The second driest place on Earth

After leaving Santiago we headed north on a 24 hour bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama, a town in the Atacama desert, which is famous for its lack of rain.

The bus trip was pretty uneventful and we had some great seats that reclined almost right back to horizontal, so getting a bit of sleep wasn't too hard. We arrived about 7:00 pm and it was dark, dusty and 3rd world in appearance, and we had no idea where to go, just an address. So we walked around dragging our packs behind us for a while and couldn't find any taxis. In the end we decided to go back to the bus station and managed in my very basic Spanish to ask someone to call us a taxi. The ride to our hostel only cost us $2 Chilean and once we got there the accommodation was excellent and about 10 minutes walk from the main street. The only bad thing was that there was no wifi Internet connection in the rooms, only a slow PC near reception which was occupied most of the time by the staff or people spending endless hours on MySpace.

San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in a huge desert. The area itself is pretty flat in most parts but in the distance several volcanoes can be seen. Some of these are still active although none of them were when we were here. Strangely, given the heat and dryness, snow can be seen of top of these mountains. The town gets its water from aquifers fed by run off from the Andes. Apart from tourism one of the main industries here is lithium mining. As lithium is an essential element in the production of rechargeable batteries and as a treatment for bipolar disorders, it seems the area has a bright future .. that is until the snow melt stops anyway.

The area reminds you of the photos that were taken of the surface of Mars. Another connection with space is the array of radio astronomy telescopes that exist here. Also, the Viking Mars Landers were tested here to see if they could find signs of life - they didn't find any.

The dryness makes you really thirsty at night. You wake up in the middle of the night parched and have to gulp down water. When you have a beer or coke you need to drink about six mouthfuls before you start to feel quenched. The mucus in your nose dries hard and brittle. It is also hard to avoid breathing in dust.

While we were here we rented some bikes and that made it pretty easy to get around. No one wears helmets and no one uses lights. It felt pretty strange having to ride on the wrong side of the road. Another strange thing is that no one hassled us on a bike to come into a restaurant, otherwise, on foot you might have up to 3 people simultaneously gibbering indecipherably wanting you to come in and have a feed.

Also if there ever was going to be a dog heaven this is the place. It is like dogs are sacred here and have right of way at all times. You see dogs everywhere, mostly sleeping on footpaths, in shop entrances and on the roads. They don't even open their eyes when a car or a person comes their way, they just know that people will always do their best to avoid them. However, unlike Australian dogs that come up to you and slam their noses into your crotch, or jump on you demanding to be patted, these dogs just go about their business. The don't even bark much. I saw some of them getting into a bit of a scrap, where just like a fight in primary school, caused about 10 other dogs to wake up and run down for a look. However, by the time they got there it was all over so they skulked back to where they were sleeping the day away. Hence the saying "a dog's life".

On a final note, I had this song, America - Horse with no name, going through my head most of the time I was here. It is true, after 3 days my skin began to turn red.

To view the slideshow please click here.

Santiago & stuff

At the time of writing, we are still in Santiago Chile, because we have had to wait a week for our visas to get into Brazil.

Santiago probably isn't a tourist mecca but it is a huge city and there is plenty of good stuff in and around here if you go looking.

One day we went to a huge park on a hill near the centre of the city called Parque Metropolitano.

This park has a zoo within its boundaries and at the top of the hill a huge statue of the virgin Mary. I've got to say though, that the zoo made me feel pretty sad for the animals.

The worst thing for me was seeing a bear that walking around and around in tight circles.

It is a dilemma though, when you think that the Tasmanian Devil might only survive in captivity and young kiddies get an appreciation of animals.

However for me, after this visit, if I don't ever go to another zoo then that will be too soon.

Anyway back to the top of the hill and the huge statue of the virgin Mary.

People make pilgrimages up the hill and you can see people praying there and making signs of the cross on their chests.

There is quite soulful music playing in the background and you feel really peaceful.

The peace was broken by two military aircraft flying past and we were looking down on them from out vantage point on the hill.

To get up the hill we took a rail car called a "funicular". Kim was a little nervous, but I reckon she is a bit of a scaredy-cat at times :-) ... but someone has to be.

One other night Kim shouted us out for a curry for tea to celebrate my 48th birthday. The great thing about having a birthday over the other side of the dateline is that you get to have two birthdays. Your birthday at home and your birthday abroad, otherwise, it never really feels like it actually is your birthday.

Anyway, the curry was an experience that I'll never forget. There were about 4 waiters in the restaurant and only about 8 customers. They come over with your food and serve it for you on your plate. They took so much pride in their work you could tell that they actually loved what they did. They spooned out the rogan josh as if we were royalty. Apart from that the curry was excellent, but we both may have suffered slightly for it the next day .... need I say more ;-) (Think Johnny Cash song)

The next day we headed up to the ski fields. The resort that we stayed at was El Colorado, about 3300 meters up in the Andes. I had a bit of breathlessness and headaches from the altitude, but nowhere near as bad as I had last time I was in Cusco, Peru, despite the altitude being almost the same. The weather was great, fine sunny days, it was almost hot. People were out skiing in T shirts. We took some skiing lessons and both had our own instructors. I had done some skiing before, when I was 17, and it must be like riding a bike because I could ski as well or if not better than I had ever been able to. Kim was a novice and I was maybe 1 step ahead of her. Kim had to learn to stop, and I had to learn to turn. We both mastered these steps and in my case maybe too well. On my last trip down the big hill I thought that being able to go fast would be my next challenge. I was going pretty well too and maybe 100 meters from the bottom when I got the speed wobbles and took a bit of a tumble. I felt the tendon in my leg give a bit of a snap ... not good. However, I managed to make it down the hill and ski back to the apartment. Kim was a great nurse and put some snow in a supermarket bag and put it on my leg. I'm feeling much better now though, but walk much more slowly than before. I guess it pays to be a scaredy-cat sometimes :-).

Subtle differences

I thought I'd share a few subtle things that are different to Australia.

The cars here are all left-hand drive and travel on the right-hand side of the road. The other thing is that when people walk along footpaths they mostly stick to the right-hand side. After years of walking on the left it is pretty hard to get used to dodging people by veering to the right.

Shops have separate cashiers. In Aus. you get used to going into a milkbar, getting served and paying the same person. Several times even when buying a small item like a drink or chewing gum, I get served by one person, then get told to go to a different counter to pay.

Supermarkets are a bit different. Firstly you can buy alcohol, wine, beer and spirits all available like any other grocery item. You just load up your trolley with beer just like you would any other item. The check out chics also get to sit down on chairs. It makes me wonder why Australians insist on torturing the check out operators by making them stand all day. What is the benefit?

Tipping is expected. You get used to tipping everyone here. It is like there is an official and an unofficial price for everything. Generally we add about 10% for restaurants and taxis then round up to the nearest whole dollar (or peso). People get taxis for you then demand a tip, so too do people that but your bag on the bus. Its not that hard to get used to, if you think that the real price is about 10% more. Its also a good idea to keep small notes and change, otherwise you might have to give someone 10 bucks (Arg.) just for getting you a taxi, as I did recently :-$

Sugar is everywhere. When you get a coffee you end up with about 3 sachets of sugar for each cup. Breakfast cereals are like eating candy almost. Street vendors sell sugar encrusted peanuts. Even if you order 'natural' orange juice you can see then pour about half a cup of finely ground sugar into the blend. If you say that you don't want sugar then they sort of look at like you are strange.

Whenever you buy a coffee they give you a glass of carbonated water. I'm not sure what that is about. Maybe it helps clean your teeth or freshen your breath ... dunno.

Religion is huge. Roman Catholicism is hugely influential with images, statues, and crucifixes everywhere. The other big 'religion' is soccer, but unlike Australia where footy supporters worship Melbourne (or former) suburbs as teams at least here they support their country (I couldn't resist:-).

Apart from that, people speak Espanol, almost everyone has black hair, smoking is pretty popular still, and people use their horns in their cars like there will be no tomorrow.

Everything else is much the same :-)

Mammoth Flickr slideshows

We have already taken a few hundred photos since we arrived and it is pretty hard to show them all on a standard blog site, so I have spent a quiet day uploading heaps of images onto Flickr.

That allows me to show them as a slideshow. The other benefit is that if this computer gets stolen then I have them all backed up on the Internet.

The photos are unedited and appear in each show, in the order that they were taken. Some you will have seen before, eg. Andes from the air, and others appear in more than one place, eg. Scuplture, statues and 3D art.

Just click on the links below to start the slideshows. You might need the Flash player installed if it doesn't work.

I hope you enjoy them.

The Andes from the ground

Mendoza

Sculpture, statues and 3D art

Valparaiso

The Andes from the air

Santiago

Buenos Aires

Mendoza

We arrived here a few days ago after crossing the Andes on a bus. The buses here are really good and put Redline and the MTT to shame (are they still called that?). We had a few minor hassles, the first was that they did not give me a ticket for my backpack when I put it on the bus and when w

e got off, were not keen to give my pack back to me + they could not understand a word of English and I couldn't understand them. Somewhat frustrating :-S. Then we went into the bus station and Kim couldn't get any money out of the ATM. I tried and it worked first time - we both have Wizard Mastercards so dunno what happened there.

The next day we went on a 1/2 day winery and olive oil farm tour. That was great because we had English speaking guides that were very passionate about their wines and educated us about how to appreciate a wine's taste, colour, structure and aroma - even how to hold a wine glass properly.

We got shown all the stages of wine growing and production and ended up buying a few bottles which unfortunately we must drink soon because it is difficult to carry much more than we are now.

The olive oil tour was just as good with similar explanations and tastings. They make an olive paste here which I have never had before and has an excellent flavour. You can really taste the difference between a good olive oil and an ordinary one, its hard to describe, other than to say it somehow has a more waxy/earthy taste and texture.

That night we wandered around Mendoza unt

il we found a posh restaurant. We were just about their first customers of the night at 8 pm. We ordered pepper steaks but got steak with mushrooms, but overall it was OK and probably cost about $40 AU for both of us with our drinks.

The next day we went for a walk up to a huge park in the city called Parque San Martin (Saint Martin park). There is a zoo somewhere inside the park that we didn’t end going to, because we had had enough after walking about 15 kms. At one stage we were a bit lost and I managed to ask for directions and our current location all in Spanish. I still feel surprised when people understand me.

Later that night we went to another restaurant, this one was crap unfortunately. I ordered mashed potatoes by pointing at the item on the menu and somehow ended up with pumpkin. The pork spare ribs that I got eventually were tough and very salty. Kim really enjoyed her lasagne though.

Mendoza is a big provincial city and it is really flat here, with the snow-capped Andes rising in the distance. There are wineries everywhere and heaps of olive trees. It has a bit of a European feel to it with lots of street dining.

There are hardly any beggars here and those that are here don't look that poor.

The other interesting thing is there is a reticulated irrigation system here with water canals that date back to the time of the Incas. They look like big gutters but with lots of water flowing fast through them. An earthquake here in 1861 killed over 5000 people.

Currently we are sort of trapped here because the road across the Andes is closed due to snow. We might even have to stay two extra nights here. But oh well, you get that I s'pose, I'm happy taking it easy :-)

The trick to leaving comments

G'Day everyone,

We've got a few messages back from people saying that their comments aren't getting posted.

The strange thing is that some are getting through.

So I had a bit of a look at it an the trick seems to be choosing the anonymous profile first.

There is a drop down menu just under the comment box that lets you choose Anonymous as an option.

Simply, 1. leave your comment in the box, then 2. choose the Anonymous profile, then 3. press the Post Comment button and it will work.

I tried without choosing Anonymous and sure enough it didn't work.

So, please leave your comments, we look forward to reading them every day.

Pick pocketted in Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a nice place, with many colourful and old houses around the bay. Much of this area is world heritage. It used to be a major port before the Panama Canal opened and is still quite large as a container port and naval base.

We never did feel entirely safe here and got a few warnings but today the inevitable happened - I got "pick-pocketed". That sounds better than robbed anyway :-S

Kim and I were walking around a fairly crowded market having a bit of a look around, next thing I felt a whack on my leg and saw a bloke running away flat out through the crowd. It was weird at first because I felt for my wallet and camera and I had both of them so thought that nothing had happened. Then I realised that he had taken my glasses which were in a small neoprene case in my pocket.

I thought that the glasses would be of no use to the robber because I have a strange prescription. I have one weak eye and one almost normal one, with variegated multifocals. When I first wore them they made me feel dizzy and took about two weeks to get used to. So they wouldn't be much good to anyone else but me.

I walked up the street a bit to see if they had been ditched anywhere but it was no use so I headed back to the market. One of the ladies that had a stall there had seen what happened and she was really concerned and rang the police on her mobile. She couldn't speak a word of English and she tried to talk to us but it was hopeless. It seemed that most people near us knew what had happened. A couple of blokes came up to us that could speak English, one of them apologised on behalf of Chileans and said that this made him 'feel like shit'. We had to wait for nearly an hour for the police to come and the woman stayed with us the whole time. I thanked her several times and wanted to give her some money for helping me, but the police told us not to.

Next thing we are in the police van and off to the cop shop. I needed to make a statement so that I could claim the theft on insurance. We had to wait in the station for about 1/2 an hour and while we were in there we met two Australians that had also been robbed. They were a young couple that were walking in a fairly isolated area and got held up with a knife to the throat. They took the young woman's backpack which contained her phone and other documents. I guess my situation wasn't that bad after all.

Eventually I got called through to read my statement and that was it all over. We went to an 'Optica' shop where I bought a new pair of glasses for $10, which are nowhere near as good as my old ones, but heaps better than none.

Funny, I don't even feel that bad about it. The kindness of the people that helped me more than made up for the theft, which probably was an act of desperation. So in the end no harm done and a valuable lesson to learn, that is only carry what you are prepared to have stolen. It could have been heaps worse.

This video was taken about an hour before the incident .. expect it when you least expect it.