Chile

Santiago

Plaza de Armas

We took a plane straight from Auckland in New Zealand to Santiago in Chile. The time difference was huge! We left Auckland at 4pm to arrive the same day at 11am after an 11 hours flight!

For mathematics geeks, that's a 40 hours day... Imagine the jetlag we had! :)

We went straight to Pia's, our couchsurfing host but as she wasn't there, she left her keys to the doorman for us to be able to get in. It was so nice from her!

After a quick shower, we went in town to walk around the city centre but we didn't have any map and it was difficult to find a guide book in English at a good price... Books in English are very expensive in Chile! We finally managed to exchange our guide book of South-East Asia for the one of South America by asking at a hostel! Good tip to save money for travellers ;)

Santiago is not a very pretty town but there are some areas quite nice.

A very colorful area

Two bohemian areas: Lastarria and Bellavista

Find the mistake! :)

We climbed up the San Christobal hill to have a good view of Santiago and to have a closer look to the Virgin Maria:

A little funny story: Aurore kept on singing Hughes Aufray (a French singer) but instead of singing Santiano, she was saying Santiago... :D

Finally, the best thing that happened to us in Santiago was meeting Pia and her friends. We spent some very very good time with them, tasting "vino con frutas" (red/white wine blended with fruits) and the famous empanadas (pastries filled with chicken, beef, tuna, cheese or mushrooms), what a treat!

Pia, Wilson and us having a good time! ;)

We made them laugh quite a bit with our Spanish... Since we haven't talked any Spanish since school, we were making up words by adding "a" or "o" at the end of French or English words! :D It doesn't work that well. ;)

Fiesta + Pia + jetlag =

Tired faces... and here we go for a 24h bus!

San Pedro de Atacama

After the long journey, we arrived in Atacama desert, in the village called San Pedro. The weather is very hot and dry but chilly at night. The village is quite small but very nice and welcoming.

San Pedro

Unwinding at the hostel

We went to visit the dunes, a salaar (a salt desert) and some lagunas.

Valle de la Muerte

Whahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here, you can try sandboarding.
They don't have any chairlift though...

Valle de la Luna

Las Tres Marias: You could be thinking that we were alone

but there were a lot of tourists behind us! :)

We went to see the sunset from the top of a cliff which was overlooking the desert, it was beautiful!

A beautiful view of a volcano

The next day we went to the salaar and surprise: there were flamengos!

Then we went to see the lagunas and we could see vicugnas in the distance (but they were too far to get a good pic...).

As we couldn't get close to them... we took a picture of the sign! ;)

On the way back, we stopped at a very cute village.

Valparaiso

After 25 hours in the bus, we finally arrived in the lovely city of Valparaiso (Valpo for intimates ;) ).

It's a city for sportsmen since it's built on around 45 hills! They have funiculars though for the lazy ones like us. :)

There are paintings everywhere: on the walls, the roofs, the doors... We love it very much! On the other hand, some areas seem to be less welcoming because locals kept on telling us: "mucho peligroso aca"... Anyway, we didn't have any problem, we even felt secure in this city even if we had some moments of paranoia... That's Paranoia !!! :P

We tasted a local speciality: the chorrillanas! It's a mountain of french fries with some pieces of beef, some oignons and eggs! A very light meal as you can guess!!! :D

The restaurant had a lot of charm with plenty of old things of all kinds on display, very kitsch, we love!

We met with Pia again and we spent some very good time with her over the week-end. We remember the evenings spent with Pamela, Paulo and Wilson, thank you all! We'll be waiting for you in France! :)

We did a crepes-Jenga evening with Pia and we laughed like kids. :P

Steady, steady...

"Higher! Higher!!!"
It was the start of Aurore's challenge to make crepe all over South America.

Finally, Pia invited us to a Chilean gastronomic restaurant: it was delicious!

We stayed only 10 days in Chili but this country deserves a lot more! We promised ourselves to go back there to visit the south: the lake region, patagonia and to see our friend Pia again. Chile has been an unforgettable experience thanks to her! @Pia Muchas gracias por  todo, we'll never forget all the things you did for us, stay as you are and viva Chile!!! "Bigos Hugos!" :-)