08/09/2019 – Travel day San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago, Chile

As we went to sleep last night we realised the ipad had automatically changed the time, and we were in fact an hour ahead of the time we had been living by for the last 24 hours! Woops! We had a nice sleep and gradually got ourselves up and packed. We had a shower and made breakfast in the air bnb kitchen. It was grey and raining – raining in one of the driest places in the world! Typical! We checked out at 13:00 and said goodbye to our host and all the dogs and cats, before walking to the café around the corner called ‘La Franchuteria’ and ordering some sandwiches and coffee. We walked around the corner to the bus station and before long were on the bus on the way to Calama airport, just under 2 hours away. The cleanliness, comfort and timeliness of the bus was an illustration of how different things are in this country in comparison to Bolivia, less than an hour across the border. It is amazing how quickly things change across the borders of South America, and yet again the people look completely different too. I got stuck in to the kindle, reading Haruki Murakami, whilst Josh started on another podcast. I can’t believe how much I love the kindle, after not feeling interested for all these years! They are so light and easy to hold, and take up so little space in the bag! I was instantly a fan! We pulled into Calama airport where we dropped our bags off and went through security. It is funny being able to take water through security here! We browsed the few duty free shops and bought a bottle of water. The accent here is so different, and they speak much faster than Bolivia so we are still adjusting to that. The flight had only been a few pounds more expensive than getting a 30 hour bus South down the country, so we had treated ourselves. We were so excited to go on a plane, we felt so fancy! We boarded the plane and I continued on the kindle and Josh on the podcast. It was a two hour flight down to Santiago. When we arrived we collected our things then got on a bus that went to the centre of the city and connected with the tube system. We got off the bus and went down to the tube system and a kind security man must have spotted us, and helped us sort out our ‘Bip’ card (their version of an Oyster card.) Once we had money on our card, navigating the tube was very similar to navigating the London tube, so we managed pretty easily. It was so refreshing to have an easy way of getting around and we felt pretty comfortable straight away. Plus, Santiago has been voted as the safest capital city in the whole of South America, so although we knew we still had to keep our wits about us, that was also a comforting fact! We got out at our station ‘Matta’ and used Mapps.me to find our air bnb apartment. As we found our door number a taxi pulled up and our host hopped out with his girlfriend. We laughed at the impeccable timing, and then were shown in. Understandably, they speak little English, so we did our best and were made to feel welcome. It is a characterful building, and so central, Josh and I both wandered how our young host came to own such a building, this four bed apartment in Brighton or London would cost so much! As we went through the porch, we squeezed through the tall, double opening, wooden doors with our big rucksacks. Past the doors there was a bedroom either side of the building, one which our host stayed in, and one which his friend rented on the other side. Then there was the lounge, which had a record player and some old tvs, a homemade bookcase and empty beer cans and tobacco scattered around. There was a table and chairs with clothes strewn over it and a couple of acoustic guitars laying around. There was a bathroom with a shower and washing machine, and then our room, a good sized double. In the courtyard were four very excitable dogs. We got the feeling the dogs didn’t ever leave the courtyard and were there only for security reasons. We were warned not to feed them and I got the feeling it would be wise to not go out there and say hello to them! There was a kitchen, another bedroom, and another toilet. It felt pretty studenty and it definitely could do with a bit of a clean, but at the same time it was actually quite nice to be in a house with people of a similar age. Our host had a couple of people round and they played some music on the record player, whilst Josh and I got sorted, and very happily, Josh ordered a pizza on Uber eats. We walked around the corner to the local shops and bought some water and a couple of bits for breakfast. We ate our pizza in bed and put the leftovers in the fridge for the next day, showered, and tucked up into bed.