Crapy couple of days

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Well it turns out you can have an average time in South America sometimes, my last few days since I left Viña del Mar have been much les then enjoyable, check this out.  I got to Vicuña after a 8hr overnight busride from Viña and it was cloudy. now usually that wouldn't bother me but half the reason I went there was for the World class Oservatory that's there which of course needs a clear night for a decent view of the the stars. so with the just about overhead-projector style slide show of our solar system and a two second peep at the moon when it showed itself for a couple of minutes and all dished up by someone who hardly new any english and even less about stars, our tour sucked ass. 25days in the year there are clouds in this vally, "so I guess you could could say that we're pretty lucky" said one overly optimistic Australian chic... whatever. The next day I went to the Pisco factory which is also there though so that almost made it worth the $4 return busride from La Sarena. After that, while I was waiting for my north bound bus I spent $20 ringing Peru only to find out that my Inca trail to Machu Pichu hadn't been confirmed for some reason, and that since there's a month waiting list at the moment I'm now going to have to wait an extra two weeks on the two weeks I had planned on. bugger. and so while I was fast asleep on the 15hr overnight busride to Calama in the north, dreaming about what I was going to do in Bolivia and Peru for an extra two weeks, a couple of wankers on my bus thought it would be a great idea to rob the stupid gringo that left his bag on the seat beside him while he was asleep. My Camera, my Phototainer thats got every single photo I've taken so far on it, and about 40 bucks worth of money out of my wallet, all gone. And if it wasn't for my mockable trait of having to take a photo of absolutely everything, I would never have seen any of it again. As it turned out though, one of Gods angels woke me up just on sunrise for my first ever view of the dessert and just 10mins out from Antofagasta where the robbers where about to run off with my treasure. So as I was searching for my camera to capture this special moment I realized what had happend and managed to get them to stop the bus at the police stop just outside the city. and 15mins later we were back on the road and I had everything back accept for a bit of cash because the yellow-belly bad guys had stashed my things in the toilet rubbish bin while we were all off talking to the police and one of the porters found them. yeeeeehhaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! So I was very happy there for a while, until I got off the bus at the "fsat developing town" Calama, to find my self in the tail end of the worst sand storm in 5yrs. now again usually I would of thought that was pretty cool, apart from that the only reason I stopped at Calama was to visit the biggest mine in the world which they've got there but because of the excesive wind the tours weren't running
for the next couple of days. little ripper. So I had to stay a night in Calama which is just basically a little mining town with a whole lot of haircut shops and "Cafés con piernas"(Coffee with legs - which basically means you sit there drinking your coffee, watching topless woman with long legs walking around serving you), but I didn't try either of them so I've still got my dreads and my innocent little russ. 😊

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Photos

The Pisco factory in in Vacuna
Pisco is the national drink here in Chile so this is like - really cool!

Sample time
This photo doesn't really do her justice, honest she was hot!

Pisco grapes vineyard.
To make Pisco they first make a wine that is about 70% alcohol, let it sit for a few weeks until it's abit closer to 75-80%, then water it down and add the rest of the ingredients for Pisco, which is a white spirit sort of like vodka, and is usially served up as a "pisco sour" with lime and lemon juice. nice, but a bit strong for me

They BIGgest mine in the world - at a very safe distance.
this is the best view I got of it but I did think that this giant tonka truck was pretty cool. when I was standing next to it the wheels where a good metre over my head.