Week Four

Santiago - Valparaiso - La Sarena - Pisco Elqui - San Pedro de Atacama

It feels like forever since I've written. The last week and a half have gone from strength to strength.  We spent a day wandering Mendoza mainly checking out the huge park that the city boasted. Unfortunately parks are very different things in Argentina, this one consisting mostly of dirt paddocks (granted one was actually a typical Argentinean desert flora area) with roads going through them, packed with traffic and generally littered with a lot of rubbish and stray dogs. We followed this up with an amazing all you can eat dinner (Ollie wasn't allowed in with his singlet on, even though I was). Needles to say, Argentineans rule at asado (BBQ).

This day was followed by a day tripping on bicycles round the vineyards of Maipu. It started with some chilled red wine at the bike shop, involved absenth, beer and some good wines (Malbec is my new favourite). Eight hours of biking and drinking had us very exhausted.

We then took a scenic bus ride through the ever towering and majestic Andes mountains to reach Santiago, Chile. Santiago has been my favorite city so far! So easy to get around and lots of parks and trees around. After a night of tasting local beers and the Chilean liquor special, pisco sours, we spent the afternoon on a free 4hr guided tour around the city. The guide was extremely passionate, especially when it came to the division of rich and poor in Santiago and Chile - this same day students had been striking in santiago to make university costs accessible to all and south chile had riots about petrol prices. That night we tried our first Chilean national dish, Pastel de Choclo. Although it sounds delicious with its mised meats covered in a corn paste and baked like a pie, it's a tad too sweet for my liking.

Although I was reluctant to ever leave Santiago, we bused out to Valaparaiso on the coast. This was originally one of the main ports of Chile and is a bit like Wellington put through a wringer. The whole city is on hills with super narrow streets. Escalators go up all the main hills so you don't have to walk. And the higher you go, the more run down the houses/shacks and the poorer the people.  It´s spectacular to look at, but didn´t feel the safest. After a night in Valparaiso we spent a day at a neighboring beach city of Vina del Mar then caught a bus to La Sarena.

I felt La Sarena had very little to offer - especially with the large amount of people approaching us on the street asking us for money or patronage to their restaurants and getting mad when we politely declined. The weather was so cloudy that we didn't even venture to the beach.

From here we went inland to Pisco Elqui. This tiny village is nestled in a valley in the hills/mountains. These tower over you from either side with vineyards climbing as high up the mountain side as humanly possible. This area is known for it's pisco production. We spent the night in a courtyard staring up at the sky in what is one of the least light polluted places in Chile. It made for a spectacular night (though the same hemisphere as NZ) and the mission was to find shooting stars for our Dutch companions. Pisco Elqui really is a piece of heaven on earth.

Finally, here I am on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama after watching an amazing sunset over the misty hills. All is well and it's time for some exciting nature.

P.S. Olivers soft side came out when he rescued a stray dog that was drowning in a park lake. Needless to say he made a friend for life - well that's how the dog saw it as he bounced around following us for half an hour. My hero...