The South American Adventure!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!
I hope this will keep you up to date on my travels while I am away!

Well, I arrived in Santiago, Chile on Jan 5th and all is well! Lindsay and Mikki were at the hostel to greet me. Mikki left later that night to go back to Canada and Lindsay and I began our trip together. We stayed in Santiago for about 5 days and met many terrific people. The aussies from Sydney (Simon and Zoe) were a real treat! They are crazy just like us! We toured the city and happened to be there for the Love Parade. A crazy party in the streets. Many stages of different music and many insane people dancing throughout the day! It was good fun to see and be a part of. We had a very cultural day touring the museum, the president´s house and hiking up to a cool look out point. Other days were spent meeting people from the hostel and doing small walks around the city. We did one nice day at an outdoor pool on the top of a mountain in the city. Beautiful views of Santiago, but the view would have been better without all the smog!

After Santiago, we toured up to La Serena,Chile for some peace and quiet. We enjoyed the beach there and managed to get another sunburn! Lots of time spent wandering the city. We saw many markets and shopping centres. One day we did a great tour into the Elqui Valley with a local tour guide. We went to a papaya plantation, a museum, a pisco/wine distillery, and we even stopped off at a local river to dip our feet (this wasn´t a tourist spot). We ate lunch in a beautiful valley restaurant. The day was very hot (40 in the shade I think), so we were wiped out when we got back at 8pm that night! After a few days of relaxing we did the overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

San Pedro proved to be quite busy for us. We did a tour called Valle de La Luna (Valley of the Moon) and it was phenominal! Spectacular views of the mountains all around. We climbed a huge sand dune and watched the sun bounce off the hills from all around.
We also did a sunrise tour while we were there. Up at 3 in the morning and on a bumpy bus by 4am! We went to the El Tatio Geysers and saw the sunrise. The steam coming up from the ground looked so amazing! We were very tired, but as the day progressed it got better and better. We toured a cactus forest along a beautiful stream. It was another great day.
One day we rented bikes and drove around in the hot sun for hours and hours in search of a swimming hole. We eventually found one (Thank God) but we got lost first and then took the long way! Thankfully it was beautiful all around and we had lots of water and sunscreen!

After leaving San Pedro, we have come across the mountains to Salta, Argentina. I love Argentina! The people are so friendly. There is a different feeling when you arrive in Argentina and it is difficult to explain, but very noticeable. We have been busy in Salta too.

We rented a car with a guy from the hostel named Markus. He is from Switzerland. He was the driver, so we liked to tease him and call him ¨James our Swiss Chauffer¨! We took the car in a loop and stayed the night in Cafayate. The scenery changed so much during our 2 days of driving. It was incredible and we had so much fun together!
Yesterday we went out to a horse ranch and did a full day of horseback riding. It was a bit rough because we were ¨accidentally¨ hungover. I blame Lindsay, as I didn´t want to go out that night. She insisted! The horses were awesome and well behaved. We did a 2 1/2 hour ride in the morning and then feasted on an Argentinian BBQ for lunch. We went swimming in their pool and then went off for another very long ride into the mountains. We passed by so many tabacco fields. I guess 80% of people here work in the tabacco industry. The second ride must have been nearly 4 hours and my ass hurts sooooooooooo bad today! C´est la vie. It was so worth it!

So, tonight we are going on an overnight bus to Bolivia (well to the Argentina border town). The next time I write I shall be in Bolivia!