San pedro and the Salt flats Our next stop in the long skinny country of Chile was San Pedro de Atacama. To get there, we had to take a 30 hour bus ride from Santiago with no stops or breaks, but at least we got fed. Kind of. Chilean food on a bus consists of a dry piece of ham or, an equally dry piece of cheese, never both, on stale bread with no butter. Fortunately, for us we were sat next to some French lads who carried their very own bottle of mayonaise tha...

Santiago It was our last morning waking up in the van and what better place than under the golden arches of a McDonalds carpark, right in the middle of an 8 lane highway. After six weeks of travelling around Patagonia, driving over 12000 kilometres, half of which seemed to be on dusty gravel roads the van was in desperate need of a good clean. Inside and out. This wasn't just down to Claire's totally irrational desire to return the van looking all shiny and ne...