Reasons to Return

Today was our last day in Atacama. We spent it walking through the Kami canyon this morning-not a difficult walk but it did involve climbing down two vertical rock faces!- and by visiting the village where the Explora Hotel is based, San pedro de Atacama. We were pleased that we had ventured out as it would be quite possible to spend all one´s time in the hotel and the village is charming. We were pleased to find a small but well presented archaeological museum and to trace the story of continuous habitation here since 12,00 years before the present. One of the aspects of this history which is particularly interesting is that the indigenous people of this apparently remote and inaccesible region had widespread cultural, social and commercial contact with people in Bolivia, Argentina and Peru for many cneturies before the Spaniards arrived and were briefly part of the Inka Empire. So much for the simple peasants.

We love Chile and have begun to make a list of reasons to return. So far it includes:

• The people
  
• The food, especially the fish, vegetables and fruit
• The Bella Vista District in Santiago
• The fact that we never got to visit the Museo de Bellas Artes in Santiago because it was closed on the day we had available
• Cafe Haiti in Santiago, described to us as "coffee with legs". It turns out that all the staff are young women with incredibly short mini skirts and incredibly long legs-it led to a very interesting conversation with our guide about the position of women in Chilean society.
• The diversity of the landscape...........

That´s it for now. More soon.