(one of my SDcards caught a virus somewhere - I believe in the Loki hostel in Lima and now it cannot be read, so that's why I only have some of my photos from Chile.
...and none from Bolivia - oh, boy...next post will be difficult. There's a warning for you.)
So, Chile:
Chile is grey.
this is at least my impression, not a very objective one, since I didn't see the great reservations in the chilean Patagonia... But Osorno , Santiago, La Serena and San Pedro de Atacama... kinda grey-ish
I reached Osorno at noon and luckyly it stopped raining. It has been raining all the way from Bariloche and my luggage was soaked from being disembarked at the chilean border. Aparently Chile guards very strictly its biological purity so people were not alowed to bring in even the organic products they had in their lunch bags. God forbid an argentinian appleseed should fall on chilean soil!
So Osorno :
not much really, just a tranzit town with cute wooden houses, cool street art and quite expensive coffee... I managed to see all the 'atractions' in about 4 hours before taking the night bus to Santiago
Here I stayed with friends (thank you again Andra and David) and this is the view from their balcony:
I did go up the San Christobal, but I didn't take many pictures - the internet is full of them sort.
but I've discovered very surprising sides of the city, like this out of time street:
some peculiar shops:
melancholic streetart, on the river banks...
all in all Santiago is a metropole ... with it's ups and downs
I walked a lot , but also had time to rest and at the end of three days I took another night bus, to La Serena. This little town by the ocean was a bit of a surprise. The weather was kind of particular: cloudy till about 4PM then all of a sudden the skies turned clear and the sun shone bright. Every day the same, I was told from the hostel.
So on the first day, as I arrived early, I dropped my luggage and took a minibus to the Elqui Valley, of which I've heard from a local I traveled with on the bus. Aparently the sun was to be found there.
Here should come some pictures of the beach in La Serena, and some pictures of Coquimbo... when I'll be able to access them.
The beach itself is sort of ok, the sand is rather grey, but the South Pacific water is terribly cold and there were dozens of dead gelly-fishes being washed ashore ... don't know why, but that definitely ruined swimming for me.
I just thought of visiting Coquimbo, the adjoined little town, on the 3rd day, before taking the bus to San Pedro de Atacama and I was immediately sorry I didn't stay there instead of La Serena. It's a lot less touristy, and it doesn't have a beach, but a fishing harbor, but is a lot more picturesque...
I made it to San Pedro de Atacama next day at about 11 am, after a 17h ride, instead of 14, with TurBus, which should have been direct, but we changed in Calama anyway because the car had a problem... For being the biggest and most expensive bus company in Chile, they were a total disappointment.
San Pedro is lovely and there's a lot of things you can see and do around - it obviously lives of tourism, but here is where I first time had bad luck with the weather : it rained both days. I blame the British couple with whom I shared the hostel room. So the only thing I could visit was the Pukara Quitor - the pre-inca ruins, and that only after crossing bare-feet through a red-mud river that just appeared over night (Atacama is a desert)
Actually it was kinda nice to just hang out with people in the hostel, thing that I usually don't get to do if I'm just touring and tracking and moving from one place to another...
I also managed to find direct transfer to Uyuni from San Pedro - contrary to what I read on the internet, that one has to go to Calama, spend a expensive night there and catch an early bus...
Everything went smooth until the bolivian border, where I had to pay 55$ for the visa that I didn't know I need. Apparently Romania is still in another group than the rest of the UE countries. And that's just for Bolivia!
...and none from Bolivia - oh, boy...next post will be difficult. There's a warning for you.)
So, Chile:
Chile is grey.
this is at least my impression, not a very objective one, since I didn't see the great reservations in the chilean Patagonia... But Osorno , Santiago, La Serena and San Pedro de Atacama... kinda grey-ish
I reached Osorno at noon and luckyly it stopped raining. It has been raining all the way from Bariloche and my luggage was soaked from being disembarked at the chilean border. Aparently Chile guards very strictly its biological purity so people were not alowed to bring in even the organic products they had in their lunch bags. God forbid an argentinian appleseed should fall on chilean soil!
So Osorno :
not much really, just a tranzit town with cute wooden houses, cool street art and quite expensive coffee... I managed to see all the 'atractions' in about 4 hours before taking the night bus to Santiago
Here I stayed with friends (thank you again Andra and David) and this is the view from their balcony:
I did go up the San Christobal, but I didn't take many pictures - the internet is full of them sort.
but I've discovered very surprising sides of the city, like this out of time street:
oversized and damn good street bands:
a muddy, tired and heartbreaking melancholic river
and some not-so-melancholic street art
I've first seen an learned how to do an Ecoladrillo :
I walked a lot , but also had time to rest and at the end of three days I took another night bus, to La Serena. This little town by the ocean was a bit of a surprise. The weather was kind of particular: cloudy till about 4PM then all of a sudden the skies turned clear and the sun shone bright. Every day the same, I was told from the hostel.
So on the first day, as I arrived early, I dropped my luggage and took a minibus to the Elqui Valley, of which I've heard from a local I traveled with on the bus. Aparently the sun was to be found there.
Here should come some pictures of the beach in La Serena, and some pictures of Coquimbo... when I'll be able to access them.
The beach itself is sort of ok, the sand is rather grey, but the South Pacific water is terribly cold and there were dozens of dead gelly-fishes being washed ashore ... don't know why, but that definitely ruined swimming for me.
I just thought of visiting Coquimbo, the adjoined little town, on the 3rd day, before taking the bus to San Pedro de Atacama and I was immediately sorry I didn't stay there instead of La Serena. It's a lot less touristy, and it doesn't have a beach, but a fishing harbor, but is a lot more picturesque...
I made it to San Pedro de Atacama next day at about 11 am, after a 17h ride, instead of 14, with TurBus, which should have been direct, but we changed in Calama anyway because the car had a problem... For being the biggest and most expensive bus company in Chile, they were a total disappointment.
San Pedro is lovely and there's a lot of things you can see and do around - it obviously lives of tourism, but here is where I first time had bad luck with the weather : it rained both days. I blame the British couple with whom I shared the hostel room. So the only thing I could visit was the Pukara Quitor - the pre-inca ruins, and that only after crossing bare-feet through a red-mud river that just appeared over night (Atacama is a desert)
Actually it was kinda nice to just hang out with people in the hostel, thing that I usually don't get to do if I'm just touring and tracking and moving from one place to another...
I also managed to find direct transfer to Uyuni from San Pedro - contrary to what I read on the internet, that one has to go to Calama, spend a expensive night there and catch an early bus...
Everything went smooth until the bolivian border, where I had to pay 55$ for the visa that I didn't know I need. Apparently Romania is still in another group than the rest of the UE countries. And that's just for Bolivia!
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