Haunted by Friday nights experience I had been a little quiet all day yesterday. Ju had been a great support in the night. The episode reminded me of my childhood when I had watched a scary movie called Christine whilst staying at my grandparents. I remember getting upset and feeling sick in the middle of the night as my imagination ran wild. My grandfather had given me some advice that night which has always stuck with me. He told me to count slowly in my head to 100 and to visualise the numbers. German logic. That's exactly what I did as I drifted slowly back to sleep - maths always did bore me. Thanks Grandad.

I was awoken by the sound of our land cruisers engine running in the cold morning air. The sun still absent I slowly stirred and plucked myself from bed to brush my teeth... god it's 4am. Feeling perky but slightly robbed of sleep I was relieved to have made it through the night without any panics! I ventured outside to look at the barren surroundings of the Atacama Desert and the stars in the sky. It was bitterly cold, but this didn't matter as my alpaca hat and gloves kept me warm.

Shortly after 5am with the cruiser loaded and bellies full of pancakes and coca tea we set off on a short journey to the Geysers. The sun was teasing us as it slowly breached the mountain top. We arrived at the prehistoric geysers as the first shafts of sunlight hit the puffing and hissing steam pits. We stepped from our vehicle to be greeted with the foul stench of rotten eggs... sulphur. We walked amongst other tourist to grab a few shots and videos clips. I had warned Ju to stay close knowing she has two left feet - I didn't fancy losing her to a geyser. We watched like children as mud pools gurgled and spat little bits of grey textured clay into the air. We marvelled at natures power. We also marvelled at the fact we were at 5000 meters and feeling fine as we set off for the hot springs.

The second location consisted of a hot spring which had a constant temperature of 30 degrees. Everyone on our tour had expressed an interest in taking a dip. Unfortunately the reality was quiet different from what we had imagined - the hot spring could best be described as human soup. After a few snaps I took delight in watching the two Spanish lads strip the female tourists with their eyes as they pretended to take snaps of the mountains. Dry but cold we headed to our final destination the frontier with Chile. There was one last stop along the way to a small green lagoon. The lake was crystal clear and the sky blue with wispy clouds touching the mountain. I felt privileged to be stood witnessing this beautiful land. And without fail in these moments my thoughts always turn to Karl.

The Bolivian border was to be a chore. We waited for our bus like refugees huddled from the cold wind behind an adobe wall. The landscape barren and harsh we were kept entertained by a rouge fox scavenging for food and a overly enthusiastic kiwi with his high pitched accent trying to get a good photo. We eventually boarded the bus to Chile and descended to San Pedro. Slipping in and out of sleep we arrived at the border control in San Pedro. The three hour wait in the blazing sun was to try our very British resolve. I was feeling particularly hot as I still had my thermals on. I stripped a few base layers only to realise I had my thermal leggings on as well - no problem off with my trousers and down to my pants. I didn't care. After successfully passing the border we were unfortunately meet with the reality that there was no accommodation left in San Pedro. We quickly made the decision to get a bus to Calama. We had read in the guide that this was a dirty mining town.... great.

After buying a £3.50 bus ticket and a 1 hour bus ride we arrived in Calama at 6pm... exhausted. You can't believe everything you read as I found the town to be clean and quite modern by the standards of the last three weeks. We ended up staying in a cheap hotel, basic but functional. We bought some bus tickets to La Serena leaving Sunday at 2pm and arriving at 9am Monday morning! Feeling contented with our snap decisions and a happy outcome we grabbed some grub before heading back to the hostel to watch some tv... then absolutely shattered we fell asleep by 10pm.