Santiago -The Last Post

Oasis in the Atacama Desert

Uneventful flight from Calama to Santiago and settle into hotel.Wander the mean streets of Santiago and have a modest dinner.
Next day we are taken  on our city tour by our robotic guide Arturo.
Highlights included observing the military coup at the president's palace

Sousaphones for Ella

but especially visiting the very traditional cafe and observing the wait staff in their very traditional native dress.

The afternoon was spent wandering the streets looking for objets d'art. I have worked out that the Spanish word "artesan" can be translate as "overpriced, knock off crap".
In the evening we went out to dinner with my colleague, Ariel, to El Mestizo restaurant, recommended to us personally by Mick and Keef who had dined there last week.

Goodbye South America

Old geezers visit the old gysers

Unbelievably, we rise at 5am(sic) for our 5:30(am) departure for the gysers. We have been told the temp would be -15C, which turns out to be a lie as it is a balmy +3C. Our guide tells us to be careful as a few months earlier a Belgian tourist had fallen into the boiling waters and nicely poached herself with a negative outcome. Anyway we were quite alone apart from the thousands of milling tourists. The area was like being inside a massive coffee percolator.

After observing the bubbling water we had a breakfast prepared for us by our guide and driver.

There had been 3 cancellations on our excursion so R and I were forced to eat breakfast for 5 people.
On the return journey we managed to spot fine examples of Chilean wildlifes.

Vicunas for Ella

Following an afternoon siesta we set out for the salt flats and flamingo spotting

Bird with built in can opener

Llama for Ella

.Following which we enjoyed picnic as we observed the sunset over the desert