27/11/09 - Diane...

... is not a morning person. I've never met anyone who has had quite this much difficulty getting up. I'm not entirely sure she realized that 4am existed. To give an example of just how much she dislikes mornings, here is a shot of her at one of today's sites.

And yes, that is her sleeping bag.

We visited several sites with volcanic activity today, and all was good until Luke wanted a group shot among steam with Rob and I. As soon as we were among it, it started spewing out in greater quantities and that does not smell good.

We had lunch at a nearby hot spring after having a quick dip. Being in it was wonderful but getting out was absolutely freezing as it was still early morning.

Our last stop before we left the national park and crossed the border into Chile was the Green Lagoon and it was best of the group.

Getting into Chile was considerably easier than getting into Bolivia and we were soon in San Pedro. As a result of tourism the prices here are nearly at European levels but that should change once we move on. It is a considerable shock after Bolivia, especially since it is 800 pesos to a pound. All the prices sound huge.

In the evening a group of us went out to the local bar (once we managed to find one, they prefer restaurants here). Upon leaving we craved chips, so went to try and find the equivalent of a chippy. Instead ten minutes later we found ourselves sitting in a restaurant with a proper meal in front of us. I'm still not entirely certain how this happened.