Yeeeeeeaaaas……

I meet the tour group in Santiago, Chile, on 6th April, the group consisting of a really lovely bunch of girls & just two Norwegian guys. The first night we head out to dinner with the group & plan our next day in Santiago, a few of us decide we would head to Valparaiso & Vina Del Mar on the coast as we managed to blag a bargain 3rd off the cost.

Valparaiso is like a rundown coastal town, mainly known for it being a port. I really liked the part of the town that's in the hillside as it feels very bohemian with colours everywhere & artistic graffiti. Here we stopped for Coffee & then saw many more interesting things, all of which I forgot within 10 minutes :) Onwards to Vina Del Mar & this is more of a clean tourist area with a long beach & lots of shops & restaurants. We stayed here for a late lunch & sat on the beach freezing our titties off as we felt we ought to enjoy the seaside view while we were in the area.

The next day we get a 7 hour bus to La Serena, which is another coastal town in Chile. Here there really didn't seem much to do at all, I was really poorly & had a room to myself with TV/Internet so stayed in bed the first afternoon/night & then the next day the majority of us decided we should at least see a small piece of La Serena so headed down to the beach. The beach was pretty blah so as time was running out (we had to be back for our bus for 5pm) we headed back to a restaurant for some food, little did we realise that with a group of about 10 of us this would mean our food would take 1.5hrs to come, meaning we didn't even get our food till 4.30pm & we were still a good 20min walk from our pick up point, panicking slightly we inhale the food & grab a taxi back, just making it in time to head for the bus *phew*.

Now we're on a 17hour bus for San Pedro de Atacama, this was not pleasant as we had semi reclining seats rather than fully & within 2 hours the toilet was rancid. Managed to make it through & ended up in Calama for 2 hours waiting for us next bus onwards, now this place is classed as a sh*t hole in lonely planet & we had a butch security woman standing guard on us at all times. Apparently theft is rife here & it's very dangerous, our tour leader Maru was basically sh*tting herself & coming round every 5 minutes making sure we were ok, class. Julia & I braved it to the supermarket alone & managed to make it back safely, only being accosted by a large black Labrador, ahhhh. Onto the next bus & about another 45mins we hit San Pedro de Atacama! This place is luuuurvely, it feels like a cool desert town with quite a few things to do, it's hot as hell & as we don't have long here we all decide to go sandboarding in the afternoon. Now this is what I'm talking about! Driving through desert we hit the sand dune & strap on the board, looking down it's really steep & pretty bloody scary. I finally man up & make my way down, managing to flip myself landing on my face & then twisting my legs in an unnatural position. Giving it another few goes I realise I'm best leading with my right foot & leaning frontwards, I finally manage to make it down fast, only stopping the once. Such fun! What was not fun however was climbing up the sand dunes when your god knows how many feet above sea level & every step you take you take two back in the sand.

After this we all head for dinner & end up in a place with a huge fire in the middle of the restaurant & possibly one of the best meals I have had so far on this trip (plus the free pisco sour wasn't a bad touch either).

The next day I'm still feeling rough from the last few days so I stay in bed till late but then get bored rotten so decide to screw off my illness & grab a bike & cycle with the lads to Cejar Lagoon. Everyone else in the group decides to get the tour bus as it's quite a mission but I'm never one to do things the easy way & I find things like this a challenge (plus I need the exercise because I'm becoming a lazy fatty).

We head off, things going well, until we realise the maps drawn by the locals are NO help AT ALL, managing to find a lorry driver we get pointed in the rough direction & hope for the best. Basically it took asking a few people to find the right road to take off to get to the dirt roads to the Lagoon, we finally find it & realise now why even the locals thought we were nuts to ride there & back. It's like the dirt road has been ploughed & every single bit has bumps making you vibrate from head to toe, I;m not sure my forearms have ever hurt so much after a ride. It takes us 1.5hours to get to Lagoon Cejar, which to be honest I am very impressed with as I met Irish (from Buenos Aires) at the sand dunes (random) & he said it took them 2hours, haha beaten by a girl, bosh. The lagoon is wicked, salt flat areas all around it & we decide to head to the one where no one's swimming as it's quieter. Wading in it is pretty hard work as there are massive salt rock formations in the water, a bit like coral, & sharp too. Cursing as we go in from salt rocks & how erm *refreshing* it is, we finally make it in & oh my god there is SO much salt you literally float without trying. I'm getting forced into an unflattering position on my front, which isn't the most comfy but I enjoy it anyway as after riding in the dry heat for so long anything cool & wet is a good reward for me.

We see the tour group arrive in their vans & they all seem to head for the other lagoon pool across the way, we wonder why & head over to say hello. Only then do we realise that we have just been swimming in a lagoon NOT meant for swimming :S Apparently it's a really dangerous lagoon & our group had been warned not to go in it at all for their own safety, haha. Oh well, we were fine so all good. Now it's time to cycle all the way back before dark, which none of us were particularly looking forward to as by now we had completely relaxed & couldn't be ar*ed. For the first 10minutes I'm fine but after riding on the bumpy, vibrating, dirt track again my knees are killing & I'm due to the severe heat & dryness I'm getting an immense headache. I carry on anyways when the boys decide we should try a different route back as it should be quicker, I am skeptical but I agree to give it a go, as what's the worst that can happen?

Well, 10mins later we get to an area which is basically completely off road, It isn't going to be an easy ride & even though I'm feeling rotten I think it will be good fun to smash around on the bikes. I'm not going to lie, it was fecking hard, the sun is going down fast & we are literally in the middle of nowhere with nothing around, not knowing where we are going & without the sun we wouldn't be able to see a thing. Panicking slightly we pick up speed & finally hit a road, taking this road we join up with the main one to town & with absolute relief we cycle like mad to make it before dusk. By this point even the boys are struggling, we have a gale force wind in our faces, going up hill & another 30mins ride till we hit the town. The town seemed like a mirage that we would never get to, my knees burnt, I was dehydrated badly but I wasn't going to stop & walk, even when we got to the hill I soldiered through! Finally we touched town & inhaled some chocolate & orange juice & practically crawled back to our hostel. It took 2 hours cycling back & I felt every single minute, worked out we cycled a total of between 55-60k, not bad if I don't say so myself & even the boys high five me impressed with my efforts :)

The next day we're up early as this is when we leave Chile & head for Bolivia. The departure in Chile is just in a building close to town & as we're in the vans driving there Maru makes sure we all have our immigration papers to hand in as they are compulsory to leave Chile. Me being me decide to have a clean out that morning & basically chucked away a load of papers, seemingly also my immigration paper too, brilliant. I don't take it too seriously because usually there is a way out of it & in Helen's guide book it says you're fine if you don't have it. I get to the official guy & as he's smiling I think I'm going to get away with it, nope not me.

He tells Maru that he has to email the immigration at the Chile boarder for them to then find a copy of that paper & he cannot do anything until he gets a reply back. Panicking a wee bit the driver takes me back to the Hostel to look through the bins to find that paper, as you know my luck is never good & as I open the bin I find a nice spanking new bin liner inside, no rubbish. Apparently as luck would have it it was rubbish day in Atacama, joy! I head back to the van, driving past the rest of the tour group, their looking at me for some kind of reassurance that everything is ok, because at this point I'm still not taking this seriously at all, I smile at the group in a jovial way, I mean what can they do?

Maru tells me I cannot leave Chile. As it was such a shock I literally burst into tears like a proper, real life girl & ran to the toilets. Maru comes in & comforts me & tells me that it's never happened to her before & that I might have to stay behind for 24 hours & try & catch the group up later, I finally start calming down, knowing that I've travelled this far alone & I will be ok, although I'm pretty upset I will have to miss a day's tour & have to fund the cost getting to them myself, even though I've already paid for the tour.

There's a lot of going back & forth to the man behind the desk, Maru is getting more & more frantic with worry as they need to leave soon & I've resigned myself to staying alone in Atacama. The other girls are complete sweeties & say they want to stay too but this isn't an option & I wouldn't want them to either. We've been sat there over an hour pulling our hair out when we get the guy shouting at us to come over, the email has arrived back, we're all good & we can go!!! I've never felt such relief, Maru is hugging the life out of me & we run back to the group (I get an applause lol) & I offer biscuits in way of an apology for being such a tw*t.

Off we go to the Bolivian border, here we hang about while Maru sorts something out. All of a sudden she is coming back, shouting at our driver & bursts into tears in the van, we're all worried & find out that the driver told the authorities that she was a tour leader. Well, here in Bolivia it is illegal to be a tour leader in this country unless you are Bolivian, if you get found out you can get put in prison. Bit stupid of GAP to even allow Maru to do this trip & she is completely distraught because of the consequences that could have followed.

Luckily she got away with it & after a lot more hugs we jump in our 4x4's & head off into the Bolivian desert, not before 15minutes into the drive our jeep is overheating, a pipe burning away & smoke pouring out of the engine. Standard day :)