The drive was long, flat and tiring yet stunningly beautiful. Snow capped volcanoes loomed around us, flat arid plains stretched out before us and the colours were kaleidoscopic.  Yellow, green, silver, blue, grey, crisp white and all against a perfect cloudless blue sky.

As we neared the border we couldn’t believe how stunning its setting was. Crystal clear lakes reflected the snow capped volcanoes back at us, black volcanic rock shone in the gleaming sun and the wind made mini tornadoes in the sands.

We decided to film the border crossing as part of our documentation of the trip and it wasn’t until we started that we realised we had arrived with a fridge full of food. It was the most ‘proper’ looking border we had seen for months and months and knew straight away we were going to be fridge raided! There were signs telling us where to go, the staff were wearing uniform and walkie talkies and it looked like they had a good system in place!! Damn it!!!

We climbed out of Peggy into the mountain top wind and completed our paperwork, emptied our fridge and even had our conkers taken from us all the way from Seattle! It was sad as they reminded me of our day in the park with Jonas and Mary!

We drove away from the windy stop with an empty fridge and long faces but the scenery was too amazing to be miserable for too long. As we drove through the Lauca National park we passed a tiny sign for a natural thermal pool. We needed a shower after 4 days on the road so we decided this would be the place. We navigated the bumpy narrow dirt track and after 10 km the road ended. There weren’t any signs or anything to tell us if it was open or closed or to even indicate the pools were there so we went to explore. We found 4 tiny natural pools just big enough for one person, like a hole in the mud deep enough to stand in filled with water flowing out of the mountain heated by the volcano we were on. I didn’t fancy going in those and was sure I would come out no cleaner or minus a lower leg so carried on looking. We soon came across a tiled pool with water pouring directly out of the volcano into it from a great height. There was no-one around to pay or to ask if we could go in so we got into our swim stuff and Alex jumped in…and straight back out instantly as red as a lobster straight from the pot!

The water was BOILING hot! I managed to get a squady wash with the hot water outside of the pool and Alex got in slowly, piece by piece and managed to get a wash and we light-headedly made our way back to Peggy feeling like we had been through a boil wash!

We carried on with the drive to get to the coast, and passed through fields sparkling with salt and watched vultures circling as we completed the rest of our arduous 600 km day.
We hit Arica hard and found a HUGE supermarket where we found loads of things we have been looking for for ages! A chopping board, great wine (and REALLY cheap), oil for Peggy and cup a soups!!! We loved it and spent hours browsing the shelves! Next stop was to find the beach and find somewhere quiet to sleep. We drove along the beautiful coastline listening to the Ocean crash on the beach and found a quiet lay-by to sleep in.

A few cars came and went but not enough to disturb our dinner or our sleep, we woke up bright and early to the sound of the waves crashing and enjoyed our breakfast watching the gulls dive for fish right outside of our van window. We spent the day parked by the beach refitting Peggy’s thermostat, adding oil and having a spring clean, after all of the mechanics in and out of the van it was a mess and of course cleaning one thing makes everything else look dirty so I cleaned while Alex tinkered under the engine cover and scrubbed the carpets.

After our day of ‘rest’ we spent the next 2 driving solidly and covered a whopping 1200 km! The landscape along the road barely changed all the way, we drove through deserted desert plains, through Iquique which was a city backed by a HUGE sand dune and through more desert, more than you can imagine. With very little to see we got our pedal to the metal only to stop as the sun started to set.

We stopped for the night on the beach at Pan de Azucar (described as a powder fine white sand beach) and by the time we got there it was dark. We found a quiet spot to camp and woke up on a muddy looking beach and were quite disappointed that it was definitely out of season and we were definitely not going to catch a glimpse of a penguin or two as we had hoped. We packed up and set out on a different road back to the highway for another long day driving and stumbled upon miles and miles of powder fine white sand with not a thing on it. Not a rock, not a person, not a bird for miles and miles! We ran onto the sand and walked all the way to the Ocean and watched a flock of seagulls land nearby. We could have spent the day there if we weren’t so far away from our destination!

On our drive that day we stopped by a huge hand sprouting from the ground! We hadn’t even bothered to get dressed as we were going to be driving all day and chose to be comfortable so running around this humongous hand in my PJ’s was quite a good laugh! We finally made it to a lovely little town called Bahia Inglesa where we decided to stop for a day and try to finalise the  Chilean wedding plans.

Bahia Inglesa was beautiful, a small beach with turquoise water rushing to greet you on the sand, a few small independent restaurants and several craft stalls along the edge of the beach. I imagine in season it being packed but for us it was perfectly quiet and free of tourists. We had ceviche overlooking the blue water and blue sky and caught up on the internet and with our friends further down the Chilean coast. The wedding was on! It gave us a few days to spare so we relaxed, found a place to get a REAL shower after 8 days and camped literally on the sand.

We found the local fish market and got ourselves some fish which we watched being expertly filleted and then nearly had to share it with Rodriguez, the local Sealion who watches over the market with his family! He was HUGE and very much the poser!

We had a great few days there and soon had to hit the road again, we had wedding 22 to get to!!!

Can you tell we have been pleased to have a camera back? Enjoy the pictures and here is Rodriguez.