Dust, dust more dust, tours and a funny tummy :(

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I flew from Santiago to Calama in Northern Chile after a bit of stress with losing the small peice of paper they give you at the airport which is apparently needed when you leave the country but I didn´t know this so possibly threw it away eek! After a visit to the police station (which was hilarious as 3 Chilean officers tried to understand me and vice versa!) calls to the NZ embassy and a bit of running around at the airport I managed to get a duplicate copy, god if only I spoke the language!!

I then bused to San Pedro de Atacama a small desert town that exists for lines and lines of tour companys and touts trying to sell you tours and invite you for free pisco sours (a chilean spirit) in order to get you into their establishment. I met a couple of people from my dorm who invited me to lunch. I had a free pisco sour but immediately felt very light headed and decided that I might avoid alcohol for a bit due to the altitude!

Over the following few days I filled my time with tours. I went to the Cegur lagoon which is located on the salt flats and therefore has lots of salt in and enables you to float almost on top of the water, I tried my hand at sandboarding and then went into Valley de Luna (or moon valley to catch the sights and the sunset which was amazing!

After 4 days I was ready to leave on a 4x4 tour to Bolivia but unfortunately was hit with what I think was giardia and felt like crap (literally!) so I had to postpone my trip a couple of days (not something the tour company was very happy with and there were many a harsh word said 😞 ) and take it easy. I was REALLY ready to leave when Saturday came as San Pedro doesn´t really have much else to offer other than tours, heat and a lot of sand!

See the pics below...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275137&id=594416894&l=bf1e1778da

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