Travelogue :  Round The World In 100 Days (English Version)

Travelogue-Specials:

sign the guestbook of this travelogue!

For Valparaiso Tere organized me a hostel. Valparaiso is a very beautiful town on the Pacific Coast near Santiago built on hills. It has a lot of lifts going up the hills from the beach. I checked some out.
The people were very friendly. When I had a snack someone talked to me and spent me a coffee when he was watching football on the TV in this small restaurant. On the evening I was in a restaurant Tere recommended me and someone spent me a Pisco Sour and gave me lots of travel tipps for the Atacama and Peru.

Day 61 - June 3

This day I did a big walk in Valparaiso. The houses are colored very beautiful and you can walk around for hours. For one lift you have to go into the mountain by a tunnel and after going up you have a bridge to go to the upper part of this town.
Later I discovered a flea marked where you can buy nearly everything.
At 5pm my long distance bus to Antofagasta departed. On the beginning of this trip with destination San Pedro de Atacama I was happy to relax after these two days I had to manage alone in this big new continent on my trip.

Day 62 - June 4

At noon I arrived in Antofagasta. I slept well in this bus with a lot of space. When I was in Antofagasta I decided to go on directy because I wanted to go to San Pedro de Atacama and in Antofagasta there is not so much to see. So I bought a ticket but then I had about 2 hours time left to make a big bus brake. So I had some time for a meal and to visit the inner city.
After more 4 or 5 hours of bus driving I arrived in San Pedro by 7pm. On this evening I have sworn to go on a bus a whole night and day togeher never anymore.
In this small backpackers town San Pedro I found a hostel very quickly and met some other english speaking backpackers, that was great.

Day 63 - June 5

I, two Canadians and one French rented mountainbikes and sandboards. So we drove off in the sand. This was very funny because you have to drive fast with the sandboard. Otherwise you fall down after sinking in the sand. But at the beginning we were too afraid to go fast.

On the afternoon I made a tour to the Salar de Atacama, a big salt lagune. They already booked this tour but for me there was a free place left and so I needn't to organize something. The tour was great.

Day 64 - June 6

At 4 am we started on a tour to the El Tatio Geysers. This was very early but to see the biggest geyser field on the world at sunrise is the best time to see the steam. It was very cold, but later we took a bath in a geyser-heated pool to get warm again. On the way back we saw many plants and burds and the guide explained them all. On the way back I felt a little bit bad to be on this altetude of 4500 meters I never have been before. But after driving down I felt ok again.

On the afternoon I did another tour to Valley de la Luna. This was very great, I never have seen such bizarre landscape. We went to some different places, to a cave and on the end on a mountain to watch the sunset. Everybody told me I have to go on this tour and they are all right.

On the evening I wanted to go out with some other backpackers but after drinking one! beer I was so tired that I went to bed. 2 tours on one day are a little bit too much but the next evening I wanted to catch a night bus and did not want to get trouble of being late on the way back from a tour.

Day 65 - June 7

On the morning bad news, the terror in London. The owner of the hostel placed their satelite TV into the lounge.

The morning I relaxed after these two days full with tours. On the noon I visited San Pedro and then I went to a Restaurant with Amelia I met one day before on a tour.
Later I was to a museum about culture and the Atacama. Later I watched the sunset a little bit outside of San Pedro.
On the evening my bus to Arica started.

Day 66 - June 8

At 7:30am I arrived in Tacna. The city was really sleeping at this time and I had to search a long time for a hostel until I found a cheap hotel.
Arica is a nice town for one day. Very interesting is the San Marcos Church built by Gustav Eiffel, the architect of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. From the Ell Morro de Arica - hill you have a nice view over the city and the beach. There I saw a lot of Condors sailing up in the midday sun. On the afternoon I walked around on the beach.
The evening I used for updating my diary in an internet cafe and to watch more about London in CNN. I had a room with TV in this hotel.

Day 67 - June 98

On this day I went by train to Tacna in Peru.