The plan was to go to Valle de Elqui today but it was raining so after mulling it over during breakfast we decided to give it a miss. The rest of the morning was spent forward planning. Even though we have about 60 days left before our flight back to London, we're beginning to think that we're running out of time. We took a wander into the town for some lunch in a colonial patio cafe. The menu del diá was basic but the food was good and the beer was cold. ...

The bed was really comfy at Maria's Casa and we slept longer than expected. We were in no rush though and had a leisurely breakfast. It was nice being able to sit round a big table in the warm morning air. After breakfast we took a walk down to the bus station to get tickets for the bus to Santiago on Thursday morning. We then continued walking towards the coast and El Faro. The lighthouse wasn't as big as expected but the coast didn't look particularly rock...

The bus took nearly 18 hours to arrive in La Serena, but we were surprisingly rested after long journey despite the guys behind being quite loud with their music and talking at 5am. We were given a little snack in the morning, a packet of sweet biscuits and a carton of orange juice to tide us over until we arrived at our destination mid morning. Andreas, from 'Maria's Casa' where we were staying, was waiting at the bus station to walk us to the hostel which was...