We woke up quite late, it was nice to have nothing to do, and we had both been tired from the previous exertions. We lay in bed for a while while we decided what to do. We had to decide our next stop and as flying to Santiago wasn't going to work, we had to look where to stop in between or face a 22 hour bus journey. I got up and went to use the internet to look at options. I decided that La Serena would be best, as there was the Elqui valley with observatories...

We woke up at 4am, it was still dark and with no electricity we had to get ready by torch light. We quickly got out, although in my haste I forgot my ring. We jumped onto the jeep as it was really cold and set off towards the volcano. It was about an hours drive away along bumpy roads, but we made the ascent in time to see the sun rising over the mountain. At the top there were lots of steaming vents, although the first one we saw was man made with a pipe. It wa...

We woke up early and got ready for breakfast. The sun had just about risen and we were served a breakfast of bread and eggs. Shivani was a bit tired in the morning and was a bit slow moving. We were supposed to leave at 6am but our driver did not show up for ages as he was apparently saving another car stick in the flats. We hoped this was the case and not that he was drunk and hungover. When he finally did come we loaded the car and set off, heading south to g...

We woke up quickly got ready and headed to the airport. We got there on time and after checking in we went for a subway as Shivani was excited to see a chain. After eating we waited for the plane which was late. It came 20 minutes late and was a tiny 12 person propeller plane. We had the front seats and could see into the cockpit which was pretty cool. The journey lasted an hour and just as we came into Unuyi I could see the white salt flat going off into the di...

We woke up this morning and I was happy to find Shivani was feeling better. We had a good nights sleep except for someone setting off fire crackers at two in the morning. We were going to the salt flats tomorrow so it was important Shivani had the energy for it, so I made her get up and we went for breakfast. The was a good array there and Shivani surprisingly ate quite well. I was happy and hoped she would get her energy back. We went upstairs and I was happy t...