27th September 2006 - Yesterday morning I had freshly baked pancakes on a Bolivian salt flat

So, yeah-We´re in Bolivia.
This was quite unexpected.

After a delicious BBQ to celebrate 18th September (chilean independence) we headed further north the next day and stopped for lunch at a restaurant that was literally in the middle of nowhere. We went by a couple of ghost towns as they used to be nitrate mines, but now are deserted. Our guide showed us a cemetery and kindly showed us a grave where you could see some bones, another of a baby which had practically been mummifed by the heat. The place had such a strange atmosphere, very creepy. Also saw "The Hand of the Desert" which is a massive sculpture of a hand sticking out of the sand, quite randomly.

Most of the stops on our tour where quite strange, but interesting none the less. We stopped at train cemetery and had fun climbing on top of carriages and around engines, got some fun photos as well.The days are having a tendency to blurge into one and that´s the only day that I have written in the diary.So since then, in Chile, we saw:

- Peine, a small oasis in the middle of the desert

- Valley de la Luna, a landscape that looks like it´s out of space.

- Clambered around some salt caves
- Salt plains that go on for miles

- Flamingoe reservation for a beautiful sunset and more salt plains!
- San Pedro de Atacama - a very "gringo" orientated town with a fair bit of character.

So, after that we were going to head up North to Chile, but the rest of the group who we´d befriended were heading onto Bolivia, so late the night before we would leave we decieded to join them.

A bloody brilliant idea!

We saw so much.Within an hour of entering Bolivia ( in a 4WD) we saw a white lake, then a green lake, then a red lake.There are so many flamingoes, they´re just like pigeons. I probably have seen more flamingoes than any other bird in my life. They´re everywhere, and so pink! We´ve walked on dried lava, seen smoke coming out of a volcanoes, bathed in a hot spring (temp 36) where the air temp was around 5, slept in a salt hotel, been on a island covered in 1203 year old cacti in the middle of salt lake, covered our noses and pretended to be dinosaurs next to geysers and had to change a flat tyre in the middle of desert as the sunset.

We are currently in a town called Uyuni and tonight we are getting the train north, then a bus to La Paz before heading further north, via Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol, to arrive in Peru so we can do the Inca Trek on 6th October.

Life is pretty magical and we are enjoying each moment together. We´ve managed not to kill each other. Yet.

18th September 2006 - Atacama Desert Fever

From Santiago we got a bus to Valparaiso, a lovely port with multicoloured houses covering the hills. We spent four days there staying in a lovely hostel called El Yoyo, which was full of interesting people from all over the world. The city is full of small streets and lifts which take you up the steep hills and give you spectacular views of the bay. We took a few trips to Viña del Mar to visit the beach and a nice garden, not too much to see there.

We are currently in Caldera, in the desert. Yes, I'm in a desert! Craziness. From Valparaiso, we decided to head up to La Serena to join a tour which will eventually take us to San Pedro de Attacama. It's a five day thing on a bus with 11 other people, plus a driver and tour guide. We're the only English, but there's Irish, Scots, Swiss, Brazilian, Colombian and Kiwis. Luckily they all speak English!

Yesterday was utterly fantastic as we got a boat out to the "national park", a small island about a mile off the coast, where there's an assortment of animals. It was amazing, we saw sealions, condors, dolphins, but most importantly - penguins! That was rather cool. Only about ten, but still penguins. We also got to have a lunch on a small island with a beautiful beach, just like a tropical island!

We're actually staying in Bahia Inglesia right next to beach on a campsite, but in chalets. It's lovely. We're all having a massive BBQ tonight.After this it's up to the desert and the salt lakes, Valley de Luna (something like that) and other bits and pieces.The weather has been quite nice, apart from first thing in the morning when it is always cloudy. It's really bright here and my sunglasses broke last night so I need to go and purchase some more.

8th September 2006 - Arrival!

We've arrived. We got to Santiago de Chile yesterday after a 20 hour journey! Getting into the airport meant being harrassed by millions of taxi drivers trying to get you to use their taxi, but instead we got the bus for 1200 pesos (around 1.20) into the centre of Santiago and then a twenty minute walk to our hostel. The hostel is lovely, quite centrally located but in a quieter street. The hosts are extremely friendly, there's at least two generations runnings the place. it's cheap and cheerful. Wandering around Santiago is a great thing to do, it's so colourful here and full of people. It's surprisingly clean of litter. Lots of fun street performers and such. Yesterday we went up a hill called Santa Lucia which has numerous small parks spread all over, turn a corner and you'll find another wonderful little park or a spectacular view. The city is surrounded by the Andes so at most turns you can see a
snowcapped mountain, which is quite nice. Today we caught the furnicular (carriagey train thing that goes up hill) to the top of the Metropolitan Park which has the most amazing views of the whole of Santiago and the mountains. The photo to the left is from there, but sadly we were stood infront of a tree when the guy took our picture so you can't see the mountains, but I promise there are some - you want proof? Look to the right! We've yet to truly taste the Chilean cuisine, but we've had empandas which are kinda like pasties but more interesting and the hotdog, which seems to be a big thing here and you can get it with a wide variety of toppings. We have three more days left in Santiago, then we are probably heading to the coast and then upwards as we have to be in Cusco, Peru by the 1st October in order to acclimatise before doing the Inca Trek to Machu Picchu, yay!