9th Nov

First full day in San Pedro today, spent most the day chilling and generally looking around. Was blistering heat now that we have lowered a bit in altitude. Literally just looking round shops and relaxing in this quaint tourist town on their dusty road's just watching the world go by before our activity that even. For the evening we had arranged to go to a few view points of the Atacama Desert and then another Valley of the Moon. The view points were pretty cool, and apparently the Atacama desert is the driest in the world. At the Valley of the moon, we saw 'The three Maries', which i'll be honest weren't that impressive, they we just odd rock formations in the valley that were apparently over a million years old.....ok i suppose thats impressive, but we didn't stay long there, the main part of our trip was to watch the sunset over the Atacama desert. After hiking across a mountain top to find a spot to sit, we had to wait about 40 minutes before the sun actually came down. When it did it was pretty cool, and everyone was just sitting there in silence. Did at alot of thinking at the sunset, just its simplicity and beauty makes you think of the simple and beautiful things in life. It certainly got me thinking about a few things which is always a dangerous thing!!! AFterwards we went for dinner and got chatting a bit about Chilean culture (from a Peruvian point of view mind), and how Chile is alot more westernized than other South American countries, especially the ones we've been too. During the Falkland war... Chile were the only country in South America that supported the UK, bearing in mind the UK's reasons for wanting to keep it were alot to do with financial gain and position for oil, which is maybe why Chile is alot richer than Peru and Bolivia.

10th Nov

Today was a busy and exciting day, we spent the morning in the middle of nowhere relaxing in the Salt Lakes, which are so thick with Salt you can literally float in them....after getting over the shock from the cold. We relaxed, got given free beer and watched flamingos whilst floating, only to get out and our simming shorts go rock hard and starchy, felt like my shorts were going to shatter if i touched them!! Another exciting thing was that afternoon, my stomach felt almost 100% so had my first proper meal of choice in about 3 days and pretty much finished it with one fork full stuffed into my mouth!! The waiteress was not impressed by my manly display of eating, but oh well! This night we had a night bus arranged for a lovely 16 hour trip to La Sarena, and to help us sleep accordingly, and everyone wanted to lighten their bags, we finished off most peoples alcohol to help them get their bags lighter and to help us sleep on bus....It worked breifly!!

11th Nov

Night bus not too bad, actually got some sleep so didn't feel like i'd woken up after a whisky bender with Lemmy! Although we had to stop just before La Sarena itself for an hour as they were having an earthquake/Tsunami 'drill'. Myself and one other tried to imagine how that would go....would they have street performers running round in panic.....would they purposly up turn cars.....would they run and grab their surf boards and throw water over themselves.....we liked to think that they did all of that, but we'll never know!

Once in La Sarena, we unpacked and got taxi's to a fish restaurant called 'The Pirate', now the taxi driver didn't look too convinced wehen we got in, but after he asked his 5th passer by we were convinced he had no bloody idea where he was going, we knew it was down the port, but after driving slowly looking around as if we were stalking people, he left the port to a random housing estate....to our amazment at a place called 'The Pirate', although the 4 seats inside had us doubting this was the right place, but we got out anyway. We tried contacting our guide and some others in our group with phones but no answer (WHATS THE POINT IN HAVING A PHONE WITH YOU IF YOU DONT USE IT!!!!), so we came up with the next best thing, lets buy some beers and walk across the beach back towards the port. After some time, we got a phone call back and found out the restuarant hasn't existed for a few years (at that point finding out our guide hadn't been here for 4 years...donkey), but now with a location we were hailing taxis and before you know it scoffing fresh fish from the port...haven't workedthat hard for a meal in a while. The rest of the day consisted of chilling out. There was not alot to see or do in La Sarena, alot more local, but commercial than San Pedro, so some high rise buildings, went to our first 'supermarket' in South America.

Later that night we just went out for drinks as we ate so late, and randomly found a metal bar to our amazement, to which myself, the guide david and Jim frequented for quite a bit, trying to figure out what alot of the music was, all i noticed was that it was probably Sepultra and there were alot of Iron Maiden posters there!!

12th Nov

Today was a 'guys' day out playing paintballing in a old factory, and only a place that British Health and Safety would've had a field day with!!! This was good fun although, the paintball guy was too good for my books, and i couldn't help but keep thinking to the paintball episode of 'Spaced'...seeing as i currently had handlebars and slightly yellow tinted sunglasses....Nick Frost??

That night we went to a observatory way up in the mountains, in what we were told, some of the clearest skies in the world. Had to laugh also when they're star documentary video was actually narrated by Morgan Freeman, that man is never out of work! The stars themself were AMAZING, looking through the telescopes, seeing things that you can never see with the naked eye, quite a breathtaking night!!! More thinking, again bloody dangerous!!

13th Nov

Today we left La Sarena to head to the Capital Santiago. On arrival this place reminds me very much of a european city, such as London or Barcalona, very westernized in its design, lots of tall buildings, man made parks to try and detract the attention from all the concrete and stone there, slight difference from London and Barcalona though, the Chileans in Santiago are not scared of public displays of affection, which i found very sweet and romantic, as a pet hate of mine is people to scared to show their feelings in public! This has been a general theme througout South America in general i have found though, nice change!

It was Saturday night tonight and the general consencus seemed to be that this will be our proper last night out before alot of us go our seperate ways. So we went had awesome food in a very boheimean part of the city, with lots of trendy clubs and restaurants. That night we drunk way into the night, numbers dwindled as people got tired, and we were eventually left with 4 of us till the club shut at 4am. After walking home for 5am, we decided we might as well watch the sun set, so got some Pisco and sat in the park drinking (not painting a glamourous picture am i...but it was fun so screw you). 14th Nov...........So looking as classy as ever sat in a park drinking from a bottle, we kind of saw the sunset, but realised the hotel breakfast might be soon, so went back for that as well, i think we held our decorum in the hotel, although me falling off my chair into a wierd pose, whilst continueing what i was saying without breaking a breath, probably suggested to the staff that we were a bit drunk?? Was a really good night though and spent it with really cool people, what can i say, these are my last days in South America!!

The rest of the 14th was a bit of a right off, woke up very late, 12noon, tried to find out where people had gone, but had missed them, but had a fish breakfast anyway, which went down well, went to the square had a coffee at a really cool cafe, best coffee in a while, before going back sleeping more and going out for chicken in the night........mmmmmmmm CHICKEN!

15th Nov - Last day in South America

With a late flight to NZ this evening i didn't really want to do much today. We went to watch changing of the gaurds at the palace which actually was pretty cool, the army band playing pop songs as well, which was strange. The rest of the day literally consisted of eating, more walking around Santiago and generally drinking alot of coffee.

I have had an AMAZING time in South America and definatly want to come back someday, maybe with someone special as i do get that vibe here. Have made amazing friends and will definatly keep in contact with them. The first part of my journey finished and i'm a bit sad, but i'm more excited about my next adventure, bring on NZ, Shine everyday!!!