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Chile
4th August, 2005, San Pedro
We spent a very relaxing couple of days in San Pedro, just being lazy, sorting out our pictures on the website and stuff.
We went back to the restaurant where the cat that liked Simon lived and had steak and chips with a bottle of Chilean wine, while we sat outside by a big fire.
The cat came back again as soon as it smelled the steak.
We then took an overnight bus to La Serena, again not too bad a night's sleep, but still pretty much the same boring landscape in the morning; desert, but this time with a few bushes.
August 7, 2005, La Serena
We've spent the last couple of days doing not a lot and reading books and generally relaxing. Really happy to hear about the test match and really gutted we weren't there for it. We've been to the archaeological museum here and seen a big giant head from Easter Island today, which has got us even more excited about going there in a couple of weeks to see even more giant heads.
Last night we went on an observatory tour. They've got a proper observatory just outside the town where they gave us a brief talk on space and stuff and then a tour of the sky, where the guy pointed out some of the constellations. Then we got to use three different telescopes to look at Venus, Jupiter, the Southern Cross and some star clusters, which was all really cool. The best thing was looking at Jupiter through a 75x telescope where you could see the bands of colour faintly and 4 of the moons in a line to the left and right of the planet, like small stars. Tommorow we're going to a place called Pisco Elqui, which is full of hippies. Something about Lay Lines. I hate hippies. 
August 11, 2005, Pisco Elqui
Hello
After the last post we went up the Elqui Valley to a little village, the one with the hippies Si was talking about. It was really relaxing, and no hippies in sight, just lots of signs advertising Reiki and massages!
We didn't do too much there, just had lots of nice food and did a short horse ride.
Yesterday we went back to La Serena, but just missed the bus to Valparaiso at 1pm. This meant we had to wait until 11pm to get the next one. We had already seen all the sights, so we went shopping in the mall, and then went to the cinema. We finished the night by eating in Schoppdog, which is Chile's equivalent of McDonalds, but with hot dogs. Not sure that is what is meant by doing what the locals do, but we were the only tourists there!
We didn't get much sleep last night on the bus, as they had the heating on full blast, and they made us change buses at 2am. Si is still in bed at the moment, and I am hiding away from the hostel as I flooded the bathroom when I had a shower. Plan is to stay here for a couple of nights, then on to Santiago before Easter Island next Saturday.
When we arrived in Valparaiso we had some more waiting around, our bus got in at 7am, but we could get our room until 12. We food a good café though, serving all day breakfast with really good scrambled eggs. We both also liked the Chilean idea of Onces (Elevenses) which is religiously observed as a separate meal. Everyone should make time for tea and cake. They even had English Breakfast tea in the café.
August 14, 2005, Valparaiso
Well we finally arrived in Santiago yesterday lunchtime, bringing an end to a journey that we sort of started on June 17th from Lima, which has taken 8 weeks and in which we've clocked up something like 6000km overland (Gemma is going to work out exactly how far later).
Valpariso (our last stop) was really nice and I was sad to leave, we were only there for 2 days, but it was one of my favourite places in South America. I feel really sorry for anyone who comes to Santiago and misses it, as it is only 2 hours away by bus. It seems loads of backpackers and tourists do Santiago and then bomb up to the North and San Pedro. Silly people.
Valpariso is a port town, but does not have the same level of scariness and seediness that ports usually have. The highlight of it is the hills, there are 7 all surrounding a crescent shaped bay,
all of which are fairly steep. The buildings on them, and in the main strip of land bordering the sea, have all been built independently, as if the owners bought a plot of land and built what they felt was suitable without any thought as to what other building were close by. The result is that all are different, but it somehow works perfectly, especially where lots have been painted bright colours. Think beach-huts on Brighton beach, but the size of mansions. On lots of parts of the hills the houses seem to cling to cliff faces, rock outcrops, or man-made retaining walls adding to the general chaos and charm. To add to the colour loads of the man-made walls (which are seemingly holding the hills together) have been painted with graffiti, but proper graffiti art, not just tags, and one area is an open air museum where about 15 years ago the council commissioned the best artists in Chile to paint the retaining walls with murals.
Almost all the hills are fairly steep so when the city was being built they installed cable-car lifts in them, which have since been boxed in by more buildings, so you tend to stumble across one when walking up a street.
I really could wittier one about the place all day, but I won't. I'll finish my ramble by saying that I felt it was South America at it's best, where all the most positive aspects are present and all the negative ones (lack of planning, randomness, crazy ideas, etc) have all come up with something fairly unique.
I also got my haircut by a 90 year old woman, who tried to give me a Chilean style comb-over.
I'm less positive about Santiago so far....
But we'll say something more about it later in the week.
Flying to Easter Island (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pasque) on Saturday and I can't wait. 
August 14th, 2005, Santiago
Arriving in Santiago was a bit of a shock; after 2 months not being in a big city it seemed REALLY! big. We didn't do much on the first couple of days, as the first was a Sunday and the second was a bank holiday Monday we knew nothing about. Our highlights of the week were;
Barrio Bellavista - We have finally realised when our guidebook says "bohemian" it really means 'around 3-4 brightly painted houses'. Still this area was nice enough to wander round, and we finally sampled Chile's other national dish (apart from hot-dogs); Lomo Pobre (literally- poor man's steak). It is steak and chips with two fried eggs on top with sort of caramelised onions on the side.
Another area we enjoyed was Providencia, very upmarket. We found a little courtyard area with a couple of bookshops, hippy shops and an "English pub", which actually worked - not as an "English Pub" but because it was quite quirky and unique. It was not trying too hard to be an English theme pub, it seemed quite happy being whatever it was!
Palacio Cousino - this showed how rich Chilean people used to live! A really amazing house entirely built & furnished with European stuff. Some of the curtains were hand stitched with gold thread by French nuns. The silverware was made with silver from the family mines, that was shipped to England to be made and then shipped back. The main staircase was marble with each step a different coloured marble, imported from a different place in the world..
Fish Market - We also visited the famous fish market and managed to buy some prawns to cook in the evening.
August 19, 2005, Santiago
I'm not going to tell you about Santiago today, I'm going to tell you about Chilean music, or more specifically what keeps happening to me.
Yesterday in an internet cafe I had the following experience <warning: experiences may have been dramatised for comedy effect>
I walked in minding my own business, had just sat down when I heard the owner say "hey, juan carlos, look! Its the English boy Pedro told us about, quick get my CD's" I looked at the cricket manager website for a bit, glanced up and the owner nudged his little assistant who hit play on the CD player and then did a little wink and a gun with his hand in my direction. Then it started, those now too familiar words; "turn around, bright eyes. every now and then I get a little bit closer....." for the 6th time in 4 weeks someone was playing Bonnie Tyler's total eclipse of the heart when I walk in somewhere. Its my song in Chile. I have even heard it in Spanish ("Eclipse total de amor"
.
It could be worse, Gemma's is "Sorry seems to be the hardest word" by Elton John (sin Blue). We have heard that 5 times in Santiago alone, twice it started literally as we walked in somewhere.
"Desculpe parece ser la palabra mas dificil"
(couple for tim and charlotte there)
Its becoming quite worrying, like the way the chinese resturant in Moseley always puts on "my breath away" after they've brought our starter. What are they trying to tell us?
Next stop Easter Island