Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

Friday 7 - Monday 10 July

Today we met a new set of travelling companions as we rejoined our tour of Chile for the four days' journey back to Santiago. With only seven of us in total, we had a bit more breathing space on the minibus.

Leaving behind San Pedro for the desert once more, we eventually arrived at a well preserved but otherwise deserted mining town; a relic of Chile's once-profitable nitrate mining industry.

The town's sole inhabitant now shows tourists around the place, making his living from donations.

The beautiful theatre:-

now serves as a museum, charting the town's history from its mining days to a darker period during which it was used as a detainment camp for political prisoners; this simple tree carving is a poignant reminder:

With a lot of ground to cover in four days, the rest of Friday was devoted to making our destination at the Pan de Azucar National Park. After a teriffic barbecue, we pitched tents on the beach and fell asleep to the sound waves crashing against the shore.

Saturday 8 July

Another solid day of travelling. Leaving Pan de Azucar late morning we piled into the minibus and headed for the town of Vicuna in the Elqui Valley. Stopping only for food and loo breaks, we arrived in Vicuna at around 7pm.

Because of the particular clarity of the night sky around Vicuna, the area is dotted with observatories, and after dropping our bags at tonight's hostel we headed up to the Mamalluca observatory which sits atop a nearby hill.

A highly enthusiastic Chilean amateur astronomer (he has a deal with the observatory; he guides tour parties, they give him free use of the equipment!) gave us a fascinating and educational talk about the night sky before letting us look - and take pictures - for ourselves.

With very little light pollution from the nearby town, a clear night sky and an almost full moon, the results were awesome:

Having witnessed Alpha Centauri (only visible from the Southern Hemisphere) and seen the Milky Way up close, we left with a new found enthusiasm for star-spotting and fell into bed.

Sunday 9 July

An hour or so's journey from Vicuna, we arrived at the charming old village of Pisco Elqui.

The Elqui Valley receives around 330 days' sunshine every year, perfect conditions for growing the sweet grapes used in the distillation of the local brandy - Pisco. In fact, in 1936 the village changed its name from 'La Union' to 'Pisco' in order to trademark the name and protect the local tipple.

Naturally, a visit to the distillery was on the cards, but first we were up for a spot of horse riding. I've ridden a donkey before, but Sharon claims this doesn't count; but hey - how hard can it be?

What a great experience! We rode up into the mountains around the village along narrow rocky paths; luckily the horses were very sure-footed, and we were treated to amazing views of the vineyards and citrus orchards along the valley.

Returning from a relaxing few hours on horseback, it was time for a drink. We made for the tiny Tres Erres (Three R's) Pisco distillery for a brief tour. The guide only spoke Spanish, but luckily we had a willing translator on hand.

Making Pisco the old-fashioned way

After tasting the different Piscos (strong and very strong) in the bar, we enjoyed the sunset before returning to Vicuna for a group evening meal.

Monday 10 July

The final leg, and a long day's journey back to Santiago. We broke around lunchtime to spend a couple of hours at the Fray Jorge National Park; a bit of an oddity - it's like a small hilltop rainforest in the middle of the desert. The moisture comes from coastal fogs which are 'trapped' inland and support plants that would not otherwise flourish in this climate.

Again, we were captivated by the views.

At last, the city lights of Santiago beckoned and our whistlestop tour of Chile was over. We would spend one more day in Santiago (to explore the unmissable Pre-Columbian Museum) before flying on to our next country - Argentina.

Wednesday 5 and Thurday 6 July

Safely back from Bolivia and not due to rejoin our small tour of Chile for a couple of days, we decided to relax and explore the town of San Pedro a bit more.

Just off the main square is a museum founded by a Belgian priest, Padre Gustavo le Paige:

which houses a collection of thousands of Atacaman artefacts, including mummified human remains and skulls, covering an 11,000 year period of Chilean history.

The museum is surprisingly modern, well lit and excellently laid out and we spent a fascinating afternoon learning about early Atacaman culture. And taking spooky photos of the exhibits.

"Are you sure this is right, Dr Atkins?"

Later, we found a pleasant bar across the square just perfect for sitting and people-watching in the sunshine. Which we did, right up until the point when a bird sitting in the eaves above chose my head for target practice...that's the second time this year!

Thursday 6 July was spent in much the same way, giving us our last photo opportunities of charming San Pedro

and to catch up on emailing, blogging, packing and the like. Another warm sunny afternoon, and so we returned to the bar in the square (sensibly sitting in the courtyard this time; no birds above), where we were happy to be entertained in traditional Chilean style.

Monday 26 - Friday 30 June

Bright and early on Monday morning, the overnight bus from Santiago dropped us by a seemingly deserted restaurant on the outskirts of Caldera. We waited a while with no pick-up in sight, before venturing inside to seek help. Just as we did, the restaurant's phone rang to say that the bus was on its way...

Caldera is a charming but sleepy fishing village,

but after the bustle of Santiago it was nice to stroll in the sunshine and take in sights such as the pretty church and the harbour at our leisure.

After lunch at Caldera's best known empanada restaurant (an empanada is a bit like a cornish pasty, traditionally filled with meat, egg and olives), we made our way to the evening's rest stop - a beachside holiday camp at nearby Bahia Ingles.

Tuesday 27 June

Today's final destination would be Antofagasta, but in order to get there we first had to cross the most arid stretch of the Atacama Desert - parts of which have not registered rainfall in fifty years.

Here, the landscape is markedly different from anything we've yet encountered with the dusty-brown earth and mountain backdrop standing vivid against a deep blue cloudless sky.

Nitrate mining provided a large part of Chile's income during the nineteenth century, and abandoned reminders of the industry - such as this cemetery for miners -

can be found across the desert. The cemetery is slightly unsettling; a contrast of decorated headstones and simple wooden crosses, punctuated by the occasional partially open grave revealing a booted foot or a glimpse of white bone... we didn't hang around too long.

From the unsettling to the unreal; some way further on we encountered an enormous hand rising from the desert floor!

Known as the "Mano del Desierto" (Hand of the Desert) this 11 metre high sculpture by Mario Irarrazabal was installed in the desert in 1992.

And so to the large city port of Antofagasta, and our lodgings, but not before a quick visit to "La Porta" cliffs at sunset. Why does this remind me of Australia's Great Ocean Road?

Wednesday 28 June

Setting off from Antofagasta, it wasn't long before we came upon another reminder of Chile's nitrate-mining past at Baquedano; an abandoned yet perfectly preserved train yard (no rainfall means no humidity and therefore no rust). This place brought out the kid in all of us, as we climbed all over these magnificent old trains!

Drawing ever closer to San Pedro de Atacama, we left the PanAmerican Highway, turning instead onto a road made of compacted salt. In fact we were heading toward the bed of a dry lake, now the Atacama Salt Flat; the largest in Chile. Beds of brown rock-like salt gave way to a vast expanse of flat white salt stretching as far as the eye can see:

We took time to inspect the geometric salt formations close-up.

Our last stop for today before San Pedro de Atacama was the Los Flamencos Natural Reserve, where you can see - what else? - flamingos in their natural environment. For us it was a good chance to further our wildlife spotting, and a good excuse to take many more sunset shots. Sorry.

Thursday 29 June

The low-rise desert town of San Pedro, whilst pleasant enough to look at, is undeniably tourism-oriented. Here tour operators, internet cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops and all grades of accommodation sit cheek-by-jowl, and make San Pedro seem little more than a good base for participating in the many activities locally available.

The town square, San Pedro de Atacama

There is more to San Pedro though, as we would discover a little later. For now, we took in an evening excursion to the nearby salt caves,

and another amazing desert sunset at the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon).

Friday 30 June

Among the various activities on offer at San Pedro we spied a brief four-day tour of Bolivia which took our fancy, and so - in between watching World Cup games - we booked ourselves onto the tour which was to leave the following day. Stefan and Karin were continuing with the Chile tour for a couple more days, and so we swapped email addresses and bid them a fond but sad farewell.
After our quick break in Bolivia we would resume the remainder of our Chile tour when we returned to San Pedro the following week. Everything seemed to be going so well; nice hot weather, new countries to explore, adventure, excitement... what could possibly go wrong?
That evening, we had no inkling as to just how soon that question was going to be answered.

Monday 19 - Sunday 25 June

The guidebooks we’ve read and the travel documentaries we’ve seen suggest that for the novice traveller, Asia represents the greatest culture-shock. Not so for us. Asia is a breeze; everything is easily accessible, the majority of folk speak English and are friendly and helpful, and getting from A to B is rarely a major problem.

Nope; South America is the real culture-shock. The cities look nicely westernised and the people familiar, but if you don’t speak a word of Spanish, bewilderment soon reigns and the limitations of your phrase book quickly become apparent. OK, I'm generalising a bit here (how you fare depends enormously on the country you’re in and the people you encounter) but arriving in Chile and trying to negotiate our way around really opened our eyes… and tested our sign-language capabilities.

When I began this blog back in January I described our sense of awe at stepping off the plane in Cape Town, South Africa and being confronted by Table Mountain. We've been a bit awed by aspects of our world trip almost every day since, BUT - even before you step off the plane in Santiago your gaze is gripped by the Andes in all their majesty. Time for me to reach for the dictionary in search of new superlatives.

Santiago and the Andes

An apology; if my Santiago narrative seems sadly lacking it's because the bizarre time-zone hopping properties of our flight from New Zealand eventually left us thoroughly jet-lagged and incapable of taking decent notes and photos. Ian, our patrician host at the hostel La Chimba, is well used to greeting zombified lodgers and cheerily informed us that recovery would take at least three days. We held this thought as we duly fell into bed and passed out.

Already painfully aware of our non-existent Spanish skills, we had booked into a one-week intensive Spanish course through the hostel; two hours per night for five nights, and two five-hour 'practical' sessions out on the streets of Santiago at the weekend. The course turned out to be great fun, thanks to our enthusiastic tutor Phillipe, and the other 'students'; Stefan and Karin, and Cordula, all from Germany. We soon became good friends.

We spent our waking moments during the week exploring as much of Santiago as possible beginning with a climb up Cerro San Cristobal, a huge hill atop which an imposing statue of the Virgin Mary overlooks the city.

Like many capital cities, Santiago is huge, sprawling, busy and traffic-heavy. The predominantly dry and dusty conditions leave a pall of yellow smog hanging in the air; only after heavy rainfall does the air temporarily clear.

But a closer look reveals tree-lined parks, elegant architecture, many beautiful sculptures and statues, and a couple of fascinating museums.

And so our week passed, and on Friday night we embarked on a debauched night out to celebrate the completion of our last 'formal' Spanish lesson. Unfortunately, we massively over-celebrated, leaving the first of our practical real-life tutorials on Saturday a somewhat muted affair.

Attempting to recover the situation on Sunday, Phillipe asked us what we would like to do for the second real-life tutorial. An imaginative group vote secured a lunchtime trip to the pub to see England play Ecuador in the World Cup! For us, the scenario was surreal; an English couple, sitting in an Irish pub with a group of Germans, surrounded by Chileans, watching England versus Ecuador whilst eating Indian food. England triumphed, but our Spanish learning suffered...

Keen to get out and explore Chile, but hampered by our lack of the language we signed up for a ten-day tour of the country which would give us a taster of the highlights in a gringo-friendly package. We had to forego the first two days of the tour in order to complete our Spanish course, but taking an overnight bus from Santiago to Caldera would enable us to join the tour on the third morning.

Stefan and Karin were joining us on the trip, and so on Sunday night we bade a sad but fond farewell to Cordula and said au revoir to La Chimba (we would return for one night after the tour), headed for the bus terminal in downtown Santiago and journeyed into the night.