Well what can I say, last night was certainly entertaining if not irritating but thankfully it was lights out at 10pm and all was silent.

Today I started my journey to Chile

and the Atacama desert- the driest area on earth. The Airport was complete mayhem and even though I had arrived in plenty of time, I made the mistake of not going straight through to the departure lounge and now I was worried that I’d be late for my flight.

It was a shortish flight going east yet I gained 2 hrs on UK time.

Getting through customs was a bit of a nightmare. Everybody’s luggage got searched and when it came to mine she asked me to open all my bags then proceeded to pull everything out then said that’s fine and told me to repack it. I was looking at a disaster zone – did she know how difficult it was to pack it this morning? Hours……hours 😱

It’s getting to be a bit of a routine now: off the plane, collect the rucksack and searching for the pick up driver in the scrum.

The heat was intense and the culture completely different. Sorry Peru but Chile is certainly more affluent, decedent and less chaotic but this didn’t mean I was getting a better service, that was still to be decided.

The word that comes to mind is desolate – nothing, just nothing but desert, rocks and beautiful mountains. What ever season it is, it must be equivalent to our spring because the cacti were all blooming turning the landscape red

We travelled through a wonderful variety of landscapes – scrub, lunar rocks and sand.

After almost 2hrs we arrived at our destination – San Pedro, a township right in the middle of nowhere and it was quaint. 1st impressions was that I loved it.

My hotel reminded me of a hacienda, made from brown bricks and mud – in fact every building in this little settlement was made of brown bricks and mud.

There was a lovely complimentary gift in my room which was soon to be appreciated

I was only here for 5 night and was keen to explore outside the walls and have a look a what expeditions were on offer – unfortunately there were so many to chose from and I had to be ruthless! After booking dinner for 8:15 I headed out beyond the walls to explore the main square.

It was a funny wee collection of dusty alleyways, bars and tour operators – a pretty shiny little needle in a giant dishevelled haystack

There was a towering volcano I wanted to go photograph. It was awesome and dominated the skyline. Unfortunately it was best viewed from the very outskirts and I became aware of the change in atmosphere as I walked alone, I had become too isolated from the busy, protected area I had left far behind so, a quick photo and I headed back in the direction from where I came.

It was getting late and getting ready for dinner was on my to do list so I ticked off my landmarks as I made my way back to the hotel but I was soon distracted by chanting and music coming from the opposite direction and I couldn’t resist a peek.

My guess was that it’s was some kind of demonstration about the events that were affecting Chile at the moment. Ashamed to admit it but I am not politically minded and have no idea what it was all about but I will research it on CNN news later

So, back to change for dinner. In the bathroom was this: a hairdryer – OMG 😍, I was going to be able to blow dry my hair. I’d got used to looking in the mirror at the scruffy reflection but tonight the hair was getting done, a wee bit of mascara and even lipstick – the new me 🤣

I was ready for dinner early so I took my wee glass of bubbles and sat at the table and chairs outside my room and watched the sun set. A very romantic scene for one 🥰

The new me left to cross the courtyard for dinner. Boy it was busy, full of people from all nationalities.

Seated at the table I decided to have a gin aperitif explaining that I wanted tonic instead of Soda. The gin came in an enormous glass – only gin, I couldn’t possibly have drank it straight, I’d never find my way back to my room and I certainly didn’t want to disgrace myself by staggering across the floor. After many desperate attempts at explaining what tonic was, another waiter came to my rescue and brought a can of Britvic tonic. I had to have two but to be honest I should have had 3. Sirloin steak and creamed quinoa was delicious, my aperitif lasted the whole course and even then I took it back to my room hoping I was walking in a straight line.

Straight to bed, trying to focus to send a few text was difficult so I put down my phone and cban’t remember anything else – slightly puggled 🤫

Nite 😴