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.