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Archive for April, 2006

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San Pedro de Atacama – Day 1 (Post #110)

Sunday, April 30th, 2006

Michele here…

On April 24th, we got up at 5:15am in order to catch the 7:00am bus from Antofagasta to San Pedro de Atacama. We were the only tourists on the bus, which is now becoming the norm for us. After 5 hours we were dropped off in the middle of no where in San Pedro. Eventually a taxi came by and although the place we booked was only 1 kilometer away we decided it was worth the $2 to take the taxi because we couldn´t figure out where to go. We checked in then walked through the town. San Pedro is an interesting place. It is one of the driest places in the world. While here we constantly had static electricity in our hair and clothes. It´s also very dusty and hot and the roads are not paved. All of the buildings are adobe style. The main street seems to have 3 types of establishments – tour excursion offices, restaurants, or hostels/hotels. The restaurants are all quite nice and include a big bon fire in the middle of the restaurant at night since it gets very cold in this desert area. Here is a picture of the main street: [read on]

Iquique, Chile (Post #113)

Friday, April 28th, 2006

Mike writes…

Well, we haven´t been very good about keeping up with the blogs lately — we´ve been incredibly busy and it doesn´t look like things will slow down for the rest of the trip. So, our readers should only expect a blog every 7-10 days now.

Anyway, late in the evening of April 26 we left San Pedro on an overnight bus to Iquique, Chile. We had previously sworn to never do the overnight bus thing again but we had heard such great things about the cama (bed) and semi-cama (reclining seat to about 45 degrees) that we figured we´d try it out. Furthermore, we are running out of time in South America so we are trying to save it wherever possible. Unfortunately, the ride sucked and we only managed 2-3 hours of sleep. I don´t have time to go into the details right now because we have to leave Iquique on a bus bound for Arica in just one hour.

[read on]

Puerto Varas, Chile (Post #109)

Friday, April 28th, 2006
Michele here...way behind on the blogs due to super slow connections in some of the small towns we´ve been in Chile.  So, where did we last leave off with our blogs? Oh yea, after hanging out in Puerto Natalas for a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Torres del Paine, Chile – Day 3 (Post #108)

Saturday, April 15th, 2006
Mike writes... On Wednesday April 12, I woke up before the sun was up (there was a good amount of light but i couldn´t see the sun itself for the mountains) and wanted to go check around for sunrise foto ops. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Torres del Paine, Chile – Day 2 (Post #107)

Saturday, April 15th, 2006
Michele here...writing about day 2 (April 11th) in Torres del Paine National Park. We got up on our second day before sunrise and started gathering firewood to make a fire. As we were gathering wood, I stopped and took a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Torres Del Paine, Chile – Day 1 (Post #106)

Saturday, April 15th, 2006

Mike writes...

We left the pueblo of Puerto Natales at 7:15 a.m. on Monday the 10th of April in a van headed for Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The van trip to the park entrance took us about 2.5 hours ... [Continue reading this entry]

Santiago to Puerto Natales, Chile (Post #105)

Saturday, April 15th, 2006
Hola! Michele here...just want to give an update on our travels from Santiago to Puerto Natales, Chile between April 6th and April 10th. Since arriving in Santiago, Chile on April 6th, we had been moving around a lot until recently when we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Update: maps (originally post #71)

Saturday, April 15th, 2006
After being behind on the mapping for the past couple of weeks, we´re now all caught up to the 15th of April.  Mike

Our Reading List (ongoing post)

Saturday, April 15th, 2006
Mike writes... Certainly we spend a lot of our "free" time on trains, planes, busses and boats reading our guidebooks for the upcoming destinations but we have been doing some recreational reading as well -- i more than Michele (mostly because ... [Continue reading this entry]

Easter Island, Chile – Part 3 (Post #104)

Friday, April 7th, 2006
Mike writes (with Michele looking over his shoulder)... Yesterday, April 6, we flew from Easter Island to Santiago, Chile where we are now.  We have spent the day so far (it's 3 p.m.) running errands.  One of those was having the photos from one of ... [Continue reading this entry]