Crossing the border from Bolivia to Chile, we immediately noticed how different the two countries were, even in the middle of the desert. Suddenly, our butts were treated to the comforts of a well-paved road, road signs were ones that could actually reflect light and every few meters there were emergency exits off the road. Very. Strange.
After going through the border control with its strict rules but not so strict immigration people, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, a thouroughfair for seemingly all tourists travelling in Chile. However, despite the touristyness, it's a nice little town and we spent a few good lazy days there. One of the days, however, wasn't lazy, and that was the day we rented mountainbikes and went sandboarding. This was another one of those many 'most fun things I've ever done' for me on this trip, and I'll upload a video of the dramatic results once I get it from Charles.
Eventually, we managed to drag ourselves out of San Pedro and took a 24 hour long bus ride to Santiago. It was a semi-cama bus, but for a few times the price that we're used to, it was even nicer than the cama buses we've taken in other countries. Unfortunately, we were sharing it with a group of loud and merry men who mostly talked about girls and showed each other porn videos on their mobile phones. It turned out that these guys were miners who were on leave after 20 days in the mines, but by what we were used to, they looked like professors or office workers, which I guess is another indication of how different Chile is.
Getting to Santiago involved a huge culture shock for us, because it's so economically developed. It almost feels like you're in Europe or the US. Alex, Charles and I stayed in a neigbourhood called Barrio Brasil, quite bohemian and with lots of nice old buildings and cool-looking people all around. Monica stayed with her relatives in the fancy Las Condes which we visited one day, looking for tents and sleeping bags and finding other nice stuff to spend lots of money on in the huge, shiny mall.
And! We've also been joined by Nadja! Charles, Alex and I picked her up at the Santiago airport, which is also very shiny. So now our group is complete!
Some more fun things about Santiago... We watched the world cup qualifier match between Chile and Peru! It was kind of a fluke thing, and Monica didn't get to come, but it was pretty cool despite the game not exactly being top class. However, when I, halfway through the game, remembered what used to go on in the national stadium I was pretty creeped out. It was a really strange sensation and it seems weird that it's still used for games and concerts. Scary. Another interesting thing about Santiago: we saw 3 lesbian couples making out really openly in the city, how cool is that? And: Nadja finally got the nose piercing she's wanted for like 7 years and I finally got the tattoo I've waited to get for about a year and a half. Out of all the places where we've decided to live, Santiago might be the one we'll move to soonest.
Charles, Nadja and I are now in Valparaíso, north of Santiago. We arrived here yesterday, after taking a 2-hour bus ride, passing lush vegetation, vineyards, olive groves, fancy haciendas and rusty houses made of corrugated iron. Valparaíso is right by the sea, is full of colourful houses and feels a bit more like South America than Santiago. We're staying at the house of an artist, and as you can see from the photos, it's a very cosy place. The neighbourhood though, tranquil as it looks, is apparently a little messy: when we were going home last night, the police was arresting a guy and there were lots of young people running away from where they were, and this morning we came upon a burnt taxi that hadn't been there last night. Exciting stuff. Anyway, Monica is staying with relatives in Viña del Mar but will join us during the day, and Alex is coming here this afternoon after having stayed in Santiago a day longer to meet with friends of his parents. And tonight we're hopefully going out to a place we've heard has 5 dancefloors!
