San Pedro to Santiago

Hi everyone

A quick upate following the posting of some pictures last night - and an explanation of the moon photo.

Quick response to Laura´s question. It is really hot most of the time in the day. Most people wear trousers as it is all they have or protection from the sun. (or they look lame in shorts...). But on the Uyuni photos we were up quite early (4.30am) and it was freezing (-5), so everyone is wearing about 20 layers under the trousers. Also, in the evening before sunset you get good photos, but it can be pretty cold!

So on our last night in San Pedro, we went star gazing (or astronomical observation) at a local observatory just outside of town. It is in the middle of the desert away from towns or villages to spoil the sky and we got picked up at 11pm. It is run by alain and his wife, both of whom are lovely and speak several languages. It is probably worth the money alone to see the sky so clearly with the naked eye and we had an hour long ´tour of the sky´so we can both identify orions belt, sirius, andean cross, pleiades and Jupiter (unfortunately the sky is different in the northern hemisphere, so we will have to practice there). They use a big laser wand (technical term) whch identifies the stars they are talking about as well. We also spent about an hour looking through their 10 or so large telescopes which they trained on Jupiter, the moon, far off galaxies, and nebulas. At the greenwich observatory the equivalent equipment would probably be behind closed doors or velvet ropes where untrained people couldnt touch it. Anyway, so Alain used our cameras to take a photo of the moon through the telescope, hence the good picture with my camera! He knew all about cameras too, so modified the exposures and stuff to make it a good picture (he discovered aspects to my camera I didn´t know about).
We finished with hot chocolate and got back about 3am. Cool night. It was like the Salare Uyuni- so big and natural, it makes you feel both special and insignificant as well.

Then a 23 hour bus ride to Santiago. Not much to say except low quality films (ghosts of girlfriends past and the proposal) and not much choice of food (glenn had empanadas/pasties, nina had crisps) but good seats and warm so not much complaining from us. It stopped at several towns along the western coast so we saw some of the nicer seaside resorts and the Pacific.

So we have spent the last few days in a hostel in Santiago called ´terra extremus´. It is pretty laid back, cheap and central so it works for us. Santiago is a great city and feels pretty European. There are a lot of students and it is just a normal city, which is nice after a week or so of being in the middle of nowhere. We have been on the metro, to the fish market (top lunch), up a massive hill for the views, round the main square etc. etc.

Glenn keeps talking about the ´battle of santiago´which is not a historical battle, but part of football history apparently (!). According to glenn, it is the worst/best game in world cup history. It puts the thierry henry controversy into perspective. We can see the stadium around the city but they don´t let tourists in (Nina is very upset). We have put a you tube link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtL1m1o_ok

Tomorrow (30 Nov) we get on a flight for Punta Arenas for the next stage of our travels, which is a trek in Patagonia in Torres del Paine. It is really far south, so we are enjoying the last few hours of warmth. We past a google map which should show you where we are headed.

Torres del Paine, ChileEnlace: <http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=es&geocode=&q=torres+del+paine+chile&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=11.071054,28.168945&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Torres+del+Paine,+Chile&ll=-50.981577,-72.499074&spn=2.946821,7.042236&t=h&z=7>

Love to everyone

Nina and Glenn xxx