Monday 16th May was the longest day of both of lives so far – all 40 hours of it. Yes, that´s the day we flew from NZ to Chile and crossed the international date line. How jet lagged was I (Liz). Greg fared a little better. We stayed in a fairly boho area in the Barrio Brasil part of Santiago and recovered by exploring the local streets and bars, and checking out some of the city´s parks and central shopping area. Coolest place was the bar we stumbled into on the first night of arrival. It was like stepping back in time. Really dark with latin music playing. Old left wing political posters were pasted onto the walls as wallpaper. Old Che was very evident. We ordered the dish of the day which was one of our best South American meals so far. Greg´s been on a bit of a meat fest, whilst I have been eating mostly cheese due to my poor grasp of Spanish! However, on this day, Greg tucked into a huge steak and I got a really tasty bean and pasta stew soupy thing, Yum. We had to move our table as salsa dancing was about to start. You´d have thought they´d laid it all on for the tourists.
Barrio Brasil is a lovely square with a kiddie´s play area, grass, big trees and park benches outlining it´s perimeter. On these benches, I am convinced that Santiago´s student population conduct their romancing and dating. We saw kisses and clinches galore, and even a few tears there. I wonder how many babies have been conceived on them!
We really wanted to go to Patagonia, but our timing was too late, so we decided to head north for Peru and visit Arequipa and Cusco before home. Thus said, we then took the 26 hour bus ride from Santiago to Arica in the north of Chile. Not as bad as expected really, and we did manage to sleep. What a trip though threw the Atacama desert. I believe it´s the driest in the world, and it really looked like some God forsaken place. That´s the weird thing about deserts isn´t it – so opposite to life supporting, yet so beautiful in their own way too.
An afternoon and overnight stop in Arica found us walking along the Pacific coast again watching wakeboarders framed against a background of moored ships, boats and submarines. Sublime.
Next stop the Peruvain border……
Liz
Barrio Brasil is a lovely square with a kiddie´s play area, grass, big trees and park benches outlining it´s perimeter. On these benches, I am convinced that Santiago´s student population conduct their romancing and dating. We saw kisses and clinches galore, and even a few tears there. I wonder how many babies have been conceived on them!
We really wanted to go to Patagonia, but our timing was too late, so we decided to head north for Peru and visit Arequipa and Cusco before home. Thus said, we then took the 26 hour bus ride from Santiago to Arica in the north of Chile. Not as bad as expected really, and we did manage to sleep. What a trip though threw the Atacama desert. I believe it´s the driest in the world, and it really looked like some God forsaken place. That´s the weird thing about deserts isn´t it – so opposite to life supporting, yet so beautiful in their own way too.
An afternoon and overnight stop in Arica found us walking along the Pacific coast again watching wakeboarders framed against a background of moored ships, boats and submarines. Sublime.
Next stop the Peruvain border……
Liz
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