Day 29 - 31 - The 18 hour night bus (eeek!) across the driest place on earth to La Serena on the coast!
 
The eve of day 29 we got on the dreaded 18 hour night bus to La Serena on the coast . Unfortunately that meant we didn't see much of Chile but under the moonlight all I could vaguely see was harsh mountain and desert landscape all around. At about 3am we finally had passed through the driest place in the world and were flying down the coast. Several stops were made (thank god as for me this length of journey was tough!) and through bleary eyes I was surprised at the western feel of Chile. The towns were grid like just like America, had very modern buildings, and all in all were very developed, one town had a beach front just like Santa Barbara with tennis courts, volleyball and basketball it was unreal! To think we were still so close to a country so poor as Bolivia was a real shock to see, we could have been back at home.......
 
Eventually, after not feeling too great on this bus due to claustrophobia/ heat and badly translating at 4am to the driver in my Spanish that the bus was 'mucho caliente' which in all our other Spanish speaking countries means 'too hot' whereas here embarrassingly means 'hot' as in 'sexy hot' so basically I told him he had a 'sexy bus,' to which he let me sit in the front next to him, eeek!! Anyway, finally 18 hours later we arrived very tired at La Serena, a beach coastal town . With the sun rising the landscape had now changed considerably, Chile was getting greener and at one point with the white cliffs and beach I thought I was on the 'Military Road' on the west coast of the IOW, it was just like home!
 
Our hotel in La Serena added to this in that it consisted of a Victorian style house with high ceilings, wooden floors, and dado rails the lot, even more to make you feel like home! Unfortunately the four of us were out the back in the cold 'garage style' extension but still no complaints compared to others we have stayed. The town could have easily been anywhere from home, large department stores, posh business men and well dressed ladies, numerous cafes, restaurants etc... Whilst it was nice to have some western luxury we hadn't really got the same feelings for Chile so far that we had got for Peru and Bolivia and it being so expensive didn't help change that view either.
 
After breakfast at a nice café on the street with large cake/pancake portions!, we slept some more then over the next two days took in a few sights, the square, the cathedral, another catholic church with lots of young people appropriately eating each other outside, then sampled the local mall of modern shops, ate Kentucky (yuk!), tried a local restaurant where I then became ill again and basically didn't think to much to the place. Mum dragged me like a 5 year old to a hairdressers to have my 7 month dread lock style hair cut which with no English speaking was quite funny and for all of 7 pounds I now have lost all that I had grown and have a bob (well sort of), thanks again mum I DO appreciate it honest!! Then it was our final night bus to our FINAL destination on our Kumuka tour and the end of our magnificent trip. Chile's capital city - Santiago was the place where the last 33 days would sadly be over. Boarding our night bus which was a dreaded double-decker, it was valium unfortunately for me to deal with the 8 hour journey and at 6.30am we pulled into the city.