionist with the hope that they might do something about it.

As we didn’t fancy hanging out here very long we locked up our bags (glad not to be carrying round our valuables anymore) and headed out to check out the area for ourselves.

Soon, as we were quite tired we found ourselves sat outside a bar drinking a few beers whilst people watching.  Later in the early evening we decided to check out one of the restaurants that the walking tour guide had recommended.

Checking the menu, we thought we would try a couple of authentic Chileans dishes that the guide had told us about.  I had a sort of hot-pot which was some sort of meat covered in creamed corn, covered in sugar and caramelised (odd, but not bad) and Shell had cooked pork pieces rolled in a coating of the pork fat, which we thought would have been crisped up, it wasn’t it was rubbery (not bad but the fat put Shell off a bit).

A couple of bottles of nice Chilean wine later and after a long day we headed back to the hostel for some shut eye.

Day 2 – Gun’s n Roses!!!

Today was the day I had been excited about for some time, I had bought tickets to Gun’s n Roses at Santiago National Stadium in the hope that we would be able to fit it in to our Chile itinerary.  I was excited because it was the most complete line-up since I had last seen them in the early 90’s, and a line-up I never thought I would see agai due to acrimonious splits in the past.  Hence the tour is named ‘Not in this Lifetime….’ Which I seem to remember is a direct quote about Axl and Slash sharing the same stage together again.

But that was later in the day and Shell wasn’t happy, as a result of our volcano hike (which she was still bitching about) her nose had blistered up and was starting to scab up, so she wasn’t feeling very pretty.

We headed down and grabbed some basic breakfast before going back to our room to pack as we were moving to an Air BnB apartment that we had booked for the next three days.  As we couldn’t check into the apartment until 1pm we sat in the communal room of the hostel and killed some time reading, catching up on internet stuff and playing cards.

Fortunately, we had booked the hostel close to the apartment so we dragged our bags a few hundred yards down the road and tried to check in.  There appeared to be some problem at the reception (my Spanish was not good enough to understand) and we had to hang around for about ½ hour until we were finally given the keys to the apartment.

After a bit of confusion when the keys did not work and checking with reception and finding it was the 13^th floor not the 3^rd floor as I thought I heard, we got into the apartment.  It was quite a big place with a balcony (although it had low railings which gave us a bit of vertigo), that had great views over the city.  Over the days though we discoveedr the kitchen wasn’t that well equipped and the laminate floor was very dirty, when you looked at your bare feet they were black.

Next thing was to stock our cupboards so we headed out in search of a supermarket which after a few requests for directions we found about ½ a mile. It wasn’t a very big shop and we struggled to find the ingredients we needed to cook our favourite meals so we did our best and picked up the basics and some beer and wine before returning to the apartment.

We unpacked and for the next couple of hours I was like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting to go out to the gig, killing the time by listening to Guns n Roses whilst sinking a few beers.

Around 6pm we headed out, although Shell wasn’t feeling great, we headed to the metro to catch the tube a few stops to a station close to the stadium.  Out of the station there were loads of street vendors selling bootleg Guns n Rose’s stuff, including quite amusingly for me, left over Irish paddy day hats (resplendent with bucket) which they were trying to recycle as copies of Slash’s top hat!!

Following the crowd we headed towards the stadium which was 15 minutes away, passing people on the street selling can’s of beer.  We had learned that they did not sell alcohol in the stadium, but we also were told that it was against the law to drink beer on the street, so not being local we passed up on this option.

Arriving at the entrance of the stadium we tried to locate the ticket office where we needed to pick up our tickets and on enquiry we were pointed in another direction around the stadium.  Being unsure on where we exactly had to go I noticed a couple of locals who appeared to have asked the same question, so we hung back and thought it was a good idea to follow them

It was boiling hot and with Shell not feeling great so we were not that impressed when we walked for miles going backwards and forwards around the stadium following this couple when they kept getting different directions from each official they asked.

I recon we must have walked a couple of miles until we finally found the box office which was right around the back of the stadium off the beaten track and located in what looked like a row of concrete toilet blocks.  Queuing up I finally got my hands on the tickets and we headed to a café across the road where we had a couple of Sprites to quench our thirst.

 

By now it was around 7.30 and I did not anticipate the band hitting stage until about 9.30 (I saw no details about any decent support act), so we decided to head around to one of the entrances to see if we could find anywhere to get a proper drink.

It didn’t appear we would find anywhere when shell suggested that we crossed the road where there appeared to be some shops, we were in luck there was a Chinese restaurant, although full they let us sit in the foyer and have some drinks.

We sat there for the next hour or two drinking some beers/wine to get in the mood, which seemed to do the trick as Shell was feeling better.  Around 9pm we thought we should head into the stadium in case the band came on earlier than I expected.

After gaining entry and getting directions to the section we were in we then squeezed our way through the packed concourse and then entered the packed stadium.  Muscling our way through the tightly packed crowd until we came to a standstill, where we thought we would stay put.  Looking around us it looked like there were far more people in there than the 50,000-capacity suggested.

No sooner had we plumped for this position then the Looney Tunes theme tune came on which heralded the start of the gig (what timing!) and shortly Axl, Slash, Duff et al bounced onto stage and launched into ‘It’s so easy’ and the crowd started to bounce as one, including me and Shell.

 

Continuing with some more lively tracks the crowd continued to bounce around and checking with Shell she seemed to be holding her own and quite enjoying it.

As the band continued to crash through their hits the crowd calmed down a bit and we could concentrate on the music.  The band were pretty tight apart from the odd bum note from Axl I was pretty impressed.  We also amused ourselves watching the large screen and noting that fat Axl seemed to have had some very dodgy plastic surgery that made him look quite scary!!

The band went through loads of their classic tracks ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ ‘My Michelle, ‘Coma’, and one of my personal favourites ‘Night Train’ backed by really funky projected graphics and the odd explosion here and there.  The new guitarist seemed pretty good and tried to hold his own with Slash.

 

Axl’s voice seemed to be improving throughout the gig and Slash and Duff were absolutely killing it, rolling back the years and running around the stage.  There were some interesting solo’s with Slash playing the intro to ‘The Godfather’ which morphed into ‘Sweet Child of mind’ and then of course the sing-a-long during ‘Knockin on Heavens Door’

One of my favourite moments was when Duff took centre stage and vocal duties and then did a blistering cover version of ‘New Rose’ at which point I lost it (I think my neck will hurt in the morning).

 

After about  2 ½ hours the band left stage only to return for the inevitable three song encore which concluded with a rip roaring ‘Paradise City’ during which loads of pyro’s and fireworks were set off, accompanied by tonnes of ticker-tape being released over the crowd, quite an impressive finale.

 

Being honest, Gun’s n Roses 25 years on were far better than I expected them to be, very professional and an impressive 3 hour set.  Slash absolutely owned the show, with Duff a close second and Axl was decent.  Also, I am pleased to say that Shell said she really enjoyed the show too, thanks to my coaching she pretty much knew all the songs (I think she has a new found respect for Gun’s n Roses and in particular Slash’s stunning guitar work).  I am pleased I forked out for this as you never know if the cracks in the band will open again before they manage to hit Europe, it’s the closest I will ever see to the original line-up again!

After the final bow, Shell and I clung to each other whilst we squashed sheep style out of the stadium until we could walk freely.  On the way out, we managed to pick up a gig T-Shirt for Shell (looks much better on girls, retro rock type style), before getting out to the road where it was total  gridlock.

We knew the metro was shut for the night so we headed back to the Chinese restaurant where we thought we would have a beer or two whilst we waited for the traffic to die down.  It appeared that nothing was going to move on the street so we took the decision to ask directions for the centre of town and walk hoping to pick up a taxi along the way.

Luckily, we did pick up a cab about ½ mile up the street and we headed back towards home, the taxi driver playing some sort of funky jazz music along the way.

Back in the Bella Vista area we were still pumped from the gig so we headed towards the student bars where we shared a few litres of beers sat outside whilst we chewed the fat about the gig.  Whilst we were sitting there in a bar across the road, a small fight (local gangs?) broke out and a few chairs were thrown around, but it quickly died out with the combatants heading off in opposite directions.

Entertainment over. We headed back to our apartment to play Gun’s & Roses, sink some red wine and have one of the latest nights we have had in a long time!

Day 3 – Schnoz!!

Waking up late and both supporting fairly decent hangovers we took it easy. Even worse Shell’s nose had got even worse spreading even further, she wasn’t a happy bunny.

The volcano trip had really done her schnoz in and so after a quick search on the internet I found a pharmacy nearby that was open so I suggested we went there to see if they had any cream to help.  We headed out and quickly found it, the only thing was it was very busy and Shell had the indignity of having her nose inspected whilst she showed the chemist a translation of the problem on her phone which translated as ‘Nose herpes’.  Fortunately, the chemist saw what the problem was and we were given the appropriate cream to deal with it.

 

As we weren’t feeling great and Shell felt like the Elephant woman we went back to the apartment to chill out for the day, Shell plastering cream all over her nose and relaxing whilst I caught up on doing our washing in the basement laundry room.

Shell still did not feel like facing the public in the evening so I headed out to find some food to bring back to the apartment.  I thought I had found a take-away but in reality, it was a restaurant, but after a few broken conversations I managed to get understood that I wanted some food to take-away.

 

Back at the flat we just had our food and watched a bit of TV for the rest of the night, which was a bit of a shame as in the streets below it seemed to be lively and happening.

Day 4 – No ATM

After getting up and making breakfast we thought that as we were in the capital we would try and find a ATM where we could finally unblock our cash card, as advised by the bank.

 

Following our map. we found the first ATM on our list but to no avail, there was still no option to unblock the card.  We then walked further into the centre of town trying two or three more banks, all with the same result, also seeing if we could find a shop to get a new battery for Shell’s phone (which now had a battery life of about an hour).

Having no luck with either tasks we then thought we would go to the bus station to purchase our exit tickets for the next day.  Getting off at the wrong metro stop (train station not the coach station) we then got directions from a policeman and found that the coach station was a short walk down the road.

It was a pretty straight forward thing to get the coach tickets to Valpariso and whilst we wandered around the coach station we found a place where we managed to get the phone battery (fingers crossed) so the day wasn’t a complete write-off.

 

We then returned to the Bella Vista area where we stopped at one of the student bars and sat outside and had a couple of beers before returning to the apartment to chill out and relax for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.

In the evening, we headed back out to the street bar and had a few drinks and sat there people watching and chatting.  As it was Halloween there were a few people out and about in their costumes and we also enjoyed one of the buskers who came along and played a few Pearl Jam covers.

At one of the rock bars in the area they had a Halloween special gig that included 4 cover bands, including Black Sabbath, Megadeth & Metallica tributes which looked interesting, but as they didn’t start until 11pm and we had to get up fairly early the next day we decided to give it a miss.  Instead we just grabbed a take-away (not a restaurant this time) and went back to the apartment to eat it before a bit of TV and bed.

I must say that I really enjoyed Santiago as a city as it was vibrant, funky and lively and I think we should have spent another day or two here.  Although this may also be because I saw one of my favourite bands, reformed and playing for the first time in 25 years!!