Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
The Colca Canyon and Goodbye from us
As most of you reading will know this blog is written generally a couple of weeks behind. At this exact time of writing it is our last day in South America....Boooooooooh!!!! Tomorrow we are flying to Panama and then on to Cuba. Consequently we will not have the time to update the blog until we get back home. However what we are doing is posting some picture of what we have been doing right up until now. And please come back at the beginning of March to read the completion of Adrian and Colin's thrilling adventures.
To friends and family, we shall see you all real soon!!
xxxxxxxxx
To friends and family, we shall see you all real soon!!
xxxxxxxxx
Monday, 2 February 2009
Bahia Inglesa
It's a strange thing but we seem to be losing our way a bit. We're not quite sure what to do with ourselves at the moment. All the major sights that we have wanted to see are behind us, and apart from the Colca Canyon, in Peru, we aren't too sure what we should do. We also seems to have a lot of time to spare as well. Needless to say, with hindsight, we have been chewing over the possibilities that we could have done...go to Brazil, spend more time in Patagonia...oh well never mind. Regrets, I have a few....but then again, too few to mention.With that in mind we head of to the little visited town, off the tourist trail, of Copiapo. The reason we have come here is because it is the gateway to what should be a fantastic National Park, with the highest volcano in the world and the highest lake in the world.
We arrive at our hostel....I don't know why but we don't half pick em. Copiapo is a bog standard average sort of town, no frills, no flashing lights, no touristy type thingies. The people are good honest working class folk. Inevitably the town is nothing to look at; it's functional and it serves it's purpose, even if it is a bit ugly. But our hostel is another world. It genuinely has to be the cleanest place that we have stayed. The tiles gleam, the painted woodwork is spotless; not a hair, cobweb or speck of dust can be found anywhere and the place is festooned with thousand of bouquets of flowers...plastic and spotless of course. There are women walking around cleaning from 7am to gone midnight; and they are all under the control of the fiercest landlady we have encountered to date. When we arrive, mid afternoon, and are shown to our room by one of the ladies we are informed that we cant complete the register at the moment because "Madam is sleeping". When we finally are granted an audience this woman is fierce with a capital F. She is huge, and looks rather similar to Jabba the Hut. She oozes self-assurance and barks orders to her minions who pander to her every wish. I am convinced that if they dare to disobey or displease her that she probably eats them. I like her.
Unfortunately we scout round for tours to the national park but the prices being quoted are absolutely ridiculous - $300 each for one day!! Later that, we ain't got that kind of cash to splash about. So the purpose of us coming to this town has now evaporated. However we are told of some good beaches that are nearby, just an hour away by bus. The journey is a little bit of a mission and, as always on local buses, one ends up with someones arse in your face, but it is really worth it. The beach is beautiful pristine white coral-sand leading down to aq tourquoise and deep blue sea. We are now at the begining of the Chilean holiday season so the beach is a little packed with families, but that doesnt distract from the fact that are at the most gorgeous beach we have seen so far on this trip. So much so that despite the fact that Copiapo has no real reason for us to stay, unless you are into watching drunk people on the streets shouting, we decide that we shall stay a few days so that we can enjoy the beach and have some relaxation-ness....after all we have the time.
La Serena
Having left Mendoza, we've now arrived in La Serena, Chile, by the sea. It feels good to be by the coast and to see the ocean spread out before us. The main reason we are here is to go star spotting. Yes, this is the place that magazines like Hello! and OK!! come to capture the lives of the Hollywood film stars on camera.....oh.. Ad has just told me it's not that sort of star spotting. Apparently it's the stars that come out in the night sky that we are going to see. Doh!
An hour or so away from the town are a number of observatories. This area is world renowned for its clear skies and consequently practically every night the huge telescopes are pointed upwards collecting god knows what sort of data. Most of these are not open to the public, but one, run by volunteers, opens its lenses to the paying public each night and gives a detail tour of the night sky. We book our places for this evening and go to wander the town.
The beach, although a good long walk away from where we are staying, is lovely, with at least a couple of miles of sand stretching round an enormous curve. Whilst the sea looks a bit rough, and a dipped, chilled toe convinces us that we aint going in, we spend a couple of hours soaking up some rays. The town itself is rather pretty in parts, with lots of colonial style buildings, which we haven't seen for absolutely ages, (not sure why but both Chile and Argentina, outside of the capitals have a distinct lack of colonial buildings) and great cafes.
As the day passes by our eyes are on the sky. Can you bleeding believe it! By 6 0'clock its cloudy as far as the eye can see, not only that they are big dark threatening type clouds. Just our luck! Never mind there's still a few hours to go before we set off on the tour.
Half past nine the mini bus comes to pick us up, but the weather hasn't cleared. We are both thinking that this is going to be a waste of time. However as we leave La Serena and head into the surrounding countryside the skies begin to clear. Once at the observatory, whilst not perfect ( it also turns out that the moon whilst not full, is giving off alot of light pollution) the stars are out in force. We spend about 3 hours being given a lecture on the milky way, galaxies, stars, suns, and constellations. We get to look through a couple of telescopes and the guide through his own enthusiam makes it a great trip. To be honest the stars were not as fantastic as we saw when in Cotopaxi, Ecuador, but the explanations and information given to us is brilliant. For instance did you know that two characters from the Harry Potter books are named after stars...Bellatrix and Sirrius Black. See fascinating innit. And I can now point out Orion and show you the belt, sword, feet, shoulders and head...I is turning into a regular Patrick Moore!!
We have a couple of days in La Serena where we just laze around, eating going to the beach and trying to decide what to do next.. but after two days it feels like its time to move on....
An hour or so away from the town are a number of observatories. This area is world renowned for its clear skies and consequently practically every night the huge telescopes are pointed upwards collecting god knows what sort of data. Most of these are not open to the public, but one, run by volunteers, opens its lenses to the paying public each night and gives a detail tour of the night sky. We book our places for this evening and go to wander the town.
The beach, although a good long walk away from where we are staying, is lovely, with at least a couple of miles of sand stretching round an enormous curve. Whilst the sea looks a bit rough, and a dipped, chilled toe convinces us that we aint going in, we spend a couple of hours soaking up some rays. The town itself is rather pretty in parts, with lots of colonial style buildings, which we haven't seen for absolutely ages, (not sure why but both Chile and Argentina, outside of the capitals have a distinct lack of colonial buildings) and great cafes.
As the day passes by our eyes are on the sky. Can you bleeding believe it! By 6 0'clock its cloudy as far as the eye can see, not only that they are big dark threatening type clouds. Just our luck! Never mind there's still a few hours to go before we set off on the tour.
Half past nine the mini bus comes to pick us up, but the weather hasn't cleared. We are both thinking that this is going to be a waste of time. However as we leave La Serena and head into the surrounding countryside the skies begin to clear. Once at the observatory, whilst not perfect ( it also turns out that the moon whilst not full, is giving off alot of light pollution) the stars are out in force. We spend about 3 hours being given a lecture on the milky way, galaxies, stars, suns, and constellations. We get to look through a couple of telescopes and the guide through his own enthusiam makes it a great trip. To be honest the stars were not as fantastic as we saw when in Cotopaxi, Ecuador, but the explanations and information given to us is brilliant. For instance did you know that two characters from the Harry Potter books are named after stars...Bellatrix and Sirrius Black. See fascinating innit. And I can now point out Orion and show you the belt, sword, feet, shoulders and head...I is turning into a regular Patrick Moore!!We have a couple of days in La Serena where we just laze around, eating going to the beach and trying to decide what to do next.. but after two days it feels like its time to move on....
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