Hello,

Again another country and again Ireally reallyreally have to get used to it! Before I left the Netherlands, I totally looked forward to this part of my trip, CHILI! A country what´s supposed to be beautiful. Thanks to Katie, I was kind of prepared how Chili would be. She lived in Santiago for a year so she kind of know how the Chilean people are, how the things work around here. Before we could enter Chili we had to cross the boarder. We left Uyuni at 31 of March, in the middle of the night. We were at the Bolivian border around 8 in the morning. So far so good. When I got my stamp to get out of the country I had my first encounter with Bolivian corruption. The boarder is on the most remote place I will probably ever be. The guy who had to give me my stamp said I had to pay 15 Bolivianos (is about 1,50 euro) to get out the country. I asked him why but he couldn´t give me an explanation. I was stunned. I still had money so that wasn´t the problem and also it wasn´t a huge amount. But I was just shocked that someone misuses it´s power that way. I had read about it but so far never encountered it. I decided to pay (is wished I was more bold, brave and verbally skilled in those moments, it´s always afterwards I think of the things I should have done) and then the guy give me back my change half in Bolivianos and half in Chilean pesos. The calculation he made was so so wrong, but I was just tired arguing about that. So I just looked angry at the guy and cursed him in English.

After I calmed down it was an hour later and we were still at the Bolivian site of the boarder. And this would be this way for the next 4 hours (Why? Nobody knows, the cars got threw without problems). When the bus finally got moving I was totally excited. However it was to early to be excited because we were brought to the land between both boarders. A piece of no mans land, we didn´t existed for the next 2 hours. Waiting for a bus from the Chilean site to pick up us. After 6 hours it took us another hour to get through Chilean customs (the first things I noticed in Chili was the clothes of the people of customs, it were modern colorful outfits, compared to the Peruvian or Bolivian army green outfits). Total 7 hours to get through the 2 boarders. It felt like old times (even tough I never had experienced the old times), and I had to think about war prisoner exchange you see in the movies. When we finally crossed the boarders it was in the afternoon. And traditional as the Bolivians are it was time for lunch. We couldn´t believe our ears and eyes when this happened. The only thing I could do was laugh. I mean what else can you do? Then finally the bus set direction to Calama, the first main hub across the boarder. The second thing I noticed was the road quality. In Bolivia and Peru, the roads are often not that good (existing of dirt roads or half dirt roads), so I could sleep a great deal until Calama. We arrived in Calama at 19:00 en got a ticket to San Pedro de Atacama for 20:30. The next thing I noticed in Chili were the prices...damn shocking expensive. When I calmed downed a bit I noticed that it was still a bit cheaper then in Europe but compared to the countries I have been so far it was a big difference. So I have to reduce my nights eating out en be thinking about my money expensive so much more than the last 2,5 months.

So we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama (in the Atacama dessert, the driest or one of the driest desserts in the world!!!). After finding a hostel I slept like a baby. The next day we saw that the city was tiny. It looked like a city in the movies, dusty, sunny, houses made out of dark stones (colours of the dessert), they call it adobe houses I think. I soon noticed that I didn´t want to spend to much time there. Lots of the tours they offered looked really similar to the things I had already seen in South of Bolivia or had done in Peru (sandboarding for example). Also Katie had to head back to Santiago and I didn´t wanted to stay in San Pedro de Atacama without her. So the one day we had we decided to go Valle de la Muerte. A valley that is hot, really hot and with lots and lots of sand and rocks. It was really nice just to be active and we spend more then 3 hours walking. On Tuesday 3^rd of April (OMG it´s April already!!!) we took the bus back to Calama and at 15:00 we were in the bus on our way to the south. Katie would be on the bus for 23 hours (she went back to Santiago) and I would only have to be in the bus for 17 hours because I would make a stop in La Serena to visit the Elqui valley (for my dad: we took route 5 from Calama to Antofagaste (a sea town) and then south to La Serena, then crossing to the east to Vicuña, back to La Serena and then route 5 again to Santiago).

On Wednesday on 07:30 we arrived in La Serena. We said quick goodbyes and I told Katie that I would see her in Santiago and otherwise I would visit her in Texas (which I will do when I go up to Canada). In the busstation I quickly found a bus to Vicuña, a city in the Elqui valley. The valley is supposed to be the magnetic centre of the world and some people come to the valley because they believe that UFO´s will come there. There is not much to do there and I was glad I met this guy from Brussels which I spend the rest of the day with. We decided to visit the Pisco distillery (I think I already told you about the drink Pisco Sour in Peru. Well the Chileans also drink Pisco and there is some sort of ¨fight¨ going on between Peru and Chili about the birthplace of Pisco). We went to this family distillery and had a short tour and we tasted some pisco. Because we still had plenty of time left we decided to hitchhike to Pisco Elqui the town. It was fun and we made it all the way to Pisco Elqui. It is a tiny tiny town and people go there to relax. The location is really nice. The valley is a small strip of green and fertile land stuck between the mountains that are covered by cactuses. The difference between the green valley and the brown and unfruitful mountains is intense. The Elqui valley is also the place Gabriela Mistral was born. She won the Nobel price for literature and helped different international governments by setting up there school system. Here grave is there and all the town have a statue or something to honor her. In Pisco Elqui we walked around for a bit and then we took off again, hitchhiking back to Vicuña. In the way to Pisco Elqui we spend some time in the back of a truck, which was really nice in the open air, we also got a ride in a tiny truck from the gascompany. The trucks are similar to the tiny ice-cream trucks in the Netherlands. It was totally fun.

Back in the hostel we had siesta and at 20:00 our tour started to one of the observatories to see the stars. I was a bit skeptical about it, what so special about seeing stars threw a telescope (and people who know me, know that I am always kind of ¨amazed¨ about the amount of money there is spend on researching the universe). But the tour was great! The guide was really nice, funny and he knew a lot and was also very enthusiastic about his job, which made it nice to listen to. We saw Venus (like a half moon in the colours of the rainbow), Mars (orange ball), the Moon (really cool pictures of the moon), Saturnus (with ring and all!!!), and some stars (from the belt of Orion and some other which I don´t really remember). He also showed us how to navigate with the cross on the southern hemisphere (they don´t have the northern star). It was also weird that all the signs of the Zodiac were upside down (because below the equator you´re actually upside down). It was a great night!

The next morning I woke up early and decided to keep going (my Belgium friend was still sleeping). So I got a bus back to La Serena and found a bus to Santiago. I was really excited and pleased about that because I really wanted to catch up with Katie, who knows the city. After 7 hours I arrived in Santiago. Wow what a giga city. I was really impressed and also a bit nervous. When you arrive in a new city or town, for me, the most ¨stressful¨ part is from the bus terminal to your hostel. You always have to trust the taxi drivers and also trust that they don´t rip you off by taking a detour around the city. I didn´t booked my hostel in advanced because I didn´t had internet available in La Serena. So I crossed my fingers, hoping the hostel I had chosen had room. All went well, the taxi driver didn´t ripped me off and the hostel had room...I saw a little bit of Santiago and was amazed how big the city was. It was a while since I really have been in a big city (La Paz was the last one, and I kind of forgot how it felt). Today Katie will pick me up in my hostel and we will go walking threw the city. Apparently the hostel I chose is perfectly located..So I´m lucky with that as well. I think I will stay here for a couple of days. Max 1 week. Because I need to go South before the real winter starts. Well I have to go...Hope you still al enjoy reading my blog and that things are going well in the Netherlands. Updates are more then welcome!!!

Ciao ciao

Michèle