We spent mabye 4 days in the entire country of Chile. It’s crazy expensive, and the entire top half is one massive desert… which is cool, and all, for a bit. But damn, the desert is beautiful like depression. You´ve got to experience it, just so you know, but you really want to get the hell out fast. And we did.

There’s so much we missed to tell you, though… taking almost two whole journal entries to tell you about San Pedro now seems like a fat overemphasis. Sorry about that, it was cool at the time, but now it’s hard to remember why.

Anyway, after La Paz we did the Salt flat tour. And we somehow managed to do it with the shittiest company out there. Heh- you win some, you lose some. There’s really no way to be sure you’re not going to get screwed when signing up for these things. Don’t get me wrong- it was fun, and gorgeous, and well worth the money… but when you see the other companies that have speaking guides, food that doesn’t seem like a 12 year old prepared it, and trucks that aren’t as old as me, you begin to feel a bit shafted. Thankfully, we had a truck full of positive, and hilarious, foreigners to share the experience with.

The tour ended on the border of Chile, where we hitched a ride with a van and heading to San Pedro (the town). Then we went sand boarding, which was… interesting. Too bad I suck a whole lot more at that than at snow boarding. Maybe it was the burden of having to walk back up the sand hill you just tumbled down that made it seem like more of a pain in the ass than a genuine thrill… but an worthwhile experience, nonetheless. At least we had sand-peppered tuna and crackers to fill our bellies and the added pleasure of watching other, just as uncoordinated, goobers throw themselves down a steep sand dune.

After a 24 hours bus ride along the coast of Chile, we made it to Santiago. Ignore what you hear about that city- I thought it was the coolest city we’ve seen thus far in South America. We we’re blown away by what appeared to be a modern, developed city in South America. Lima’s a bunghole, Quito was cute but small, and La Paz, well… it’s Bolivia. Santiago has a metro! Yeah, like a modern city. We took it to our hostel, and felt, for the first time in a while, like we were again back in the 21st century. It felt surprisingly, maybe sadly, good. And they have bohemian bars with poetry readings, and live jazz…. not to mention the parks, and cars, and malls, and tall business buildings, and all that other city crap you easily forget is only in developed nations. But we aren’t here for a little taste of American metropolitan life in South America, are we?? We left after a night.

Now we’re in the wide open fertile fields of South America’s favorite country: Argentina. Cheap wine and steak, baby, galore!! Ohhh….

Time’s up on the prepago internet! Adios for now!