West, then North, North, North

Dear reader,

I'm sorry for leaving you so far behind, in the rolling grasslands close to Mendoza. I'll have to get you all the way to Peru, but we'll do it in a few steps (with some potholes along the way...) 

First of all, Mendoza, where we had the good luck of staying in a very good hostel: they took us to the mountains for a hike with rappelling,  and the next day sent us on a bike tour of the wineries.  Maybe we're spoiled, but the wines did not impress us very much (we still did not say no to the next glass); seeing the wineries was very interesting though. 

We then decided to change country and go to Valparaiso, Chile. We bought fancy tickets in the front of a big bus to have full view of the spectacular Andean peaks along the way. Unfortunately, it turned out we used up our luck for the week. The bus broke just after the last village in the mountains, and we are loaded into the next passing bus,  where the only view we had was on the TV screen, showing Spanish- dubbed movies. 

We arrived in Santiago later than expected, and there were no more official buses to Valparaiso, where we had booked the next stay.  But we heard some guys shouting "Valparaiso" in the terminal,  and sure enough,  we were loaded into a bus parked just outside the terminal. A little pirating seemed to go a long way also for the locals, so we hopped on.  On the highway,  the bus went slower and slower.... and finally broke.... the next bus finally dropped us off in Valparaiso, at 1:30 am, hungry, unable to contact the airbnb and with all hostels closed. At that point,  we were fed up and went to the only hotel that was still open, a fancy joint at the main square.

Valparaiso itself more than made up for the inconveniences, being a ridiculously cute and lively place,  full of colours, street art, and lights on the hills ascending from the coast.  To paraphrase Sandro: Valparaiso is a pretty city made of ugly buildings (which is true, except in the touristy part where the buildings themselves are also pretty). Even in the outskirts, where rubbish and poverty are considerable problems, the houses are all painted in different bright colours, contributing still to the overall beauty of the city views.

We decided to skip Santiago this time, and only went back there to catch a flight to Calama and go to San Pedro de Atacama,  in the north-east of Chile close to the border with Bolivia. Atacama is an oasis town in the middle of an altiplanic desert; surrounded by a large salt flat and with views of snow-capped peaks, it is a place of otherworldly beauty. We visited bright blue lagoons high up in the mountains,  bubbling geysers (for which we had to wake up at 4 in the morning, brrr) and of course the salt flat itself, home to flamingos which feed off the shrimp which somehow survive the high salt contents and the freezing cold.  Also,  vicuñas! And an Andean fox! There is much more to see there than just the places we visited, but we had gotten a bit tired of travelling and the organised tours ( OK folks, you get 20 minutes to look around here). We went back to Calama to buy binoculars and to catch a bus to Arica, a town close to the border with Peru, to find a place to stay a bit longer. 

Peru deserves its own story however, so I'll get to that next time.  Sleep well/good morning, and hugs!