Looking back, we had a pretty hectic day and covered a respectable 65k on the desert roads.  The pictures below are pretty random but encompass Quebrada del Diablo (Devil’s George), Pukara De Quitor (a crumbling 12th century fortress ruins) and Valle De La Luna or Valley of the moon (a maze of sandunes where you can see the sunset over the Andes).

We left our hostel at 8:30am and didn’t return until 8pm so it was pretty full on.  After sunset we had a 12–14k bike ride home in the dark.  We had hoped to fit in the desert star-gazing tour upon our return but it was fully booked – damn – no tour agencies were open when we set off. 

Star-gazing in the Atacama desert is supposed to be best in the world and we were absolutely gutted to have missed out.  Our neighbours came back with pictures of Saturn, falling stars and various other astronomy marvels – adding salt to an already gaping wound.  Nevertheless, it was still pretty amazing having the opportunity stare up at the sky to see the sheer number of stars and the milky way in such a remote part of the world.

As we haven’t done a lot here so far, and have a busy scheduled for tomorrow, we are writing this post as a means of letting you know that we have very very limited access to internet and probably won’t get a minute to sit down and write for the next several days.  Tomorrow we are off on a bike tour and the following day we take a 3–day 4wd tour across the desert and salt flats from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia.  

When we get to our destination we’ll provide an update.  All the best for now.

Here’s the best one – they even have Wi-Fi on the buses!  I couldn’t believe it, I was stunned when I seen the man next to us surfing the web, checked on my iPhone and sure enough there it was.  I had a conversation with my brother Clive on Skype or Facebook (can’t remember) for most of one journey.  I think the UK, Ireland and the wider world could learn a thing or two.

Most tourists give out about the state of the technology here as internet cafe’s have computers running Windows 95 or 98 at best.  If, like us, you have your own devices you are laughing.

Australia and New Zealand had Wi-Fi but charged between $6–9 in the campsites, cheaper in the internet cafes of course.  A damn ripoff and a disgrace in my book.

Ironically, I listened to a great RTE podcast yesterday (Today with Pat Kenny), interviewing Martin Murphy, the Managing Director of Hewlett Packard Ireland.  The focus was the state of the Irish economy but also touched on the subject of intellectual property.  He, and the government, believes that Ireland’s future is in intellectual property but they need to invest in technology in order to do so.  He believes that every school, home and business should have free access to a 21^st century communications infrastructure, thus creating a smart workforce and intern a smart economy.  Couldn’t agree more. It was simply inspirational.

That impressed, I sent my CV into HP.

Sam dragged me around the old quarter again in search of weird and wonderful doors (above all things) so she could collate a collage/montage at some point.  There were no shortage and we (well, she) did manage to get some crackers – I’m sure she will give you a peek once finished. 

We should have taken a few pictures of our hostel as it was a very cosy and friendly establishment and the German and Chilean proprietors were top class.  They encourage guests to eat and social together – we never have a problem there – but we did anyway and ended up drinking wine until the early hours.  There is a lot to be said for travelling but it’s the people and places you stay at that really make the experience.

I’ve just noticed, having just selected these photos, that I’m in the majority of them (ah well) – that’s because Sam was on her door mission and I didn’t get a look in all day – sorry about that.

An arty-farty place with charming quirky coloured buildings perched on the hilltops.  Even the grafitti is colourful and wild and a sight to behold.  We spend a full day walking with the odd restbite in it’s many cafes.  We have tried to capture and display as many pictures as possible. The city itself is huge and one with irregular street patterns (no map will help you here), and steeply hilly – a good calf workout!

Predominately a port city and once a leading merchant town before the opening of the panama canal in 1914.  Only parts of the city are listed under World Heritage and we managed to booked into a lovely quaint hostel right in the heart of it.

Estamos disfrutando de nuestra estancia aqui (we are enjoying our stay here). 

As you can probably tell from our posts, we had an amazing time in Oz and NZ but completely blew our budget out of the water.  The strength of the British Pound hasn’t helped either.  We are now left with the difficulty of estimating our onward travel to see how far and how long we will last – a hell of a challenge! 

It was expected from the off that our savings pot would be gone by the time we returned home, bar our return reality fund of course, but it’s scary nonetheless to see our life savings disappear on a daily basis, especially as we near the end.  Don’t worry, the wolf’s not knocking at the door just yet and we still have a few squid for a bottle of vino of a nighttime – but they only cost £1.

The route we decided: from Santiago we head north to Valparaiso, then across to Mendoza, Cordoba and Buenos Aires in Argentina, up though Uruguay to Rio in Brazil, back across Argentina to Iguazu Falls and Salta before San Pedro De Atacama in Chile and then finally up through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia. 

This of course is best case scenario, how far we get before the money runs out god only knows.  Whatever happens, we will go home having seen and done some amazing things and if we have to go to these places some other time, so be it.

This picture did make us laugh as we are constantly checking the value of the pound and wished we had converted our savings pot into Euro before we left.

After a 14–hour nap we ventured into the city, phrasebook in hand, wandered around and were pleasantly surprised with the laid back attitude.  We had a few glasses of wine in a lovely cafe at a mere 90p a pop, wow, and nice at that!  We have found it difficult to communicate as most don’t speak a word of English, who’d expect them to, so it’s up to us to make a conscious effort to learn some Spanish.

Loaded with a new camera, as our previous one finally gave up the ghost, we took a few shots while on a walking tour of the city.  Looking back, we wish we had taken more but it’s really unsafe to take your camera out willy nilly.  We’d been warned about taking out our valuables and already we’ve seen one mugging attempt right in front of us.  Mind you, this guy was walking with his Nikon swaying from side to side. Thankfully the perpetrator got away empty handed.

We know we are going to enjoy Chile and indeed the rest of South America. The place just has a certain vibe that gives us a good feeling.  Let’s hope our funds can match our itinerary.