Charlotte showed her renowned poor tolerance for alcohol last night. I suppose it was my fault for suggesting the mojito in the first place, especially knowing they were served in half litre measures! It wasn’t long before the eyes were glazed, and the mood was fluctuating from manic laughter to sorrow. And that was just half way through the first one! And when she ordered another I began to fear the worst. Luckily, a three course meal seemed to help her along, but obviously I had to drink most of the second one! We were in a fantastic little restaurant, eating the three course £7 meal including a huge steak! The reason we were there was to meet our lovely Danish friends. This was where they’d instructed us to meet them. For some unknown reason, they were sat in another restaurant waiting for us!!! How did that confusion happen???! So with no wifi or other form of communication we never got to see them! Very sad! They thought we’d stood them up, and we thought they’d stood us up! All I can say is that we were in the right place….. Anyway, Laura and Anne, if you’re reading this –
Hi Ladies! beklager vi savnede dig i går aftes! meget trist! håber du har en strålende tur, og du er velkommen til at komme og bo hos os helst, du ønsker !! masser af kærlighed! Paul and Charlotte xxx
(Danish, another one of my many languages)
We’d earlier had a lazy day pottering about San Pedro which is a beautiful little town. Very touristy, but really nice. Charlotte instinctively sniffed out a jewellery shop where the owners were busy making the trinkets. Obviously she found a ring that she simply HAD to have. I thought we’d got away with it when it didn’t quite fit, but the owner very kindly (damn you!) offered to change its size overnight! So now we have a new ring, and instead of budgeting our way round the world spending only on necessities such as beer and cigs, we’re frivolously scattering our cash over Chilean peasants…..
Late afternoon saw us on a tour to Moon Valley and The Valley of Death. This was only a half hour drive away, but as the name implies, could have been on another planet. Absolutely incredible landscapes, and the climb up the sand dune was impressive. We were able to watch the sunset and the resulting spectacular colours over the mountains. Very beautiful indeed. The tour was a great success despite the incompetence of the tour guide. He was the spitting image of Dick Dasterdly, and my suspicion was that this was his last day in the job. If not, it should have been. A very nice guy, but not accustomed to dealing with people, which in this line of work is a bit of a setback. Never mind. He also seemed to have a strange inability to count judging by the amount of times the coach set off from one location to another without actually having all the passengers on board…..
Today saw Charlotte rise very surprisingly without a hangover! I was despatched to the laundry to collect our clean things, and then it was packing time to check out of the hostel. We had a whole day to kill before our night bus, so more pottering ensued. The North Face shop proved irresistible, and obviously there was a t shirt in there that I couldn’t possibly travel any further without! We stopped for a coffee at a lovely cafe in the square, which then somehow just eased its way into a 3 course lunch with a couple of litres of beer….. How does this keep happening???!! We were joined at our table by a German guy, Ande, who was my age and spoke excellent English. It turned out that he was a comedian, but not just any comedian, one of Germany’s favourite comedians, who with his partner (in business only!) Lars had been performing for 20 years! They perform as Mundstuhl, so Google them! We had a great chat for a couple of hours about travelling and music and the ways of the world. Ande was like a German version of me, who’s priorities on arriving at a new town were to find where to buy cigarettes and beer! Ande, it was a real pleasure to meet you, and I love “We Germans”!! Happy travelling!
So now we’re just hanging around the hostel for another hour or so, lazing in the sun and sipping at a Kunstmann Bock Negra, before our 15hr bus journey, to the coast! La Serena, the world centre for star gazing! We can’t wait to be by the sea and on the beach again!! I think I’ll even start running again tomorrow! Tally Ho!!!

Charlotte’s fruit flavoured Massive Mojitos

I was very surprised to find that The Rolling Stones were also in the Atacama desert! Good job I was wearing my Stones T shirt!!

Licancabur volcano

Me on the peak, proving my fear of heights has gone!

Beautifully sculptured sand dune

The Atacama desert

Us. Me keeping my mouth closed having forgotten to put my tooth in…

Beautiful sunset

Beautiful Charlotte. Note how I’ve very cleverly got the sunset in her glasses which wasn’t accidental at all. Honest….

Nice sky. No photoshop.

Not only The Rolling Stones, but Pink Floyd here too!! Must get my Floyd T shirt out!

Cigarettes of the day! They start smoking as normal flavour, then if you click the green button it goes menthol, and if you click the yellow button it goes lemon grass flavour! Magnificent!!!