Sultan's blog post It had always been on my bucket list. A country of such amazing contrasts, the Atacama Desert at one end of the country, and the edge of Antarctica at the other. Old colonial towns, and the modern skyscrapers of Santiago. Where am I talking about? Chile of course! I was going with my new best friend, Adnan. We hadn’t known each other that long, but we’d really hit it off right from the start. I’m quite reserved, whereas he is a real social butterfly, but we seemed to complement each other well. And when I mentioned my fascination with Chile, he became the driving force in actually making my dream happen. Before I knew it, we were arriving in the capital. What an incredible city! I loved spending the days walking around the different neighbourhoods, trying some typical dishes such as caldillo de congrio (eel soup – don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it) and soaking up the atmosphere. But, after a few days, things started to go downhill. Adnan was bored. He wanted to go skiing in the Valle Nevado. The problem was, not only had I never been skiing, but that it was also likely to completely blow my budget. When I explained this to him, he felt bad, and then I felt bad, too! It’s true that I couldn’t really afford the trip, but then again, I knew it would mean a lot to Adnan, so I agreed to go. Adnan loved it and being so social, he soon made a whole load of new friends. Being in the mountains was great, but I can’t say that I really clicked with the new crowd. And I was also itching to get on with our tour and visit the Atacama Desert. Eventually, I managed to drag him away, and we set off north. Wow. What a landscape! We visited Moon Valley and Mars Valley, and it really did feel as if we were on another planet. But it wasn’t long before another problem reared its head. Both Adnan and I had taken lots of photographs of our holiday. But, one morning, I noticed that Adnan had uploaded most of his photos to his social media pages – and I was in a lot of those photos! Some were cool, but a few pictures of me were not very flattering. I really felt that Adnan should have asked my permission before posting the photos online. I wanted to say something to him, but our friendship was already getting a little strained, so I just bit my tongue. And then something else happened which cast a shadow over the trip. We had travelled back down to Valparaiso, a very beautiful old city just north of Santiago, on the Pacific coast. It’s a really gorgeous and special place. I couldn’t wait to walk around and see all the sights with Adnan, but he just wanted to hang out in our hotel room all day. I couldn’t believe it, and the worst part is that he couldn’t understand why I felt disappointed. After this, we finally understood that we weren’t very compatible travelling companions. Adnan is a really nice person, but he and I just have different ideas about what it means to be a tourist.
