Experiencing Machu Picchu was for sure a big highlight. A lowlight however was the temperature on the high plateau. We started to miss the times where it was too hot to even move. We decided to quickly head south to the Chilean coast, hoping to find there nice, tropical beaches.
The only other stop in Peru was in Arequipa, known as sexy and beautiful town. For us it was the first destination where we saw again more locals than tourists. Apart from walking around and doing some shopping in the supermarket (quite something after not having supermarkets for a while) we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery; a huge, beautiful monastery in the middle of the city with a nice café (thanks Claudia).
On our way to Santiago we stopped in Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta and La Serena. Arriving in Chile was a culture shock. There are actual streets, pedestrian primacy, working ATMs, and English speaking employees. Also shocking were the prices, nearly the same as Switzerland. Northern Chile is covered by the Atacama Desert. Since it is the driest place on the earth, there is nothing but dirt and sand. The desert stretches from the inland right to the sea. There is a reason why you have never heard of the stunning, Chilean beaches!
The very dry air and the lack of light pollution make the Atacama Desert the ideal spot for observatories. We visited the currently biggest telescope, the VLT (very large telescope). Yes, size matters when it comes to telescopes. Now they are planning the EELT, the European Extremely Large Telescope. They are owned by the European Space Observatory (ESO) and actually built for scientific purposes, so you can only visit the site during the day. It is free… but you have to rent a car to get there, so no free lunch at all. We also visited a public observatory during the night and it was awesome to see close-ups of the moon and selected starts.
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