After our various delays in Argentina and in an effort to save some time we decided that we would cut our time in Chile very short and only visit Valparaiso on the coast and then San Pedro de Atacama in the northern desert.
After our few days in the wilderness of Uspullata we welcomed being back in a city. Valparaiso is only an hour away from Santiago and set upon the hills reaching towards the coastline. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site and you can understand why when you see the old colourful buildings perched upon the hills.
We stayed in a B&B atop one of these beautiful "cerro's" surrounded by interesting houses, art galleries, boutiques and restaurants. It reminded us of Brighton on a big scale and we settled in right away. We made the most of a free city walking tour with our very enthusiastic guide who showed us all of the most famous buildings and also artwork that adorns as many of Valpos walls and sidewalks as possible. We even came across a mural that had been done by a group of French people we met back in Iguazu.
The other best thing about Valpo was the food. As much as we loved the abundant juicy steak in Argentina, we were ready for some variety and Valpo did not disappoint. We had the most amazing sushi which was hand rolled in front of us as well as some really good gyoza's. Our food highlight being a gastronomic Chilean restaurant with the tastiest food we'd had so far. We also sampled some very good beers! It seems that at least in Valparaiso there is a bit of a craft beer scene, including dark and amber beers which was a nice change from red wine and lager!
But time was against us, so after a few days we had to leave on a 26 hour bus ride to the north. The ride actually was very comfortable, the roads are very good in Chile so you don't have much 'bump' factor and the seats we had were big and reclined far...they even showed movies...pure luxury!
Well, arriving into San Pedro de Atacama was quite something, literally in the middle of the dessert surrounded by mountains this dusty little town was unlike any we had visited yet. We checked into our small hostel and met another couple at the same time. After a little time relaxing following our epic bus ride we then went to explore the small town and investigate the numerous tour operators who provided excursions into the dessert. We had read that San Pedro was one of the best places in the world for star gazing so immediately booked on to go to a nearby observatory that night. But, unfortunately it was too cloudy and so we hoped that we could go the following night. We decided with the couple we met that the next morning we would rent bikes and cycle out to some nearby sand dunes and try some sandboarding. The ride was really impressive and the sand dunes even more so. Being at altitude trying to climb the steep dunes was quite a challenge...after a few attempts we realised that we had been given a bad sand board as it was too heavy and kept sinking into the sand. We did get to see some other people who were real pro's show us how its supposed to be done! That evening the sky was clear and we were able to take the excursion to the observatory. The tour consisted of 3 parts, the first being a talk about the stars we can see with the naked eye, this included information about the different star constellations, their correlation to the moon, sun and the seasons. This was really fascinating as we were looking at constellations that cannot be seen in the UK. The second part was being able to look through 10 telescopes at various objects such as star clusters in the milky way, Saturn and its rings as well as stars that shine different colours. The final section was the opportunity over a nice cup of hot chocolate to talk to the French astronomer that runs the facility which again was a wonderful learning experience. We came away from the night not only having seen some of the most beautiful stars but also learning a lot too.
But our time in San Pedro and Chile was up, the next day we would embark on one of our most exciting adventures so far..a 4wd tour into Bolivia finishing at the breathtaking Salt Flats in Uyuni...watch out for the next installment!
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