San Pedro

Apologies for the delay...

So at the end of the salt flats tour we got the SLOWEST bus in the history of bus rides to San Pedro. A really dinky little town, that in my opinion had been seriously tourist-erised, but a really nice break from intense Bolivia!! We had booked ourselves into a sweet little hostel where we spent most of the time just chilling out together and recovering from Bolivia. We ate some lovely food  (lots of scrummy restaurants) but expensive! In fact Chile has been a bit of a shock to the old bank balance in general.

I had been told that there were lots of things to do in SP so we went to discover what was avaliable... we decided on a FIVE HOUR (why?!) Horseride to the Valle de Luna (Valley of the Sun). It was amazing, and although I couldnt walk the next day, it was a great adventure. Here we were galloping through the desert with yet more scenery and not one more person in sight. Perfect.

After a few days we decided to take the 24hr bus to Santiago -  which turned out to better than anticipated. Naturally we befriended the bus drivers who occassionally checked up on us, came for chats and put English dvds on... Sweet!

Then when we arrived we made our way on the metro to the house we were staying. I might add I was rather impressed with the using of metro thing, how native!

We were staying with the same family flo stayed with on her gap year. I was slighty nervous about it as there seemed to be millions of them: Miguel and Carolina the parents Monica the maid and her granddaughter martina then the children... Lucas, juan Pablo, Fran, sole, camila and ignacio - I had to draw a spider diagram!!

They were such a lovely welcoming family and by day 3 it felt like a second home, I can see why flo wanted to go back... We ended up staying there longer than planed and 5 days later we finally made our way out of there. I am afraid to say we didn't do all that much apart from drink! Apparently that is all they do (dad- you'd love it). I met so many great people, they were extremely friendly.

The best day for me was going to the vineyard Caliterra. Juan Pablo drove us there, a 2.5 hour journey south of Santiago. It was stunning, with the vineyard stretching all the way into the mountains. When we arrived they had lunch ready for us, which was delicious. Then we went for a ride around the vineyard and then onto the wine tasting. Apparently I'm not so good at the whole spitting out thing and found myself a little tipsy - but all good fun. We also spent a day at viña - which is THE beach to go to I hear. As I say other than that it was piscolas (pisco and coke) and dancing for us.

We got ourselves a flight with THE WORST airline ever and eventually made it to Buenos Aries where Alice was waiting for us in a rented appartment.... oh yes an appartment - ooooog the excitement!