Road Tripping to Chilean Capital

And so we were lucky enough to be tucked into Nick´s Mitisubishu, five up. The distance from San Pedro to Santiago is about 1800 km. The road winds down the coast of the skinny country and slowly turns from shades of desert becoming gradually greener until the Mediterranean climate made us think of the Western Cape.

We slept on the beaches, ate local seafood (even tried collecting scallops but failed horribly), kept Dusty (the new name for Nick´s cabby) going with regular stops to clean the fuel filter and enjoyed Chile's scenery on our unplanned trip.

Upon arrival in Santiago, we crashed at Nick´s flat. A proper student digs home to Carolina, Andres, Negra, Panda and Nick. And what a massive thanks we must send to them again for all the help, info on the city and hospitality! We felt like (and acted like) students again. :)

Fred had broken a filling in Bolivia and was NOT keen to use the dentists up there - one dentist shared rooms with a tattoo parlor! Luckily Negra´s cousin is a dentist and a couple of phone calls and all was was sorted. Dental appointment and tooth sorted.

Santiago is an awesome, modern city. The public transit is efficient and modern. The city itself is green and clean - not a common combination in the cities we had visited thus far. We visisted the famous Cocha y Toro winery outside Satiango and saw the Cassilera del Diablo (this was the owner´s cellar so when he noticed that his wine was going missed he started a rumour that the wine was the devil´s wine. It stopped the thievery!)

We enjoyed our time in Chile that was unfortunately all to short.

 

AHHH: The Student Life Again!

San Pedro de Atacama

Entering the world´s driest desert from the other worldly sights in Bolivia was almost an anticlimax. But the good roads, signposts and a bus driver that actually seemed to realise he was carrying a load of people made our welcome into Chile a happy event. Customs were friendly and went smoothly - strangely the Chilean customs building is actually a good 75km away from the Bolivian customs buildings. Seems to work for them though!

San Pedro is a quaint , dusty little town that seems to have sprung up in the wave that is tourism. Its full of interesting people who make a living off the hundreds of tired tourists that rest their feet in the town. We did exactly that, hid from the expensive restuarants, sniffed out the local butchery and veggie sellers and rested out feet for a few days. 

We went sand boarding, rented bikes and cycled through the Salar de Atacama to the salt lakes. The salt content of the lakes is so high that you are buoyant and can relax in the water without any effort to swim - so weird feeling like a living cork. We also  joined a very well run evening tour and presentation at a local observatory. Ten telescopes had us ignoring the icy desert night and ogling the distant stars, constellations, novas and galaxies!

Our plan to head straight to Salta was blown out the water when we met Nick Gast, a hellava happy, friendly Californain living in Santiago. He offered us a spot in his 4x4 on his way south. Who can say no to a road trip anyway! So we kicked the bus to curb and headed south for a three day roadtrip...

After a long cycle in the desert and a few... to many... wrong turns we found a sign to the salt lakes.

 

The different depths of this lake presented with different hues of green and blue! Magica!

 

 

Meteor parts. The one meteor has compound similar to that found in DNA.