Bienvenido a Chile
After our amazing tour of the Bolivian Salt Lakes we were dropped at the Bolivian-Chilean border, where we caught a bus to the nearest town of San Pedro de Atacama. After only 500 metres of rocky dirt road we hit silky smooth asphalt! After so many bumpy bus and jeep rides this was a real treat.
The short bus ride to San Pedro descended 2000 metres to an altitude of 2500 and with it a welcome return to warmth; our fleece jumpers were promptly packed away and we hoped to not be needing them again for some time.
Our companions, who are on a tighter schedule than Nilgun and I, all moved straight on to a Chilean beach resort. San Pedro de Atacama is a tranquil oasis in the middle of Atacama desert and we fully intended on some R&R before getting another night bus. The town has a beautiful central plaza from which we people watched whilst splurging on cold Chilean wine, olives and bread. Yummy! The town is entirely orientated around tourism but has a wonderful charm about it. I was liking Chile already!
Our next stop in Chile had to be the beach. We took a night bus the following day to catch up with our friends in the resort town of Bahía Inglesa (English Bay). From the bus we could see the landscape of the Atacama Desert was just as staggering in Chile as it was in Bolivia. As we passed through towns the country's wealth was in stark contrast to neighbouring Bolivia and Peru; there were huge malls, clearly signed roads, brand new European and American cars, towns were clean and well lit. You could be forgiven for thinking you were in an American state.
We were greeted by out friend Hunter on arrival to the sleepy village of Bahía Inglesa. He showed us to the quaint cabaña the guys had rented. In South America tea bags are provided with most breakfasts yet it has no resemblence to English tea, more akin to that herbal infusion crap. When Tomas asked whether I would like an English Tea I jumped for joy. Apart from family, a good cup of English Tea is what I have missed most from home. I had two cups!
We had two days on the beach and a fantastic steak barbeque before the guys set off for Santiago. Nilgun and I found a smaller cabaña and spent an additional 2 days in Bahía, chilling on the beach, drinking beer and cooking our own food. It was wonderful! Just a shame the pacific ocean is so cold.
We continued our short tour of Chile in Santiago. We had intended on doing a wine tasting tour but, as with many things in Chile, the tours were very expensive. Instead we spent our time catching up with the writing of blog articles, walking around the city and it's parks and enjoying drinks in the evening with some Argentinians who were staying at the same hostel. As with most cities we have visited we have only seen the central district but what we saw was very clean, tidy, easy to get around (great metro system), similar to any modern European city. A must-do in Santiago is to sample their hot dogs. But these aren't ordinary hotdogs, the frankfurter is covered in tomato salsa and lashings of guacamole with mayo and ketchup on top. These are sold by street vendors as well as virtually every restaurant. They were so nice I had three in one day - oops! Santiago was also the first place I got my hands on a proper pint in South America, everywhere else they use silly small glasses. Chile had given me english tea followed by a proper pint - I was happy!!
We are now heading to Mendoza in Argentina for some wine tasting!
