Destination 18 - CHILE!
 
Days 27-29 of our Kumuka trip cont'd - Crossing the remote border into Chile and the town of San Pedro de Atacama
 
On the other side of this remote border was our bus which would take us (very slowly!) down the valley, descending a mere 2500 metres to the border town of San Pedro de Atacama . Already the stark contrast of Chile compared to its poorer neighbours of Bolivia and Peru was apparent, the bus was posh and there were roads with yellow lines on them and crash barriers!! It seemed so bizarre to have left such harsh desert landscape where you make your own tracks in the sand to just 1 metre post border be on a fully paved nice road with yellow lines, MAD!! Funny how much the small things in life when you are travelling hit you.....yes I did take a picture!
 
Down in the valley surrounded by volcanoes which reside in both Chile and Bolivia we could see the landscape ahead of destination 18, looking slightly flatter and greener it seemed so weird that we were finally here which meant the Kumuka trip was soon to end, boo! After thorough bag searches and not the friendliest of people, it was all so formal to what we were used to, we were finally 'officially' let into Chile and got yet another stamp Wahoo! Already the difference of how Chile was going to be was becoming ever more present, people were dressed better, drove posher cars and their overall look was a lot more western than we had expected, almost European in tone, which we didn't expect as I always thought Chilean people had darker features . No more traditional dress was to be seen either as the western look of jeans etc... Was the norm, probably the biggest overall contrast we have seen immediately across a border to date, this was definitely an affluent country.
 
San Pedro was an expensive place compared to what we were used too which was abit of a shock to Adam and I as it meant food would be reduced again, pants! The town, which consisted of one main road, was quite quaint though, wooden chalet style restaurants and coffee shops of the posh looking variety hence enhancing the western feel to the country.

After sorting changing rooms, almost fainting at the price of laundry, we finally found slightly cheaper food, a small coffee shop where the poor owner was trying to do everything himself and was struggling badly! It was hilarious to watch though as slowly every time one of his friends waved at him in passing he called them in and made them help, which when you have 4 in the end in a tiny kitchen behind the counter who don't really know what they are doing becomes very amusing! Even they were trying not to laugh as minus 2 customers who walked out, our sandwiches arrived an hour later . Then Ads asked the dreaded question 'do you have more mustard' which the guy said yes and then promptly his friend for the second time that day, took money from the till and ran to the corner shop to buy some! All highly amusing and the coffee he gave for free to thank us for being so kind and patient just added to the bizarreness of it all and local experience!
 
The rest of that day and the day after saw everyone chilling, we were all shattered and rest was needed as the 3 day salt / altiplano trip really takes it out of you. We wandered around the shops, drank coffee, had the most amazing sandwiches at the local bakery (the bread was like being in France, Wahoo!) visited the local independence festival (which had mad music, food stalls just like home and porta-loos to match!), skyped Rich and Kath and for the first time saw their new beautiful daughter Gemma at just 2 weeks old ( BIG congrats again you two!) then, whilst I unfortunately became ill, Ian and Ads and the rest of the crowd went out to sample the local wine and got hammered, well that might be an understatement! Master Hogarth managed in the space of 2 hours drinking the local wine to appear more drunk than an all day session at home and so I was told, the sight of him, Ian and Robert arm in arm swaggering along the road trying to walk home was a sight to behold, if only I'd felt better to have joined them! Belinda, Carroll and Ash managed to do the entire night out on the town with no recollection of events apart from some random sock fight and Ash sleeping on the hotel wall for the night, so all in all a good break was had by all!