Chile...part 2

We rush to the bus terminal to make sure there is a seat available for me on their bus...3 seats left! (horseshoe)
I travel 5 hours by bus through the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world, 1674 km north of Santiago. The Atacama desert is home to giant sand dunes, salt pillars, boiling geysers and a volcano. None of which I saw besides the sand dunes.

Iquique is where I stayed for the past 3 nights. A fairly small coastal/beach city.

Anyways, the family brings me back to their place, shows me to my own room and explains that their house is my house. Their apartment - super nice! Overlooking the ocean!
I had a wonderful sleep after a late night ´´once´´ (a small dinner). Woke up to a traditional Chilean breakfast of bread with cheese and ham, toast, tea, coffee and juice. Walked downtown, checked out some of the sites, had lunch with Lily and then spent the evening at the beach.
Tuesday, slept in and sat by the pool all afternoon. 30plus degree weather is fine with me! The boys and I stayed up late playing cards and having a blast trying to teach eachother spanish and english. Wednesday morning, Lily´s husband, Carlos, came home and took us to the local museum. This is wehre the oldest mummy in the world is on display. Very interesting! That night, the son of Carlos arrived, adding one more person to the mix. We stayed up late eating cake, drinking wine and once again, trying to converse in broken ´´Spanglish´´
My new friends in Chile made my stay extremely enjoyable! Muchas gracias por todos!

I caught an early morning flight at 08:00 to Santiago. Instead of taking a taxi to my hostel, I decided to go with public transportation....lol
Let´s just say it worked out. I took a bus to the metro where this lady asked if I needed assistance (I msut have had the ´deer in the headlights´ look while wandering around the metro station). Nah, I think she overheard me ask someone for directions. Anyways, she basically took me by the hand, paid for my ticket and explained exactly where to get off!

I plan to spend another day in Santiago and then head to the coast for a fwe days before flying to Argentina.

See my dad in 6 days!!!!!