Day 207 - Chile to New Zealand (27/07/09)

TRAVELLING FROM CHILE TO NEW ZEALAND (27/07/09)

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Click on the map above to see a zoomable version of our complete Latin American journey.

So our time in South America is over. We have the relief of going back to a country where we can understand and fluently speak the language but also the dismay of having to pay first world prices once again. Our time in Latin America had it's ups and downs but luckily for us the ups far outweighed the downs. Far from being the dangerous and intimidating countries that they are often portayed to be we have found the people, in general, friendly and inviting and that mostly the danger people have found themselves in has been of their own making. By exercising caution and common sense we avoided even the slightest hint of trouble in these supposedly perilous places.
Anyway we will both certainly be back to this magnificent continent in the future as there is still so much we have not seen or done.

There is nothing else to write for the 27th of July 2009 because we didn't have a 27th of July 2009. Due to the crossing of the International Date Line we missed out on an entire day, taking off from Santiago on the evening of the 26th and landing in Auckland 13 hours later on the morning of the 28th. Try getting your head around that when you're jet-lagged...

Days 203-206 - Santiago, Chile

SANTIAGO (23/07/09 - 26/07/09)

Our last bus journey in South America was a pleasant two hours from Valparaiso to Santiago the capital of Chile. Having heard bad things about the city we were relieved to find that we actually really liked it. In the middle of Santiago is a large hill with the city's only ascensor up to the top.

We rode the ascensor to the top of the hill and were greeted with this spectacular view of the city. The hazy band through the middle is the pollution which the city is unfortunately famous for.

We had a nice sunnny morning before the grey clouds rolled in.

Right on the top of the hill is a large statue of the Virgin Mary and an open air church overlooking the city.

Santiago is home to an excellent art museum. Unfortunately photographing the art is not allowed but we were allowed to take a picture of the impressive gallery roof.

Probably the best museum we have visited in all our travels is the Santiago Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. Rather appropriately, considering that we were in our last destination in Latin America, the museum covered pre-colonisation art from Mexico through Central and South America all the way to Chile - the same route that we have taken. There were hundreds of fascinating artifacts, much better than any we had previously seen in the countries that they are from. Above and below are a selection of our favourites.

This Chilean mummy pre-dates those from Egypt by at least 2000 years making them the oldest examples of mummification yet found. The process involved replacing the bones and organs of the body with wood and mud.

Our final lunch in South America. Cheese empanadas on a bench in Plaza de Armas, Santiago's central square.

Days 199-202 - Valparaiso, Chile

VALPARAISO (19/07/09 - 22/07/09)

We arrived in Valparaiso after our longest, but certainly not worst, bus journey at 24 hours. We both immediately liked the city which for some reason reminded us alot of Brighton. It was not picturesque in a conventional way but was quirky and interesting and we spent many hours just wandering the maze like streets.

Not far from our hostel was a disused prison which had been converted into a cultural centre for the local community.

Many of the original features of the prison still remain such as this watch tower. Like many of the buildings in Valparaiso the prison architects took advantage of the natural bedrock to add stability.

The prison was in use as recently as the mid 1990s. As we walked around we looked in as many windows as possible and finally found this cell which still had beds and mattresses in it. The cells were probably about the same size as those in the UK but the Chilean prisoners were squeezed four to a cell rather than two.

Adam finally where he belongs!

Local artists and children have been allowed to paint all the old prison walls adding colour and life to what would otherwise be a cold and depressing building.

We were quite overwhelmed by the hundreds of stray dogs living around the city. They seem to be perfectly well accepted as citizens of Valparaiso and coexist peacefully with the locals, even waiting patiently at traffic lights for the green man before crossing the road. We didn't mind them either since they completely ignored us even when we were eating.

One thing that sets Valparaiso apart from most other cities are its incredibly steep hills and its novel way of dealing with this. Around the city are about 20 or so "ascensors" which are basically diagonally rising lifts. They were all built around the turn of the last century the one above being the oldest of them built in 1883. Not all of them have been particularly well maintained and riding up can be a hair raising experience.

Normally the cars hold around seven or eight people but we were lucky enough to get this one to ourselves.

The view from the top of the highest of the ascensors. Going up was scary enough but going down was terrifying. However it still seemed a better option than climbing up and down huge hills all day and the fares were never more than the equivalent of about 30p.

Out of all the cities we visited in South America Valparaiso would probably be the one where we would most like to live. All the buildings are painted in bright colours and the people are really friendly.

Day 198 - Travelling, Chile

TRAVELLING FROM SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA TO VALPARAISO (18/07/09)

Not impressed with San Pedro we booked bus tickets to to city of Valparaiso in the middle of Chile, a 24 hour trip. We were relieved to arrive at the coach park and see that our bus was not an old banger. In fact despite the length of the trip it was by no means anywhere near the worst bus trip we have had.

Almost the entire trip was through seemingly endless desert. Whilst the dusty landsape did get rather monotonous we did have the treat of this spectacular sunset.

Day 197 - San Pedro, Chile

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, CHILE (17/07/09)

After our freezing six hour wait for a bus the day before we both had colds and decided to rest a couple of days in the town of San Pedro de Atacama. It´s not a great town. Someone has put far too much effort into making it appeal to the tourist´s idea of what South America should be like. It feels like you are walking through "ChileWorld" at Disney Land. Anyway it didn´t really warrent any pictures although Liz snapped this one of a modern day cowboy. After being woken up after midnight by one of the staff at our hostel to tell us that they had overbooked and wanted to put some other people in our room (we said no, of course, and refused to pay the next morning) we decided we had had enough of San Pedro and booked our bus tickets out of there as soon as possible.

Day 196 - Atacama Desert, Bolivia/Chile

CROSSING THE ATACAMA DESERT FROM BOLIVIA INTO CHILE (16/07/09)

Our final day of travelling across the desert. We got up way before dawn since the geysers and other geothermal phenomena are most active at this time. Unfortunately the temperature at this time of night had dropped to a rather uncomfortable -20ºC, hence the lack of smiling. It was, however, amazing to get so close to a geyser, the power and noise it made was incredible.

As the sun rose it turned the sky beautiful colours, despite the geysers attempts to disguise it with it´s sulphurous steam.

Standing in the steam was a double hardship - not only were we freezing cold but the smell of rotten eggs was almost overpowering.

Bubbling mud-pots can be quite a hazard before dawn with the impaired visibility caused by the steam. At least one tourist has been accidentally boiled to death in the past. Oh well, there are plenty of them...

At last the sun made an appearance over the horizon bringing with it some well needed warmth. With any luck it would raise the temperature to a sweltering -7ºC over the course of the day.

Liz wrapped in as many clothes as she could at the frozen edge of another lagoon.

You know it´s cold when Adam puts on a wooly hat and gloves.

Another ancient volcano bordering the rather unoriginally named Laguna Verde (green lagoon).

The end of our Jeep trip. Rather than returning to Bolivia with our car we opted to be dropped off at the Bolivia/Chile border and catch a bus from here to the Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama. Our driver assured us we would have no more than 45 minutes to wait but we should have known by this point never to trust a South American when it comes to times...

Three hours later we were still waiting for a bus- freezing cold from inactivity at about -5ºC. Liz would probably have looked considerably more miserable if she had known at the time that we still had another three hours to go.

Day 195 - Atacama Desert, Bolivia

THE ATACAMA DESERT (15/07/09)

Early in the morning we left the salt hotel and the salt flats and began our trip into the Bolivian section of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world.

Most of the trains from Uyuni have stopped running through lack of demand but twice a week a freight train makes the 40 hour run through the desert and into Chile.

Part of the reason why the desert is there is the regions strong volcanic activity and large volcanic ridges.

Strange volcanic rock formations such as this are testament to ancient violent activity.

As we gradually climbed higher the weather got colder and colder. Finally we reached this lagoon, three quarters of which was frozen over.

Hardly able to stand the biting cold and icy winds we stayed out of the car as long as we could to look around. Adam still had plenty of time to try his weight on a bit of ice and get a wet foot though.

Picnic lunch by the lagoon. Adam looks a bit miserable because he had picked up a stinking cold.

The next lagoon we visited was home to a large colony of pink flamingoes.

We felt very priveledged to see these beautiful, elegant birds in the wild once again, although the vast majority of the colony had migrated north to escape the cruel winter.

As we watched another group flew in, returning with the beginning of spring.

A Degu, closely related to Rabbits and Chinchillas.

One of the Atacama´s most famously eroded rocks - the Stone Tree.

Wrapped up as warm as possible against the sub zero temperatures we still had trouble feeling our extremities. Sometimes it felt hard to appreciate the beauty over the excruciating cold, but we managed (most of the time).

Day 194 - Salt Flats, Bolivia

TRAIN CEMETERY AND UYUNI SALT FLATS (14/07/09)

Before heading to the famous Salt Flats we made a quick stop at Uyuni´s Train Cemetery where, rusting away, lie at least a couple of dozen old locomotives. Mostly of British construction they represent a long past time when Bolivia was an important mineral mining nation and many trains a day would pass through Uyuni headed to destinations all over South America.

Not having the same paranoia about health and safety as we do at home the Bolivian authorities are more than happy to let visitors climb all over the rusting metal - if you hurt yourself it´s your own fault.

Some of the old steam trains were huge and must have been very grand and powerful in their time.

Adam, the child that he is, was keen to climb in and on as many of the trains as possible.

The strong winds blowing off the desert made this more scary than it looks.

What could be a scene from almost any arid region of the world - except that the bricks of the building are all made from salt.

A mound of salt at a small salt processing plant at the edge of the salt flats. Very little of the salt is processed and taken away, although this will probably soon change. An estimated 50% of all the World´s lithium is thought to be contained in Uyuni´s Salt Lake and now this element is increasingly in demand for the manufacture of high efficiency batteries.

You do not have to drive far before you are surrounded by a sea of white stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions.

One of the famous qualities of the salt lake is it´s potential for creating illusions in photographs. I don´t suppose you can call Adam under the thumb, but maybe trodden under foot.

Adam often dreams about food this large relative to his body.

Liz could actually probably eat a packet of M&M´s larger than herself.

Adam and his bargain price Bolivian guitar. The sound is good but the construction is so cheap that even if he was this small it probably wouldn´t take his weight.

After all the fake pictures it seems strange to see us standing on something real - mounds of salt.

Floppy decided to come and join Liz and enjoy some of the fresh, salty air.

One of the guides lent us this toy Grizzly Bear to terrify Liz with.

The small amount of rain that falls each year onto the salt plains quickly evaporates but as it does it cracks the crust creating these strange pentagonal and hexagonal patterns.

Right in the middle of the salt lake is Fish Island, so called because apparently it is fish shaped when viewed from above. Before the enormous salt water lake evaporated about 40,000 years ago it was a large coral reef - now all the rock forming the ´island´ is made up of fossilised coral.

Now instead of tropical fish and coral Fish Island is home to the one of largest species of cactus in the world growing to as much as 12 metres (about 36 feet) in height.

The cactii really are enormous! What is even more impressive is that they only grow about 1cm (half an inch) per year meaning that this example could be around 1000 years old!

Posing for comedy photos with cactii can be dangerous - always remember when pretending to hug a cactus not to actually do it.

Liz getting it right, convincing but no holes in her arm.

Part of the reason that they can live so long is that almost nothing can eat them through their fierce, spiny defences.

Literally in the middle of nowhere.

Getting the right angle.

The salt lake is incredible, stretching for miles is just plain white salt but it has an amazing, mysterious beauty.

Bricks made of salt ready to construct another salt hotel on the outskirts of the salt flats to cater for the increasing number of tourists visiting each year.

Our own Salt Hotel. Chairs, tables, walls, floors and beds are all made of salt. Needless to say the chairs are extremely uncomfortable, luckily the salt beds have non-salt matresses.