So.. Sept 22nd 2006 Take 2; somehow Katy and I timed things perfectly and found oursleves walking towards each other off our respective flights (hers from Buenos Aires) have to say was very relieved this was the case given the amount you get harrassed the minute you walk through from arrivals! Before I go on... just for those who don't know, Katy and I are friends from home (via our lovely mutual friends Zoe and Nicky - Hi Girlies!) and had arranged while I was in Sydney to spend the first 3 weeks of my time in South America travelling together. She has 6 weeks leave before heading back to London to start working far too hard as a Lawyer so this was her time to party... who was I to complain!!
Once we'd worked our way through the mob at the airport and found ourselves a taxi to a hostel in the city; La Casa Roja, we checked in, both of us exhausted but decided it was sensible to keep oursleves awake until a respectable hour for going to bed..in an attempt to beat the jet lag! We busied ourselves for the afternoon, having lunch, getting some money changed and booking our bus up to San Pedro de Atacama, in Northern Chile... where we planned to do the tour of the Salt Flats and cross over to Bolivia from. This was where our thoughts of a nice warm bed were firmly put to rest (pardon the pun!). Thanks to the only availability on buses being 3 days later or that very evening, cos of time limitations we had no choice but to opt for the bus leaving that night at 9pm... I was meant to be sound asleep by then!!! Ah well!!
And that's how it came to be that we found ourselves boarding a bus for a 24 hour journey to the nroth of Chile. It was a shame we didn't have time to check out Santiago but I'm told that it's not all that anyway and I already have Easter Island on my list of places still to visit so I'm sure Santiago will feature in that somewhere! We did manage a little look round when we went for lunch and to book the bus and I have to say the one thing I noticed about the city was that my name was everywhere.... there were streets named after me, launderettes, shops and metro stations! It was even commented on when I checked in at the hostel... ok, so I'm sure 'Mr Ricardo Cumming', whoever he may be, might object to me claiming it's all named after me but hey, I think I'll risk it anyway!! Luckily the buses in Chile are pretty luxurious.... they include food and semi reclining seats, that recline back enough for sleep to not be too difficult... that said I could've slept on a cold concrete floor with no blankets I was that tired!!
In fairness the journey didn't prove too painful... probably cos I was asleep for most of it but hey!.. (the first pic on this entry is us half way through the bus journey) we had to change in Calama, 23 hours in and luckily were guided to the bus from there to San Pedro by a very sweet Chilean named Gilbert who took a little shine to our Katy, even giving her a cheeky little squeeze when they posed for a requested photo....!! It was a blessing he was there though or I'm not entirely sure how we'd have found our way to the other bus. We did though and an hour later arrived in San Pedro.. slightly concerningly we were dropped in the middle of nowhere and as it was dark we decided the sensible thing was to get a taxi to a hostel. We picked a slightly micer hotel; Takha Takha - we'd decided we deserved it and the real clincher was that it offered 24 hour hot water.... trust me, a luxury I couldn't wait to make use of!We worked out that by the time we reached San Pedro, Katy had been travelling for 36 hours and I'd been on the road for 54 hours!!!! Ouch!!! Definetely the longest journey I've ever done... and i thought the 23 hours from Bangkok to Phi Phi way back in December was bad!!
Now, you would think that the sensible thing to do after travelling for that long would be to go to bed.... so we went out!! Obviously!! We decided we deserved a drink after surviving our mamouth journey plus we'd been together for nearly 2 days and still hadn't had a drink together. We were too tired to care what we looked like and have to admit, skanky as it is, other than cleaning our teeth, we went out as we were... as you can probably tell from the picture above, with our first drink together!!! The plan was we'd just have one cheeky drink then head to our beds, with nothing to get up for the next day we were both looking forward to a lovely long lie in! As you can probably all guess... those 'quiet nights' never quite go according to plan so you'll not be surprised to learn that a mere few hours later we found ourselves at a very random Gay Chilean's party in the middle of nowhere being charmed by the likes of odd 
magicians and 2 lads who were to become our friends during our time in San Pedro; Ian (Argentinian) and Ceaser (Peruvian.. shown giving Katy a cheeky dance lesson above!!!!).... all in all it was a very comical, unexpected night and a sample of South American hospitality. It didn't take us too long to want nothing but our beds, plus the lack of a bathroom other than in the darkness, speeded up the desire to be back at the hotel... so we finally made it into proper bed, a few pisco sours later... I can't tell you what bliss it was!! x
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