CHILE, CHILAY OH OH OH...

Arrived in Chile and only had to drive 7 km before we hit a TARMACED road. You would have had to endure the previous 10 hours on a dirt track to fully appreciate the implications of this! Fortunately we arrived at the Chilean Customs office in San Pedro de Atacama just as a tour bus was pulling out and just before another tour bus pulled in. The Chilean border guards are very thorough, looking for fruits, vegetables and drugs coming into the country and luckily our timing meant we were through in just under and hour. We could then start to enjoy looking around this desert town, and relaxing at our lovely hotel.




Although it is early spring here in Chile, we were in the Far North of the country in the middle of the Atacama desert. The weather was warm but not too hot and needless to say dry. The children swam in the swimming pool and caught up with some school work. We ventured out on mountain bikes one day and would have done so again had our derrieres not been so sore from the tortuous bike seats!

After a few days we flew to Santiago. I immediately decided I was going to love Santiago when we cleared the jetway and I was greeted by a STARBUCKS!!!! !

Our hotel had fabulous facilities: gym, tennis court, gardens perfect for football and rugby practice and 2 swimming pools. We decided that this would be PE week and made the most of the facilities with tennis coaching and football and rugby practice! We also spent 2 afternoons at a fantastic interactive science museum for children. The bed of nails was probably more comfortable that one or two hotel beds we have slept on!. Rory had a riot whilst strapped into the gyroscope and Alice in the spinning chair testing centrifugal force!
























We did a city tour with a guide who was a Pinochet sympathizer, "yes 35,000 people suffered but it was good for the country!!!". Yeah 35,000 that we know of!!! was on the tip of my tongue but as I'm in a foreign country I thought I would restrain myself. There are lots of memorials in the north of the country set up by the families of those that went missing and were tortured, and buried in mass graves. There are also areas which are still peppered with land mine and you have to watch out for the beware signs!