4 days of silence on the way.......

So I'm two and a half weeks into this whole thing with another seven weeks spread out in front of me.  Coming up is what I suspect is going to be the most challenging part of the whole trip, the altitudes on the Bolivian salt plains.  I just put an altimeter on my mobile so I can check what altitudes we actually reach, should be interesting.

It's going to be a tough four days and three nights and hopefully it will all go without a hitch.  I do know that wifi connection will likely be pretty hard to come by so most likely nothing will be posted on here until Sunday when I get back to Santiago before heading for Argentina.  I'm going to try and write offline while we go so there should be a flurry of posts going up late on Sunday night.

So far it's all been good.  I've enjoyed myself, met some great people and overall had about as good a time as could be expected given everything else that's been going on.  Once I hit the three week mark - in other words, after I've finished in the salt flats - I'll do another little Q&A session for some of the highlights of the first three weeks.

See you all on Sunday!

Tatio Geysers

4am, the moon is still strong in the sky, and the buses have started buzzing around San Pedro de Atacama picking up those foolish souls who signed up to go and visit the Tatio geysers.  

Why so early?  Because once the sun crosses the top of the mountains around them the steam starts to show less and less because the temperature starts to climb relatively quickly.  However, bear in kind that these things are at 4300m (14000 feet) above sea level, so it's a little cold first thing in the morning.......

However, the geyser field is quite spectacular.......

Apparently around some of the larger ones in the past peoplemwouldnwalk up to them and there was so much steam they didn't realise how close they were and fell through the relatively thin ground into the geysers - these are pure boiling water so that's not good!  They therefore had the genius idea of marking out paths for people to follow.  Smart folks these Chileans!

It definitely felt a little strange at that elevation, you could tell everyone was a little drowsy from a combination of the early morning and the thin air.  It was worth the trip though, and again, some of the scenery is truly breathtaking!

Valle de la Luna - Atacama Desert

High upon the salt plains of the Wild Chilean frontier with Bolivia a brave, and some may say foolhardy explorer set out in search of the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon).  Well ok, it was me and I was with a bus load of people but it doesn't hurt to have some drama, got to keep the readers involved or I might get cancelled.

Anyway, today was a late start, about 4pm, heading out into the salt plains of the Atacama, just outside San Pedro de Atacama where I am staying.  The name Valle de la Luna comes about because the explorer who discovered it thought it looked like the surface of the moon.  He wasn't far wrong, except maybe this was a bit too red .......

First off was a hike up a sand dune, only a short one to look out over these valleys.  As everyone created the top pretty much everyone was making various "wow" comments in whichever language and I'm sure some choice words were among them

Next up was the Tres Marias, now you're going to have to squint a bit at this but basically the idea is that the one on the left is her in prayer, the one in the middle is her looking up at the sky and unfortunately the left one broke off some time ago so that's just a stump.  I can kind of see it but it's a stretch.

My favourite however was the "Uno T-Rex"

Which was right next to it.  One thing to note, all of these were formed by natural means, rock formations, wind erosion, no human interference.

Next up was the Salt Valley, a long canyon of amazing rock formations and when you stood still without a sound you could hear the rocks contracting as they cooled down from the heat of the day.

Last up was Death Valley, which many believe was because the explorer didn't speak good Spanish.  He thought it looked like Mars and so wanted to call it "Valle de la Martes" but people misheard and thought he'd said "Muerte".  Apparently if he did think it was Mars he wasn't far wrong as apparently NASA was there a few years ago testing some of their Mars explorers.

All that was left then was to get to the viewing point and wait for the sunset.  And althought the sunset was pretty......

Watching the Andes mountains change colour as the shadow moved across them was even more so......

So that was today.......  It is truly amazing some of the formations that nature provides us in different parts of the world.

Tomorrow it's off to the Tatio geysers, which also means a 430am departure time and freezing cold temperatures as these are the highest in the world apparently.  At 6am when I will be there the temperature will be around -15C - and I'm doing this for fun!!

Life at altitude

Right now, as I've said I'm at about 7800 feet above sea level.  This is right around where altitude sickness kicks in and I have to admit I am feeling it a little.  A little disorientated, a little nauseous, it feels just like a hangover which is what a lot of people report it as.

Fortunately I have a couple of days here to adapt before going higher but I'm going to have to watch myself I know it.  Have to make sure I'm taking on plenty of fluids, it's so dry up here you can dehydrate very quickly, apparently lots of carbs as well, I guess your body starts to work harder to make up for the low oxygen levels.

Either way, I'm fine, I guess, but having been relatively dismissive of altitude sickness and that I could tough it out I'm starting to realise this isn't something to be taken lightly!  I have rest until 4pm today and I'm definitely going to be taking it easy apart for a couple of errands I need to run.

For now, deep breaths everybody :o)

Some Chilean History & Preserving the Past

As I was on the flight up to the Atacama, which I'm actually on as I'm writing this, I realised I'd missed out some fairly significant pieces of the history of the place.

For a start some of the buildings still carry the scars of the coup led by General Pinochet......

When he came into power he launched everything at the palace, planes, army, the lot.  He didn't hold back.  This is one of the government buildings in the main square, it's still riddled with marks from the bullets and that's quite high up so you can see it was fairly indiscriminate.

Secondly, they came up with a great way of preserving a heritage site, keeping the street looking the same but turning it into very attractive retail space.  I don't know if these pictures convey it but they stripped out the inside of the building and then bolted the new construction to the walls and built a new modern structure inside the old one.  Maybe instead of knocking out the old buildings and putting in shiny shop fronts the UK could have done something similar.  I'm particularly thinking about my home town here, York.  How much different Coney street could have looked.

Atacama - big and not flat

Here I am in San Pedro de Atacama at 2400m (about 7800 feet) above sea level.

We had a stop off at another airport and fortunately with people getting off so I grabbed a window seat - I don't know where they were going, as far I could tell there was the airport and a road.  It may not have much variety looking from the plane but it was pretty impressive on the way in and I'll be busy with the camera tomorrow, I'm sure. 

I can't wait to get started!

Putting the world to rights - part 1

This is a delayed post from two days ago, just so you know :o)

Ok, so I don't known what part two will be yet but anyway.......

When did people's mobile phones become their be all and end all?  It is on the verge of completely killing a social innovation called "meeting people"!  Ok, so I've only been in Santiago for less than a day but I see the same trends as in many other places in the uk and the us.  People, apparently on their own, glued to their phone screens.  Now don't get me wrong, the level of Spanish I speak is way below that of a 4 year old so conversation will be difficult if they don't speak any English, but even still, having seen this in bars across the US, and having done it myself, put the screens away!!!!

I honestly think that traveling as a solo person was easier 30, 20, even 5 years ago.  You didn't have the distraction of a screen and people actually wanted to go out and talk to people.  Now you can't get near anyone because they're using their phones to update their Facebook status about how much fun they are having sitting in a bar ignoring the world around them!

Ok, so this sounds like and old man rant ( and it might be) but seriously, how many people have you not met or talked to because your head was buried in your phone?  I know my list probably gets close to a thousand when I consider the times in Asia where I took calls or read emails and such like. 

I find it disappointing, but that's the way the world works I guess.  Don't get me wrong. I've been as guilty as everyone else for doing stuff like this but it is all the more apparent to me as I travel alone through these different places.  I don't know that once people were falling over each other to introduce themselves, but now people are checking their email.

Something to think about - especially after you've had something equivalent to a full bottle of wine!

Valparaiso & Vina del Mar

After a day when the amount of rest I got was well short of the actual rest I should have got it was time for a day trip out to Valparaiso, the old port town on the coast of Chile.  It used to be a huge port as one of the gateways into Central America and then the Panama Canal opened up and the traffic dropped way down.  It was also the home of Pable Neruda, famous South American poet.  I have to confess I don't really know his work but here's a picture of where he used to live .........

And this is the view he had from his front garden.........

Although I suspect with less cranes!

Anyway, Valparaiso is built all the side of the hills surrounding the bay, all different colours and designs. All in all quite stunning to look at as from almost everywhere in the commercial district - the flat ground - you can look up the hillside and see them all dotted around all over the place.  There's very little order to the streets and they are extremely steep.  If you lived further up the hill and didn't have a car you'd be in pretty good shape within a week, but your food bill might be as well!

To help you get up and down there a bundle of 'ascensore' - no idea if I spelt that right or not - they are basically old cable cars that trundle up and down the sides of the hills.  Unfortunately very few are working at any one time since they have got a little aged, creaky and rusty.

It's a shame they don't work, but I think as more money comes in from tourism they will get them up and running again.

From Valparaiso it was off to Vina del Mar, a new town on the other side of the bay.  It's all concrete, resorts and high end apartments with beach views.  Personally not my kind of place, it's a little too soulless.  They do have, however one of these guys from Easter Island

This one is just 9m tall but ones out there apparently get as tall as 22m!  I think that may be somewhere that goes on my list for future travel, but it is a little far away.  It's still another 5 hour flight from Santiago.

I have to admit that after my early morning and late night I was decidedly dragging by the time we got back to santiago around 630.  Fortunately there was one person in the group that spoke English so I did have someone to talk to during the day.  And the rest of the people were nice, but there's only so much you can talk about when you focused one learning the Spanish for 'one more beer' and 'where's the bathroom'!  I do feel I might be picking up a little more here and there.  It's a slow process but since I don't have a lot of choice it's slowly coming to me.

So I made the decision to go out, get some dinner, just one or two drinks and then back to the hotel for a 2230 bedtime..........   Errrrr.........  I don't know what time stamp you see when you read these posts but my brief little stumbling one I posted yesterday to let you all know I was still breathing in and out was sent at 1am.  Oops!  Although not really, I ended up talking to a very nice woman in the Irish pub just down from where I had had dinner.  They had a nice bar you could sit at and I thought she was watching the football on the tv so I asked her about it, she wasn't but never mind :o). So cue a three hour conversation with her pretty good English and my terrible Spanish about the rights and wrongs of the world, relationships and most importantly, "should we get some chips, I'm hungry".  She asked the question, I was relatively positive in my response :o). It's interesting to hear yourself in these conversations sometimes, when you speak your mind impartially it is often a very different response to the one you give when you are emotionally involved.  There are still some sore points for me from the last few years but honestly I think I might be starting to look ahead and with a positive vibe as opposed to looking back.

So there I was again, stumbling back home through the Santiago night, still happily buzzing along at 1am and feeling quite safe I would like to point out.  And here I am now, updating this blog and getting ready to catch my flight out of here to head up to the atacama desert.  I do come back through Santiago but only one night, I arrive late and leave early.  I want to come back again sometime, it's a great place!  Need to study my Spanish first though.

Once up in the desert I don't know whether I'll have good internet connection or not so these posts may end up coming out in a hurry after a few days of silence but hang in there, some of the scenery where I'm heading is truly breathtaking, hopefully I can do it justice!

Oh, and I've run out of paperbacks.  I need to find a hostel or something where I can get some more, unless someone feels like mailing me a bunch more, I can give you the addresses and schedules of when I'll be there.  Just be prepared that they won't be coming back :o)

Santiago

What a town!  Small enough to walk around and big enough that it's got some life to it once the sun goes down.  Although that doesn't happen very early as it's actually in the same time zone as Argentina so the sun doesn't go down until about 9pm right now.

And let's now forget the fact that from various points of the city you can see this........

It's a little hazy but those big things in the background are the Andes mountains.  About 6000m high.  Unfortunately Santiago is bordered on all sides by mountains, the lowest being 2000m.  As a result all the pollution gets trapped down in the city resulting in the haze you can see in the picture.  As they continue to work on improving the output from the cars and buses and such like it will get better but it'll take some time.

So as my little notes before have said, I landed here at 5am on Friday after a 6 hour flight from Panama that I did actually sleep for a lot of, that being said I was absolutely exhausted and, unsurprisingly the hotel didn't have a room ready so I was waiting around for a few hours.  Some of that time was filled with a tour of the city and it's a beautiful city in some areas with old architecture with British, French, German and Spanish influence.

National library

Palacios de la moneda - presidential palace.  It used to be the mint, hence the 'moneda' in the name

Plaza de Armas - on the left the cathedral, straigh ahead the post office

Inside the Cathedral

Quite a fancy post office!

So after all this I got back to the hotel and thankfully they had a room ready for me by 1pm which was a relief for sure.  I was absolutely exhausted so I went, unpacked and lay down to rest - making sure I set an alarm!  An hour later the alarm went off and an hour after that I was finally at a point where I was able to move and think (well move anyway).

So with that in mind it was off to find some food, and maybe a drink or two........

Santiago really makes the most of the Bella Vista area as well as many others with some great outside seating in front of the bars and restaurants, not to mention the restaurants are really good!

So it was, after a couple of pisco sours (very good) and a big bowl of what I would guess is the Chilean equivalent of shepherds pie, except with mashed corn instead of potato on top, I meandered off in search of somewhere I could get a nice glass of wine to finish off the night.

Sadly the picture doesn't show it too well but that's a half bottle of a very nice carmenere wine.  Sadly empty at the point this picture was taken :o)

So ended the day, with a slightly stumbling walk home through a very pleasant, wine induced fog.  Great town, good buzz, good transportation and actually a few people that speak English :o)

I am alive........

I just haven't had time to put a post together that's worthy of the name.

I do have some downtime tomorrow morning to write up some of the last couple of days.  So there will be pictures and commentary galore at that point.

Also, one thing to mention,  it's nice to run into people who are running into the similar problems as you,  I just spent a good two hours talking to a girl who had just broken up with her boyfriend and wasn't sure whether to regret it or not.  One good thing about handing out the advice is that some of it sticks!

Goodnight for now, pictures and write up to follow tomorrow!

Santiago, Chile at 6am.

Well kind of.  And assuming I can stay awake throughout.
Right now its 630am in Santiago and I landed about and hour ago and am currently losing the battle with a spanish keyboard and cant get the punctuation I want.
Anyway, it was about a 5 1/2 hour flight from Panama, I got some sleep but definitely not enough.  But Ive got a city tour kicking off at 9 so I am going to be up and about, hopefully, for the next few hours and then probably crash pretty hard in the afternoon once I get my hotel room.
Thats pretty much it for now, I apologise for the lack of apostrophes but I can not be bothered to figure out how to get them from this keyboard.
I will be posting some photos from Santiago this afternoon if I can stay awake long enough.

12 ounces of steaky goodness!

Yum!

Cooked to medium perfection.

Panama City

So one more stopover before the real action starts down in Chile.  I had to stop off here anyway because there weren't any direct flights from Nicaragua so why not stop and check out one of the wonders of the world, the Panama Canal.

This is the Miraflores lock on the Pacific side of the canal.  It raises/lowers the boats by 16.5 metres with another lock just slightly further in land that raises/lowers the boats in and out of the Gatun lake.  The doors themselves are huge and the amount of water, all gravity fed is ridiculous!

Unfortunately there wasn't anything passing through when I was there this morning but the scale of the lock is incredible, not to mention the cost.  A large ship will pay on the order of $400k to traverse the canal, with most paying around $100k.  This has to be paid in advance with payment received two to three days before the ship arrives at the first lock.  They also don't let the ship captains navigate the canal, a dedicated pilot comes out to the ship and takes command throughout its time in the canal and then hands control back to the captain when they are finished.  

And then they let idiots like this come and take photos :o)

There's also one hell of a queue sitting out in the pacific waiting for its turn......

It's definitely quite pretty around here but the city has a little bit of a gritty feel about it.  Having said that, there is a restaurant just outside my hotel called Gaucho's which has one of the best steaks I have ever eaten!  12oz of succulent, juicy goodness.  I suspect I'm going back again tonight to partake, I'll take a photo and do a separate post in its honour!

Sorry about the funny looking fella that keeps popping up in these pictures, I'm just glad he hasn't caused the lens of my camera to crack yet!

So that's about all from me, I've got almost a whole day tomorrow kind of kicking my heels since I have a late flight out to Santiago, I might see if there's anything going through the lock and make another journey out there in the morning if there is.

For now here's a couple more photos and I'll catch you later.