Having cleared Chilean immigration we set about finding a hostel in the desert town of San Pedro de Atacama. As the name suggests, San Pedro is an oasis town in the Atacama desert. It is a gringo hangout, with more western backpackers than we saw in the whole of Peru and Bolivia put together. Most of the buildings are made of mud, as it seldom rains in the driest place on Earth! The streets bustle with backpackers and are full of shops, restaurants and outside bars filled with fire pits at night. The adobe church in the centre of town was built in the 17th century, its walls are made of mud and the roof is made of wood, both survive to this day. The change in altitude and temperature was quite something - suddenly we were basking in glorious sunshine, although the nights did get a little chilly, this being the desert. Our hostel was a very chilled out affair, with rooms arranged around communal gardens strewn with chairs and hammocks, and a kitchen for cooking. We decided to spend a few days relaxing here, rather than trying to hot-foot it to the beach, as the combination of buses required to do that and end up in Santiago became quite complicated and pricey. Having spent the last few days travelling through the desert we also decided not to bother hauling ourselves out on any tours of the nearby dunes. Instead we spent three lovely days sleeping late, wandering the streets, perusing the markets and shops and generally relaxing. As the cost of everything in Chile is quite a lot higher than Bolivia and Peru it was great to be able to cook for ourselves. We enjoyed making our own breakfasts and even cooked ourselves a slap-up pasta meal - the luxuries of travelling!
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| Adobe church, San Pedro |
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| San Pedro streets |
Our longest bus journey so far - we caught the 8:11am bus to nearby Calama, where we had a picnic breakfast at the bus station to wait for the 12:00 to Santiago. The bus to Santiago was 24 hours long, but it was actually not that bad. We had paid extra for cama seats, that are wider and fold back further, and the bus played a succession of passable films from midday til midnight to keep the weary traveller entertained. A small dose of Diazepam, procured in Bolivia, helped the night pass soundly, and we woke up in Santiago in the late morning of the 24th.
Day 50 - 24th January
After arriving in Santiago at around 11:00, we walked to our hostel and relaxed in the sunny garden until our room was ready. After a reviving snooze we set out to explore the centre of the city. Santiago is a beautiful city, with wide boulevards, plenty of green spaces, grand colonial buildings and modern architecture. It feels a little like a European capital but on a grand scale, or like a US city with character. We wandered past some of the government buildings and went into the cathedral (large and very tasteful for a Catholic cathedral!) After that we rested for a while in Parque Santa Luis, the city's most central park. There we climbed to the top of Cerro Santa Luis for beautiful views of the city. Enjoying the green spaces and cafe culture of central Santiago, we decided to head down to the river, expecting to find more of the same. The only problem is, the Rio Mapocho has dried to all but a muddy stream and the only roads that run along it are major thoroughfares! Oh well, back to our laid back hostel for a gourmet dinner o f soup and bread, topped off with some local beer.
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| Old Congress Building |
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| Santiago |
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| Santiago Cathedral |
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| View from Cerro Santa Lucia |
Day 51 - 25th January
Happy day! Today we went wine tasting in the Maipo Valley. We decided to forgo the mass production of Concha y Toro, the most popular winery, in favour of some smaller local producers. One of the best things about Santiago is how easy it is to get to the vineyards. Less than an hour from the centre of town on the metro we found ourselves at Vina Cousino Macul, a vineyard founded in 1856 by a French family, who still own the vineyard today, as well as another one in nearby Buin. The tour at Cousino Macul was good value and very informative. We learnt all about the wine production process, from the methods used in the early days of the vineyard to the latest in modern technology. The tour also included 2 tastings - a blush white wine, which was refreshing and dry, and a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva, which we'll look out for at home.
Next stop, about half an hour walk away, was the tiny vineyard of Aquitania. Set up in the 1990s by 3 French vintners, one from Chateau Margaux and one from Bollinger, with a Chilean partner, they aspired to create Chilean wines of distinction. Production at the vineyard is very small, producing only 7 varieties, with some of their grapes grown at their other vineyard in the lake district. We opted for the premium tour here, which included a personal guide around the estate and buildings. They were bottling some of the wine when we visited, a process that only happens 5 or 6 times a year. The cellar was very small in comparison to Cousino Macul, and all the bottling, labelling and storing is done by hand on site. The tasting included a delicious Pinot Noir, their signature Cabernet Sauvignon and a fantastic Chardonnay, voted Chile's best Chardonnay several years running.
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| Wine tasting at Aquitania |
After such a lovely afternoon it was a shame to head back into the city, and the rubbish directions provided by the Lonely Planet made it even more arduous. We ended up getting a bus in the wrong direction and having to walk over an hour to the nearest metro station!
Day 52 - 26th January
Today we relaxed in Santiago again, we went to some of the local markets and walked up to the city's tallest hill, Cerro San Cristobal, hoping to go to the swimming pools at the top, but the cable car had now closed and by the time we got there it was too late to walk the 4km up the hill to the pools so we gave up and went back to the hostel. We had a slight (major!) panic when we discovered Jon had misplaced our bus ticket for this evening. After searching fruitlessly through our bags we managed to locate the dumpster (excuse the Americanism but we don't have an equivalent word) on the corner for the street where the hostel put their rubbish. Luckily I always carry some latex gloves and Jon spent an uncomfortable 10 minutes searching through the rubbish before locating our precious tickets! Cue another laid back evening drinking beer and eating pasta in the garden before boarding the night bus to Pucon in the Lake District.
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