I´ll mention all the names of the places we visited along the way from Santiago to San Pedro De Atacama, to make it a little more interesting and as a point of reference for me, even if for some of you, the names will mean absolutely nothing. The name of the places meant nothing to me before I entered Chile, as I had only heard of Santiago, the Atacama Desert, and that was about it to tell you the truth. I had heard of Easter Island as well, but that is as close to Fiji as it is Chile.

We started our Pachamama bus tour and there was a group of 13 of us, which was minuscule compared to the number of people that were on the stray bus in NZ. The group consisted of 3 girls on a gap year, 3 lads on a gap year, 2 Scottish girls, one Scottish lad, and a Canadian couple, and one Canadian girl (well 30 year old woman). The tour guide was Gino, and the driver was named Marco, who turned out to be the joker of the clan. Our first port of call was Pichidingui, and I had yet another traditional Chilean meal, in the form of chicken and chips. We stayed in La Serena for the night, which was more like a family home. The place had quite clear white sand and some tall buildings on the beachfront, which made it resemble Benidorm

.

We visited Punta da Choros (a small fishing village), which was the platform for our guided boat tour to the National reserve, called pinguino de Hunboltd (try say all that when you're drunk). The boat ride was a painful 2 and half hours, and how I wasn't seasick was a minor miracle. We saw sea-otters, sea-lions, and a colony of dolphins, but I just wanted the agonising boat ride to come to an abrupt end. I managed to get a few photos on my camera, but that was thanks to the lad in front of me, as I was almost hanging out of the boat from start to finish. The days experience taught me that I get bad seasickness and I will be almost certainly be avoiding the small boats in the near future.

Copiapo was where we briefly stocked up on our food, before staying in Bahia Inglesa for two nights. Copiapo needs no introduction as it is famous for mining, and more recently renowned for the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean miners. Well, it was 32 Chileans and 1 Bolivian if we're going to get technical. We had a full day of just 'chilling' in Bahia Inglesa and then we were told we were having a BBQ late in the evening. We didn't hold much hope for the BBQ in truth, as Gino was helping Marco cook it, and he was a fully fledged vegetarian. We need not have worried; Gino just did the sauce and the soup. I must have had about 14 pieces of steak, so as usual, I got my moneys worth.

The next day we reached Antofagasta (which means hidden copper in Atacemeno language). This place was about to be where I would stay in my first 'hotel in Chile. It was a hostel really, but without the 'S'. There was no light for the first hour, the ceiling was dropping off, and the showers were cold. It wasn't exactly the Marriott or the Hilton Hotel. The highlight that 4th day was stopping and seeing and the 'hand of the desert'. There are another two hands similar to this one around the world, one situated in Uruguay, and the other in Rome. The meaning behind the three hands is that when you are in the middle of nowhere, and you are all alone, there is always a hand to reach out and help you.

On the morning of the 5th day after leaving our run down cold water showering hostel, we were back on the road again, and deep into the dry Atacama desert, where some meteorological systems have barely ever registered any rain. In some ways you could liken it to the outback in Australia, but then in other ways it was so much different. The main difference being there was still quite alot of cars and mainly mining trucks passing by. We visited a rail museum where we all posed for pictures and climbed on the dusty old trains. Today turned out to be the busiest day for a long while, as we then visited the salt flats. It looked impressive and was obviously very dry. I would go as far as saying some of the pictures I took from there were some of my best from my trip so far. We had lunch in an Oasis, and then went to visit a national park just in time to capture the flamingos flying around for the sunset. As a frequent visitor of Flamingo land as a young child, I can't say I was over enthralled by the sight of Flamingos.

THE DESTINATION WAS REACHED........SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA
This is the place where the Chilean Ghost was out to defeat me. I had locked the door of our cabin which only I had a key to, so I thought leaving my phone to charge for an hour would be fine. The beds were not made, so it looked like the cleaner had not been in, yet the phone, charger, and adaptor had been taken off the wall. It was a struggle as the manager was a little old woman who could not speak English, so I couldn't do much, apart from tell the my translating Canadian friend to tell her I would trash the beds if the phone didn´t appear in the next 5 minutes. After calming down a short while after, I did no such thing, but the next morning I walked out and didn´t pay. I got a free nights free accommodation at the very least.

The place itself is an oasis in the desert, with around 4 streets. It's all very touristy with internet cafes, and an ample selection of restaurants. For around 7 days I stayed there, I seemed to stick to 2 in particular. One made a cracking chicken omelette for breakfast and the other gave largest portion of Pasta carbonara I ever had the pleasure of witnessing......and then eating. For around 7 days I stayed there, I seemed to remain loyal to 2 restaurants (yet there well plenty floating around). One made a cracking chicken omelette in the daytime and the other gave me largest portion of Pasta carbonara I ever had the pleasure of witnessing......and then eating.

With San Pedro only a small town with around four main streets, and most hostels not having hot showers, I found it quite impressive that free WIFI was available. I know they have free WIFI in Flinders Square in Melbourne, but this was in the square of San Pedro De Atacama, an oasis in the desert.

I hopped back on the Pachamama bus which was heading back down South, and turned up at the ghost hostel at 8am all ready to go. Part of me was hoping the woman would appear again, but she never did. There were only four of us heading south plus the tour guide and driver, so was there was no excuse for me to not make an effort and learn everyones names. It was a long day on the bus but I didn't mind as I was resting my man flu. It seemed quite ironic that I don't get any sort of illness for 6 months, and then when I venture into the humid desert, I go and get a bloody cold. We arrived just in time for sunset at the national park, but it was no ordinary national park. There were no trees and grass, it was just a beach. The sunset was nice and I don't think pictures really seem to do it justice. We pitched our tents up, but for once I was sensible and decided that the only way to get rid of this horrible cold was to stay warm, so I opted to sleep in the van. It seemed like I made a good choice when the others complained how cold it was, and how there was a dog trying to rip into the inside of there tent all night.

After another long day in the bus, we arrived in Elqui valley for where we were about to stay for two nights. Gabriela Mistral, the princess who is on the Chilean 5000 peso note was from Vicuna which is the largest town in the valley. We saw her grave at the top, which isn't really too exciting in my opinion. We had a choice to do horseback riding, but I can't say I have ever desired to get on a horse. We visited the village of Pisco Elqui, which is where the production of the famous Chilean alcoholic drink Pisco takes place. We thought we were just wine tasting but out guide told us to drink these two shots, and after we had drank both of them, he had told us how they both contained 67 per cent of alcohol in them.....OUCH.
My Sunday afternoon in the valley will be remembered for watching Rodeo. We must have stuck out like a sore thumb when the competitors were doing well and getting cheered on by the crowd, our of group of two girls just continuously shouted "awwww pooor cow". I really enjoyed it and thought it was pretty good, but it did make me chuckle when one of the girls asked if the cow actually enjoys it.........hmm durrrrr. My analysis of the Rodeo was that the poor cow must have had easier Sunday afternoons.


The saying in Chile goes somewhat like this: "all roads lead to Santiago". Well almost 3 weeks after arriving here, here I was, back again. Only a brief stop over here and then I headed to Mendoza in Argentina.