San Pedro de Atacama

As soon as we hit the roads in Chile we realised that at last we had made it to a 1st world country (road markings and signs and everything! including tarmac!) Got stopped at the border and had our bags searched for food and our shoes decontaminated for foot and mouth!

Turned up at this tourist town in the desert. Tried to book a bus out the next day to head straight to Argentina only to be told we couldn´t go for another 4 days. Oh well we spent 4 days eating the best food we have had for 6 weeks. Although the place is so much more expensive than Bolivia the food turned up on beautiful white plates ´drizzled´ with various sauces complimented with napkins and proper cutlery, such a change from the usual restaurant standard. The other noticable thing about changing countries from Bolivia to Chile is that the toilets come with toilet paper and flush!! In the evenings the restaurants have massive fires to heat the places so all our clothes now smell of smoke. It was lovely though.

Whilst we were there in the desert we hired bikes and with sandboards attached to our backs road into the Death Valley to go sandboarding. We were a tad disappointed though as the sand is so damn rough, you have to wax the board at the start of each run and as soon as the wax rubs off (which was approximately 5m down the slope!) the board grinds to a halt and you fall over! The only way to do it is point straight down the slope, don´t turn and go as far as you can till the wax has gone, then hope you go a bit further with the momentum you have built up. Also obviously there are no lifts so you have to walk up the massive sand hills each time - knackering. Wicked scenery but all in all I`d rather be snowboarding.

We went swimming and sunbathing in the local 'oasis'. This was an hours walk away in the desert sun to the local camping ground where they had a swimming pool. In usual South American stylee it was built in the 60s and we lay on cobbled stones round a pool that was chipped and cracked. Rach got burnt and I got a funny tummy from the water (I did however drink beer round a pool so for a moment it felt like a bit of a european holiday)

Went back, ate and drank then ate and drank some more till friday´s bus - we don`t really have many responsibilities here!