Chile

Probably my favourite country of the three; gorgeous scenery, safer food, less crime, no malaria or dengue or yellow fever, more developed infrastructure, etc. But it was the most expensive by far. They have a different type of Spanish there, different accents and ways of speaking and they have their own words for things. Again, the trip was so rushed (I only had five and a half weeks for three countries!) that there is still lots to see there. I ended up getting into a lot of conversations with Chileans who spoke English; they are quite friendly and open. Santiago, the capital, is quite nice, even with the smog (which is trapped over the city by mountains on either side). The metro system there is awesome. And I have to say, for some reason, out of the places I've been, Santiago really seemed like the place where a person is meant to get a cappucino at a sidewalk cafe and sit and watch the people go by. I never did get a chance to go for "coffee with legs" (where the waitresses are all scantily clad and the coffees cost more than $10 (it would have put Starbucks prices to shame!)), purely for cultural research purposes. The wine is super cheap and there are lots of local types of food to try. Don't get a Chilean started on whether the Pisco Sour drink was invented there or in Peru. Don't miss a visit to some of Pablo Neruda's houses, a poet that won the nobel prize; they were much more interested than I expected. Valparaiso, a town of multi-coloured houses built on hills was excellent and not to be missed. San Pedro de Atacama (my starting point for the Salar de Uyuni tour) is in the middle of the Atacama desert and you could walk across the town in about 10 minutes. There are big sleepy dogs passed out all over the place, and it has a lot of volcanoes nearby (Chile has around 1500 to 2000 of them! (depending who you talk to)). And eat at the little fried chicken place near the town square, it would be world famous if there were more people passing through.