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.