3RD - 6TH MARCH

We arrived back in Santiago quite late and went for empanadas for tea!! The next day was spent chilling around the hostel and speaking to just about everyone on skype - we wanted to take advantage of the good internet as we were heading up North and didn’t know when we’d have it again. Pachamama, which means Earth Mother, was the company who were going to take us North up to the Atacama Desert. They basically provide all the transport in a minibus and then we pay for accommodation and activities. All in all it worked out quite favourably in price compared to just getting busses from city to city, and it went on much more interesting routes and via attractions which could otherwise only be reached by expensive local tours. It also gave us discounts on the accommodation and attractions, so all was good!!

We were up at around seven the next day, and showered,

breakfasted and packed by 8.30 - not bad going!! The bus picked us up at around 9 and we were introduced to everyone, who all seemed really sound. We haven’t done many tours since China, as they usually work out much more expensive, and we are experienced enough to sort things out ourselves now, but the thing that makes or breaks a group tour is the group - and first impressions were that this one seemed like they were going to be just fine!!

Our tour guide was Jorge, yep, another one!! And this one was an absolute star!! He had a way of being really enthusiastic about everything, with dramatic pauses in almost every sentence!! The second most important thing in a group tour is the guide, and it was looking like we were going to be ok on that score too!! He was backed up by Rodrigo the driver, who supposedly didn’t speak or understand English, we were later to find out that this was not exactly