San Pedro de Atacama - Still Chile but so different! ;)

We spent 3 nights in San Pedro and were able to do everything we wanted to do there in that time.

Our trip to San Pedro began with a bus ride that was not to good, we got almost no food, it was really sunny and no ac. But the bus driver was really nice and let us sit with him for a while where he had an open window ;)

When we arrived in San Pedro we were really hungry and we had expected to see a McDonalds sign somewhere but nooo this was a ghost town! We asked a staff member from the hostel (Roberto) to drive us to town so we could find something to eat,  it was really dark and we had no idea where to walk and there were no taxis there. He was so nice that he drove us there and picked us up. At "down town" we found a local restaurant where they had live music and really good food! unfortunately we did not think about bringing a camera because we where sooo tired and didn't know we would end up in that cool place ;) It was very local! no turists and we sat on hay! :)

The next day we walked to town, looked around, booked a trip through valley de la Luna, sandboarding disco night and a three days tour to and through Salar de Uyuni, and payed the star observation tour that we had booked in advance. That night we had the Star gazing tour which was amazing!! It was in the desert where there where no lights so you could see the stars a lot better, we saw the milky way, the southern cross, Jupiter, Saturnus, some star signs and a lot more! :D this was for sure one of the highlights of the trip here in South-America.

outside the hostel

in front of the hostel

Walking to town

We woke up on our second day in San Pedro eager to see more!! so we walked back to town and did some sightseeing, bought some water for the trip to salar de uyuni and made everything for the trip ready.  After that we went to valley de la luna (the moon valley) which was really nice! there we saw the sunset which was so beautiful.

valley de la luna

the three sisters, one was broken down by a stupid french man ;)

Walk

Strike a pose

waiting for the sunset 

That night at 22:00 was our sand boarding disco night which was so amazing, we had the best time and we were home around 02:00 in the night. Anna is definitely learning how to snowboard after that ;)

sandboarding!!

Early the day after we went to our 3day trip where Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia was our destination (the saltflats). We went with Bex and two Swedish girls we met at our hostel in San Pedro, Linnea and Towe :D we had an amazing time there. Taking pictures at  salar is so much fun. Just look at our pics in the next blog ;)

CHILE baby ;)

El pais es Chile y la ciudad es Santiago chicos ;)  11.03´13

Like we told you in our blog about Mendoza we met Bex in BA. After hearing her talk about Chile we were sold! We knew that Chile was a place we could not miss.

Our trip began with a bus from Mendoza which took about 8 hours. We arrived in Santiago late in the evening that day so we didn't do anything other than just have some dinner and go to sleep.

At the Chilean boarder

The road to Santiago from the boarder

this looks a lot like home ;) aahh home...

The next day we woke up early to go on a free walking tour, the tour was amazing and very enlightening. But there was this really huge and loud dog that followed us the whole time, and he didnt really like it when other dogs came close so at times we didnt really hear what the guide was saying, but we just imagined it being interesting ;)

Plaza de la Armas where the free walking tour started.

the spanish guy that took over chile 

a statue made as a tribute to the indians

The annoying Dog and the group

the white house ;)

Real Chilean food

 For lunch we had a traditional Chilean food that our guide recommended. We shared a corn pie, bean soup with a whole sausage and a chicken soup. It was strange but still good.  After that we took a taxi up San Cristobal to watch the view over Santiago.  It was really beautiful.

San Cristobal

The view from San Cristobal

After getting down from San Cristobal we sat down at a student bar and had a Terremoto (e.earthquake, one of the must haves in Santiago),  it consists of half a glass of white wine, half a glass of fernet, plus a little bit of pineapple ice cream, you wait for the ice cream to melt and than you drink it.
Thank god we didn't have one each but just one together because it was quite strong and after a hole glass (500mL) you really would be able to feel the earth move! :P

Terremoto

 We almost did everything we wanted to do in Santiago in that one day.  The only thing we would have liked to see as well is "coffee with legs". Its a coffee shop where at a "special" minute the doors are locked and the waitresses take their clothes of! You never know when this "minute of the day" will be but after that minute everything goes back to normal, the waitresses put they're clothes back on and start waiting the tables like nothing ever happened, a must see! claro! ;)

Mendosa, Argentina

Hola!

One more blog from Argentina... :D


After being in BA for about a week we picked up a brit, Bex, and  took a bus to Mendosa, the wine capital! ;) where Svanlaug would feel like a pro, Anna like a rookie!

When we got to Mendosa we checked in to a hostel, that was actually dirty with rude staff, BUT it had a dirty POOL!! :D We didn't really utilise the pool that much because we were too busy drinking wine and BBQ-ing ;)

Our first night we met these amazing Chilean guys that knew just about everything about Iceland! We felt kinda awkward because we were traveling in South America but didn't really know that much about Chile :S but come on, Iceland is so much more interesting!! hehe :P

We went on a bike ride around the vineyard's, where you could taste wine and learn a bit about wine history. Svanlaug felt just at home, Anna not so much but tried everything! what a trooper! It was a really lovely day, riding around tasting wine and olives and enjoying the countryside!
OOH! one funny story! Anna's pedal broke off her bike! yeah it broke! we still dont know if it was because the bike was old and rusty or if Anna had just gained to much weight during the trip!! ;)

Ready for a bike ride :)

Really nice Olive garden where we could taste Olive things (and alcohol!) ;)

In one of the vinyards

Inside a brewery

Can I take one?

Inside a brewery

In one of the last places where we tasted wine. The trio: Anna, Bex and Svanlaug :)

After the "hard" bicycling in the sun the whole day, we went to our hostel to have a BBQ and some wine, Anna had the sweetest wine in the world, which was kind of a good thing coz that meant no one wanted a glass! ;) but Bex and Svanlaug had really nice red wine from Mendosa.

 One of our BBQs in the backyard ;) We met some really nice people in Mendosa :D

We didn't really do that much in Mendosa, other than try wine, eat and walk around.... ;)
But we did have one incident... A nightcrawler came into our room and took what ever they wanted!
During the night we had seen a guy coming and going out of our room the whole night, but thought it was just some drunk guy that was a roommate of ours (this night we had to switch rooms and hadn't met our roommates at this point). We thought it was kinda strange, and annoying! But didn't think that much of it, until the next morning. Then a lot of iPhones and cameras had been stolen, including Svanlaugs camera with alot of our photos :S Luckily Anna sleeps with her iphone under her pillow! My baby! ;) But a strangest thing was that in the morning Anna´s fanny pack was in another guys locker ! WHAT!
And actually its kinda "funny", that the same night we had been telling Bex that nothing else can get stolen or happen to us on the trip because Anna's card info had been stolen already so of course our bad luck was over! JINX! ;)

Well, we then got the F out of Mendosa and straight to CHILE! ;)

Next post: CHILE ;)

Anna and Svanlaug

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a really nice city with a lot of things to see and do!  We spent many days just wandering around the city, getting lost at times, but then you just find more interesting things to see :) 

One day we went on a bike tour through south of BA including La Boca-the famous, colorful neighborhood in BA where you can go and take a picture with a replica of Maradona (which we did not do because it cost a fortune), see some tango and shop some souvenirs. 

 

 

 

Casa Rosada

 

 

 

 

 

The cemetery in BA 

 

Evita Peron's grave

 

 

Boca Juniors statium

 

 

 

 

Anna in La Boca

 

 Steffie, Svanlaug, Anna, Katrijn and Bex.

 

 

 

 

One memorable thing we did was to go to a tango show. We went to see Compejo Tango where we had a tango lesson, a three course meal which consisted of salad, Argentinean steak (which was sooo good), chocolate cake and then a really nice tango show with life music as well. We were completely in awe of their skills and the beauty of the dance!  Amazing!! :D

 

One night Anna could hardly sleep because the window of our room at the hostel turned to the street and there where workers working on something the hole night and early in the morning something really loud woke Svanlaug up. When we than got out really early to go buy football tickets we saw a lot of people in the street with drums, flyers and flags. we asked people what was going on and were told that some were cheering and some where protesting the president. But she had gone through that street and was expected to go through there again on her way back.

 

 

 

Another highlight was going to a football match in B.A with our beautiful Belgium friends Katrijn and Steffie. The game was San Lorenzo vs. River Plate (70% of the population in Argentina supports Boca Juniors or River Plate) so of course our team was San Lorenzo which got like 6 yellow cards and one red one but still won the game 2 – 0! The game was sooo Intense!!! Even Anna thought so ;)

Every Monday in BA there´s a drum show called la Bomba de Tiempo, of course we did not let that opportunity pass us and went there with our favorite Belgians ;) The show was really cool!! And we had a lot of fun! :D   It`s a group of about 10 - 15 guys playing the drums for about one and half hour and hundreds of people dancing to it!! We highly recommend going to see it!! But be prepared to inhale a lot of cigarette and marijuana smoke!

 

 

 

 

Since we  love getting to know different cultures and dancing is a big part of the culture in BA we had to go to a tango class to learn real Argentinian tango. Than we went to a social club to see how the Argentineans do it! And of course you have to have a glass of Argentinian red wine (or wine for Svanlaug since Anna is not a huge fan of it :)). 

In Tango class

 

 

How the Argentinians do it ;)

 

 

 

We think this is most of the things we did in BA ;) but we really loved the city and met a bunch of awesome people :D 

Ps. if anyone needs recommendations for a hostel in BA, we can give it to you! we had 4 different hostels and 6 different rooms, in the 8 nights we stayed there ;)

Until next time

Anna and Svanlaug