Bolivia & Chile - Atacama Desert

From Uyuni we drove through another old mining town called San Christobal. It used to be located a few miles up the hill but the whole town was relocated when this American firm bought the mine and decided its inhabitants were better off in the valley than on a hill. mmm

Before we reached the Bolivian/Chilean border, we pasted through a series of lakes, that due to various mineral deposits were coloured either red, green, white, blue, etc. Laguna Verde being the most impressive, as it had a huge volcano directly behind it and it´s waters a brilliant blue/green. Another cool thing about them is the minerals in the water alow the temperature to reach even minus 20 and the water doesn´t freeze.

The Atacama desert stars immediately as you come down the high Altoplano, and it is supposed to be the drist desert in the world. I could see why, no a shrub of plant life anywhere, for miles! Only the odd cactus survives out there. Thank goodness our truck didn´t do a tits up on us!

The only real point of interest we pass on the way besides the lakes, was the town of San Pedro. It was pretty dry and primitive, but I managed to befriend a local guy and got to watch the Boks vs Kiwis game at his place. Sucks ass we lost it though, come on Bokke! I also picked up some bug in San Pedro too and spent the most part of two days throwing up and sick as a dog. Blasted bugs!

The border crossing into Chile was painFul to say the least. They had us unload all our bags and went through them, looking for awooden things and plants that weren´t allowed in. Pips had bough a picture in Copacabana and the frame had spiders in it, Luckily they just killed them and let us take it..

Chile = boring! We´ve arrived in Santiago now, but for the past week we have spent driving pretty much every day through baron wasteland, and there ain´t much to report on. We camped a few nights and the rest tried to upgrade to rooms, as winter has arrived and it´s blurry cold aye! We got to do some star gazing at an observatory in Vicuna which was pretty cool. The guide could have been Borats brother, v amusing stuff, is niiiice!

Santiago looks to be a pretty decent city, although the white fog has manged to entent it´s reach inland and we haven´t seen the sky for the past few days. The Dragoman trip itself has offically ended today, and most of us are leaving either tomorrow or the day after. Next stop - New Zealand baby. Watch this space!