Thermals and alfresco dining

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We had our first go on South American buses, a 7 hour journey north to the town of La Serena. Incredibly after our previous bus journeys this actually seemed short! We're pleased to report that Chile buses rock, the seats are similar to business class aeroplane seats. Much easier to take a snooze in with the seats near horizontal and a pop out foot rest...bliss.

La Serena was a pit stop enroute to the Atacama Desert and we had intended to see a few of the sights, however we only had 2 days there and plans didn't work out so well. We arrived on a Sunday for starters and it was like a ghost town. The only place open for dinner was a 'local' fast food joint, we bought something big, fried covered in a rainbow of sauces, needless to say we felt a bit iffy later 😞.

So realising we hadn't given ourselves enough time or money we took a stroll to the local beach to see the lighthouse, chilled in the hostel, cooked food (ingredients bought from a real supermarket!), chatted and drank our wine from the Santiago vineyard trip (plus some extra wine 😊) with our lovely neighbours in the hostel.

We were also adapting to the very hot days and freezing nights of Chile, Carla not as well as Jim, when the lovely owner of the hostel, Maria, saw Carla's hands turning white she tested her blood pressure and demanded she drank more red wine, Carla dutifully did as she was told!

Short bus trip down, time for an overnight jaunt. Atacama desert here we come...

Love Jim and Carla
xxx

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