A List

1. Weather here is so temperamental: yesterday I was snuggled up in two jumpers and a jacket; today, the girls and I are going to Alejandro's other apartment to make use of the top floor pool with views of the Andes!


2. If anyone ever suggests that you read a book by Jose Donoso, I recommend you pass the opportunity up. 100 pages down and still no idea what's going on...


3. It's nearly November! That should mean sweet potatoes and parsnip soup, but instead it means salad and ripe strawberries. I could get used to that, I suppose...


4. Springtime here smells just like it does in England: freshly mown grass, wisteria and jasmine crawling over the fences, honeysuckle and sneezing fits.


5. I found out this week that I'll have all of December free! Any suggestions for what I should do?


La Entusiasta
xxx

A Visit from Mama and Papa

After two weeks of adventures with my lovely parents, they have finally abandoned me to the Chilean wilderness for my last eight weeks in South America- so I thought this was prime time to fill you in on what we got up to together.

Mum had been told specifically what type of clothing would be necessary to offset her platinum blonde bob, which would essentially serve as a siren for unscrupulous thieves and bottom-pinchers, and I was confident that the whole trip would be a success if she followed my advice. However, if you've met my Mum, you'll know that telling her to leave her white linen trousers at home is essentially a lost cause. They pulled up to the building not in grungy traveller's gear, but rather in brightly-coloured smart M&S jumpers and the aforementioned white trousers. Sigh... The clothing saga would follow us first to Valparaiso, where there was a distinctly chilly coastal wind blowing, and then to San Pedro, where we had to dress to suit temperatures between -10 and 35 degrees.

Our trip to San Pedro de Atacama gave us a glimpse of one of the most interesting and beautiful parts of Chile- and also offered the opportunity of a few hours of tanning time! We stayed in Hotel Altiplanico, which was like a tiny village of luxe mud huts under the Atacameñan sun, and organised to go on a few desert tours, including Death and Moon Valley, the salt flats and lagoons, geysers, and a guided tour of the universe visible from this corner of the southern hemisphere. We woke up early every morning, suffering through the freezing temperatures to watch the sun rise over the Andes. Sometimes the silhouette of the mountains looked like an Art Attack project- a wash of watercolour and black paper cutout, or three tons of dark socks on top of a sea of crumpled orange t-shirts. We tested the boiling water of the geysers and the icy depths of the salt water lagoons, but I have to say that the best bit of the trip for me was looking through our guide Alain's telescopes to see nebulae, Jupiter's moons, double stars and Mars. I've never heard such a good explanation of the time-space continuum, and even with a few trips to the NASA space station in Texas under my belt, I'd still venture to say that the view of the universe from Alain's backyard was the most impressive I've ever seen.

Of course, the visit to San Pedro would not have been complete without an adoring fan of Maria Elena Swett (supposedly my lookalike) asking for my autograph... Ok not quite, but I did get asked for a picture with one store owner!

More adventures from Ma and Pa's visit soon!

La Entusiasta

xxx