San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

We don't want to talk about the journey. 26 hours, nuff said.

So, we're in the middle of nowhere, in the driest desert in the world. Yet despite the dust and lack of water, it's absolutely beautiful and it's best place on Earth to see the stars!

The temperature contrasts massively between day and night, when it plummets from 27C to -15C. One (very Chile) evening we went right into the middle of the desert to a local astronomer's house to learn about the stars and the sky before gazing at them through his ten huge telescopes. The night's sky was the clearest we´d ever seen and the sky was FULL of twinkling stars! He took amazing pictures of the moon with our cameras, but Jo went one better and managed to get a pretty snap of Saturn too! Afterwards we sat round and drank hot chocolate as he explained why we won't be visited by extra terrestrials any time soon (sorry dad!)

The next day we took a trip to Valle de Lunas (valley of the moons) and a local guide explained the complex geology of Chile and the Andes by drawing us diagrams in the sand! He took us to loads of impressive viewpoints (including Death Valley!) where we saw where the mountains that divide Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The best bit was when we saw the sun go down over the mountains, watching the sky turn from blue, to orange, to pink to purple within a matter of minutes... 

4am the next morning we were on our way high into the mountains to catch the volcanic Tatio Geysers at their most active as the sun rises. It completely exceeded our expectations - huge fountains of steam and boiling water shooting into the air around us from cracks in the ground. We were then given the opportunity to bathe in some natural pools that were heated by the lava below. The water was 40C but outside it was -10C. Regardless, Sam braved the elements and took a dip, only to lose all his man points when he screamed like a girl when he got out! Jo had to hold out a towel and help him get dry quickly before he turned blue.

Our last day coincided with Fiesta de San Pedro, an annual festival where the town celebrates its history with colourful processions through the streets. A great way to finish our time in Chile!
 

Valparaiso, Chile

Initially Valparaiso wasn't on our list of places to visit, but so many people had recommended it we decided to see for ourselves... We left Mendoza early in the morning, hoping to arrive in Valparaiso mid-afternoon and have a few hours to get our bearings around the city. The journey started really well as we were upgraded to the first class and the views from our window were incredible. We stopped at the Argentina/Chile border in the heart of the Andes, looking out at clear blue skies and snow covered mountains! However, we didn't move from that spot for another six hours...

After a horrific border crossing, we arrived in Valparaiso at close to midnight, tired and hungry. A group from our hostel were about to go out for a bite to eat so we dumped our bags followed them into town. Given that we wouldn't be able to retrace our steps, we decided to stay out with them and ended up in a nightclub! Unfortunately it was more like a school disco, with girls on one side and boys on the other... that is until Jo came and got the party started!

Our hostel was full of friendly travellers who gave us good tips of what to see and do, although we spent our first day so in awe of Valparaiso that we completely lost track of everything we'd planned. The town is stunningly beautiful, set in the hills overlooking the Pacific ocean. Each house painted in bright colours or by local artists keen to show of their talents. The streets were cobblestoned and lined with small cafes and boutique shops.

To get to to the top of the hills we took ascensors, which are 100 year old lifts that save you from walking up huge staircases. The views across the port and the city's waterfront were amazing and it was great to see the sun and enjoy 20C+ temperatures for the first time in a few weeks!

We tried a number of local dishes, with mixed success... One Chilean staple we took a shine to was the 'completo italiano' - a hotdog smothered in a layer of tomato, avocado and mayonnaise to resemble the Italian flag. The cafe next door to our hostel sold the best coffee, ice cream and hot chocolate. Our favourite was the Submarino, which was hot milk with a slab of milk chocolate, chocolate sauce and whipped cream... All the weight that we had lost was quickly being put back on!

We'd originally planned to stay for just two nights, however we couldn't tear ourselves away and it ended up being four... One day we took a short boat strip around Valparaiso's harbour to see the brightly painted houses from afar and were fortunate enough to see a group of sealions asleep on a buoy and swimming around our boat! We watched a live band performing rock classics in the park and did a walking tour of the city during which we found out lots of interesting facts... including how to get a Valpo girl into bed using chicken! 

Mendoza, Argentina

This week we 'ave been mostly drinking wine...

We arrived in Mendoza after another 14 hour journey across Argentina. We still haven't mastered the art of sleeping on these buses, so we bought sleeping pills in the hope that we'd pass for out the entire journey. Cautiously, we opted for 'natural' pills... and naturally they didn't work! We spent the whole of our first day in our hostel catching up on sleep (and watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy!). We slept so well in fact, that we managed to sleep through a magnitude 5.4 eathquake! Everyone was amazed that we hadn't noticed the hostel violently shaking for about 10 seconds!

Feeling refreshed, we decided to go horseriding at the foot of the Andes mountains. It was very chilly first thing, so we warmed up by sharing some mate (South American tea) with our guide. Everywhere we've been, locals have been sipping this traditional brew through a bombilla (straw) out of a hollowed fruit shell. Jo had been pretty eager to try it and jumped at the offer, but it tasted very bitter, and then even worse when our guide added a generous helping of sugar - we reckon it must be an acquired taste!

Sam had never ridden a horse before so didn't have much control over what was going on! His horse, Alessandro, took full advantage of this and kept stopping every couple of minutes for a graze!

The views of the snowcapped mountains were amazing, especially when the sun came out! After all the cities we've visited, it was so nice to be miles from anywhere in the countryside...

The next day we thought we'd cash in on the free bike hire that we got with our hostel. We had heard of Mr Hugo's infamous bike service as far back as Brazil, so we had high hopes... and we weren't disappointed when we were greeted the eccentric, but very friendly, Mr Hugo. He sorted us out with two bikes, handed us a map... and off we went!

We got off to a wobbly start - Jo was swerving erractically as if she'd already finished two bottles of wine! Our first stop was Familia Di Tomaso, the oldest of all the wineries. After a whirlwind tour we stuck into what we were really there for - the tasting.

100 metres down the road and Jo was on the floor! She's still claiming it was the road surface, but the the 5 tasters of wine may have had something to do with it... After a quick brush down, we cycled round to a wine museum, a beer garden and three more wineries - at one we even skipped the tour and got straight down to business with the sampling. We learnt a lot about wine and came away thinking we were connoisseurs, although it's unlikely either of us could spot a good bottle from the cheap stuff!

We also visited two olive oil manufacturers and tried different types of oils, olives, olive pastes, jams, chocolate and liquors. You're probably only supposed to try each one once, but we had at least 10 tasters of the ones we liked and finished two baskets of bread! Some of the liquors were very strong and the pepper flavour looked as if it was going to make Sam ill! He definitely can't handle his drink...

It was starting to go dark when we left the last winerie, so a policeman followed us back to Mr Hugo's house. He was probably regretting following us as Jo was riding soo slowly (concentrating on not falling off again!)

We're planning to go to Chile next, but we've been told that snow in the Andes may be blocking our path! Hopefully we'll be able to make it there...

Rosario, Argentina

Not too sure why we ended up in Rosario, other than a couple of Argentinian barmen raving about it one night when we were drunk. It's got a few things going for it: a big river (we're told it's lovely in the summer) and there's eight universities, so it's full of students. It was also home to the creator of the Argentinian flag and they celebrate this fact every June - we arrived just as the festivities were starting and school children were draping huge Argentinian flags across the main square...

We'd been out the night before to watch a band and some more tango... but the best dancing we saw was an elderly man dancing to a live band playing in the street!

We also visited Che Guevara´s first home, the city's cathedral and a few of the nicer plazas, but after than we'd exhausted pretty much everything there was everything to see and do. We didn't have the weather for the river beaches so we decided to make our visit a short one (understanding Lionel Messi's decison to leave at 11!)... Next stop, Mendoza!

Montevideo, Uruguay

We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay and from there headed to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo.

When we walked into our £7 a night hostel we thought we had entered a 5 star hotel. Previously a private six bed mansion with two kitchens, swimming pool, roof terrace and music room, this was nothing like the hostels we had stayed in previously (take note Favela Chic!). Our bathroom was bigger than most of the rooms we've stayed in and it even had a jacuzzi bath, his and hers sink and huge walk-in shower. Everything was larger than life, even the receptionist's boobs!

We headed straight out towards Macardo del Puerto, a indoor market famous for its steak bars (parrillas). Both of us wandered round in awe at the incredible amount of meat on display and sat ourselves down at the busiest bar (always a good sign!) Naturally we ordered a juicy rump steak, with grilled veggies and chips and watched our lunch being cooked over the wood burner in front of us.

With full tummies we decided to check out the Montevideo Carnival Museum... We'd heard that carnival is a pretty big deal in Uruguay, but unfortunately we'd missed it by a few months! We thought this was the next best thing, full of weird and whacky costumes, photos and artwork.

Montevideo is a really interesting city, full of beautiful old buildings that have been left to become dilapidated, next to huge ugly tower blocks. It felt as if it was stuck in time, even the postcards were gathering dust with graphics fresh from the 80s!

One of the 'things to do' was a tour of the recently renovated Teatre Solis, Uruguay's oldest theatre. Our guide was great and mentioned that the tickets for shows are really cheap (£4.50) to enable everyone to go. After the tour we went straight to the ticket desk and bought two tickets for that evening's performance, the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Neither of us had been to see a philharmonic orchestra before, but we were blown away. A perfect (cultured) way to end our trip in Montevideo!