Kinda early start for us at 7.30am. We got a collectivo to the main road going out of town and to the panamerican highway. There were a few trucks at the pull in bay so we asked them but no luck so Junior searched around for stuff so we could make a sign. We were ready with a sign written with where we wanted to go La Serena or Sur (South). We were not having much luck but then a ute pulled over and he said jump in the back and I will take you to the highway where we would have more of a chance. They dropped us off at this great road house with heaps of trucks and familes packed up going away for Christmas. We had a staple roadhouse breakfast Hotdog and coffee we got our packs back on and went for the hunt. About half an hour in and many smiles, waves and sorry not heading that way an old man in a big truck pulled over and was going to Copiapo (which is the mining town where the miners where stuck under ground for a month). It was about 7 hours south so we jumped in. He was a nice old man. The roads were dead straight for 100's of KMS and the surrounding area was desert and sand dunes as far as the eye could see. About 5 hours in he pulls over at a truck mechanic and gets a warrant for his truck. After he gets it we have dinner at a road house with him. No meat pie and coke. We had chicken/pork and rice. After dinner we had about 2 more hours to Copiapo. It was a dodgey mining town and really busy as Christmas w as only a few days away. We stayed a night there at a cheap hostel that was in the lonely planet. After talking in broken spanish to our truck driver for hours he had said he was going all the way to Santiago and would be there for Christmas eve if we wanted to keep getting a ride with him which we thought was great so agreed to meet in the morning.


In the morning after vegemite rolls for breakfast we head out of town and catch up with Aldolfo our driver . Then we went and picked up a load to be dropped off along the way. We drove for many hours to just past La Serena where we had to drop off the load. It was getting pretty late so we pulled over to get dinner.
 
And thats when our trouble began.

I went to get money out of the wallet I was carrying and remembered that we had hid our passport and money under our hostel bed in Copiapo because they didn't have any lockers. I asked Junior hoping that he had remembered to get them out when we left and thats when it hit home that we had left it all there and we were hours away. After a lot of swearing and panicking we calmed down enough to try and translate to a very confused looking Aldolfo what had happened. Thats when Aldolfo our knight in shining jeans snapped into action. Straight away he was on the phone calling the hostel to see if it was still there. After a few minutes and from what we could understand pleading with the hostel he gets off the phone and explains they want us to ring them back in a few more minutes . We thought ok maybe they're going to have a look. After a few more minutes we call back and they say ring back in a few more. Now we're starting to think this is a bit weird and maybe they have found them and are trying to use the visa cards. When we ring back again they say they are not there and there has been someone else staying in the room in between when we left and now - about 7 hours. Which we think is kind of weird. Surely they cleaned the room? They say they found one in a bush earlier and was one of us Adrian from the U.K. No. So we start again and say there was no money just passports hoping they magically find them. They don't. We drive to the next bigish town arriving about midnight where we stop at the truck stop and leave Aldofo for the night. After we turn down a dodgey lady asking if we want favours we get a cab and head into town to find the local police station. We were there for ages trying to explain in Spanish to the policeman on duty what had happened with him at one point ringing a guy who sounded like he was at a party to try and translate. We finally got our police report and headed out to find accommodation which there was not much around at all and the town was pretty dodgy. We then got a taxi to a hotel that we saw near the truck stop. It was a bit out of our price range but we didn't care after the day we'd had.

In the morning we walked back to the tuck stop were Aldofo was waiting and we drove to Santiago.