Break out of Asia

After the ocean, the desert in high altitude of San Pedro de Atacama.
The air is dryer, the sun is burning and the town completely empty from 12 to 16...
After this compulsory nap, you can eventually walk around but be back before 5pm and the wind which carries a lot of sand.

Hopefully, the house kept the freshness and HBO is in English.

Also, Atacama offers the most beautiful geysers which produced stim when the outside temperature is still bellow zero. Therefore, the only way to enjoy it is to wake up at 4am, be on site by 6 am -11 degree and left by 8 am zero degree.

Then, the sun warmed up everything and everyone and by noon, even your Tshirt is too warm...

Also,San Pedro is the starting point for the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia - the best scenary i ever saw...

After 7 hours and twice "Pirates from Carabean" in the bus, I arrived at La Serena, on the coast.
I really felt under the charm of...this city. Evrything seems quite, cool, slow down and soo relaxing.

Sellers understand my requests in Spanish (and i kind of understand/guess the answers) and it really help me to walk around teh city without opening the Lonely Planet map.
That´s how I found a beautiful Japanese garden (next to the Panamerican Road) where only the birds distract me from a peaceful nap...

I also meditate on the beach..until i get a sun burn...So I went down town to do some shopping and ended up checking the winter promotion of Chilean brands where shoe size 39 is regular...did I mentioned that Chile was cheaper than China too?
:-)

Chile keeps on surprising me...
Firstly, the road through the Andes was just as cold as beautiful and allowed me to touch the snow on Oct 15th!
Then the custom took a veryyyy long time to get 2 stamps and eventually we stopped in Santiago.

Thanks to a city tour of 4 hours provided by an Equatorian students speaking English and Chinese fluently (as those 2 languages are teach from 1st grade there...) I made a great tour and discovered much about the history and the current situation of the country.
Altough it is (much) cheaper than Argentina, Chile is facing a huge gap between the High society club (on the right side of the street) and the students in strike for free university (on the left side).
Seeing those students asking for more financial support, job opportunities and a better and easier life remind me that France has still (good) influences on other countries...

During this tour, I also discover the Cofe Tahiti: the cleaver marketing plan ever!
Indeed, to attract business men in his coffee shop selling exclusively Chile (bad) coffee, the owner hired only women waistresses wearing short skirt...and it works!
Now, the concept even have a bikini version with random "happy hour" during which the main door is closed and women lost their bikinis...(sorry, no pictures allowed)
Even to rent bikes, the agencies are offering free beers...

But kind of fed up with capital and large cities, I decided to hit North to La Serena...

After my short lunch break in Sao Paulo, I flew to Buenos Aires...other country, other atmosphere...
For me, I have the feeling to come home when I saw the european style buildings and dirty streets. Santa Fe could be the Avenus Foche and Florida la Rue de la Republique!
Altough it is only the beginning of the spring, people are smilling and very nice and polite (it may sound silly but compare to China it is delightful)

The food is also delicious and the meat one of the best I ever taste..but as in Peru, it seems that the only known vegetable is the potato cooked as french fries...

Luckely, I have been introduced to 2 french girls leaving in BA and who shared with me their feelings about the city and the leaving condition.
First thing, BA is more expensive than Shanghai especially for the rent of apt and the food: no way to eat for 10 kuai!
Then, the inflation is incredible and can happen twice in a month...so local just stay at their parents place until they married and keep sharing flat to save money...
However, the ladies nights are quite a good deal (especially because a whisky coca is actually half whisky and half coca) and it is easy to talk to everyone (even more when you do speak spanish of course) and just get use to very straight guys (est ce que tu baises? est un mento ici), dream-sellers and crazy jealous ex-girlfriends...
Otherwise, BA is a nice city to stay, need to know now what the coming election will bring up...

At 8 hours flight from LA, i landed in Lima, capital of Peru, land of Incas!!!

Thanks to Murielle, her friends and huge family, I learnt everything about Peru history (from the Chinese slaves who signed their "working contract" in Spanish to the latest terrorist war which ended (only) in 1992).
Shaping up its new economy, the Peru is now the new capital of the Haute Cuisine of Latin America where Chinese, Italian and Arabic influences match perfectly the rich variety of local fruits.
The local drinking flavors are quite surprising too, specially with the InkaCoca made of citronelle is the leader on the soft drinks market (yes, CocaCola is behind here) and the famous Pisco (coktail composed of grapes liquor, lemon sirop, bitter and white egg and soon available in Shanghai).
Of course, Peru is also the beaches, the mountains, the dances...and the football !!

Few days to discover LA (venise beach, boudin noir, Gatty museum, santa monica and hollywood of course) with sweet Astrid!!!
Thanks my dear!!

2 houseparties, 1 bar rouge,4 hours sleep later I finally get in the plan...can't wait to sleep, relax and then remember I have a day flight on china eastern...it's gonna be hard!