December 14, 2005
Day 77

I got into Viña del Mar very early today, exhausted from my overnight bus ride. I took a walk around town and discovered what a charming place it is. Located on the coast, Viña has lots of beach resorts, parks, a casino owned by the city, and the biggest shopping mall in South America. Among many other things, the mall contains a huge Wal-Mart like store that has 68 checkout lines! I couldn't believe how big everything was there.

I decided to try couchsurfing again, and just like last time, it has been a great experience. Shannon, from California, and Cote, from Chile, are a young married couple living in a nice condo on top of a hill with a great view of Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. They almost constantly host people. In fact, a girl from Argentina named Juliana is also staying there now. In February, Shannon and Cote will begin their own RTW trip, beginning with Easter Island.

I was too tired to do much of anything today other than walk around town for a bit, so I just had a relaxing evening with Shannon, Cote, and Juliana, and called it a night early.

Viña del Mar Photos
Condo Photos

December 13, 2005
Day 76

Vicuna sits at the gateway to the Elqui valley, a region of Chile famous for making pisco, the national drink. This morning, I bought a bus pass to go to a few towns in the valley, eager to take a tour of a pisco distillery and sample some free pisco.

My first stop was Pisco Elqui, a village of about 500 people that is surrounded by vineyards and mountains. It felt like I was in Italy than Chile when I saw how many grapes were growing all around me. I walked around the central square for a bit and went to the Solar de Pisco Elqui, Chile's oldest distillery. Unfortunately, the distillery was closed to the public due to remodeling. Undeterred by this unfortunate occurrence, I decided to go to Los Nichos, a private distillery 4 KM outside of town.

When I got to Los Nichos, I was given a free tour of the small, family owned distillery. First, I was shown the pisco being bottled and labeled. Next, I was led to the wine cellar, where hundreds of bottles of 100-year-old wine were being stored. When I asked how much they were worth, the girl giving me the tour only would tell me "a lot." I wasn't aware that they also made wine, but it made sense when I found out because both pisco and wine are made from grapes. Next, I saw about six kegs where the pisco was aged to perfection. I asked why they made so little pisco, to which the girl responded "lower quantity means higher quality." This was confirmed to me a few minutes later when I got to try some of their pisco and wine. It had a great strong-yet-sweet flavor. I was impressed enough to buy a bottle of it, anyway.

It was getting late, so I started making my way back to Vicuna after visiting the distillery. However, I still had enough time to make one more stop at Montegrande. The town was the childhood home of Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral, a fact which became obvious as soon as I saw the town. Absolutely everything in town was named after her: restaurants, hotels, the main square, the church, and I think even her tomb bore her namesake. I had never heard of her before today, but after seeing her name plastered everywhere, I still felt the need to saunter around town for a few hours to respect her memory.

I originally just left La Serena to see the observatory and head back the same night. The only reason I stayed in Vicuna overnight was because I wouldn't be able to catch a bus back to La Serena when the tour ended at 1:00 in the morning. Still, I'm glad I was able to spend some time in the area. It's full of some beautiful scenery and has a great small-town atmosphere to it. Of course, getting to drink free wine and pisco in itself made visiting the area worthwhile.

After visiting Montegrande, I began a long night of riding buses. I had to ride a bus back to Vicuna, pick up all of my stuff, ride another bus to La Serena, then catch an overnight bus to Vina del Mar, which is next to Valparaiso. I know I've said this before, but Chile is so big that getting anywhere seems to require riding a bus for at least eight hours.

The photo album for this entry is here.

December 12, 2005
Day 75

About the elections:

Chile probably has the most stable government in all of South America, so there were no roadblocks or riots from yesterday's election. In fact, it looks like Chile will have its first ever female president next year. I say "looks like" because they have to have a runoff election in January because nobody got over fifty percent of the vote. It seems strange to me because the woman got forty five percent, and the other two major candidates got around twenty five percent each, yet another election will still be required.

A lot of people here seem mad because they have to cancel their vacation plans to vote in the runoff. Everyone who's over 18 is eligible to register to vote, but once they do, they are required by law to vote in every election from that point on. They also have to vote in the city in which they registered, so the people who were going to be on vacation at the beginning of January have to cancel their plans to so they can come home and vote. I guess that also explains why the buses were still running yesterday, even though everything else was closed.

About my day:

Early in the afternoon, I took a bus to Vicuna, which is about an hour inland from La Serena. The main reason I decided to go there was because it was near Marmalluca, the only pubic space observatory in Chile. The area has a small population and enjoys 300 clear nights per year, which makes it perfect for looking at the sky. I signed up for a tour of Marmalluca as soon as I got situated in town.

At around 10:00 PM, after the sun was long gone, my tour began. I was loaded into a van with six or so other people, and we drove up a large hill near town to the observatory. Our guide, who was also an amateur astronomer, led us into the dome-shaped building where the telescope was. On the walk to the dome, I noticed that it was so dark, I could barely see the path in front of me, despite the fact that the moon was nearly full. Light pollution is the main concern of the observatory, so there are virtually no lights in the area.

When we got to the top of the dome, our guide pushed a few buttons, and the dome opened a bit. At that point, there was just enough light for me to see the big telescope in the middle of the room. Our guide pressed some buttons on the keypad hanging from the telescope, and it suddenly turned around and pointed toward the sky through the slot in the roof.

When I looked through the telescope, I saw Venus. I was surprised to see that it was a crescent like the moon because it looked like a circle with the naked eye. I leaned that Venus and Mercury have phases like the moon because they are between us and the sun. Right now Venus is only 23% full, and it will disappear completely in a few months. It takes so long for Venus to change its appearance because it rotates very slowly. In fact, a Venus day is longer than a Venus year!

Next, our guide entered another code into the telescope and it pointed toward the other side of the sky. This time, we got to look at Mars. Although it is commonly known as the "red planet," it looked more orange than red through the telescope. We learned that a few weeks ago, Mars the second closest to us that it's been in 60,000 years, so it's a great time to see it. The closest approach of Mars was just a few years ago.

It was at this time that I asked how smart the telescope was. I was told that all you have to do is tell it, for example, "Mars," and it will find Mars automatically. It will even slowly move automatically as the sky moves around us! The telescope was very impressive, indeed.

Next, we looked at the moon. To me, it looked amazing because it was very bright and was full of craters. However, to astronomers, it was the worst object in the sky because of its brightness. I then realized that going on an observatory tour when the moon was almost full probably wasn't a great idea because so few stars were visible. At least the moon was bright enough to attempt to take a picture of it.

After seeing the moon, we looked at a series of nebulae and star clusters. Each time, our guide pointed the telescope to an area of the sky where I couldn't see anything, yet when I looked through the telescope, gas clouds and hundreds of stars appeared. In fact, one of the clusters that we looked at contained around 400,000 stars! The universe is mind-bogglingly big.

After an hour or so of looking at the stars, our guide told us a story he had of an exciting experience he had awhile back. He got together with some friends and drove twelve hours to San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, where he was able to get some time on the local telescope. When he got there, he finally saw something he had never seen before: part of the Big Dipper! One day, he dreams of going to the northern hemisphere where he'll be able to see the whole thing. At first, I laughed at him because I had seen the Big Dipper a thousand times in my life, but then I remembered that I had never seen the ubiquitous Southern Cross until this trip, but it's no big deal to the people who live here.

I got back to my hostel at about 1:30 AM. Even though the sky was polluted by the moon's light, it was a very interesting evening for me. Astronomy would be a fascinating hobby for me to get into, but I don't have much time for it now due to the whole traveling thing. One thing I know for sure is that I'll never look at the Big Dipper the same way again.

The photo album for this entry is here.

December 11, 2005
Day 74

Not knowing what the atmosphere around town would be like today, last night I stocked up on food and beverages, and prepared to sit in my hostel all day. It was election day today, and in order to allow everyone to vote, all businesses would be closed. There was a good chance that I'd have nothing to do all day.

For the first time since I got to La Serena, I was delighted to wake up to the screams of "Ovalle, Ovalle" over and over outside my window. My hostel was near the bus station, and all day long, employees would walk up and down the sidewalk shouting the name of the coveted destination to which their bus was heading. I had no idea where Ovalle was or what there was to do there, but it was good to know that at least the buses were still running today. Having nothing better to do, I hopped on a bus, hoping that Ovalle would be so good I'd be shouting its name all day, too.

Luckily, Ovalle was only about an hour away. For all I knew, it could've been ten. The first thing I noticed when I got off the bus was that the streets were almost empty. I guess they really take their elections seriously here. The next thing I noticed was that there were flowers everywhere. I'm not sure if a lot of botanists live in Ovalle, or if the city just needs to cover up the other plants that grew there, but wherever I turned, there seemed to be more flowers growing. The town was a nice, tranquil place, and after a few hours of walking around and taking in the scenery, I caught a bus back to La Serena.

There wasn't much else to do today. It seemed that the bus station was the only thing that was open on election day. Tonight, I ended up cooking the food I bought yesterday and chilling out in my room. Tomorrow I'm going to head out to Vicuna in the Elqui Valley. It's a prime location for space observatories and vineyards, so I should have plenty to do there.

The photo album for this entry is here.

December 10, 2005
Day 73

Last week, I lost my small camera. For awhile, I thought about not getting a new one and just using my big camera, but I soon realized that that wasn't possible. I didn't want to carry my big camera with me everywhere I went, and I already had missed out on many photo opportunities, such as last night when I ate fried fish with a bunch of random Chileans. I had to buy a new camera, and today was as good a day as any to do so.

The first stop in my search for a new camera was the mall, which had a bunch of stores with small digital cameras. Of all the cameras I saw, the Nikon Coolpix 4600 seemed like the best one for me. It was small, light, and somewhat inexpensive. In fact, I almost bought the same camera before my trip until I decided to go with a slightly cheaper model.

I still wanted to check out some more prices, so I headed downtown. I found a huge store that had clothes, furniture, electronics, restaurants, and an Internet cafe. When I started looking at cameras, the first one the employee pointed out to me was the Nikon Coolpix 4600, the camera I was most interested in anyway. I carefully examined all of its features and decided to buy it.

I'm glad the whole ordeal is over now. I have a new camera that I can always use for spontaneous and candid pictures. This time I'll be more careful not to lose it, too. As much as I like taking pictures at bars, I've decided that I'm not going to take my camera out at night with me anymore. Even though it could've fallen out of my pocket in a taxi in the middle of the day, I would've been more likely to find it then than at 6:00 AM.

This afternoon, I walked down to the beach. It took about thirty minutes to get there from the center of town, so it's not like Arica or Iquique where I could see the ocean from my window. There's also no swimming allowed at the beach, so I'm not quite sure what it's good for. There is a lighthouse at the end of the walkway to the ocean, so at least people have something to look at.

My other big news of the day is that I drank tap water for the first time since leaving home. I probably asked a dozen people if it was OK to drink the water, and they each said that unlike Peru and Bolivia, the water was purified here. Finally, I caved in and tried it today. Now I don't have to buy bottled water every day like I had been doing. Now that I can drink from the tap, I'll have my camera paid for in no time (as long as it doesn't put me in the hospital)!

The photo album for this entry is here.

December 9, 2005
Day 72

My bus rolled into La Serena at 7:00 AM today. I somewhat slept most of the night, but I was still exhausted when I finally arrived in town. I had to search three different hostels before finding one that wasn't full. I guess there was a holiday in Chile yesterday, so a lot people were traveling. As soon as I found somewhere to stay, I went to bed for the rest of the morning.

I had heard that every McDonald's had a wireless hotspot, so I walked with my laptop to the one nearby this afternoon in hopes of getting connected to the Internet. I ordered a value meal and asked about their connection. They they gave me a card containing a code good for a free hour online. I figured I'd want more time than that, so I asked how much another hour would cost. Rather than charge me, they handed me seven more cards! Needless to say, I was online most of the afternoon. It seems that as long as I can always find a McDonald's, I'll never have to pay to use the Internet again.

At around 7:00 in the evening, I walked to the post office downtown to try to mail some postcards. I figured the post office would be closed, but at least I would know where it was, and I would get to see the rest of downtown while I was at it.

Sure enough, the post office was closed, but there was a Coke machine right inside of the main gate of the government building in which the post office was located. I tried to get a Coke, but the machine wouldn't take my money. An employee tried to help me out, but he couldn't get it work, either. Another guy saw that we were having trouble and showed me where a machine that worked better was, and my thirst was finally satisfied.

On the way out of the building, I started talking to three of the men who worked there. It seemed that they didn't get to meet too many tourists, especially ones who could communicate with them in Spanish, so they were very interested in getting to know me. Suddenly, they invited me to have dinner with them in the government building. It turned out that a bunch of government employees had a small party there every Friday night. I was getting hungry, so I gladly accepted.

We went to the courtyard where one guy lit a small fire out of wood he had gathered nearby. After the fire had been burning long enough to form some hot coals, he put a metal grill over it, coated the grill with vegetable oil, and began frying fish. I had to eat four fish sandwiches before they would let me stop. One good thing about being skinny is that people assume that you never eat, so they feel the need to fatten you up.

I ended up hanging out with the workers until 1:00 AM. We talked about life in Chile and the US, politics, and money. We drank wine, jote (a local drink consisting of Coke and wine), and pisco. I had a great time meeting them, and it all happened because I wanted a can of Coke from a broken machine. That's why I like to keep my options open when I'm traveling. I just never know who I'm going to run into.

December 8, 2005
Day 71

After eating breakfast today, all I did was get on the bus to La Serena. I laid out a few books to read, postcards to write, and my mp3 player to listen to around the seat that would be my home until the next morning, and waited for the time to pass. It actually wasn't too bad because they played some movies that I had never seen before, and the seats were roomy and comfy. I even got two meals during the trip! The buses in Chile are so much nicer than the ones in Peru and Bolivia. With all of the services they give you, it's more like flying than riding a bus.

December 7, 2005
Day 70

I slept fairly late today. This place is so laid-back, the entire town is dead before noon. I didn't feel like doing anything too strenuous after yesterday's bike ride, so I just took a stroll through town and bought a bus ticket for tomorrow to La Serena. I'll have to ride the bus for 16 hours or so, but there aren't any cities between here and there that interest me much. The distances throughout Chile are huge. Most people actually go all the way to Santiago from San Pedro, which is 24 hours by bus. It was easy for me to pass on that one.

I also ran into Emanuel, the French girl who had been traveling on the same path as me with her family through Bolivia a few weeks ago. After the Uyuni salt flats tour, they went into Argentina for a bit and are now on their way back to Lima, from which they will fly home in five days.

Late in the afternoon, I went to the archaeological museum. It had a big remake of an archaeological dig in the middle, and eight or so wings with exhibits that branched out from the center. The format made it easy to see everything, and it was the best museum I had seen in a long time.

At night, the hostel owner cooked everyone a fantastic dinner, and I hung out with the other people at the hostel. Before I knew it, it was almost morning again. I could easily spend a week here and not even realize it.

December 6, 2005
Day 69

Adi and I got going early (around noon) today and bought our tickets to San Pedro, a short distance from Calama in the Atacama desert. We went to the hostel recommended by Pablo, who hangs out in San Pedro every now and then. I immediately noticed how laid-back the place was, with hammocks hanging all over the courtyard and several couches surrounding a large fire pit. It seemed like a great place to chill for a few days.

Everyone I talked to who had been to San Pedro seemed to rave about the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), a large park with scenery perfect for watching the sunset. Adi and I were both up for going tonight, but I wanted to go on a tour bus and Adi wanted to be more adventurous and ride bikes there. I hadn't forgotten about my last bike-renting adventure, but somehow I figured it would be different because I was in Chile, and agreed to go.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the hostel owner rolled out the bikes that we were about to rent. They had wide tires, seats that stayed put, more than one gear (15, in fact), and an actual suspension. In other words, they were real mountain bikes. We got directions to the valley and took off, but not before the hostel owner said "suerte" to me. Hearing that word made me cringe, as I figured it would foreshadow the terrible events to come.

Our first stop was to the center of town to buy some candy bars and water for the afternoon. San Pedro is a small place that seems different from the rest of Chile. Like most of Bolivia, it's as if the entire town has been lost in time. The houses are made out of mud, the streets are unpaved, and the entire town's water supply gets turned off every night. Of course, this is necessary for a town located in the driest desert in the world. After stocking up on supplies, we headed out for our long bike ride in the 90 degree desert summer.

Almost immediately after leaving, the first problem of our trip occurred. Adi's back wheel wasn't aligned properly, which caused it to rub against the bike's frame. This made the bike very difficult to ride, so we headed back into town to look for someone to fix it. There didn't seem to be any bicycle mechanics available, but Adi eventually convinced one of the locals to lend him a wrench. After much torquing, kicking, and swearing, Adi finally got the wheel to spin freely and we set off again.

Our directions included crossing a bridge and turning to the left, which seemed eerily similar to the directions I received back in Sajama. Thankfully, this time there was actually a left turn after the bridge, and it was even on a paved road! Things went quite well as we rode down the road. After awhile, it split to the right to head toward the Valley.

After a short ride down a gravel path, the road split again. To the left were the Tulor ruins, and to the right was the Valle de la Luna. We still had a few hours before sunset, so we headed left to the ruins first.

The path passed through a small native village before entering the park. We paid an entrance fee and checked out the huts that surrounded the park office. Two of the huts contained lots of information about the Tulor culture that used to live there. The information was good to know, but I thought it was disrespectful to put it in the huts that the Tulor people used to live in. After seeing all that there was to see, we still seemed to be ahead of schedule, so we rested for awhile before leaving.

When we were about to head back, the park ranger said, "Aren't you going to look at the ruins?" "I thought we just did," Adi said. "No, these are just replicas. The real ruins are 300 meters further down the path." Finally, the setup started to make sense to me. To be honest, though, I could've skipped the real ruins. They had only excavated two huts; the rest were still buried under the sand. Five minutes later, we were on our way back.

When we began heading toward the Valley, the riding conditions worsened significantly. The wind picked up and blew directly in our faces, the path became corrugated from the constant flow of tourist buses, and it was an uphill climb the entire way. We had to move so slowly that at times, I wasn't even quite sure if we were still moving at all. Finally, after a rough hour of riding, we made it to the entrance to the Valley.

We only had about an hour until sunset, so the only attraction we had time to see was the sand dune lookout point, located several kilometers ahead. After a few minutes, the path became very sandy and went straight uphill, so we had to walk with our bikes. Still, the trip wasn't too bad, and we eventually made it to the dunes. Including our bikes, there were thirty tourist buses and two bikes at the dunes.

Adi and I climbed to the top of the dune and began watching the sun make its descent. The scenery surrounding the area was beautiful, but it was kind of ruined by the hundreds of tourists all around us. The sun also went behind the clouds before it set. Still, it was a good experience just taking in all of the surroundings.

We wanted to get back before it got completely dark, so we didn't waste any time in leaving the dunes. The first thing I noticed when we were going back was that it was downhill almost the entire way. The only work I had to do was to steer the bike to keep myself from crashing, which wasn't easy considering that it was getting dark, I was riding through thick sand, and buses continuously passed by on their way back to San Pedro. Fifteen minutes later, the worst of it was behind us as we entered the paved road.

As we approached town, I found it more and more difficult to pedal. When I stopped to inspect my bike, my worst suspicions were confirmed: I had a flat tire. Still, we were only about a fifteen minute walk from town, and besides, as Adi put it, we needed a cooldown after all of that riding. I would rather cool down by climbing into bed, but whatever.

Even though we had a few minor setbacks, this bike ride went rather well. We got to see everything we wanted to see, and we even got enough exercise to last a long time during the 50 KM ride. Even though the Valle de la Luna wasn't all it was cracked up to be, I still thought it was a good overall experience.

The photo album for this entry is here.

December 5, 2005
Day 68

I was in a rush this morning to leave Pablo's place before he had to go to work and I had to meet Matthieu and Julien for our tour of the mine. When I got to the hotel where Matthieu and Julien were staying, however, I found out that the mine didn't have any tours until the afternoon. We ended up spending the morning walking to the mall and relaxing.

Finally, after waiting around for several hours, we left for the mine. The town where the mine is located is twenty minutes away from Calama, so we had to pile into a taxi that goes back and forth between Calama and Chuquicamata all day. The taxi driver turned twenty minutes into ten by driving 100 MPH the whole way.

When we arrived in Chuquicamata, we got into a large bus with lots of other tourists and were driven to the mine. I knew what to expect from talking to others who had been there, so I wasn't too surprised when I saw how big the mine was. It's the biggest open-pit copper mine in the world at over 800 meters deep, and 600,000 tonnes of copper are excavated from the mine each year. Needless to say, it's a very different mine from the one I saw in Potosi.

Upon arriving at the mine, we were allowed to see an example of one of the trucks used to haul out the copper. The truck's tires alone were over 3 meters high and cost $12,000 each. After looking at the truck, we were led to a platform overlooking the mine. Trucks like the example I had just seen constantly went into and out of the mine, hauling out the freshly-excavated copper before returning for more. The hugeness of the mine made the trucks look small, until I saw one pass a normal van and once again realized how big everything was.

Unfortunately, the tour was very short. We just got to look at the mine for about twenty minutes, and we didn't get to see any of the refining processes or go into the mine. This disappointed me because I wanted to see how the safety compared to the Potosi mine.

After Matthieu, Julien, and I returned to Calama, we got some lunch and met up with Adi, from Sweden, who Matthieu and Julien had known from a hostel they stayed in together a few weeks ago. The four of us hung out for awhile at night. Adi and I will head to San Pedro de Atacama tomorrow. From there, I'll head south toward Santiago, and Adi is going to go through Bolivia. He'll be there during the elections, so it will be interesting to see how things go.

The photo album for this entry is here.