A few days in Guanaqueros easily turned into a week. But we managed to do other stuff besides resting and chilling as well.
For example we went kayaking on one day. I was quite grumpy about it at first because the idea of going on water and probably getting wet on a 13 degree cloudy day did not seem like a good idea at all. But we did get a whole new perspective on the area and saw some sea creatures. We also wanted to buy some seafood from some fishermen who were working on their boat nearby but ended up getting a big bag of oysters for free. We also bought some fresh clams from them and had a big seafood orgy back at home. And the next day we got fresh fish brought to our door by a motorbike so taking full advantage of the proximity of sea.
We also went climbing and hiking in the nearby mountains and visited a guy called San Pedro there. It was just a friendly and relaxed first hello but I have the feeling that we will encounter either him or his relatives again on our trip.
It was also quite cool to take part in a local birthday party of a friend of our host. That was pretty similar to Estonian parties with bonfire and getting home at 7am (never saw that in Australia)
Our original plan (or more like 'idea' because we still do not make plans) was to cross the Andes at La Serena and then head towards Uruguay through Argentina. But it turns out that most of the border crossings are closed for the winter (snow and ice etc) so we had a choice to turn back and cross near Santiago or head more north.
So we hitchhiked our first car (to be honest our host Juan found our ride for us when he was dropping us off to the edge of town) and got ourselves a new friend for almost two days. Our truck driver did not speak a word of English but that did not stop him from communicating to us for the whole 1200 km that we drove with him (75kmph because we had a load of AdBlue and batteries and other chemicals on our trailer). He also bought us all our meals and drinks on the way and had us pitch our tent on his trailer.
So after hitching another car in Calamá, we made it to the driest place on earth -the Atacama desert and into the most famous town called San Pedro de Atacama. Since the air is so dry, then the temperatures 'work' differently there than in other places (it is over 2km from sea level as well). In the daytime it is 12-15 degrees but in the sun it feels like it is at least 25. At night the temperatures drop to zero (or below, since it is winter).
The town itself is 'made out of desert' so most houses are made out of sand. It is quite touristic but at the same time there is quite a big community of hippies who sell stuff on streets during the day and make music together on the main square in the evenings.
The views around the town are amazing. There are snowy mountaintops all around (a big part of them are volcanoes) the valley where the town is situated. There is snow also besides the roads in some places but in a lot of the places there is salt instead of snow. So we rented bikes one day and went exploring with a Chilean guy that we met hitchhiking. After riding 12+ kilometres to the very famous 'valley of the moon' it turned out that we can not get in because we didn't have helmets or reflective vest. Apparently some tourists had fallen and hurt themselves because they suck at riding a bike and now everyone had to suffer.
Since we had come all this way, we turned off the road and just went exploring some nearby hills. We found amazing canjons and a cave with the whole floor covered in a thick layer of salt cristals. The boys disappeared into the cave and appeared 40min later at the top of the hills/cliffs. I was wondering how long I should wait before going back and callinh for help.
I went back to the town as I was not feeling very well (a bit of a cold from sleeping in the tent in these conditions) but the guys went exploring some more. While we were in San Pedro we stayed with some local hippies (one of them was Juan's friend who we had met in Guanaqueros) at the edge if town (with a view to the biggest volcano).
The next day we were even more tired (and a bit ill) so we wanted to take a bus over the Andes to Argentina. As it turned out, there were no buses on that day so we decided to still try hitchhiking. Things looked pretty hopeless since in the 20min that we spent by the road, only two cars passed us. Luckily one of the cars decided to turn back and pick us up. So we started our long drive over the most amazing mountain range that I have seen in my life with a lovely Argentinian-Equadorian couple.
The Andes even look big on the map but the real thing is huge. It took us about nine hours to go over them and they were not quite finished even then. In these nine hours we saw very many very different landscapes and views. You could see the different processes that had formed these giant mountains from the shapes and colours (many different and amazing colours) that they had. In many places you could see that whole hills had been lifted up and turned on their sides by some otherwordly processes (the colourful layers of sediment did not run parallel to the ground). In other places there were enormous platoos covered in plants or salt fields. There were glaciets and snow and lakes and big cacti and llamas (or alpacas) and some local people living in their stone huts. So nine hours of being amazed and suprised and having ears lick up tens (closer to hundred) of times. The Chile-Argentina border was 4,2km from the sea level but that probably was not the highest place of the road.
We had a big plan of finding a cheap hotel in the first big town that we arrive in and rest there for a few days since we were tired and had not paid for our accommodation since Moree (cotton picking). Our plan failed miserably because al the cheap hotels were full and the ones that had room were more expensive than a good hotel in Australia.
So we found an unused piece of land near the center of the town (it was too big to walk out of it) and tried to find a patch of land that did not have much garbage on it. While we were putting up our tent, a man appeared out of a makeshift shelter on the same plot(a few matresses, some plastic and cardboard) that we had not even noticed. Our neighbour approved of our camping spot and assured us that we had found a nice and quiet place to stay for the night (despite the traffic going past us). By the morning we already had two neighbors.
Dissapointed at the still expensive prices (and getting more and more tired and fed up), we decided to take buses to Paraguay, which according to our knowledge should be the first country that is actually cheap. In our first bus across the country, we met a guy who invited us to Iguazú insted, where he has a friend who would get us a cheap place to stay near the famous Iguazú falls. Since noone and nothing was really waiting for us in Paraguay, we decided to accept his offer.
Some very subjective discoveries about Chile and Argentina (can't tell yet which ones are true about all Latin America and which ones are not).
*Cheese is eaten a lot as it is one of the main ingredients of Empanadas which are sort of pies/pirukad that are supposedly popular around here and have different fillings. The minced meat one is about is (traditional Chilean) about ten times better than the Australian meat pie. So we have been eating them every day. Other milk products are not very common though - milk is mostly bought in powder form or Longlife milk. Didn't even see fresh one in Santiago.
*Traffic rules are recommendations only. Nobody expects anyone to drive in straight lines or use blinkers etc (surely it will get worse in other countries)
*Most of the dogs that are on the streets (and there are a lot) have owners and are loved. They are just quite relaxed about them around here and let them run around freely
*Throwing trash out of car windows is common. So is throwing it straight into rivers. Valuing their amazing nature is something that still needs some attention
*The shops are open pretty late. Can't remember the last time we could buy beer in a shop after ten (even small stores)
*Chileans and Argentinians really like their sweets. There is a big variety of different pastries availiable but since neither of us is a big fan of sweets then we haven't tried any.
*Chilean language is quite different from the 'real' Spanish because they make all the words shorter. They just lose half of most of the word. In extreme cases only one letter of the word remains. So the rhythm of the language is very different and sounds like a whole new language.
*Argentinian is a bit easier, as they use full words but it is a bit difficult still at first as they pronounce every 'LL' as 'Ž'
*There is one bus station but in every station there are 10-20 different companies with their own office who only sell tickets to their own buses
*Argentinian long-distance buses have 'catering' which means a variety of sweets and biscuits. We even got one sandwich once (not sweet. yay)
*All the women are rather 'round'. Even the thin ones are not very close to my weight (and right now I am down to the weight that I last had when I was about 16 or17 years old because we often forget to eat and move around a lot
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