A Christmas road trip

---

After the previous night, it was probably quite lucky we'd only been able to hire a car from 2pm, as it gave myself and Rob (the named drivers) time to shake off any wool betwen the ears.

By 2 though, the wool was gone, and we went to pick up our very own Christmas sleigh. Or Nissan, as this happened to be called. And there were no reindeers either in case you were wondering. The bags were loaded into the back, and the 6 of us piled in. Which was a bit of a problem as it was only meant to seat 5, so those in the back had a bit of a tight squeeze.

Rob took the first leg of driving, and drove us successfully through the Atacama to Quillaga, apparently the official driest place in the world, which was quite an appropriate place to stop for a drink. Then it was my turn to take the wheel. I'd never driven on the right side of the road before, or on the left side of a car, so the first few minutes were a little wierd. I soon got the hang of it though, and we were flying down the PanAmerican towards Iquique. One more stop for food, and another change of driver, and we were there. Mission complete.

The first problem came when the hostel was having it's Xmas dinner tonight and not tomorrow. As we had arrived after the supermarket shut, this left us with the prospect of not having any food for Xmas dinner. There were more important things at hand though, such as the Xmas booze, so a quick trip to the offy rewarded us with a bottle of rum apiece for tomorrow. With no food to speak of, it could have been an early finish to Xmas day!

So to the 25th. Sadly, the hostel breakfast of bread and jam wasn't quite as good as the eggs and ham we have at home. However, this was swiftly followed by a swim in the Pacific, which definitely isn't possible in Huddersfield. At least it wasn't the last time I checked. Myself and Rob then went on a hunt for the food, and luckily found one shop open. The selection wasn't great, but we now had something to work with!

Provisions collected, there was time for another quick swim before the first beer of Xmas was cracked open, and we went to see if Bryce could catch us some fish to go with our dinner. He couldn't. I had a go to see if I could get some nice Pacific crab instead. I couldn't. So it was back to the kitchen to start working with what we had.

Somehow, in all the confusion, I seemed to have been appointed as one of the head chefs of the Xmas dinner. I think this is because I was making the Yorkshire Puddings, and all the whisking, egg breaking, flour sieving and so forth made me look very chef like. Therefore, I happily stayed put in the kitchen and "oversaw" as the potato salad and pigs in blankets came together. My bottle of rum also happened to be in the kitchen, which might have helped my decision to stay there.

A couple of hours, and just the one ruined Yorkshire pudding later (out of a batch of 7) Xmas dinner was served. Pigs in blankets, Yorkshire Puddings, baked onions, fried tomatoes, potato salad and... erm... hot dogs. A nice mix of traditional and new age I'm sure you'll agree. It was all very nice, and I was particularly pleased that my Yorkshire Puddings went down well with those that had never tried them before. I make good Yorkshires I do.

Christmas Day is always a good time for games, and luckily the hostel had table tennis, table football and pool, so we were well catered for in that department. These kept us occupied until the wee hours, whereupon I headed to bed, and some headed out. A good day.

A slightly lazy start on Boxing Day meant we didn't have much time to drive all the way back to San Pedro before we'd be charged another days rental on the car. Some speedy driving on Rob's behalf got us to Calama with a realistic chance of beating the 4pm deadline. But then we did something foolish. We stopped at a shopping centre. About an hour later the girls finally emerged, and now we were late. Fortunately the rental place didn't mind, so it was to the BBQ for us, and Paraguayan steak.

I would end this by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but as it's January that would be slightly foolish. Hope you all had a good one though.

Stewart

---

Photos

Sunset on Xmas Day
Iquique

Along the PanAmerican
I wasn't driving at this point