Spending a week with my family in El Monte!

On the day marking our 8 months of travel, my family arrived at the Santiago international airport...They had been planning this for a while, and I was very excited to see them.  They found a place for a week in El Monte, just outside of Santiago in the wine country, and we were gearing up for the visit.

We took a bus from near the terminal 'Los Heroes,' in Santiago, headed for the airport.  Having not had a lot of sleep the prior night, we were a little out of it to say the least...We boarded the bus, and the driver pointed to a crate behind his seat for our bags.  There was hardly anyone on the bus, and I decided to also put my guitar in the storage space.  All of a sudden a ton of people boarded, and began putting things on top of my guitar bag.  Stupid of me, but I was watching carefully, and figured it would be fine.  Turns out, something chipped the nut on the headstock of my guitar, and the high E string is unplayable...The search for a new nut continues, and my previous paranoia of keeping my guitar with me will continue...

Anyways, we made it to the airport at about 10 am, and found the international arrivals terminal, which was much smaller than I expected from a big city like Santiago.  We waited in a crowd of rowdy taxi cabbies trying to get business, and finally, after being asked if we needed a cab for over an hour, I spotted my brother Michael walking out of the terminal exit!

We were both very excited to see everyone, obviously, and I was happy to finally meet Thom, my mother's boyfriend, who I had heard so much about, as well as Meg, my sister's girlfriend.  We waited while Thom and my mom went to retrieve the rental van, and we headed off into the Chilean highway system to find our home for the next week.

After only a couple wrong turns, we pulled into beautiful little El Monte, and into the driveway of the house.  None of us expected what we would find there, as it was an enormous property, with a pool, and gorgeous gardens and trees, home to 5 big dogs, and two caretakers...

Roast beef dinner I made...

A massive kitchen, and an awesome outdoor barbeque area with wood burning pizza oven, would be the site of our meals for most of the next week.  Danica and I did most of the cooking, as we missed our awesome kitchen in Manglaralto, Ecuador...

We spent a lot of time hanging out by the pool, and roaming the property, which had a creek flowing through it, and pond, and some massive trees.  We spent an afternoon visiting the  neighboring town of Pomaire, which is the pottery capital of Chile, and a nice small village to wander through.

Later in the week, we ventured out to the coast, and spent the day visiting Viña Del Mar, and Valparaiso, which were both very beautiful in their own sense.  We took the long way back, down the coast a ways, and got some incredible views of the ocean cliffs, very reminiscent of California...

Valparaiso Marina

 

 

 

We found a microbrewery down the road from El Monte, called "Szot," run by an American guy and his Chilean wife and son.  They had a great selection of beers, and we really enjoyed their Barley Wine and Double IPA, amongst others.  As mentioned in previous posts, we love finding good beer, as it is often hard to come by!  The owners were super friendly, and we visited them twice on our trip.

My brother Michael in part of Szot's beer commercial...awesome

More delicious dinners were eaten, including one my mom made, stuffed chickens baked with stuffing and roasted veggies.  Grilled Salmon, and beef tacos.  We had an awesome time seeing and hanging out with everyone, and didn't want them to leave!  What a perfect place for it as well, the property was amazing!  Thanks guys!

Hanging out in Vina del Mar

We all boarded the van at the end of our week there, and headed to the airport to see them off.  That night wse boarded a bus 'Andesmar' and headed for Mendoza, Argentina...The end of a beautiful time in Chile for now, perhaps we'll cross over again, down the road...

Chile's Capital - Meeting up with family!

Danica's uncle lives in Santiago, and has for years.  We planned on visiting him there a while back, and my family planned on meeting us somewhere along the way to visit, and chose Santiago...

We took an overnight bus from La Serena to Santiago, after our camping excursion, and pulled into the Tur Bus terminal at about 5:30 AM.  We were a day early to meet up with her uncle, and had to find a hostel for the night.  Juan, our Colombian friend was somewhere in the city as well, so we set out to find a cafe for some breakfast and some internet access...

We took a cab into the Plaza de Armas, or center of town, and it was still very early, and a ghost town at that.  After roaming for about a half hour, we found a small cafe that served coffee and had wifi.  We found out Juan was staying in Barrio Brasil, not too far from us, and we eventually went to meet him at his hostel, "Cienfuegos" which turned out to be a nice spot, and the first ever hostel in Santiago.

The hostel hosted a barbecue that night, for $2500 Pesos a piece, and we all hung out on the back patio.  A motorcycle rider named Trevor, was there that night, who had been traveling down the continent, from the US.  We started chatting with him, and it turns out he knew Mark and Carlie, our Aussie friends.  Not only did he know them from his travels, but it turned out he also knew several other people we had met along the way...Very small world.

Next day, checked out of the hostel, and set off to the other side of town, to meet Danica's uncle, and spend a few days with him...

Santiago seemed so far off at first, and obviously was.  We did some calculating thus far, and found that we've traveled about 5500 miles, or 8800 kilometers since San Jose, Costa Rica, and wow, it's been a long way!

 

We stayed at her uncle Steve's apartment for 4 nights, and really had a great time.  He was an awesome guy with a ton of information to share.  I had been looking forward to meeting him for a while, and she hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was really a great visit....

Danica cooking at his place...

the view from his balcony

family feud...

We said bye to Steve, and headed to the airport, with all of our stuff, to meet up with my family...

Camping in Pisco Elqui - Valle del Elqui

We left Vicuña in the later afternoon, and jumped on another bus north east to Pisco Elqui, where we had heard that there was a ton of campgrounds, and a good place to spend a week.

Pisco, the grape liquor that originated in Peru, is also heavily produced in Chile, especially in this region.  Infact, most of the grapes you see growing here won't be used for wine...In Bolivia, (in the Tarija region), they also produce grape liquor, but under the name "Singani."  

Only an hour by bus, we were dropped off in "Downtown" Pisco Elqui, which was tiny.  A beautiful cathedral jetted up in the square, and several little shops scattered the small street.  Our Lonely Planet book (3 years old) listed a spot called "Camping Rinconada," that was about $4 per person to camp.  Sure enough, it had been sold, and was closed down...A guy in the square recommended going to "Solar de Barbosa" to camp, which was a 10 minute walk with all of our stuff.

We walked down the dirt path to the campground and were greeted at the gat by a strange guy from Viña del Mar, who told us to come sit down in the shade, and we'd talk about price...This was confusing, because the listed price on the gate was 5,000 Pesos/person, which is $10.  Very expensive to camp, in my opinion, especially if we're on foot, with only a tent, and no car.  I thought he would give us a deal, but it turned out he just wanted to chat for about a half hour about our trip, then he introduced us to the owner, who was firm on his price.  At this point, we were starving, and decided to stay for one night, then maybe find a cheaper spot.  The place was really nice, right on the creek, and we found a shaded spot for the night.

Next morning, I ventured out to find a better, and cheaper spot, and was successful just down the road.  We packed up, and trekked it out of the shade, and into the hot sun, down the road to "Refugio de Angel."

The owner met me at the gate, and gave us a good deal, as I told her we would stay for 4 nights.

The camp was also on the creek, but this one had a nice water hole, and a ton more shade.  We were 2 of maybe 5 total in the whole campsite for the first two nights, and really enjoyed it.  Collected some wood and had a great fire for cooking on, while enjoying some local Pisco from the valley, which was great.

our campsite

 

bridge over the river

Also the second day, we ran into a couple that had been staying at Maria's hostel in La Serena, Michael and Chiara, from England and Austria.  We spent an evening hanging out with them, and enjoying the campfire, along with some local beers and Pisco.

The campsite was home to 3 massive German Shepherds as well as several massive cats.  One big white cat befriended us (especially Danica), and wouldn't leave our camp.  The tuna remnants probably didn't keep him away either, and she named him Rey.

We stayed through Halloween, and the campsite filled up super quickly with Chileans, getting away for their long weekend.

Some good cooking on the fire, including pork chops one night, some lentil stew, pastas, and whatever else we could muster up, proved to be a great time camping.  Only let down was we realized we needed some equipment upgrades, especially if we were planning on heading into Patagonia to do some real camping.  The zipper on our tent broke the first night, and now doesn't close, and my inflatable air mattress pad has a gash in it, and wont hold air.  Other than those things, we survived a week of camping, and can hopefully do some minor repairs.

Vicuña - Valle del Elqui

We took a bus at mid-day, about an hour ride to Vicuña, the bigger town in the heart of the Elqui Valley, a Pisco and wine producing region behind La Serena.

The nice folks at Hostal Maria recommended a hostel that would let us camp there in Vicuña for the night.  The place was called "La Elquina," and was just about 4 blocks from the bus station where we were dropped off...

An older gentleman answered the door, and showed us to the back garden of the hostel, where we could set up camp for the night.  There was kitchen access, a really nice garden, and a comfortable, grassy bed which we would be sleeping on top of that night...

A walk through the relatively small town of Vicuña, and some lunch, would bring us back to the camp for the night, to cook dinner, and hang out.

We had about a week to kill, hopefully camping in the area, to save money, before we needed to head to Santiago, to meet the family!  It was coming up quickly, as my family purchased tickets to come visit us, the second week of November in Santiago.

La Serena, back on the Pacific

Our overnight bus slowly pulled into the La Serena Terminal at about 11:30 AM, and we were greeting by a slight Pacific breeze...

We sat on a bench and tried to figure out a hostel situation for the night, and found the closest one we could to the terminal.

"Hostal Maria" was just up the road, about a 5 minute walk.  We were greeted by the nicest people upon entering into their 'home' turned-hostel.  It was a brother and sister duo in their 60's, respectively Maria, and Pancho.  They showed us our room for the night, and then sat us down, offered us coffee, and gave us the low-down on La Serena, and what there was to do there.

We walked all the way to the beach, which took about a half hour, and were a little disappointed in the result...It was a huge beachfront area, but was pretty littered with trash, and all the way down the beach was high rise apartments and hotels.  Not as attractive as we had hoped, but still a nice walk.  There was a huge lighthouse structure right on the beach, that a ton of tourists were posing in front of, and all the local kids went there to make out.

We walked around for a while, then back to grocery store, grabbed some things to make dinner, and hung out at the hostel for the night.  Next day, Maria and Pancho gave us directions and some tips on getting to the Valle del Elqui, where we wanted to do some camping...

The hostel was a very nice place.  Nice kitchen, beautiful yard and garden with fruit trees.  It was the perfect jump off point for us in the area, albeit it being super expensive...

Hostal Maria's backyard

San Pedro de Atacama - A whole new world

No, not the theme song from Alladin, but yes, a culture shock all in its own...San Pedro was a nice little desert town, extremely hot during the day, and some incredibly clear skies.  We spent a night at Hostal Corvatsch the first night, after our border crossing adventure into the 21st century.  It was Danica, Juan and I, and we got a dorm style room for very expensive.  Luckily the place had a kitchen, and luckily we finished cooking about 9, because they hurried us out and locked it all up.

streets of San Pedro de Atacama

The next day, we decided to look for camping, and obviously something cheaper...Juan didn't have a tent, and he set off to find a cheaper hostel.  Danica and I found "Camping Los Perrales" just down the road from the center, and while still expensive to set up a tent, it was cheaper than a hostel...

Camping "Los Perrales"

We camped one night, and had a lot of fun.  Cooked, then Juan came and hung out with us at the site til pretty late, and we said goodbye to him, as he was heading to Salta, Argentina in the morning, and us to La Serena, down the coast.
 

Next morning, we got up and found a bus company, "Tur Bus," doing an overnight journey to La Serena, which was about 16 hours away.  We spent the day roaming around, and spending way too long at a cafe on the net, before trudging through the town that evening, in the heat, to find the bus station.

We boarded at 7pm, and headed north-west towards Calama, and into the sunset.  The Valle de la Luna was to our Port-side, and what an incredible sight it was.  Even coming from the Bolivian Salar, the Valle was impressive, with its massive desert rocky cliffs and red rocks.  We would wake the next morning in La Serena...

Entering into Chile

Miguel, our Uyuni tour guide, stopped the Landcruiser at the Chilean/Bolivian border crossing.  Strange, because there was the Bolivian stamp-out office, but the Chilean entrance wasn't anywhere in sight...There was a sign though, welcoming us to Chile.  An easy stamp out, cost nothing, and we were on our way, Danica, Juan and I.  Juan's passport was stolen in Cochabamba, along with some other things, and he was a little stressed about crossing the border without it...Luckily he had his Colombian ID card, and they gave him no trouble at the crossing.

So, as the van full of tourists drove off, we were already inside Chile without 'legally' being there.  After about 5 minutes on the dirt road, we suddenly felt the major difference in Chile...The van pulled onto a brand new highway, with speed limit signs and margins in the road...Wow, we hadn't seen anything like that in a long time, perhaps since Ecuador.  We drove down the mountain, losing about 2000 meters in altitude behind us, and my body felt like it was decompressing, for we had spent the last 2 months at high altitude, from the mountains of Peru, to the height that is most of Bolivia.  We were heading to San Pedro de Atacama, our first Chilean stop, and where the actualy border office is.

As we pulled into the border office, I literally felt like I was back home for a second...There were border guards searching peoples bags, and an office with a conveyor belt and x-ray for everybody's luggage.  Not once on this entire trip have we seen that!  Despite the high security, everyone made it through without hassle, including our friend Juan, with only his Colombian ID card, and no passport...  Bienvenidos a Chile!