Ok... What have I been doing... Lets think. Yes, so we took an overnight bus from Cusco to Arica in Chile, which was all a bit drawn out with the border formalities. The bus company arranged for a nice man (to be fair he could've been a dodgy man, how do you ever really know? But at least he didn't run off with our passports) came and met us at the bus station in Tacna, on the Peruvian side, and took us in a taxi to the International bus station, where we filled out all the obligatory forms and then he put us in a collectivo (fixed price shared taxi) which takes you the 50 kilometres or so to immigration, where you get stamped (your passport stamped obvs, not stamped on) and your bags scanned, and then back in the collectivo to Aricain Chile. We got to Arica at about 11am and the next bus to the Atacama desert wasn´t until 10pm that night so we took an unscheduled stop and stayed the night in Arica. It´s un-touristy as there isn't a lot there, but it was a great for relaxing on the beach for a day, and sitting in the lovely outdoor bars and restaurants watching Chileans go about their day.
The next night we took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, which is a tiny little oasis town in the desert, and my favourite place in all of South America. Oh and the bus journey there proved that I have learnt some patience during this trip - it´s pretty normal in all the countries we´ve been to so far for the police to come on board the bus and check your passport and stamps several times in one trip, but this time we had to get off the bus, twice, once at midnight and once at 4.30am and everyone had to take all their luggage out of the hold and have it searched. Bearing in mind most of the people were Chileans who obviously lived in the desert and had popped over to Arica (a mere eleven hours) to do their Christmas shopping, this took hours. But the police were very nice to us (the only foreigners on the bus) and I didn´t even get irritated. I´ve changed!
Anway, back to San Pedro, the place is only a few dusty streets and houses (situated in the world´s driest desert) that look like they´re made out of mud (I think the population is about 2000) but it´s got a gorgeous little plaza with a whitewashed church, and it´s a great jumping off point for exploring the geysers, lagoons, moonscapes and salt flats nearby. We stayed at hostel Florida, a cute little place with a hammock strewn courtyard and hot water. We booked two trips, one to watch the sunset over the Valle de la Luna or Valley of the Moon, and another to watch the sunrise at the El Tatio geysers.
For the Valle de la Luna trip our lovely guide Gustavo (who I thought looked a bit like a Chilean version of Russell Brand) took us to Death Valley and showed us rock formations and volcanoes, and then we walked up a huge sand dune to reach the top to view the changing colours of the lunar landscape for sunset. The next morning we got up at 3.30am for pick up at 4am to head to the geysers. We had a lovely guide called Ignacio who but a big bag of raw eggs and chocolate milk in one of the bubbling geysers when we arrived, which boiled the eggs and heated up the milk so we could eat breakfast while watching the sunrise. Despite it being minus two degrees at 5am it was categorically the best breakfast I have ever eaten in my life! The geysers are most active in the morning, and some of the holes in the ground seem to do nothing until a huge surge of water bubbles up and steam rises into the air as far as the eyes can see. The steam isn´t too hot, just warm so you can disappear into the steam (and pretend you´re at a disco, smoke machine style). Once the sun came up (and thankfully the temperature heated up very quickly) we all headed to a nearby thermal mineral pool for a dip, before travelling back to San Pedro via a tiny little village (I forget the name now) which has just 40 residents and the main economy is llama. So we saw some cute llamas in the village (they are domesticated like pets and just munch on grass all day and wear little accessories so their owners can recognise them) and then we had some llama on the... barbecue. Which obviously we felt a little guilty about, but my my did it taste good.
Anyway, I am babbling on, so I shall cut this short. But we just took a 22 hour bus from San Pedro to Santiago, and then a two hour bus on to Valparaiso where we have just arrived to. It's gorgeous, all multicoloured houses and winding streets in the hills, and we´re staying at an adorable family run hostel called en Cerro Residencia. We´re off to explore Valpo today, then tomorow we plan to hit the white sandy beaches at the fancy resort of Vina del Mar, about 15 minutes away, and then it´s back to Santiago and to the airport to head to Australia. Sniff. South America you've been wonderful. I'm going to miss you!
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