La Paz - Bolivia - 3,640m
Markets, altitude and busy.

Sucre - Bolivia - 2810m

Small, white and dinosaurs.

Day 1:

We arrived in Sucre at the very early hour of 5 o’clock in the morning. After neither of us had a good night sleep on the bus we were praying by the time we got to our hostel we would be able to check straight in and go to bed for a few hours. Luckily our prayers were answered and we were able to check in at 5.30 and go straight to bed for a few more hours. By the time we were up and showered and everything we were starting to get hungry. So we decided to go and explore Sucre and try and find somewhere to get some lunch. We ended up finding this market whilst looking for some food which had pretty much everything you wanted accept already made food, plus we didn’t really trust the food out of there as from what we had heard from other travellers the food in Bolivia isn’t the safest and seemed to be where most people get ill on their travels, plus all the flies flying around the meat was off putting. After the market we found this little cafe for lunch which had Rachel had seen really good reviews for on tripadivisor and it was easy to see why. After lunch we wanted to go to one of the museums, however, the museums close for a couple of hours during the day, so we went back to the hostel to chill for a little bit and go through the hundreds of photos we took at the salt fats. In the end we didn’t go to the museum because Rachel wasn’t feeling to well (fortunately it was just due to being tired from the busy few days before hand) and the fact the heavens opened so we just had a chilled afternoon relaxing at the hostel.
Day 2:
Thankfully Rachel was feeling better today. We woke up early that morning to FaceTime both families as it was Jess’ birthday and the WiFi was good enough that we could actually have a conversation. After doing that we had breakfast and went to get a public bus to go to the dinosaur park where we would see dinosaur footprints. Using the public bus was pretty easy to do as the bus stop was round the corner of our hostel and the dinosaur park was the last stop of the buses route. The bus was only meant to take 45 minutes but the traffic was horrendus and ended up taking more like 1 hour and a half. We got there just in time for the free tour of the dinosaur footprints. The dinosaur footprints were on the side of this hill due to the movement of tectonic plates. It was unbelievable how clear the footprints were. You could clearly distinct that different footprints came from different types of dinosaurs. It was thought that the cliff face had dinosaur footprints about 100 meters. As well as dinosaur footprints the dinosaur park offered stunnning surrounding scenery. In the first picture you can’t see a V in the wall that’s missing, this part of the wall fell away, there is 2 million years difference between the now exposed surface Andy what used to be there. Unfortunately that was about it for the dinosaur park so when we left feeling a bit underwhelmed, but to say we saw dinosaur footprints is pretty cool still even if it didn’t match expectations. Fortunately the bus journey back didn’t take as long as the first, only taking the 45 minutes it’s supposed to. When we got back into central Sucre we went to the supermarket to get some bits and pieces for dinner. Once we got them and dropped them off at the hostel we took a 30 minute walk to a view point of the city. This viewpoint gave out great views of the city. These views were unfortunately spoiled by dark rain clouds starting to form over the city. This meant that as we didn’t bring any clothes on the walk for rain as none was forecasted and the clouds weren’t so prominent when we left for the viewpoint, we didn’t hang about just in case it started to chuck it down. We then spent the rest of the day sorting bits of bobs out as the next day we flew to La Paz.

Dusty, hot and expensive

Getting to San Pedro De Atacama we decided to fly from Santiago rather than taking the 27 hour bus. However, we at the time we were in Valparaíso meaning we had to get a 2 hour bus back to Santiago to then go to the airport.  Once we got to the airport it was about lunch time and we were starving as we hadn’t had breakfast. Thankfully Santiago airport is much bigger than Mendozas and there was plenty of options for food, so we got some food and then boarded our flight. There is actually no airport at San Pedro De Atacama so we had to fly to Calama and then get a 90 minute transfer to San Pedro de Atacama. It wasnt until the evening that we arrived so we checked into our room before going to find a tourism agency to book a Valle de la Luna tour we knew we wanted to do the next day.
The next morning we got up to do yet another free walking tour. We were unsure what to expect since  it was such a small and touristy place. We were pleasantly surprised, we learnt about the three main economic industries - tourism, mining, archeology. They told us about the Cordillera mountain range and showed us around the very small village and gave us some tips on tour agencies. That’s afternoon we set out to find a Salar de Uyuni tour, we were both a little apprehensive about choosing the right company, we read lots of review so and went into some of our preferred companies and choose from there. We also ended up booking an astrology tour for that evening. We had a pretty chilled time in San Pedro, doing lots of admin and getting excited for our salt flat tour. During the astrology experience we got to see up close the moon, Mars, Saturn, nebulas and much more. We both really enjoyed San Pedro but were equally excited to leave for our 3 day tour.

Santiago and Valparaíso - Chile
Colourful, cold and mountains.

Although not the introduction we had planned to Chile, we had an excellent first day. A very early pickup from the hostel at 6:30 was not so pleasant but so worth it. We were headed to Cajón del Maipo, a canyon which houses little villages, volcanoes and El Yeso dam. The journey through the canyon was incredible, surrounded by mountains many covered in snow, our guide taught us about the different types of rocks we could see and all about the reason for El Yeso dam. When arriving and seeing the water reserve it looked fake, the water was cyrystal clear and so still. The pictures don’t do justice to just how blue the water was. It was also hard to believe that from 30 degrees to snow in such a short distance. This meant that we had probably the coldest picnic either of us have ever had.
Our second day we took a walking tour of the city, this was our best hope of seeing as much as possible in the very little time we had in the city. Luckily the tour ended at the base of Cerro San Cristobal, something we’d wanted to see but didn’t think we’d have enough time to. We both really liked the city visually, it was both modern and green. To our surprise, no San Martín mentioned here!! The highlight was however without doubt getting the funicular to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, and getting incredible 360 degree views of the huge city. It wasn’t until then did we’d actually realise just how big Santiago was. In the evening we got the bus down to Valparaíso, this was quick and easy. Within minutes of arriving we could feel a totally different vibe and see how different the two cities are.
Walking down to the walking tour meeting point we passed many colourful and graffitied buildings. It turns out the stairs to our hostel are quiet the tourist attraction however we couldn’t see why it was just some painted stairs with some song lyrics on, though probably would of understood more if we knew the song. The first tour we did was a walking tour through the parts of Valparaíso we might not of seen by ourselves. This meant we took a bus up to the hills, not only did this give us the benefit of seeing parts of the city that we wouldn’t of seen on our own but also gave us countless spectacular views of the city. At the end of the tour there was a surprise which was a drink, now this was a very strange drink that students apparently drink when they don’t like red wine or that’s all that’s left but are slowing down, it was  combination of red wine and coke. It tasted as weird as you would think but was not a bad taste I must say. Once the tour had finished we had enough time to go back to the hostel and have some empanadas for lunch before heading out again for another, yep you guesed it, free walking tour. This one was some more of the popular sights that we probably would of seen anyways but was nice to be guided around the city and learn more about its history. Sadly however we are writing this a few days after doing it and we can’t seem to remember much of the details but they are not that important anyways. Later that night we sorted out all our bags as in the morning we were flying to San Pedro de Atacama the driest desert in the world where it hasn’t rained for 125 years.