Valparaiso First Day

We decided to do the free walking tour this morning, down in the square right below us.  This time our guide was Nelson and he walked with us for nearly four hours.

As I said the whole city is built up steep hillsides, Nelson took us up through the conservation area, and down through the city centre, main square and then through the port area.  The centre is small and compact, and the residential parts are sprawling up and out.

The hills of Conception and Alleged are UNESCO sites.  This is both good and bad.  We saw a couple of burnt out houses.  If you buy property in this area you have to renovate it back to it's original condition, hence people don't because they cannot afford it.

Last year there was a devastating fire on two of the hills further out and over 1000 houses were lost.  I'm really not surprised as the houses are so close together and the alleys so narrow,how would you be able to control it.

The Street Art.  During the Pinochet era was hard on Valparaiso.  All forms of artistic expression was banned completely and a curfew at 9pm stopped people getting together. But Valparaiso rebelled with its street art. When the regime ended it became the city of culture.

There is a particular art is who like Banksy has become famous.  He now has stuff all over the world.

we walked and walked but did ride up in two ascensors, many are scattered around the city.  They are publically owned and cost between 10 and 30 pence a ride.

we stopped for a short break and Chilean diet food....Deep fried empanadas... They were totally gorgeous, but think I will have to stay away from them.

Some pictures to keep you going.  Unfortunately I have run out of time and we have to get going down to the port to join the ship.  I will keep writing the blog and hope that when we get into ports that I will be able to load it.  But it will eventually get updated.  Hope everyone is well and will speak to you all soon.

lots of Love Janette and Rod

Leaving The Atacama and on to Valparaiso

Hola, we are on the move again, up early and waiting for the airport bus which was supposed to turn up at 7am, and didn't until 8.05.  Rod was climbing the walls by then.  But got there in plenty of time.  Again a good and comfortable flight with LAN, quite impressed with them.

Fermin our taxi driver was waiting for us At Santiago and in 10 minutes we were on our way out of the city towards Valparaiso.  When we stopped at the toll gate, he bought us Chile's Valletta's (biscuits filled with manjar or dulce leche).

We had arranged with Fermin to have a stop at a vineyard on the way.  And we stopped at the Emiliana Vineyard. It was so beautiful that we stayed a while, had a wine flight tasting and cheese, found out where we can buy the stuff in the UK. When we said that we really like Gewurztrameiner, his eyes lit up, and out came their own blend.

We the seemed to get a double tasting, including their most expensive one. Anyway we bought four bottles, two for in Valparaiso, and two for the ship.  And we intend to buy a case when we get home.

First thoughts on Valparaiso-.  There is some brutally ugly concrete buildings in the port which are contrasted by brightly painted houses skimming the hillsides.  The city is beautiful, ugly, poor, fascinating and pretty., and has life and vibrancy.   It is obviously much poorer than Santiago, which can we seen in the city and the people. They are not necessarily less friendly, and there is a little wariness about them.  But still friendly.

Valparaiso is set around a large harbour, and spread out over steep hillsides. Each one is a Barrio or district, with its own character.  At lease two of them are UNESCO! conception which we are staying on, and Alegre or Mount Pleasant in English.   As you move further back from the water the district becomes smarter (or so it seems) and everything, we've decided is up hill there are no down hills.

Our hotel is called Manoir Atkinson is is owned by a lovely French Canadian lady called Judith and her husband.  When they bought it a couple of years ago, they said it was virtually derelict, and had to start from scratch.  It is lovely and has been restored back to it's original condition.

We found a lovely small restaurant for dinner, had a great cold beer and Eaton the roof terrace watching the city life.

Our last trip Tatio Geysers

Sunday

Our last trip in San Pedro and for this we had to be up and ready for 4.30 am.  Ooch.

Well we got up and donned our shorts and padded jacket.  Only as the bus headed out of town in the dark, the guide announced that it would be minus one when we got to the geysers.  Everyone else on the bus was done up with hats, gloves, fleeces and jackets.  You would have thought he would have mentioned something.  Felt like dicks, or what.

We arrived at the geysers at dawn, and were the only people in shorts.  We had quite a few conversations with Chileans, who were amazed and our only response could be that we were English and were used to the cold.  I think we will be butt of many holiday stories for a while.

Anyway it started to warm up as the sun came up, and if you stood quite close to the geysers it was a bit warmer.  Breakfast and a coffee in the bus helped.  But it took a while for my knees to warm up.

The geysers were interesting, but after Iceland and New Zealand were a bit tame.  It was great to see the geothermal parts of the mountains, and as we drove out you could see fumeroles all over the place puffing out their steam.

We could have had a sit in a thermal pool at the site, but declined as it was packed solid, and also I thought about getting out.  We were cold enough without trying to dry off.

From there we drove on to a wetland area.  Just amazing to think there are wetlands at 4000 meters.  The whole area was teaming with Vicuna, birds and flamingos.  The green was amazing to see at such height, and after so much dryness, a true oasis for the wild life.

Our last stop on the way back to town was a small village of Machuca. Bit of an odd place.  Couldn’t quite work out what was going on.  It is an old village, but someone is renovating all the houses, you can have your picture taken with a baby llama, or try bbq'd llama kebab, or walk up to the very old and picturesque church.  I did wonder whether when the houses were renovated, they would become holiday let's.  It all seemed a bit weir

J

So it's our last high in San Pedro and we did the usual, went for a walk in town, had some dinner, wandered around.  We were already packed as we were being picked up for the transfer to the airport at 7am, another early start.

Around Town and the Valle del Luna

Today we decided not to do a trip in the morning, got up late and had a leisurely breakfast.  It was great.  Problem today was that it was threatening to be 49 degrees.

We went out for coffee, sat in the square and watched the world go by, wandered around the market and bought a small woolly llama and some wool baubles they put around llama ears!  By that time it had reached 49 degrees, we were melting.  We gave in and went back to hotel and the shady veranda.

San Pedro de Atacama.  What a place.  Its sole purpose seems to be for tourists to visit the Atacama.  The main central part is made up of Adobe mud houses, and the roads are all made of mud.  It has many parts.  A whole street of tour companies, offering similar tours out.  Lots of cafes, restaurants, and gift shops.  During the day it is quiet, as everyone is on tours, and in the evening suddenly teeming with people, little kids and dogs.

There are lots of artisan workshops and is a mecca for metalwork and art.  Much of it beautiful and I fell in love with some metal llamas, but they are just too heavy to carry for the rest of the trip.

The place is quite hippyish, and I think a lot of people come here and just don’t leave.  A few down and outs, a little worse for wear in the morning, lots of stray dogs everywhere, all of which appear to be looked after.

In the afternoon the place becomes full of bleary eyed backpackers just off the bus, carrying enormous backpacks, trying to find a hostel to stay in.  I do thank that my backpacker days are over.

The place seems to cater for every one.  There are numerous hostels, some that look distictly scruffy, to nice hostels, little places just like the one we are staying in, which is beautiful, to the Atacama Altiplano Lodge, the hotel used in the James Bond Movie, just out of town.  We did look at the possibility of staying there, but thought that £800 a night burst our budget.

Anyway at 4pm we caught a tour to the Valle del Luna and were happy to have Eric back as our guide.  The range is called the Cordillera de Domeyko and again the landscape was completely different to everything else we had seen.  Its called Valle de Luna for two reasons, one of course because so much of it looks like the surface of the moon, the second is because  Nasa used it in the 1960s to test the Lunar landings.

All of the Atacama landscape has been caused by volcanic activity and strong winds, carving out gorges and creating sandscapes. We walked through deep gorges, went into caves, trudged up huge sandunes, and saw amazing sculptured rocks.

.

On one side The Andes, with the Licancabur volcano at 5,916 metres, and the Lascar volcano with snow still on the top.  On the other side wrippled hills leading down to the Salar.   The action of wind and the occasional rain still carving out the stone.

We then drove to the Valle de Muerte, valley of death which sounds bad, but it seems to have been named in error, by a catholic priest whose spanish wasn’t so good. Should have been the valle de martes, which means Tuesday.. don’t know why he called it this.  We drove over barren shale and did wonder at one point why we were here.  But then the valley below opened up, and knew why.    Spectacular.

Our last stop, with about 500 people, was to watch the sunset.

Back to the hotel, a shower and out to dinner with a band playing.  You couldn’t want more.

The High Altiplano

Today we were up early again, this time to go out to the Altiplano and the Salar, and up to a height of 4200 metres (about 14000 ft).  We started to climb through the landscape, completely different to yesterdays, and I could feel our breathing changing quickly, as we climbed up.  The landscape was just stunning, especially in the early morning light.

We weren’t as lucky today, no four wheel drive, but a small van with about 14 of us, but never mind,it was still comfortable.  Our guide Eric was lovely and very knowledgeable about the area and fauna, he is an orthanologist and takes out specialist trips.

We finally arrived at the highest point of the Altiplano to the lakes of Miscanti and Meniques at the base of the Andes.  I hope the photos show you just how beautiful it was, as words don’t do it justice.

After a longish walk around the lakes, and seeing some wildlife we stopped for a well needed breakfast.  We drove through stunning countryside and stopped at two villages, Socaire and Toconao with its old church and bell.

It was here whilst wandering around we encountered a llama walking up the road. It stuck its head into a shop, then woman came out with a packet of crisps, and enticed it back down the road feeding it crisps which it seemed to enjoy immensly.  I think she knew the llama.

There are four types of cameloids in Chile.  Llamas and Alpaca are domesticated and kept for their meat and wool.  Guanacos are wild, smaller than the other two and live at all heights whereas the Vicunas only live at 3.5 to 4.5 thousand meters.  We saw all of them on our trips, and I have about 100 pictures to prove it.

From there we drove down to the Salar de Atacama. These salt flats cover 4000 square miles of land encompassing the Flamencos National Reserve.  We of course only saw a minute part of it, the Laguna Chaxa. But what a sight.  It was just beautiful.  Huge salt lakes full of flamingos.  There are three types that fly into the lakes, and we got to see all three, plus sandpipers, plovers and an occasional gecko.  I didn’t want to leave.  I hope the pictures do it some justice, it was stunning.

As for altitude sickness, we both did quite well at this height.  Felt very breathless and dizzy at one point, but if you took it slowly it was fine.  But altitude does make you very tired, and does weird things to your insides, but less of that.

We arrived back happy and tired.  We showered, went out for for a quick meal and then went on another trip at 9pm.

This was an astronomical visit to watch the night sky.  We drove out of town to a homestead.  It is owned by a French couple who have ten telescopes in their grounds. They also have a number of very large telescopes that they maintain on behalf of some overseas universities.  They are remotely activated by these countries, and whilst we were there we could hear them opening up.

We spend two hours with a Canadian Astronomer who went to live there five years ago.  It's one of the best places in the world, and has some of the largest optical and radio telescopes.  Near here is Alma's and further down the coast is La Serena.

He showed us the constellations and the visible planets, the moon was only a sliver, so the stars were bright, and then we moved on to the telescopes.  We saw Venus and its moons, gas clouds, two other galaxies, Sirius, Pliedades or the seven sisters, and much more.  We saw about six shooting stars, the first one so bright with a fiery tale.

He said at this time of year, the sky isn't at its best....it was wonderful enough for me.

The Rainbow Valley

Thursday

We both had a dreadful nights sleep. I think it was a mixture of the heat, the altitude and wondering whether the alarm app would work.  It did and we awoke very bleary eyed at 6am.

Our first trip was to the Valle del Arcoiris or the rainbow Valley.  We had expected a small transit and found a 4 x 4 waiting for us which was a surprise.  There were two other people from the hotel going, Christine and Mike, and Chris had a few problems walking and they sent the 4 x 4. We were the lucky ones.

The first stop was Yerbas Buena's, where the found a lot of rock art, about 1000 years old.  It was a fascinating place with extraordinary rocks.  We clambered up and over rocks to see the carvings.

Chris and Mike were hilarious. He was a retired professor of chemistry from Berkeley, a real renaissance man, who had spent many years trying to devise how to teach young people science in a way that inspired them, and on meeting him thinks he probably achieved it.  Chris was an ex librarian/teacher and putter up with Mike.  More about them later.

After the rock carvings we headed to rainbow valley... Well absolutely beautiful.  It felt like all the different minerals in the world had been accumulated in one place.

We drove to the end and then walked back down, to find Pablo our guide had set up breakfast for us.

After a few walks, we then set of for home' stopping off at a small pueblo Rio Grande, a little oasis in the dry rocks. Llamas everywhere on our way to the village.

Inca vegetable terraces and Rio Grande church.

On retiring Chris and Mike decided they did not want too. So they became farmers. What Mike is particularly interested in, amongst many things, is food production to feed the world. So he grows beans, dries and sells them.  But what he is doing is using the farm to discover old types of beans and what grows best in the US.

He is also researching the origins of food and has discovered that they mainly all come from Peru.  So on there trip in Chile he has been collecting beans.  A true eccentric who really cares about the world.

Anyway we got back to the hotel they said they were going on a cookery evening around the corner and would we like to join them.  Beans of course were on the menu, in fact he had been in email contact with the chef for many months, who it seems has the same passion.

So off we went.  We learned how to make a Pisco Sour, lemon juice and grappa type wine shaken with ice.  Or the other name is falling down water, they drink it here before a meal. Then a salsa starter, followed by empandas, we made our own whilst drinking the pisco sours.  Mike and the chef then got going with the bean dishes, which were served up wit local bread followed by home made leche ice cream.  All this accompanied by a glass or two of Chilean wine. You know I said about not drinking too much at this altitude!

Fabulous evening.

Chilling out in town

Wednesday 21st January

So here we are in San Pedro and we decided to have a chill and get used to being at 2,400 metres.  I can already feel it in the system and breathing feels different.  But also it hit 48 degree today and needed some getting used to.

We went out and did our chores, went to the bank, bought water and visited three tour companies.  I had done quite a lot of research before coming out as quite a few had bad reviews.  We plumped for the one I had thought was the best Whipala travel, and we booked four trips with them starting the next day.

By that time we were hot and bothered and came to our oasis to cool off.

We wandered around the town, which took a whole twenty minutes, and then to the museum of San Pedro. It was a small museum, surprisingly cool, and. It showed the history of the local from the stone age to now.  QI.

To be honest we sat around and read, updated the blog and went for dinner at the Adobe, re commended by here.  They have a lot of patio restaurants here. Part covered over with an open area.  Had a brilliant prawn salad and one beer.  Listened to a band.  We think it's the altitude, but one alcoholic drink is enough, and we start ed feeling a bit rough with that.

Early to bed, we forgot an alarm so I downloaded an app to the phone and tablet as we needed to be up at six the next morning.

Up and on to the Atacama Desert

We are off to the Atacama today, sadly leaving Santiago  and the Orly hotel.  We were up early ' breakfasted and in the taxi by 10am.

The lovely Orly Hotel

Well we arrive at the domestic aeropurto to seeming chaos, hundreds of people milling around, no people for information.  It was quite stressful for all of five minutes until we found the right queue.  Well I have never been through bag drop and airport security so quickly, it was amazing.

The plane was new and clean, the LAN stewards were lovely.  Well that goes for the majority of the Chileanes that we have met.  A coffee and snack later we arrived at Calama in the Atacama.

We had already arranged a minibus transfer which was waiting, and off we went towards San Pedro de Atacama.  The journey took about an hour and a half through what I can only describe as moon valley and Mars landscape.  It was such a shock, so flat, dry and barren.

Anyway we arrived. In San Pedro, culture shock or what.  It is a small town in the middle of the desert, the streets are made of compressed mud and the houses of adobe.   It looks like something out of  a spaghetti western. I keep thinking that bandits are going to come riding in and shoot the place up.

The dropped us off at a door in an adobe wall, we knocked and found yourself at the Paschal Adino hotel.  What a lovely place. Only 10 rooms, lovely and quiet and the hosts are lovely.

What can you say.. A little oasis

We wandered about the town a bit dazed, it was searingly hot. So we picked up some tour info, some water, got our baring and headed back to the hotel for some shade.

We had booked ourselves on a star gazing tour this evening, but it was cloudy, yes cloudy ,in the driest place on earth.  In summer here it can quiet cloudy for a week or so, sometimes there is a little rain on the volcano's, bus it rarely rains in  town.

Instead we went out for dinner at a patio restaurant and I had the best chicken Caesar salad and a beer.