Hot water bottles?

To hot water bottle or not, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to freeze ones b… off or to opt for the hot water bottle. OK, we decided on a heater for the second night.
We arrived in La Serena and toted our bags to the Hostel, El Punto. After been greeted and shown our room, the matrimonial suite. Conveniently located opposite a shared bathroom (even though we had our own), which meant lots of traffic and best of all, no heat. The hostel did offer us hot water bottles, that is if it got too cold, this Chile it is cold. The hostel advertised that there was a barbeque (and there was one) but it looked like it hadn’t been used in years and you had to go and buy charcoal. So no cooking here. We went out to dinner. As Chile is big on lunch and not so much for dinner we had food at a local restaurant, it was ok; the French fries were real potatoes Yeah!. Our first night without heating in La Serna, a night to remember!!
The next day we went off to the Mega mall and the bus terminal to book our bus to our next stop. As we were walking in the mall we heard “high mate”, it was our friends (Mark and Sam), that we had met at the wine tasting in the Casablanca valley. After a good cup of coffee (not Nescafe) we walked the city and had a late lunch, expensive and not good, but good company!
After our walk we chilled, until we got the rented heater working, Karen found a pot and she made a salad and of course a good bottle of Chilean wine.
Next day we had booked a tour of the Elqui Valley. Wow that was a jam packed day. We started at a Papaya plantation, not exciting for Caribbean girls, but the trees are different and we saw Artichokes growing (that was a first for us). Then up the valley to the most northern wine region of Chile. The valley was amazing because of its topography, sheer cliffs with no top soil, just rocks and drip irrigation to grow grapes and more grapes with an occasional avocados plantation thrown in. We stopped at the dam, that provides the irrigation for the valley. We were a bit upset at first because they had to put grape trees under water to build it!! But after seeing the valley with all the grapes we settled down. The valley only gets 3-5 days of rain a year; the water comes from the snow run off. The valley gets so much sun and wind that they have to cover the grapes and create wind screens. The views and man working with nature was amazing. Next stop was lunch cooked in solar ovens, and we finally got to have lamb! It was excellent.
Next day we checked out and went for a walk to the beach. This ended up being a 4 hour walk! We saw some surfer dudes, they were out in the same thickness of dive suits that we wear in the Caribbean in the winter and they shower off in agua frio!! Crazy.
We met up with Mark and Sam and took the overnight bus to San Pedro De Atacama. The desert! We checked into our adobe style hostel. While it too doesn’t have heating the walls keep in the heat so it is ok along with 3 inches of blankets! Although it is hard to turn over!
Then off to try our hand at sand skiing at Death Valley. Karen had a grin from ear to ear as she went down. Really cool, with amazing views. The hardest part was climbing up the hill with your equipment. Sand skiing is like skiing with sticky glue on your skies, so you have to go straight down, they did give us a piece of a candle, so we could wax our skies before every run it did help. We then went to the Luna valley for sunset to watch the colours change on the desert and the Andes with a glass of wine in our hands. It doesn’t get any better. As soon as the sun went down layers of clothes were added. Dinner at the hostel, with a Belgium couple and an American girl ‘dinning’ with us; sharing adventures and travel tips.
A lazy day because we are off to the Space San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Experience an outdoor observatory with 15 telescopes and a French astronomer as our guide (15000 pesos/person). Sam and Mark joined us, for an evening of star gazing and trying to stay warm in the desert. We had on everything we wore skiing and an extra blanket for Karen. The first thing we saw through the telescope was Saturn and her rings, just awesome. We saw nebulas, stars and a close up view of the man on the moon, which here is the bunny on the moon, go figure! We learned about the zodiac signs, as the astronomer drew them with a lazer pointer, he confirmed Karen’s conclusion that they were all on some type of drugs! After a lovely hot chocolate we were shipped home at midnight, way after any cruiser’s bedtime.
The next morning saw us off to the Rainbow Valley (Valley Arco Iris) at 8 am. It truly was a rainbow of colours, predominantly green, red, white, grey and black, with a few speckles and all of rock, as there is very little vegetation in the desert. After a picnic we crossed the Rio Grand, which was no more than a trickle, and headed back to San Pedro. We meet up with Mark and Sam for lunch; we tried some local foods (peppers stuffed with blood pudding, meat and nuts, ceviche with a light ginger vinaigrette, slow cooked pork over a puree of pumpkin and potato) and of course wine. Lunch was a long slow process as we were parting for Arica that night and don’t know when we will see Mark and Sam again as they are heading south.
We hopped on the night bus to Arica, while it was a semi-cama, the seats were much smaller than the last one. We arrived at our new hostel Sunny Days, at 6:20 am, to be greeted by Russ. We had a nap, then breakfast. We walked the waterfront, passed the fish market, and watched some surfers (they are still nuts) had a beautiful lunch with a lovely Sauvignon Blanc. It was supposed to be a slow day, but we had left the Hostel before 10am and returned after 4pm! We had stopped at the veggie market and made dinner at the hostel.
Next day we tried to find the supermarket, but didn’t, so picked up a few items at the veggie market for dinner. With dinner planned we were off to El Morro, the other side of town. El Morro was a fortification overlooking the city. While only 110m high it provided a great view of the water and the town. We walked back to the city centre and had lunch at a restaurant on the pedestrian street, watching the world go by. This day we had left again before 10, but arrived back by 3:30, we are very good tourists. We can’t take any food into Peru, so we have to eat up our cheese, so we had a fondue, and of course Chilean wine!
Last day in Chile and here our top interesting things that we noticed:
1. Chileans are obsessed with hot dogs. They have this hot dog called the Completo; which has mayo, ketchup, avocado and hot dog for the base and anything else you can fit on it.
2. On most major intersections there is a street performer of some sort.
3. There are tons of dogs wondering around and they are all well feed and look health.
4. Most of the builds are painted brightly coloured.
5. In the winter it is really chill. With no heat in the homes, restaurants, stores, local buses, cars, hostel…..etc.
6. The majority of the locals only speak Spanish but are willing to help and are very friendly.
7. You can get any type of fruit and vegetable here.
8. Inexpensive good wine.
9. The parts that we visited are amazingly beautiful but it is a harsh environment to live in as there are very few trees. You have to love rocks.
10. It was a great experience but bloody cold.