We travelled north from Santiago on a 5 day organized trip to San Pedro in the Atacama Desert. After a very early start we met the Pachamama crew and set off for the long drive north. There were 14 of us in total:

PRADE - our lovely, bubbly tour guide who promised to always look after us and be our Mama (eventhough she was our age and one night we had to carry her home from the pub). Que mas? We learnt alot of history!

SERJIO - a very jolly bus driver, who was always a charmer and insisted on helping us down the bus steps. He also caught me walking into the men's toilet due to my hopeless Spanish, he then started teaching me the odd Spanish word.

ERIC and ALMENIC - 2 Dutch Geography students with a very funny sense of humour. Eric stunned us all with his hot bod in Speedos and his perfect rendition of Strangers in the Night.

FABIEN - French guy who found it difficult to understand us Brits. But we did teach him a new word everyday including Milkyway, Doggie Bag, Cheers, Aye-up. We hope to see him soon in Brittany or Pays De Galle.

CLAIRE - British girl who currently lives in Chile. A girl who enjoys absorbing the culture. Dreadlocks, sucky cup, green tea ice cream and a feather.

ELAINE - Irish girl who bonded well with Aidan when they both realised their ambition is to be a meterologist. Fun conversations followed. This bus already had too many Geographers!

NICOLA and SIMON - Fellow Brits who got the gang together on Day 1 by making us sing along to the Baywatch theme tune. We'd officially bonded. Nicola a fellow girly beer drinker. Simon, someone as mad as Aidan to play in a freezing cold pool for hours.

JESSICA and KATIE - The babies of the family (only joking), two gap year students who'd ventured to South America for a few weeks before uni. Together they kept us amused. Many stories to tell....

SANA - Finnish girl who knew perfect Spanish and constantly corrected our hideous prenunciations. She also taught us cheers in Finnish was "Kippis" which we all found hilarious.

AVA - German girl who was rather snap happy. She loved her poses and was the inspiration for many of our photos.

Day 1

We soon bonded on our bus drive when everyone discovered Aidan had a huge theme tune collection on his mp3 player. Our first stop was lunch at the seaside resort of Pichidongai. Aidan was very brave and tried Congor Eel, the whole group looked in disgust.

Arrived at La Serena in the evening and were dropped off at the door of our hostel (what a complete luxury). Ate dinner at a friendly local with an even friendly waiter called Manuel. He was so lovely and had is photo taken with everyone, we have emailed him the photos to put on his wall. Afterwards we went to a Karaoke where Aidan and I stunned everyone by singing a duet of Summer Loving. After a few too many Piscos we were sent to bed.

Day 2

One of the most exciting days on our trip. We travelled to a deserted village to go to the National Reserve Pinguino de Humboldt. Here we all got into a tiny fisherman�s boat and set sail into the rough waters. The wildlife we saw was amazing. First loads of Bottle Nose Dolphins swam alongside our boat. Then the Sealions came to play and pretended they were dophins. We then came across a huge Sealion Colony where they were all playing and fighting amongst themselves with the odd one cheeky enough to check us out. We were also lucky enough to spot 2 little penguins plodding along the beach.

Long journey to Bahia Inglesia where we spent the night in little cabins. Aidan and I shared with Prade and Sergio, I've never heard anyone snore as much as Sergio! On the way we stopped at a Jumbo supermarket and Aidan made a few big furry friends (see photo).

Day 3

Our first boiling hot day in months! Aidan got so excited he bought a new pair of flip flops (the Kea bird in NZ ate his old ones). We went into Caldera to visit Empanadopolis, apparently the best Empanada�s in Chile. Also saw a little dog with a fleece coat.

Had the afternoon to ourselves, the boys played in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean and swam in the camp pool. Sergio prepared a huge BBQ whilst we all drank and played games. Sergio had too much to drink and started to strip. This was to much for Fabien (Frenchie) who just had to join in.

Katie.