Our guide is weird. When we get to the 4*4, he doesn't seem to understand our objections about it. Why would we complaining about having to ride in the back of a pickup truck on steel benches while him and his colleagues get a real seat inside the cabin; it's not like we're paying for this right? Not to mention it's not exactly what was described to us yesterday... Eventually, he does us a "favor" and we're upgraded to cabin seats.
Potosi
Bye bye Uyuni, Hello Potosi! It's a short bus ride away and even higher in the altiplano. The bus ride is extremely scenic. We were over 2000 most of the time in Ethiopia but 3500-4000m is a different story. We even go over 4200m during the bus ride. The road is good and we make it in 3h30, once again on schedule ;) Potosi is around 4050m; carrying our luggage to the 3rd floor leaves us panting for an embarrassingly long time. The city has many things to see. It's build at the bottom of two hills filled with silver.
Salar de Uyuni
It's a ritual, we start our stay in a new place by the mandatory tour shopping. They have way too many agencies in Uyuni and we read lots of horror stories about these tours. It seems to be the equivalent of the Russian roulette. We're tempted to do the tour in reverse but the only offer we get for that comes from someone who approached us in the street. When we decide to check out that person's office, it happens to be in a insalubrious building that's not even supposed to host offices... Not a good omen so we decided to go for a safer plan.
Atacama
With all that free time we had, we were able to find a flight to Calama cheaper than the bus, avoiding 10+ hours in a bus. Chilean buses are great but if we can skip them, even better. We are literally seated on the right side of the plane and are treated with gorgeous views of the Andes. It's clearly a desert with what looks like a salar at some point. Calama is super dry. The air is so dry after the very humid one of la Serena. A few minutes away from the airport there's nothing anymore but a few mines in the distance and wind turbine fields. Rocks and dust as far as the eye can see.
When nature does not cooperate
The bus ride to la Serena was once again very nice. You've got to love Chilean buses! The country side is empty but for beautiful and very green mountains. Chile is a very long country and most of the population is in and around Santiago.
Valpo
We hear about a free jazz festival and start the day by getting our tickets for the next day. The city has a lot street art and is perfect for walking randomly and getting lost. It's a taxing thing as it's stuck between the see and countless cerros or hills ;) The guide talks about an outdoor graffiti museum so we head there. It's meh, we actually like the unreferenced one better.
Santiago
DAY 118
It was an overnight flight from Rapa Nui and we are too soon to check in at our Airbnb. Thankfully we can leave our luggage and look for breakfast. The rest of the day is very lazy. Siesta, laundry and a restaurant with Isabel (that we met in Rapa Nui) and Elodie (her friend).
DAY 119
Sleeping in for the first time in a long while feels so good!!! The mini-earthquake in a tower on the 20ish floor does not! It doesn't last long but it's a weird feeling and the first time for me. It's a good motivation to go out and do some tourism though. On the menu today is the "Cerro san Cristóbal". It's basically Central Park on a big hill ;) The main attraction there is the Virgin watching over Santiago. The old-school funicular is under repairs so it's a bus that brings us up there and we hike all the way down. Since we're still in a lazy mood, we catch a cab to go back home. And, oh surprise, cabs have meters here and no haggling is required!
DAY 120
La Moneda is the president's palace but it can only be visited on weekends sadly for us. However it has a expo center underneath. The main exhibition hall are being prepared for upcoming exhibits and we're left with just a little one. It's a photo-reportage on the traditional festival in the north of Chile. Interesting but not the most successful visit we had ;) Santiago is renowned for its fish market and we jump in with the shark and go eat there. It's quite touristy and every other step, someone invites you to lunch in their restaurant. It's worth it though, good fish is always appreciated.
Next on the menu is the Pre-Colombian museum. It also comes highly recommended at rightly so. It has a lot of information and objects from the different civilization of the region. Among the many incredible things, the way Inca were doing accounting is extremely ingenious. Since they didn't have Excel yet, they were keeping track of things with an artifact made of ropes. Knots on the different ropes and at different lengths were data.
We stroll for a while in the Bellas Artes neighborhood before going back home. It's odd to see medieval castle facade for houses in the middle of South America. We take the subway (yeah! Public transportation!!!) to go back home but it's rush hour (bouhhhh!!!). We were missing the subway but not yet the sardine effect of rush hour ;) The alternative are buses but they are super crappy in Santiago weirdly.
DAY 121
One thing that is weird about Santiago is the amount of street dogs. They all are very chill and spend most of the time sleeping in odd places. They know how to cross the street and don't seem to have any problem finding food. It's really funny to see one of these dog in the busy pedestrian traffic or waiting for the green light to cross :D
Pablo Neruda had many houses, one in Santiago, one in Valparaiso and one in la Isla Negra if I paid enough attention during the visit. The house is unique but very peculiar; a collection of things from all over the world with the theme of the boats ever present. He was a self-proclaimed land sailor after all. He name the house after his mistress who became his wife – la Chascona, in reference to her unruly hair. A block away from Neruda's house, we treat ourselves with a delicious restaurant, el Cabildo. It's true we're eating in restaurant most of the time, but not that kind of restaurant... yummy!!!
After that delicious meal, we head for Cerro Santa Lucia. It's a hill again (cerro means hill in Spanish as you may have guessed) but much smaller than the San Cristobal one. However is much more cute. I've been struggling to find my photography mojo in Santiago but here I've got plenty of material to work with; Great views, an old fort sitting at the top, a small church, a roman fountain... yeah!
Even though we spend a good amount of day in Santiago, it feels like we barely saw it. We were zombies most of the time! In any case, it's time for us to leave and start our journey north. Close by is the impossible to miss Valparaiso. It's a short bus ride away and what a bus! You have space, they tag your luggage, the road is divine and you have a speed monitoring system to make sure the driver is not trying to kill you...so much sophistication after Africa, we're in heaven, well.. bus heaven at least :D
Rapa Nui
Full day tour = full tourist mode :D 5 min into the tour, the bus breaks down but they bring a replacement swiftly. Our first stop is Akahanja. It's a rocky plain by the sea with ruins of boat houses and fallen Moais looking inland. We first wonder why they were giving their back to the sea but it's not that. They look at the village they protect. They are he ancestors watching over the family/tribe. At some point in their history, they decided to overthrow the Moais, claiming they were not protecting them anymore.
The edge of the world
As we are landing in São Paulo, the thing that we notice immediately is the amount of public lights. It's 5am but that's a huge difference with Africa. The transfer is seamless and well organized and we get in with the 5th leg of our journey. The landing in Santiago is spectacular with the Andes within arm reach it seems.
Zanzibar
Still dreaming of wildlife, we have little to do today but book our hotel in Zanzibar and start thinking about Chile. It's our last day in Moshi and finally the Kilimanjaro shed its cloud cover!!!
With all the Kili climbing, safari business and much needed rest, we've been in Moshi for close to two weeks...