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All bussed out and no room at the inn
I´ve messed up my time in Chile a bit due to illness and a cancelled tour (and I had it all so perfectly planned!). Anyway, headed south from San Pedro via Antofagasta and Copiapó. I´d planned to stay a couple of nights in Antofagasta so that I could visit some natural arch recommended in the Rough Guide (by the way, aside from all the spelling mistakes in the guide there are also plenty of factual errors - what tin pot outfit publishes it anyway?!). However, I balked a bit when I arrived at the accommodation I´d booked that was mentioned in the guide. I´ve taken photographic evidence of its scariness (it´s possible in fact that it was a lunatic asylum judging by the clientele). Someone had scrawled a note on the wall of my room: Dios mio ayudame (My god, help me), which described my feelings exactly! I ventured out and was accosted by a drunk in the street and another madman in the supermarket. I don´t understand this Chilean Spanish very well but I did make out him saying I was beautiful (clearly a basket case) and then he kept talking about my feet! Needless to say I cancelled my second night´s stay and hot-footed it off to my next destination, Copiapó. A 7-hour bus journey later I arrived but couldn´t find any accommodation, so thought I might as well give Copiapó a miss and hop on the next bus to La Serena (only another 6 hours away). Fortunately there was a bus straight away ... I arrived in the middle of the night to find all the hostels full, but luckily one of the hostel owners found me a room in her sister´s place. Now, this is all very strange as I haven´t seen any other gringos in town: are they all hiding inside their hostels? I´ve now found a place in a German hostel (everything works like clockwork and is perfectly regimented of course) and have too much time in La Serena, especially as it´s so cold here (it´s chilly in Chile ... oh dear ...). I thought it was supposed to be the end of Spring here. Oh well, off for a wander ...
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