As you might be able to tell, the amount I have been drinking and lack of sleep has started to have an affect on my writing.

Last night I got rather drunk, was drinking a lot of bottles of this beer called 'Bock', it was 7% and was cheap, plus it tasted a million times better than the other shit I have been drinking. I was told a little bit too late about happy hour but still made the most of the ten minutes I had left of it to get two massive gin & tonics. I met some French bloke and paired up with him for a game of pool, we lost! I got so drunk I don't have a clear memory of what happened next, it isn't anything bad or embarrassing, just that I can't remember the full ins and outs of what I got up to. From what I know, the bar closed at 01.00, met some people from this hostel and the other one, went back to the other hostel because the bar there closed at 02.00, afterwards some of us went to a club, don't have a clue what it was called or where it was but I'm told it was called Blue. It was somebody's birthday (again) so we all got very drunk (again). I have no idea what time I left the place but I woke up in bed and very drunk and tired. I woke up early, had breakfast, then went back to sleep, woke up, had some lunch, then went back to sleep. Woke up again and went out for a walk to get some cash out and pay somebody back because he loaned me $100 Bolivianos.

Both of the hostels had large courtyards, this one has an enclosed courtyard that is the hostels designated quiet zone, it is a large open plan area with bean bags all over the floor, I can picture myself relaxing with a book or on my laptop one morning, afternoon or evening. The hostel is actually quite a beautiful building, from the outside its quite plain, in fact its very plain but from the inside its a whole different story. It has velvet drapes at each of the doorways, a long bar with a no-smoking zone (yippee), all in all its a very elaborate place, a good blend of modern and classical. Talking about classical, for some reason there is a painting of Mozart and Beethoven on some windows, no idea why and they look quite scary but what they hey, why not. The bar is much more spacious in comparison to the last place, it is easy to just sit at the bar and read or drink or talk or whatever one does when sitting at a bar.

After the film finished I left to go to my new hostel, literally round the corner on the same block. I really needed the change of scenery, not that I wasn't enjoying the old place, it was just too loud and smoky. The new place is a nicer looking hostel, I have a nicer room on the ground floor, no more walking up several sets of stairs and crouching through a really crap design of a stairway. I haven't been in my room too much though, I arrived, put my things away and went to the bar, not to drink but relax and take it easy, catch up with some writing and send some emails. I have been in the same place for about four hours now, I have had dinner, a few beers and been online all the time, even though the internet is really slow, so slow that it is sometimes more stressful to be on than off it.

It was my last day at the hostel, I just took it easy, waited till it was time to check out, checked out, paid my bill, left my luggage in storage, went off back upstairs and ended up watching probably the worst film I have ever seen, it made the Lost in Space remake (previously the worst film I had ever seen) look amazing. It was some really bad remake of Street Fighter, but the story had nothing to do with the original film or the game, even worse it had really bad acting and just looked awful. It had Lana Lang from Smallville, the bloke who plays Oz in American Pie, I think his name is something Kline. It was so bad, I could go on and on about how bad it was but it would be tedious and I myself am to blame for actually watching it, all I might add.

For some reason I have been really tired, I wont put it down to the drinking as I do that a fair amount and am used to it, I'm going to blame the altitude once again. Last night I didn't go out, just spent the night in the hostel bar, played winner stays on at pool and even though I'm really crap I managed to win every game I played. Got a bit bored and went to watch snatch in the TV room, once I watched that I got back to the pool table, one some more games, drunk some more beer. I chose to mix it up a little, the local brew Paceña is really horrible and started to make me feel a little shit so I had mojitos, they were two for a $28 Bolivianos and were full of alcohol so were really cheap and very slightly nicer than the beer. Don't know how many I had, they weren't too good but this one in particular was terrible, it was so bad and tasted so weird that it made me feel even worse and break into a sweat, I was not going to drink that one for sure. I had some more, ended up with some more beer then started drifting off after studying the Premier League table and hoping that Arsenal manage to pull it off and win this season, that would be something I would use an excuse to have a massive night out. I went to bed, possibly missed out on a good night out, I don't really care, I got a good nights sleep and felt good in the morning where as most others looked and felt like shit.

When I got back to the hostel I was pooped, I don't think I have ever felt so tired, the hills and altitude really do take it out of you. I'm definitely going to adjust to the altitude before I even consider tackling the death ride, along 'the most dangerous road in the world'. I want to venture into the jungle for a bit, I would love to see what it is like the landscape would be so different to what I experienced in Chile and so far in Bolivia. I would also like to check out Lake Titicaca, don't know yet if just a day trip or stay for a few days. I would love to do the salt flat tours but I don't think I can be bothered to go back on myself again. We'll see though, I'll be in La Paz for another week so I have plenty of time to decide.

After the wasted journey to the cinema and to check out the embassies we went back to the hostel but took a wrong turn because we were so distracted by a bridge that we crossed it even though we had no idea where it actually led. It didn't lead anywhere we wanted to be, in fact the opposite, it took us on a long route to the middle of nowhere, into what looked like the slums of La Paz. It didn't feel unsafe in any way but just had really run down shacks, roads and paths and the altogether appearance wasn't that great. At least it was high up in the valley and we had an amazing panoramic view of the city.
We wondered a while and still couldn't get our bearings, just went round in circles, went back to the main road and then realised exactly where we were and how we were going to get back to the hostel. The walk we had done was pretty much end to end of the city, from the widest points, it took most of the afternoon but I managed to see most of the city, even parts I would never feel the need to venture to.

It was a Sunday so I thought there wouldn't be too much going on but I was wrong, outside it was just like any other day, the streets were full of cars, people were walking everywhere and most of the shops seemed to be open. I went on a mission to find a cash machine to get some money but I ended up walking around for I don't know, at least half an hour before I found any banks. I was so tired when I got back to the hostel, even the slightest uphill gradient is like climbing a hill here, the altitude really does take it out of you. I quite fancied watching Alice in Wonderland, as I was supposed to go and see it in Santiago but there was a black out. There were two main cinemas in La Paz and somebody else staying here wanted to go and see it too so she asked at the reception and they told her what cinema shows films in English. It was right at the other side of town but went for a walk there anyway. On the way we passed a cinema on the main road and hoped that it had it in English, unfortunately not. We walked right to the edge of the city to get to the other cinema, but there was another attraction for us to see at the end of the city, the British and American embassies were there. We had a guess as to what they would look like and what would be bigger and better. We got to the cinema, no such luck, they only show the film in English in Friday and Saturday, today was Sunday so that information was of no use to us, just a big annoyance as we had walked all the way and worked up a little excitement about it.
Never mind, we still had the embassies to look forward to in my mind I had a vision that the British embassy would be like a grand Palatial building, it was not, in fact far from, it looked like the kind of house you would see by the beach in some town or city for the rich and famous, it definitely didn't have the look of an embassy. It was first in line so we still had the American one to get to yet. It was right next door though so not far to walk. It was the most preposterous building I have ever seen, why did the American embassy have to be some massive tower? What need was there to have such a big show of American authority in Bolivia? What was their relationship to warrant this?

The night was to be a big one, Dave had met up with his mates, I had some people to hang around with, met a lot more at the hostel who were also up for a big night. I think we all must have started drinking around 14.00, and it went on till gone midnight. After all the drinking we got in a cab and headed for a bar/club. The club was a strange affair, it was under a residential building and we were escorted in through metal shutters. When we got inside it was quite a small bar with a DJ playing pretty crap music there was an area up a small set of stairs that was made to look like the cabin of an aeroplane, to be honest in my opinion I thought it was a little tacky. We must have sat in the same place all night, just alternating our seating positions like a game of musical chairs. Randomly checking my watch I could see the time was going by, it was about 4 in the morning in no time, then next time I had a look it had already become about 7, then finally it was about 9 when we were escorted out of the place and got a taxi back to the hostel, I couldn't sleep a single bit so got up and had some breakfast, went for a walk to pick up my laundry, went back to bed but just ended up rolling around for a few hours. I was so tired and felt like absolute shit but I got on with the day, can't remember exactly what I did or got done but I managed to get about two hours sleep in the evening. I really wasn't feeling up for going out that night so I went to bed and once again found it awfully hard to try and sleep because I had some really bad chest pain, I think because the club and the bar at the hostel are really smoky and coming from England where it is illegal to smoke inside I wasn't used to it any more. Finally after a few paracetamols I managed to get rid of the chest pain and went to sleep, woke up about ten the next morning and felt so revived, like I could conquer a mountain, well not quite but I felt good.

In the morning Dave went off to meet some of his mates at another hostel, they were supposed to have a booking but the hostel was so full that they had been put on a waiting list. When we got there there were nowhere to be seen, they had left there bags and gone out for a coffee. We decided to book ourselves into another hostel that had space and then went off to find the boys to see if they were up for it too. Dave managed to contact them via facebook via WIFI on his iphone. I had an espresso , it tasted a little watered down but after all it was only a single and I have heard that coffee is shit even though most of it comes from around here. It was sorted, we were staying at a hostel called 'Wild Rover' for three nights, it had a bar and served tasty food so sounded great, it was a very lively hostel, reminding me a little of the one I was at in Santiago apart from this one being really busy and loud every single night without fail and it always seems to be somebody's birthday here.

I had no place to stay and neither did the Australian bloke, David, he was supposed to be meeting friends a hostel called Loki the next day so we tried to see if they had any space left but they were completely fully booked until Monday, it was now Friday. I had read about a hostel near the main bus station that had a micro brewery in it, so it almost guaranteed good beer on tap. We walked there and it was quite literally a minute away from the bus station. Little did we know that the hostel was split into two, they were only about five hundred metres apart but we went to the wrong one, well, not wrong just one that was supposedly fully booked for the night. It was the right address for the micro brewery but we were now staying elsewhere. I was parched, so was Dave so we dropped our stuff off and went straight to the bar, claimed our free beer that you get for staying at the hostel and sat down and relaxed in the knowledge that we had a place to stay and a near unlimited supply of beer. We ended up staying for ages and getting quite drunk indeed, met some random people, somehow Dave met some people he knew from back home. I was given a challenge to carry a keg of beer up about five floors, I jumped at the chance because it meant a free pint. In hindsight I really shouldn't have done it because I had just arrived in the country and had in no way adjusted to the altitude yet. All I can say is that I got very drunk but had a relatively early night, didn't sleep as I found it a real hardship to breathe properly. I finally managed to get some sleep, about all of two hours.

On the way to La Paz we passed lots of small run down villages and huts, they were all full of people, the passing cars and lorries were rammed full of people and it seemed like a very busy place. I could see La Paz in the distance, it looked unbelievable, a big city in the middle of a valley, it was quite literally like a city built in an upside down bowl, with houses going right up the edges. La Paz itself is the highest city in the world, ranging from 3200m to about 3700m depending on where you are in the city. It looked very cool indeed, something I had never seen before and didn't have anything remotely close to compare it to.

First impressions of Bolivia is that it is much greener, much more water and farms than in Chile and more colourful, the indigenous women wear bright pink and purple ponchos with brightly coloured bags and all sorts. Its a big contrast to Chile where its just plainly and dull coloured everywhere. I liked what I was seeing and already had a good feeling that Bolivia was going to be a fun place, and ridiculously cheap.

The bus took bloody ages, I managed to finish reading my book finally, and got a good enough nights sleep to feel revived the next day. I met a couple of English people and an Australian bloke at the bus station, they were on my bus to La Paz. The border crossing to get into Bolivia was awful, the actual passport control was about 4660m above sea level, as soon as I stepped off the bus I felt really light headed and a bit whoozy. I had a problem there because I had lost my form that I was given when I got into Chile, I managed to get a new one after a little while, I got all stamped up and was sent on my way onto the bus and into Bolivia.

I was actually supposed to stay in Arica and meet up with Dries but I was fed up with Chile and the desert that I got a bus straight to Bolivia.

I had no idea that it would take the whole day waiting in the unforgiving sun, we must have been there from about 14.00 until about 22.30 when we decided to call it a night and find some place to sleep. There wasn't much about, mostly dirt on the side of the road or maybe the beach but from our experience in Los Vilos we weren't really up for risking it again. We finally found a nice soft patch away near the town but far away enough not to be disturbed, it was once a fast flowing river but now it was just a dried up old river bed with a nice soft sandy base and not too many stones in the way. The sleep was good and we got up early to try and get our ride north. We weren't to know but ended up waiting nearly half the day, by about 13.00 I got fed up and cut my losses, went back into town and got a bus all the way to Arica, my stop off location on the way to La Paz. I split from Dries and was now on my own, he went on his way north and on to Cuzco, Peru and I was off to Arica. I got a night bus so I could have a nights sleep on the bus saving me having to find a place to stay.

The plan to head north was put into action, we hitched a ride into Chañaral, got some stuff from the supermarket and then headed for the open road.

Today I have done how can I say it... nothing. Just thinking of what to do next, whether or not to stay another night or just head north as quick as possible. Whatever the case we have to wait because the person who owns the hut has gone out to Chañaral for a bit, he said he would be back soon but he's been gone a couple of hours now, so we are just sitting and waiting for him to say thankyou and goodbye. Most probably we will head north, at least as far as we can get in one day, hopefully as far as Antofogasta.

Last night we had a barbecue on a make shift barbie made out of an old lorry hub and held up by rocks from the beach, with a huge heavy grill across the top. Dries had some tortilla wraps so we decided to make some meat and veg wraps for dinner. We were driven to Chañaral to go to the local supermarket to buy some meat, we ended up with about a kilogram of fillet steak and four chicken thighs. The supermarket, don't know why it was called that as it was tiny and had barely anything like vegetable meaning we had to go and find a green grocers to get some tomatoes and avocados, and some aji verde, green chilli. I was the designated chef for the night so the duties of cooking and preparing all the food was left to me, I was glad I got a chance to cook for people again but the circumstances weren't great. For a start it was pitch black with only torches and candlelight to see what I was doing. There was no chopping board so I had to use my hands and a cooking pot. There were dogs trying to get at the food the whole time, they were being real pests and starting to get on my nerves so bad that I was close to smacking them. In fact one of the dogs when my back was turned took half a steak from where I was preparing the food then acted all innocent as if I hadn't seen a thing but I knew it was him, I saw him do it, the same dog later on stole a bun so in a way had made itself a steak sandwich. I cut up the avocado into a paste, ready to spread on the tortillas, I didn't realise how many people were eating so didn't get any where near enough. Then I cut the tomatoes up and chopped the aji and put them in a pot ready for serving. Then I put the chicken on the barbie first as it had just defrosted and would take a lot longer to cook than the beef, it did, it took nearly an hour for the chicken to be ready to eat. When the chicken was nearly done I cut up the steaks into small bite size chunks and put some of them on the barbie. The food now pretty much ready it was time for people to tuck in, it tasted amazing but I had to wait ages for mine as I was still preparing some food, by the time I got to dish up the cooked meat had been eaten so I had to put some more on and all that was left was the chicken so I had to settle with a chicken wrap, was nice though, the aji was a little spicier than I expected so was pleasantly surprised. After about an hour more of drinking beer and cooking I was done, all the food had either been eaten or was on the barbie cooking, I could now rest and eat for myself. The night ended in a sort of party, the host, some of his friends and Dries and myself with lots of beer and good food and music supplied by my ipod and the hosts car speakers.

The person who picked us up had to drop his mother off in a town called Chañaral, it was the town in which he had grown up, but he now lived in Copiapo, his mother was visiting some friends. He was heading to a place nearby called Porto Fino, a small village of summer huts on the beach, he was off to body board for a couple of days, some time off work to relax and enjoy himself. He just casually invited us along with him and said we could stay at his beach house for a couple of nights, its on the way to where we want to go and its free accommodation, I'm certainly not complaining. In the village there must only be about thirty houses maximum, most of which are just quick wooden fabrication, his he says is his surf hut, he comes here with his friends to chill out and catch some waves. The hut itself is quite cool, outside looks like a standard wooden shack, inside looks like a tool shed but with sofas and tables and chairs, it has a roof terrace and another room at the top. It is any child's dream, the ideal little house that you dream of having when you are a child. It was hand made by the owner and his mate, he was explaining that you don't even need to purchase the land, just find a patch and make a house and its yours. After staying in the hut a night I have begun to see the positives and negatives, well maybe more negatives but I did get a good nights sleep on a fold out mattress. The hut looks very hand made, the edges don't seem to join up properly the windows don't align with the frames, there are gaps everywhere, even though some have been covered by perspex or other plastic sheets. It really doesn't look or feel secure but I have been assured it is and after having lunch on the roof it does sort of feel okay, just the look fills me with doubt. By the way the hut has no water or electricity so its very basic indeed, basically in my mind it was like sleeping in a big tent that we didn't have to pitch, clean or put away afterwards.

As we were in the middle of the city we didn't have too far to walk till we got to the city limits where we could try and hitch hike north. We passed a police man and asked him if he knew of any good places to hitch a ride from, he said no but there was a gas station less than 2km away, we hurried on and left towards it. We must have been walking about twenty minutes from the centre till we got picked up, all we were doing was occasionally putting out thumbs our when cars were approaching until we got to the gas station. We got picked up short of the gas station which was excellent knew for us, not only did we not have to wait, we didn't even have to walk very far, and the sun was stuck behind thick clouds so it hadn't had a chance to get too hot yet even though it was passed midday now.

We packed our stuff and left our accommodation behind, on the way out there was nobody to pay so we just left the key and walked out, a great result, we got comfortable beds, a nice hot shower and a TV all for free, it shouldn't have been free but there wasn't anyone to chase up the bill from us so it was.

A new plan had been thought of, Dries was going to go straight to Peru and I was to go straight to Bolivia, we would both get as far as we could along the panamerican until Arica, the northern most city in Chile, then part ways, he would continue to hitch hike to Cuzco, Peru where he was meeting a friend and I decided I was going to get a bus to La Paz, Bolivia.

Our plan was now to make our way to Laguna Verde going past a national park and some salt flats. I was having some good dreams that I didn't really want to leave so I stayed asleep and Dries went off to the Conaf offices, something to do with all the national parks in Chile, to find out about the conditions we might encounter and if we would have any problems with drinking water. When he returned a little while later the news wasn't good, our plans had been shot to pieced by a few small numbers, we were not in anyway prepared for it. For a start we would be hitch hiking there and the only traffic going to and from there are tourists and the holiday season is pretty much over now. Another reason is that it is the middle of the Atacama desert, during the day the sun is very hot, the temperature is far too hot to handle without any shade, and at night it gets below freezing to around -5/10ºC, far too cold for either of us, our sleeping bags can handle just below freezing but that's with suitable clothing, which we didn't have. The main reason for not being able to go is probably the fact that nowhere from the next town on all the way to Argentina has drinking water, we had about eight litres between us which could last about two days if used sparingly but we had no guarantee how long we would actually be out there for. We both reluctantly agreed that the only answer to this was no, we couldn't go no matter how much we both wanted to there was no way, it wasn't worth risking our lives for just the tranquillity and the view.

All showered and cleaned I went for a leisurely stroll around Copiapo, to be quite honest there wasn't anything going on, some shops were open, some restaurants were opening up, most of the city was shut down for the day as it was a Sunday. The main square on the other hand, Plaza Prat, had free a WIFI connection. I took this as an excuse to go there and sit in the shade, sheltered from the blistering heat around to the relative cool and damp main square, it was luscious and green but only because it received daily watering, it had huge palm trees and plenty of benches, it even had its own artisan market that was opening up on the opposite side. In the middle of the square there were lots of children on skateboards and around them were some religious fanatics trying to convert them and everyone else to their religion whatever it may have been, probably Catholic or Mormon. They were chanting things and singing, even walking around and forcing their flyers into peoples hands, nobody else seemed to give them any attention though. I had bumped into Dries at the square, he had gone for a walk earlier on and when I went to the square in saw him sitting on a grass patch. Hunger began to take a firm grasp of my belly so we went to the supermarket on the way back to where we were saying, I can't say hotel, hostel or guest house because it was neither, it was more like a motel but I don't know. Earlier on in the day we had got some food but then found out that we weren't allowed too use the kitchen for cooking, only for making tea, which meant we were left with the options to eat out, too pricey or too get food that we didn't need to cook. I had some bread, some tomatoes and some ham, I had avocado but couldn't be bothered to cut it up and prepare it as I had already had some at lunch. I was in the mood for not doing much at all so after I ate I just went and sat on my bed and used the internet, did a little reading and writing and watched TV. Dries went for a walk but came back pretty soon as there was not a single thing to do and nobody about. By this time the Beattles film 'help' was on TV, we watched some of it but I was really tired and just fell asleep about half an hour into it, in the frame of mind I was in I couldn't handle the chaos in the film so closed my eyes and went to sleep.

Once again we had to bloody walk, I know I'm moaning all the time, hitch hiking does have its benefits, for a start its free, not knowing when and where and what your lift will be is always fun, its just the walking is a bit of a pain, especially in Chile where its stupendously hot and really sunny, with not much shade. We walked to the centre of town, sat in the Plaza Prat and considered our options, it was a Sunday, the tourist information was closed, the Conaf office was closed, everything was closed, there is nothing going on at all, apart from some shops, bars and restaurants being open there is nothing. I had a look in my guide for accommodation, found somewhere that sounded cheap so we went off to find it. When we got there it was what expected but the price wasn't my guide said it was about $13 US for a double room, it was more like $20 US, I didn't care paying it though, I need a bed and a shower and to relax a bit before we venture off into the arid desert to Laguna Verde. The guest house seems relatively good, comfortable bed, adequate sized room, a TV with shit channels and showers, I can finally be clean, I can the layers of dirt building up on my arms and legs and can detect a slight pong coming from under my arms. I will definitely make the most of a warm shower and be in there till I feel like a new man.

We didn't even have to wait, a truck leaving the gas station signalled at us to get in, I went in, he said he was going all the way to Copiapo so we got in and went on the ride. The journey was a long one and particularly uncomfortable for me because I was sitting on the bit between the seats, its a raised platform covering the engine below, it was relatively soft foam/rubber but it was small and I had near to no leg room so was trying to get comfortable constantly moving around the whole journey. The driver was a nice guy, quite young but had a couple of kids, he didn't like much music, some hip hop but mostly local Chilean music, he didn't like football, he didn't seem to like anything really. He showed us some of his music and I think there must have only been about six or seven songs on repeat, I didn't know it was repeated as all that sort of music I have heard sounds the same anyway, I am not a fan, I'm not saying its rubbish just that I personally think it is. Somehow when we got to Copiapo he managed to miss the turn off so we drove on another 10km or so incase there were more but none appeared after the km went by. He stopped and turned a lorry around on a two lane highway, one lane for each direction of traffic I mean, well done I have to say, it looked quite difficult to me but he managed to do it with ease. He drove back towards the junction, took it and then dropped us off on the outskirts of town, he had to drop the truck off at some workshop or something. We were left on out own and had to find a place to camp, we found a perfect location, not too far from the road but far enough so the lights and noise didn't bother us and it wasn't fenced off, too good too be true, just as I had got my tent bag down we were surrounded by what could have been wild savage dogs. They weren't but were bloody annoying following us and barking all the time. We left but went back to a spot a little to the side, it was good, soft ground, the pegs went in easily and stayed in, was a very comfortable nights sleep especially with my new mat. In the morning I realised it was so soft because the ground was made up from chalk, it must be a chalk hill or something, it looked like sand but was much finer and got everywhere, lucky there was no wind or rain or anything otherwise it would have been quite a different story.

We were still in Vicuña and somehow needed to get to Copiapo as soon as possible, we needed to check out a few things at the tourist information office and go to the Conaf office, its the main place to find out information about the regions parks, lakes and volcanoes. We managed to get a ride from near the bridge into Vicuña to a little bit away from there, there was a junction on the main road from La Serena to Pisco Elqui, we waited by a bus stop in the shade for about two and a half hours, the longest I have had to wait for a single ride in my short hitch hiking career so far. Finally a car stopped very unexpectedly, we weren't even sure if he had stopped for us, Dries had my ipod on so was in different world and I had to alert him that a car was waiting for us and was beeping to alert us of it stopping for us. We got in and found out he was going all the way to La Serena and would be able to drop us off in the centre, more walking, I'm really getting fed up with it now but it can be fun sometimes. I have to add that the person who gave us the lift from near Vicuña to La Serena was the first Piñera supporter, Piñera is the new Chilean presiident and is the first right wing leader or that country for about twenty five years or something, the reason I mention this is because everybody we have met so far are opposed to Piñera quite a lot.
Not knowing where we were in La Serena we just followed the panamerican north until we got to a Copec gas station, the walk was about an hour and a half so not too short but we got there, topped up on some drinking water and I bought some more crisps. We chose to go and wait at the exit of the gas station and hope a car or something would stop and pick us up and maybe take us all the way to Copiapo.

Got back to our chosen camp ground quite late, we found our bags, pitched our tents and went to sleep, the ground was a lot more comfy and I now had a sleeping mat so was in heaven compared to how I had been before. The next morning I slept in, in camping terms after the sun has come out and mad the tent into a green house. Dries had to go to the hospital again to have a check up, I needed to get some shopping done so we split up to meet up in the square. I really wanted to have a shower and knew of a free public shower at the Copec gas station but unfortunately it was closed, there was a sign on the door saying malo, broken. My personal hygiene has gone down hill quite a bit whilst I've been camping, the floor is always dirty or dusty, my clothes are rarely getting washed and I seldom have a chance to have a proper wash or shower, at least I find the time to brush my teeth as often as possible. I have to resort to recycling my clothes in some cases, wearing the least dirty out of all the dirty clothes or just wearing the same ones for long periods of time.
After pondering what to do about cleaning I went off to do some shopping, but the essential, tins of fish, bread and papaya marmalade, very nice indeed, very sweet and fruity. I waited for Dries in the square, giving me some free time to read my book, I actually managed to read over a hundred pages in the last couple of days, very impressive by my normal standards, this rate I should be finished in no time at all.

I have never felt like such a tourist as when I did when we walked into the office of the observatory and it was full of people, some Chilean, some German and us! We paid and then shortly after set off on our minibus ride up the hills and to the observatory, the bus was full and the ride up the hill was a very slow and bumpy one. Once we got to near the top the driver had to dip his lights and the road from here on in was illuminated by red and blue lights on the side of the road, presumably not to disturb the observatory so they can see all the sky without the slightest bit of light pollution. At the destination all you could hear was a mix of Spanish, German and American, a few English arrived a bit later on. We were in the English group, meaning the tour was most probably going to be taken by somebody with broken English, being unable to explain certain things and answer some questions. All the English speakers were escorted away from the main observatory building towards the actual telescope dome, nobody knew what was going on, the main building had a big auditorium where the 'lesson' was taking place but that was for the Spanish speakers. In the ground floor of the dome, there was a projector and a computer set up with all these slides and power-point presentations to show us, also a website called sollerium or something along those lines, it was a free downloadable programme that had the nights sky and stars and pretty much had a map of the whole solar system as we know it, it looked quite good, a fun tool to have and I will definitely be downloading it next time I get access to the internet. The person taking the tour seemed like a fun loving bloke, he made some jokes but in broken English with a very strong Spanish accent and a slightly monotone voice nobody understood. Some of the photographs though, there was one taken by the Hubble space telescope of what had been called 'the pillars of life' it was a nebula in some other galaxy but it was breathtaking, it looked unreal, he explained that they are just mixtures of gases or different elements for example gold, hydrogen and oxygen but they produced the most beautiful of shapes and colours. There were more nebulas and planets and stars, he explained the constellation and later on showed us a coupled, the main one being Orion, with his sword, belt and arrow/shield depending who you talk to. Up in the top of the dome was a telescope, far smaller than I had expected, in fact it was so small it looked almost like the sort that you can buy in a science shop, I was told it cost about $20,000 US. He set it up to look at Saturn, I had never actually seen a planet before so was quite excited about the chance. He did previously explain that what we see would appear black and white as our eyes cannot pick up Infra Red or other sorts of light, only a small amount in the whole spectrum of light itself. Saturn didn't seem real, it either looked as though it had been drawn on by pencil or was just a slide but it was definitely real, I'm more than positive of that. It has to be said the whole experience of seeing a planet through a telescope was a bit of an anti climax, I had expected so much more and in a way had been let down a little. We were all led outside now to a couple of bigger telescopes but far more basic and fully manual so had to be focused and pointed by somebody with a skilled eye, the guide said he was going to show us a few different stars form different constellations and other stars in the sky. Firstly he started with the bottom star in the sword on the Orion constellation, from the naked eye it looked like a single star but up close with the telescope it was a series of four in the shape of a trapezium, not too impressive yet, still more to come hopefully. He showed a few more not so impressive stars, then he showed us one of a single star but when viewed through the telescope, there were far more than four stars, more than one million I am told, it is one of the largest in the nearby galaxy. It was mad, looking from the ground it clearly looked like a single star but in the telescope it was a blur there were that many stars, it is believed that the stars span some six hundred light years. To put this into perspective, our planetary system has eight light days from the Sun to the asteroid field past Pluto, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is five light minutes, meaning it takes five minutes for the light from the Sun to reach the Earth. I found the whole experience to be very informative, if not a little short and maybe a little overpriced for what you actually get but it was a lot cheaper than some who came from La Serena and that costed $15,000 pesos.

The next morning we headed out to try and get all the way to Copiapo, about 800km north, it was a very difficult task, not sure if it would be possible by hitch hiking but we gave it a go. We had to walk about 12km until we got picked up, we had walked through Pisco Eqlui, the next town on MonteGrande and were on the outskirts of the next town when we noticed a big patch of shade, being so tired from walking for long, so far and with our bags we just sat down and waited, neither of us knew how close or far to the next town we were. When we finally got picked up we weren't far at all, maybe another ten minute walk, it was literally around the corner from where we were sitting. This person was going all the way to Vicuña, that would do, when we got there it was quite early, too late to try and get to Copiapo but early enough to do things, and maybe check out the observatory. I liked the idea of going to an observatory and been given a very brief description of the universe and get a chance to look at planets and stars, I wasn't jumping up and down about doing it, just that it would be very interesting and it was $5000 pesos including a mini bus ride there and back. The idea of walking there was completely out of the question giving how much we had already walked today. Dries had to go to the hospital to sort some infection out, it wasn't anything serious, it was just giving him a little discomfort, he went there, I went to book the observatory tour and desperately look for a sleeping mat, or at least something I could use to make camping more comfortable. I managed to track one down, it was a little thin but was cheap and was the last one left, it some slight imperfections so the shop manager took some more money off and I ended up paying only £2 for it, £2 well spent if you ask me as it would greatly increase the ability of me being able to sleep. When I got to the hospital Dries was all done, all he needed to do now was get some antibiotics and complete the series as instructed and all his problems would just go away. We went off to look for somewhere to camp, not the sewage works again, even though it was very soft grass. We walked to the river in the hope that there might be some grass but no luck, just rocks and dirt. I bought a beer as I hadn't touched a drop of alcohol since Santiago and felt as though I deserved some, we found a spot a little away from the river but across the river from town so It was secluded enough and quiet enough to camp. I had some beer, Dries had some food and we hid our bags between some rocks and set off to the observatory office.

The second day was better, we were going to stay around for another night so were in no rush to do anything major, just need to buy some food like bread and fruit and water. Dries walked off to Horćon, it was about 4/5km from where we were camped, he was gone for about three hours and only came back with some bread. I went off to Pisco Elqui to get some water and fruit, I walked for about fifteen minutes and was picked up and dropped off right next to the shop that had fruit. I went off to get some water from the tap of drinking water in the toilet in the main square, underneath the artisan market shop. I went off trying to hitch hike back to the bridge but had no luck, I ended up walking back the full 4km to where we were. I had chosen to go later once the sun had gone behind the mountains where as Dries had gone nearer the scorching midday sun, and that is a killer.
This place would have been so good whilst drunk, with a bottle of pisco or a few litres of beer between the both of us, we had neither, just water and crap food. This time I didn't make the disgusting pasta, I trialled making some past with cream of corn soup together, saves having to pour away the water and making a sauce, it was like two meals in one, my lunch time trial was a disaster but I knew if I put more effort into it, it would have made me a most perfect of camp site dinners. It was good, very good, well not that good but considering the circumstances it was more than adequate and I had made far too much so had more than I needed so it was good all round as Dries had the left overs. We had a big fire this time, but we were both really tired so had another early night, I was really not looking forward to going to sleep as I now knew how uncomfortable and off putting it was. I went and I have to say didn't sleep a single wink, I may have got a maximum of about an hours sleep the whole night but that came in minutes at a time or at most about five minutes of uninterrupted sleep, then my body telling me it was too uncomfortable and needed moving to a more comfortable position if there was any, but no there wasn't.

The first night there we had a small fire, I made some really bad pasta with some really cheap and disgusting sauce, I ate it all as I was hungry but I would never eat it again by choice and I have another pack of it so am going to have to bite the bullet one day. It was very relaxing sitting by the fire, with a full belly and looking up at an exceptionally clear sky with bright stars. The area we were was full of different observatories to watch the stars, some did tours others were for scientific purposes only, after all the sky here is supposed to be some of the clearest skies in the world. I was tired and decided to have an early night, I was very excited about sleeping, unfortunately I didn't realise how bad the ground was yet and I didn't have a mat or anything to sleep on, just the ground, my tent and ,my sleeping bag then me. Not nice at all, possibly the most uncomfortable I have been in my entire life, or at least from what I can remember. I think I may have only got about two or three hours sleep altogether, I was rolling around trying to find the most comfortable position, and did this all night long, not just until I fell asleep. During the day I had stumbled upon some wild peppermint, that would make a great tea so I took some, it smelled lovely, really fresh and did indeed make a wonderful tea.

We walked to the edge of town to a spot where we had been recommended to be picked up easily, after waiting there for nearly an hour we walked on a little bit taking breaks in all the shade we could find. The midday sun in Chile is so unbearably hot, you can't imagine how hot it is until you witness it for yourself, even if the temperature is only about 30ºC with the sun beating down it feels more like 40ºC. Luckily for us we were in wine and pisco country so were surrounded by vineyards at all sides, we walked passed one, saw a man picking the grapes and asked to try a couple of grapes, instead he gave us a couple of big bunches, yum yum yum. Finally getting picked up was such a relief, we had been waiting for two hours by this point and were taken to a junction about 20km outside of Pisco Elqui. There was no shade at all here, just the slightest bit behind a road sign but you needed to stand in a strange position for your whole body to receive shade. After nearly an hour we were picked up by another ecologist, this time they were going all the way to Pisco Elqui but needed to make a quick stop in one of the town before to get something at the municipal building. They had come all the way from Vicuña as they were picking up some equipment that had been sent there. When we got to Pisco Elqui I could sort of see the appeal, it was a quaint little town, up in the valley with vineyards lining the whole bottom along the Rio Elqui, the river flowing if a little conspicuously through the Elqui valley. We walked town till we got to a nice, quiet shaded square that was right next to the Mistral distillery, we never went as they charged $5000 pesos for a tour and a small bit of pisco at the end, doesn't really seem worth it, could buy a whole bottle of pisco for less than that and have just as educational a time. As there was no visible river we ventured towards a town called Horćon, we had been told by some locals that the river was bigger there and that it was easier to camp. After walking maybe 1km or so we were picked up by a flat bed truck that had just finished a round of picking grapes and dropping them off, can't have been in the car much longer than a minute when we saw a big bunch of hitch hikers on the side of the road, the truck driver stopped, they hopped in the back and we all went off to find this river, fortunately for everybody there were some locals in the back who knew a very good spot to swim and fish and camp, they led us right to where we wanted to be. When we got there it was what we had been waiting for, a lagoon, surrounded by trees, fresh flowing water, not in any way drinkable though, just clean and clear. The lagoon if I can call it that was tiny, about twenty five metres square and at its deepest point only about two metres deep. It would suffice, in fact it was perfect, not too big, not too small and not too busy, only the locals know about it. The only things letting the whole site down was the fact that it was really near a main road, not much traffic so not too much of a problem and also the ground was really bad to camp on, it wasn't level and was littered with lots of tiny rocks. One of the locals children even managed to catch a fish with his hands, a very feat for most but he managed fine even if it did take about an hour and the fish was too small to be eaten so we put it back in and left the rest alone for now.

The second day we woke up early, or in my case was awakened by the rain at about 4.30, it was only faint drizzle then it stopped. The rain started up again just after we both properly woke up around 9/9.30 and immediately got our stuff together and packed up our tents, by the time we had packed up the rain had stopped and was now just a thick mist, our tents we soaked, nearly soaked through. We started walking along the road and were soon picked up by a member of the Chilean Air Force on his way home, he went a different route this time, somebody told him taking the panamerican north toward Los Vilos would be a lot quicker, he had no idea where he was going, even though it was a straightforward road he had never taking it to get home before. He took us as far as the northern border of Los Vilos, it wouldn't curse us this time, last time we were caught in a sandstorm on the beach, our tents and bags still have some sand in. we were waiting in the blistering heat at the side of the road just past Los Vilos for about two hours when a woman on her way to La Serena which was going to be our stop off or at least a destination to get to before we went to Pisco Elqui. This helped us out greatly as the largest part of our days journey was already sorted for us. The woman was an ecologist and was on her way to help some farmers farm as efficiently and as environmentally friendly as possible. We drove past a sign that said 'Pepinos' I asked what they were and she couldn't explain, just said we had to stop to try some, when we got to the stall selling them I remembered seeing them in a supermarket but they were very expensive. This apparently was pepino country and one of the only places they grow, here the stalls sold them for $1000 for 4kg, that was unbelievably cheap when compared to the supermarket prices. She still trouble trying to explain what they were, she ended up saying they were like very sweet tomatoes, I suppose they did smell a little like tomatoes but looked like something else. They were the shape of in between a giant hazelnut and a plum tomato, were two tone, the top part being purple and then into a zig zag pattern it changed to an off white colour. Later on Dries cut one open and it was like a thick pepper inside, it had tiny little seeds all clumped together, had orange flesh, smelt like melons and when we tried it, it even tasted like melons, a honeydew melon to be precise.
When we got to La Serena she kindly took us on a guided tour in her car, we went along the main beach, which was dead, maybe due to it being abnormally cloudy, then along the main street and past the schools and church's. We got to see most of La Serena in about twenty minutes. She couldn't take us too far but dropped us off on a road about 2km outside of La Serena towards Vicuña and Pisco Elqui in the Elqui Valley. We walked along for a bit to try and hitch hike all the way to Pisco Elqui but just weren't being picked up. Finally we made it to a nearby village that had a bus stop and shop at the border and were just picked up there. A parked pick up about to head out to Vicuña told us to get in, they could give us a lift. I got my second ride in a pick up, it was more comfortable and we got a much better view of Rio Elqui, the Elqui Valley and a big Dam near Vicuña but a little before. They dropped us off in the main square, we got out, they got out and headed straight for an ice cream parlour. We both got some bread, I tried to get some cash out as I had been having problems in Santiago and no such luck here either, I would have to wait and see if I could make do with only $25,000 pesos cash. We walked around looking for a place to stay, maybe we would check out a campsite? All I knew was that I really needed the toilet and saw a Copec gas station at the start of town, I went and did my business and we went off in search of camping. We stumbled upon this place that had grass, grass was such a dream as it was very soft to sleep on and easy to pitch the tents and get the tent pegs in. Dries went inside to have a look around, it seemed good, almost too good to be true, we both pitched our tents, there were lots of sprinklers about explaining the green grass and there was a funny smell of sewage, none the less we camped there for the night. Only to be rudely awoken at 8.00 on the dot by the sound of a sprinkler and the water splashing against our tents. The grounds keeper for what turned out to be a sewage treatment plant appeared and he had removed a plastic bag that I had used to cover the sprinkler with. We could hear the sprinkler turn on, then it stopped all of a sudden, I used that opportunity to try and get a few moments more shut eye then I heard a rustling coming from the plastic bag, all of a sudden the sprinkler started up again. I got out the tent and there was the grounds keeper staring right at me saying things in Spanish, I had no idea what and he didn't seem to angry but we used this as our cue to get out of there. As it was early we relaxed in town a bit, got some bread, water and some of necessities then made our way to the open road to try and hitch a ride to Pisco Elqui.

The first night we got a lift from where we waited last time, this time a woman, her mother and daughter took us about 20km or so, we weren't even waiting, just happened to be crossing the road next to her and Dries asked, we got in and went. We then didn't have to wait too long when we were picked up by a pick up. I managed to fulfil my dream and ride in the back of a pick up and it was now sunset so I got to ride out the sunset in the back of a pick up. Riding in the back of a pick up was just how I had imagined it to be, it was windy, noisy and you got a good view of everything at the sides and behind. It was a great deal of fun and I wouldn't mind doing it again and again. It was bloody cold when the sun went down so I put on my jacket and enjoyed the ride, the driver took us to La Ligua, which was a little bit more than half way between Santiago and Los Vilos, approximately 150km from Santiago. We camped on the side of the road right up tight to a farm fence, it was the softest ground and the nearest place for us to go.

We had a rough plan to get to a small town called Pisco Elqui in the Elqui valley, if you hadn't guessed it is where the Chilean drink Pisco comes from, most if not all of the big brand distilleries are based there. From there we planned to go to some observatories and do some star gazing, its one of the clearest skies in the world, might as well make the most of it. Also this area is famous for having some strange magnetic field, don't know what or how but everybody keeps on mentioning it when we say were going to Pisco Elqui.

I went back to the hostel to meet Dries as we were going to hitch hike north again, this time make it all the way into Bolivia or Peru. I was supposed to meet him at the hostel at 15.00 but was already running a little late. I got the bus from outside Sam's and it took a considerable time longer than I expected but it took me to the metro station right by the hostel. When I got there Dries was watching some Brad Pitt film, I only got the last ten minutes or so but from what I saw it was very violent, and had Anthony Hopkins in it as soom old retired general, I think it was set in the mid western U.S and was a period drama. After the film finished we left on our way north, hopefully this time we would make it further than Los Vilos...

So I left Sam's place the following afternoon, Sam went to university today so we said our goodbyes in the morning, very brief but I left him a note saying thankyou and goodbye. The day was quite a slow one, I had a shower, went out to find some things, like a knife and fork for camping, Homero gave me a cup to use, and I needed to find a floor mat to sleep on as sometimes sleeping on the bare floor in the tent is very uncomfortable. I managed to find a knife and fork but there were no mats to be seen, only blow up mattresses which were far too big and bulky and expensive, all I wanted was the foam rolls. Without any luck I went and got the essential food shopping done, bread, pasta and sauce. I bought some fish for lunch and decided to make some food back at Sam's. I just made a simple dish of fried fish with some stock and bread on the side, I made some for Homero and myself as we were the only ones in. The food was very nice, but a tiny bit too salty, I forgot I put some capers in that were soaked in brine but otherwise it was a fantastic dish and very simple and easy. After food I went and packed up all my stuff, when I repacked my bag I was amazed at how much space was left in it and it wasn't any heavier than before, I had just packed it really badly the other times. I did the washing up because I made a fishy smell in the kitchen and some pots and pans needed cleaning. At about 15.30 I left, maybe not to return to Santiago, I don't know yet.

Shortly before the power went out, Sam decided he was going to compose a song, he just improvised this eight minute song but hadn't got round to saving it yet, all he needed to do was add the vocals, then the power cut.... When the power came back on the song was no more so Sam started again, improvising but this time it was only six and a half minutes. For some reason Sam's idea for the vocals was going to be me reading an exert from something I had written, I chose to do it on my papers on the meaning of life, I just read and read and read, got lost in reading and the music just became a sort of backing track for me to read over. The vocals laid down and the song was given a aptly named title 'the meaning of life'. It is a strange song, quite transcendental with the vocals and the space like music that just invited the listening to drift of into another dimension.

Sunday night we were supposed to go to the cinema to see Avatar in 3D, I am quite surprised it is still out here as it has been out in England for months now. I was up for it as it was very cheap at least compared to the prices back home and I was keen on seeing exactly what it is like.
No chance of seeing it though, shortly after 21.00 there was a complete blackout in Santiago, only some lights with back up generators were on. After a while the radio news said what had happened, there had been a problem at the main power grid for most of Chile, it spanned about 2/3 of the country, pretty much the whole of inhabited Chile now had no power. I think I chose the best time to come here for many reasons! By the time the power came on it was gone 23.00 and the final showing at the cinema was 22.00 so I have missed my chance to see it again. Oh well maybe next time I'll have better luck. I was very surprised at how calm it was during the blackout, cars and buses were driving around like normal, the street lamps and traffic lights were still on, its the first time in a lot of peoples live that the whole of Santiago has had a complete blackout let alone most of Chile.

Sunday was definitely rest day, I remained drunk till about 16.00 when I decided to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. We had some completos for lunch, very good with fresh chopped tomatoes, freshly crushed avocado and freshly made aji verde with chopped coriander. The hot dogs were good, I only had two, would liked to have had more but I was so tired I just wanted to sleep so I did. Sam went out to have some sushi with a friend, him and his family had been talking about sushi since lunch the other day so I'm sure he had greatly anticipated it. I went to sleep just as he left and woke up when he came back in, it was a good sleep and I felt like a new man afterwards.
Sam claimed to be stuffed from the sushi which I couldn't understand as I have never been fully satisfied by it, also he said it only cost him $15,000 pesos for two people, that was amazing, its about £20 for two. In England I have unfortunately paid about £40 just for me, I have to admit I was full but it came at a great price. The sushi sounded really tasty too so I'm now considering it and will have to have some at some point on this trip.

After a while the terramotos began to take hold, I was starting to feel quite drunk, well not drunk exactly more relaxed and confident. A busker with a guitar came in and started singing, playing songs for people to sing and generally livened the mood in there to almost party standards, most of the people were drunk on terramotos by now so it was clear to see why. We ended up staying for quite a while and got chatting and dancing with different groups of people, all in the restaurant bit. We had some photos, sang happy birthday to a boy next to us who had just turned eighteen, and had a good time. We left to meet someone else at a nearby bar called California Bar, it had the Californian flag on the wall, had other U.S paraphernalia everywhere, the toilet wall was completely covered in posters and photographs. It was a trendy bar but probably aimed more at American tourists, it was quite expensive so we only stayed for one. We didn't want the night to end so soon but didn't really want to pay a premium to get into a club so some of us called around to find out if any parties were going on. We found one and immediately left to got to it. When we arrived we strolled in but were shortly kicked out, even though one of us was invited, and I say kicked out more like asked politely to leave. They asked politely but the way they went about it got me and the rest very angry, they got these little boys, maybe around sixteen or something to stand up to us and make sure we didn't kick up a fuss. There was no point it would be like striking a child and wouldn't get us anywhere, just make us look like thuggish fools so we left without fuss.
We had another party lined up in case and headed towards that, it was in Vitacura so wasn't too far from where I was staying and some of us lived. Sam was supposed to be busy during the evening and at night so I went to meet up with my friends on my own.
On the way to the party we stopped off at a bottelleria to get some pisco and lemon soda, they didn't have limon soda so we had to settle with sprite but it wasn't as nice. We got to the party, don't know how long we stayed for, must have been quite a while but I lost track of time after my third terramoto. The person apartment was near the top floor of a tower block and it had a pretty good view of Vitacura, I have now seen Providencia at night from high up and Vitacura, there is something about Santiago but I think it looks better at night with all the lights on.

Onto the terramoto, I ordered one at first, I wasn't too keen on it then it began to grow on me, once the ice cream had totally melted and mixed in with the wine and spirit it became like an alcopop almost. It went down very easily but I couldn't feel anything from it and so the next round I ordered two more. This meant that I wouldn't have to wait around for another drink, and whilst I worked on one trying to get the ice cream to melt, the other would be melting naturally. The bar itself was quite large, had a huge open plan saloon space out the back, it had a small covered walkway from the front entrance to the saloon and on the left when you walked in was a small separate room that they called the restaurant, it had a waiter, tables and chairs and that was where they served the food. The toilet was just to the side of the saloon bit and there was a large bar spanning one of the side walls, for some reason the toilet floor was covered in sawdust, maybe to reduce mess and the build up of urine on the floor. The whole bar looked pretty old and run down but had character and as it was such a well established placed had its regulars and of course constant tourist traffic coming through.

It was Saturday now and as it was a weekend, everybody was up for a big night. The other day when I met up with my friends from Valdivia we had all arranged to meet up again and go to a bar/restaurant called La Piojera, it was avery traditional Chilean restaurant and bar that dishes from times of old like rolled loin of pork with boiled potatoes, boiled leg of pork, some beef dishes and some more sandwiches. They also served a very famous drink in Santiago called a terramoto, earthquake, which wasn't in the best of tastes but it was the name of the drink after all. The drink consisted of I'm told by different sources that its either rum and wine with a dollop of pineapple ice cream or its pisco and wine with a dollop of pineapple ice cream. All I can say is that the initial taste is pretty foul, you can taste the really bad wine and the strong alcohol from whatever spirit used and the ice cream just floats on the top. When you mix it all up and the ice cream melts it tastes like a sweet alcoholic pineapple milk shake. I had been warned that these get you very drunk, a story of someone who claimed to be able to handle his drink had tree of them and was completely drunk off his face. I was hungry so I got some of the food, I tried half and half of the two sandwiches they had, one was beef and one was the rolled loin of pork. They were both very good and the aji was amazing, it was like a cross between a Chilena, the traditional Chilean relish (onion, tomato and coriander) and a normal aji sauce, it gave the dish another dimension and improved the flavour even more. In my opinion the rolled loin of pork was a far superior sandwich when compared to the beef one, if I was hungrier and was willing to spend more money on food then I would definitely have had another one.

That night we were invited to go to a party, it wasn't a party and I don't know why they call it a party, it was a free benefit concert at one of the Univesidad Catolicas campuses. This meant I would meet more of Sam's friends and probably would involve drinking a fair amount like always. We were picked up from Sam's house, not too sure what the time was, maybe 19.00 or so and we were driven to the university by Sam's friend, one of the girls I had met in Villarrica. It was rush hour and the traffic was ridiculous, on the way to the university we stopped off to get some food and drink, or I got food, everybody else got food. Some had to buy long life foods to take to the concert, the concert was free but a condition of this was that everybody who went had to take something that could be sent to those who had been affected in the earthquake. I was really hungry now so bought quite a lot of food, I got some bread and cheese to make cheese sandwiches obviously, a packet of crisps to snack on and for some strange reason I don't know what came over me but I bought a salami, a whole salami not just slices in a pack. It was stupid of me but it was very nice, I now had cheese sandwiches and every so often could take a bit from my salami. Just after we had made our pit stop we had one more stop to do, we went to pick up one more of their friends, she was our ticket in, as she was the only one who went to the Universidad Catolica and it was supposedly a private concert for the students at the university. The campus was huge, it was like a little village but just full of buildings, lecture halls, libraries and students. Most the people there were drinking as there was rubbish, beer cans, beer bottles and general alcohol related rubbish. We found a patch around the back, not too far from the stage so we could still hear it but far enough so we could be in relative quite and also there were a lot less people. We had some beers in the car and bought some really cheap wine that came in 2litre cartons like the sort that would normally contain fruit juice, the wine was very cheap and very bad, not quite as bad as the one that we had when we went to the beach in Niebla. I got to meet some more of Sam's friends, some I had seen before but most I had never met and I don't know if I will ever see again, I also got to meet his best friend. I think Sam had told his friends a lot about me because they all knew my name and even some stories that Sam had told them when he lived in England and we were much younger, I think they probably know more than me as I can barely remember any of those stories.
The concert was pretty rubbish, I think they were local bands and artists but to me they were all awful, from where we were sitting all I could hear was a bad muffled sound coming from the speakers which was probably a good thing as the actual music would have sounded much worse. When we finally got round to actually going to the stage to see the bands, there was a hip hop outfit on, I say hip hop, it was much more like pop. They were similar to Sean Paul but more of them, even more poppy and the lyrics were all in Spanish. They were rubbish, I really wanted to get away from there as soon as I could and was excited that they finished in a couple of songs time so I didn't have to endure too much of it, until they did a couple of songs as an encore that is.
After the concert everybody was getting hungry so we went on a mission to find some food, maybe go to a restaurant or something. I had accidentally thought ahead in buying the salami as it came in very handy when I was very hungry, I also had a packet of crisps which made it even better. We finally came to a really shitty looking Chinese take away, I wasn't too hungry as the salami had helpfully filled the hole. I still ordered some food, the cheapest thing on the menu and it said that whatever it was there were eighteen of them. When they finally came out I was anxious to find out what they were, they ended up just being prawn crackers, why nobody was able to explain what they were I don't know, maybe they had never had them before as they were all very curious as to what they were when I was eating them. The take out gave some sachets of soy sauce but instead of being normal sachets the sauce was contained in these clear plastic tubes, possibly sections of tube and tied up at the end. The Girls made a big mess of the soy sauce and most of it ended up on the floor even when they got a plastic cup to put it in, one of them accidentally kicked it over and the soy sauce went everywhere. I was definitely sober now and was itching to go somewhere and do something, instead of standing outside the take out trying to figure out what to do, we must have been standing around for nearly an hour, maybe more. The girls went home to sleep and there was myself and a few more of Sam's friends left, we went to a nearby bottelleria to get some more alcohol, no real idea of what to get they all just decided to get tequila and have shots with salt and lemon. We didn't have salt so on the way to somebody's house we stopped off at Sam's to get some, I went in because I was very thirsty and needed the toilet really badly. Lemons acquired it was time to get to their friends place to get more drinking done, this time all having shots of tequila. Between six of us we managed to finish off a whole bottle doing shots in about half an hour so we opened up a couple of bottles of wine, they lasted quite a bit longer. A pro evolution soccer tournament started up and went on and on and on, it didn't actually end till gone 4 in the morning and everybody was tired now, Sam's best friends girlfriend had fallen asleep on the sofa, Sam was in and out of sleep when it wasn't his turn to play and everybody else was showing signs of fatigue including me, I could only think about laying in a bed and sleeping.

I brought with me a book to read, well I brought a few but there is one that I started a few weeks before I came and really wanted to get it out of the way beforehand but am yet to finish. All in all I have probably only managed to read about twenty pages whilst being here. Now its time for me to finish it, its a long book so I still have approximately 200 pages left but at the rate I'm going I'll be reading it my whole trip. I need to get rid of it as its quite big and takes up a lot of space, also I really want to read the other books I have brought with me. We will see, I can't see myself finishing it any time soon though.

Sam went off to university today, he didn't start till 13.00 so could sleep for a while and not worry about being late or anything, he told me that I could do what I wanted as his mother was at work, his brother was due to go out and he wasn't going to be back till around 18.00 as he had a football game after his university class finished. I spent the day doing some more of my writing, reading a little and otherwise not really doing much. I was thinking of what to cook myself for lunch when I could smell the most pleasant smell of fried garlic and tomatoes, I immediately knew that Sam's brother Homero was cooking some pasta with tomato sauce, we had a chat about pasta and how to make the perfect tomato sauce the day before. Soon enough it was ready, he called me to the kitchen to eat, we tucked in and it was good. Not sure if I could go as far to say that it was the perfect tomato sauce but it was bloody good, for me the perfect sauce varies from day to day and what I feel like having in it, sometimes ham, sometimes mushrooms, sometimes tuna. I made a very nice tomato sauce a while ago using the cheapest pasta sauce out of a pack, the cheapest tin of tuna and lots of dried herbs and spices, it was amazing but I wouldn't say that it was anywhere near perfection. Homero's sauce was very nice though, it was made by frying a little garlic, some peeled, chopped and seeded fresh tomatoes, a small amount of tomato purée, some salt and pepper and a bit of fresh, chopped basil. It tasted phenomenal, not perfect but still could be put right up there, in fact it was so nice I had to help myself to some seconds, I would have been tempted to have thirds but there wasn't enough. Like most of this journal I seem to keep on coming back to food, food plays a big part in my life and I pay a lot of attention to the really good food and the really bad, the good I want to have again and again and the bad I try to forget and never think about again.

The next morning Sam was supposed to go into university but he said he had received a message from his teacher saying that they would not be in and there would be no classes for the day. This gave him the whole day to be free. We pretty much lingered around not really doing much until his friend phoned up and asked if we wanted to go to the park and have a few beers. A while later we were picked up, went to the park spent a while sitting around around chatting then went for a walk in the parks rose garden. There was a small flower garden at the end of the park and it contained hundreds of different kinds of roses, from small pretty shameful looking ones to huge, bright and bold ones that could be seen a mile off. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of roses but it was a refreshing change from all the heat, sun and smog. That evening I was due to meet some of the friends I had made in Valdivia, they had arranged to meet at a bar on Pio Nono in Bellavista, the bar happened to be right next to a hot dog place where I occasionally go to get some cheap completos. We were supposed to meet at 19.00 which was quite early for a night out and myself, Sam and two of his mates were having a good time in the park. We left the beauty and relative comfort of the park to go to the dirty and scum ridden Pio Nono to meet my friends. When we got there the turn out was a little less than I had expected, for some reason I thought that nearly everybody from Valdivia would be there, not just a few, well about six to be precise. I caught up with them, sat down with Sam's mates at the end of the table, ate my gigante completos and had some beer. Sam and his mates were ripped off by the people in the bar, they ordered a litre of Cristal, the crappy cheap beer for $1600 pesos but when they were given the bill it ended up costing $2600 pesos which is ridiculous as its on of the worst beers available. Myself on the other hand copied the rest and ordered a litre of Brahma extra and that was only $2000 pesos and was a beer that was a million times better. Didn't stay for too long, it was getting cold and I only had a shorts and t-shirt on, Sam and his mates wanted to leave and I went with them as I felt obliged as I was staying at Sam's after all and it would have been rude for me to stay and go back to his drunk and much later.

The first night at Sam's we didn't go out because he had university the next morning so we just hang out with some beers, Sam and his brother went off to some investment meeting and were gone for ages so I spoke to his mother all night eating Chilean cheeses and making sandwiches. The cheese was nice, it had a very strong smell but quite a subtle taste similar to a Swiss emmental cheese, there was another cheese, a fresh cheese. The fresh cheese was really soft and light, it crumbled and melted in your mouth and with a sprinkling of salt tasted amazing, it is similar to an Italian ricotta cheese but a little smoother and lighter. I was made to feel very welcome and at home at Sam's house, I much appreciate all of their kindness, and cooking me food and giving me a bed to sleep in as Sam is now sleeping on the floor in his brothers room.

Driving past a road sign, I just noticed that the sign for a speed bump here in Chile looks like a moustache and a goatee, I don't know why they haven't all been turned into faces.

As I had checked out and didn't plan to return to the hostel I though I had better finish off all my food, I had a single tin of tune, a packet of tomato sauce for pasta, no pasta, half a pack of diced steak and two buns. I decided to make a semi soup thing out of it all. I mixed the sauce with some spices, some onion powder, some bicarbonate of soda to take away some of the acidity, I added the tuna and stirred it through till it was all mixed in and I added some dried sweet basil. I stupidly forgot the meat so I fried it separately then added to the mix, cooked it through and put it in a bowl. It was delicious, for a quick dish made out of left over things it was really nice and the bread made it into a very filling meal. I didn't have anything to do the rest of the day until 15.00 when I was due to meet a friend I met in Valdivia for some beer and more drinks. I went and wasn't surprised by the Chilean reliability again, he never turned up so I went for a walk and the back to the hostel, where he had kindly left a message at the reception explaining why he hadn't turned up, something to do with university classes starting and finishing later than expected. Fair enough I suppose. I still had time to burn before I went to Sams, I looked into where he lived, it was very far away, an area of Santiago called Vitacura, it is like the west end of London, similar to for example Chelsea. I had to get the metro from near the hostel about five stops then a long bus ride. When I got out of the metro I walked for a few minutes to find the bus stop, it was further than I thought, I waited for the bus, got on then couldn't get on, I tried to get on for free, couldn't, tried to pay on the bus, couldn't, I needed this fucking card like an oyster card in London. The card can be topped up loads of places but can only be bought at metro stations, what a shit concept, it made me very angry and I was forced to walk, all of the taxis that went past were full even when the sign stupidly said free! I had to walk all the way, it was very far, in the hot evening sun and I was carrying my backpacks so had the added burden of a huge weight on my back. Over an hour and a half later I arrived, very tired, sweaty and angry. I went in said hello to everyone, caught up with Sam's mother and brother, had a bite to eat.

My last night at the hostel wasn't a big one, most of the party people had left, the Swiss guys had just left and everybody was either out or going to bed early. Iulia, whom I misspelled her name before ad Lulia, and her friend came over with some wine and some crisps, myself and Dries had some beers and the Swiss guys had left us a bottle of Absinthe to finish off in their honour. The night was a more quiet affair with just the four of us in the courtyard, no free beer at 22.00 and nobody else about even coming and going, it was just us. I only had a six pack of beer, I had had a few left over during the day and had gone out to buy some more with my dinner but I didn't want to finish it all so I asked politely if I could have some of the girls wine, they let me so I had a coulpe of glasses. The wine was a massive litre bottle or could have even been bigger I can't remember, it wasn't too strong, only 11.5%, it was quite sweet and tasted like a Riesling. It wasn't the greatest wines I have ever had but it was okay for $1500 pesos, not much more than my six pack of beer. We just spent a lot of the time chatting, Iulia taking some random photos, then we hot the Absinthe. When you start drinking Absinthe, especially the 75% stuff then its pretty much a guarantee that you will get very drunk indeed. We all had a shot well, half a shot glass each but the glass was big, it was easily more than a double measure. After the first shots, Dries persuaded us all to have the shots the 'proper way' with the sugar and water. After a while and a couple of shots each we were all quite drunk, the girls left at maybe 1/1.30 and so I had a beer as a night cap, and went to bed. I was awoken by a lot of noise coming from the reception area, I soon fell asleep again, then woke up again as I desperately needed the toilet, I went and noticed that the reception was full of sleeping people and bags, I went to the toilet, then went back to bed and thought nothing of it. When I woke up again in the morning I noticed that the beds that didn't have any people on now were full, it was very bizarre and unexplainable. On closer inspection the beds were filled with the Swiss guys, I wasn't sure if it was still the alcohol playing tricks on me but then on my way out of the room I saw Bruno, one of the Swiss guys and he explained it all, they went to the bus station to get there bus to Caldera up north but one of them had their bag stolen. They had been at the police station and reported it and everything but it had taken ages, then they came back to the hostel to get some sleep. Earlier on in the day this random drunk Chilean old man staying at the hostel helped himself to some of my soup I made for lunch along with somebody else's bread. He was hungry and was trying to get some money together to buy some hot dogs for lunch, I told him I wasn't hungry and had already eaten loads. He went round nearly everybody asking if they wanted some, he got to the Swiss and they were taken in by him, I believed it to be a con and he just wanted money to get drunk some more. He got about $3000 pesos off the Swiss, enough for a good few hot dogs each or enough for about five litres of beer. The man never returned.
Later in the morning, Bruno told me the reason he hadn't returned was because he had been arrested for drinking alcohol in the street and had spent six hours in a jail cell. He did come through and bought them the ingredients to make their hot dogs even if it was a day late.

One thing that appears to be the recurring theme in Chile is work, all of the drivers that picked us up have all said the same thing about work, there is lots of it, also lots of unemployment but when you do have work, you have to work really hard, long hours and get barely any money for it. Most of the people out of the city seem to be construction workers of some kind, a welder said that he gets more than most but it is still peanuts to how how much work he puts in and how long he works for. Poverty is a big thing here in Chile, there are a awful lot of unemployed people, especially towards the south of the country and in the city suburbs. It seems that a lot of people flock to the cities to find work but there are so many people doing the same thing that they all end up having the same problem and forming little communities in the suburbs. I have been to one of these very places, a small suburb just outside Santiago to the north, it smelt really bad, they didnt have fresh runnig water, power and phone lines were limited but the people all seemed very happy and were getting on with there lives. So far everybody has said the same thing and it is really the only thing I have heard about on the open road.

Home sweet home, back at the hostel, in my old room but not my old bed, never mind as I still had the bottom bunk so no problem. We had arrived so early that check out hadn't happened, we had to wait another half hour for the others to check out, and check in wasn't until 14.00 so we had to wait two and a half hours for that.

We made a sign to LlaiLlay in the hope that we would be taken there and have the same luck as before and maybe taken all the way to Santiago. Within minutes of holding up the sign, we were picked up by a mini van, inside was a couple with their four year old daughter, the woman was driving, they had driven all the way to La Serena from Casa Blanca to pick up the van that they said they had just bought. The were going back to Casa Blanca this evening and could give us a lift to where they turn off the Pan American or take us to Casa Blanca with them and then we hitch hike from there. Part way into the journey, the man asked if we wanted to go back to his to sleep as it was late now and very dark so we agreed, a free bed for the night as well, even more of a result. We were a little confused as to what the man said he did for a living; firstly he said he cultivated the vines and a vine yard close to his house, also he said that tomorrow morning is the start of the 2010 harvest and we were welcomed to come and pick some grapes with him. After a while the story began to change and he didn't cultivate the vines, he didn't even have anything to do with the vine yard, he was just going to make a little bit of extra cash I think he said that you get about $900 pesos per bucket which is approximately 5kg. Doesn't sound like much but the vine yards were vast and they would be picking all day so could easily do many more bucket loads. We stopped off at a service station, as we had missed the turning to get off the Pan American, also they were hungry and it gave us a break to walk around and get some food and drinks. They had their hot dogs, burgers and coffee that was according to the them really disgusting, so we left. We got off the Pan American and were on the home straight, about another 70km to get to Casa Blanca via Viña Del Mar, this area at night looked really fancy with all the palm trees and glowing street lamps dotted along the streets and the houses in the hills. The only reason we had gone via Viña Del Mar was because the road they wanted to take had been closed and we had to go on a diversion. About forty five minutes later we arrived in Casa Blanca, it looked like a bigger version of all the other Chilean towns, we were taken to his mothers house, then to his house where he realised he had left the house keys in the van, which had been taken to his girlfriends family house across town. We got in his car and went to get the keys, on the way he said that we could only stay for one night and that his girlfriend and daughter were going to stay at he mothers house. We got to his house, opened the door, sat down and were made to feel very at home and comfortable, soon after his girlfriend arrived, we were very confused. Maybe he didn't know what he was saying or we misunderstood him, whatever we had no real idea what was actually going on. He went out and got us a beer, we drank beer and watched TV until midnight when his girlfriend went to bed then he soon followed her, his daughter was going to sleep in their bed so it freed up a bed and the sofa for us to sleep on, Dries choose the sofa, leaving me the bed, I certainly was not about to complain about that. We thought we might have to get up really early to go and pick some grapes, but the plan had changed once again, we were going to get up around 9.00, have breakfast then he was going to drop us off at the highway on his way into Valparaiso. Dries was chatting to him whist I was having a shower, his profession had changed once again, this time he was a construction worker, very confusing but whatever I didn't really care about what he did too much. Something a little strange about his house was that he had electrical appliances everywhere, he had a massive TV and a huge surround sound speaker system, there must have been about thirteen speakers in all. We went to bed, I got a really good nights sleep apart from time to time their kittens would be fighting, scratching at the door or falling asleep on my feet or legs. I tried really hard to get them out but whatever I did they kept coming back in. Dries on the other hand wasn't so fortunate, he slept on the sofa that looked comfortable but was far from and was also plagued by the kittens all night, looks like he drew the short straw even though he decided to sleep on the sofa. For breakfast the next morning, our host had gone out and bought some freshly baked bread, and had just crushed some avocados to spread on it, he made us some tea and set the table, then we ate. Good start to the day, for me at least. After we had eaten he drove us to the highway and we got out ready to hitch hike back to Santiago, it was a lot closer now, as we were smack bang inbetween Valparaiso and Santiago, it was about 70km either way.
We were probably only waiting for about half an hour when a lorry pulled over to pick us up, he was heading for Santiago, what luck. This was moments after I had been saying that I'm not going to bother trying to hail lorries as they never seem to stop, I was eating my words when this one pulled up next to us. It was my first experience in a lorry, it was only a two seater but had a bed/sofa in the sleeping compartment behind the seats. I sat in the middle between the driver and Dries perched up on my bench, only thing was I couldn't see out of the window, just the road about 5m in front of the lorry. The lorry drove really slow but was a sublimely comfortable ride and we were on the Santiago ring road in no time. The driver dropped us off because he wasn't going into central Santiago but was heading south around the ring road.
We hadn't even got to a suitable place to start hitch hiking from when a bus pulled over and picked us up, both of us were saying that neither wanted to pay but were willing to as it would have been cheap. When the bus stopped though the back doors opened, we got on and it was empty, we went up to the drivers bit and offered to pay but he was wearing mechanics overalls and said there was no problem, he was on his way to dropping the bus off at the terminal from the workshop so it was on his way. After a few minutes we were in central Santiago and only had to get to the hostel again, only thing now was that we had to either pay for a bus or get the metro as we were still about an hour and a half walk from out hostel. We got the metro, paid $400 pesos and travelled twelve stops, the one we got off was the one on the corner of the road our hostel was on. When we got out it felt like we were going home from a big adventure, it was an adventure but had only been a few days and we hadn't gotten any further than 240km north of Santiago.

We hastily left Los Vilos and headed straight for the Pan American again, it was a long walk and most of it was up hill so was very tiring, even more so when you have been walking around all day anyway and have a really burnt neck from the freakishly strong sun here, apparently due to there being a hole in the o-zone layer. We were only on the highway a few minutes when a man in a pick up pulled over, I wanted to get in the back but there were free seats so I sat inside, I'm yet to fulfil my dream of riding in the back of a pickup. The man was a mechanic driving some spare fan belts to the nearby town of Pichindagui, it was a short journey but still a good 20km or so, the more the better really. After chatting for a little bit, he asked if we smoked, I said no and Dries said yes so he got out a little rolled up piece of paper and was about to hand Dries a joint then he said he doesn't smoke marijuana, I told him I don't smoke cigarettes but I do occasionally smoke the odd joint here and there. He gave me the joint and a lighter and I lit it up in his car, he opened the windows as he didn't want to smell and was technically at work, we passed it back and forth. It was a pure joint and looked very bizarre, the ones I'm used to are more conical shaped and long, this was a short thin joint with no roach (the filter bit), it smoked very quickly. Every so often he would get a phone call and tell us to be quiet just in case. It was a fun start to the day, from this experience I felt that the rest of the journey was going to be just as good. He dropped us off just before the junction to get to Pichindagui, we walked to the on ramp where the road coming out of Pichindagui met the Pan American. We managed to get another lift really quickly form another pick up, this time it only had a two seater cabin so I took my chances and jumped straight into the back, the driver said no because apparently it is against the law to carry passengers in the back of a pick up on the Pan American. Unfortunately this meant that I would still have to wait for my go in the back and that we would be tightly sandwiched in the front on a single seat. This time the driver took us a little further to a big nearby town, we were still ages away from Santiago but were about another 40km closer than before. Where we were dropped off, we could see the vendors of the sweet pastries we had been bought the day before, it was funny to watch them as they waved a white flag of ribbons to flag down on coming cars to try and entice them in to buy some. There was about five on our side of the road, equally spaced apart and they had sequential flag waving, they met with some success throughout the day. There was another one across the road working solo, she waved down some lorries and in no time had a queue of three lorries all wanting to buy some sweet little pastries, as soon as she had successfully waved down a lorry the ones on our side started doing the same, maybe their luck would change and they would have more success. We must have been waiting for easily over an hour, the sun was starting to set by now and we were nowhere near Santiago, maybe only about 60km closer.

When we got to Los Vilos it was very overcast and looked quite crap, it was afternoon now and there didn't seem to be anybody about, it was a Sunday and schools were due to go back the next day but still, it wasn't what I was expecting at all, I was really quite disappointed. We walked up and down the beach to find a suitable spot to camp, we found an area behind some dunes and set up camp, we hadn't even notice but by the time we had pitched our tents the sun had come out and was shining beautifully in the clear blue sky. We didn't have that much trouble pitching our tents in the sand as it was soft and all we had to do was press down really hard until the peg was anchored in the harder sand below. It was a really long beach with golden sand, was empty but looked quite nice, I won't say anything else because one side had an oil/gas pumping station and the other had a fishing pier and dock for all of the fishing boats. It was definitely not the most picturesque beaches but would do for a nights sleep, all of our romantic (in the classical sense) fishing ideas were blown away because there was not really anywhere suitable for us to do so without leaving out tents and walking the whole beach. The town was okay, quite small and similar to Villarrica but a little smaller and not as beautiful, the same old shops, supermarkets and so on not particularly interesting. On the plus side sleeping on the sand to me was very comfortable, it was like sleeping on a giant firm bean bag, I slept for nearly twelve hours, as we didn't have beer and had no wood to start a fire we called it a night very early soon after the sunset. We woke up early, Dries went to check up with the hostel if they had received his card yet, he called from the nearest petrol station, the answer was no, in a way we were both expecting this. I had to take a walk into town to buy some food, see if I can get my clothes washed in a lavandaria, none of which were open so I was lumbered carrying my bag of dirty washing and shopping around whilst I tried to find my way back to the spot where we were camped on the beach. I got lost, had no sun cream, and ended up painfully burning my neck for the third time, will I ever learn?
Made it back and it was ridiculously windy by now, the beach was like a huge sandstorm and just behind the dunes where we camped was a joke, the wind had blown the sand into our tents and dugs holes along the sides and behind them. I suppose it could have been dealt with but at the time, my being burnt and Dries being pissed off that he still had no card and had no idea where it was, we decided to cut our losses, pack up and head back to Santiago, it seemed the most reasonable option for both of us. This meant Dries was always around to finally receive his card whenever it would come and I could maybe meet up with Sam again like we had initially planned. It was only maybe 11.00 by now and we had been in Los Vilos for less than 24 hours a little over 12 hours in fact, not too good but it wasn't like we imagined, me at least as I was the one who had read about it and seen all the pictures, last time I ever go somewhere purely based on what it sounds and looks like, I need more definite proof of its worth.