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Today is my last day in San Pedro Atacama thankfully. Pablo and Luis went out lastnight and as I was getting up they were just getting home - glad I decided to pass on the offer to join them. In the morning I prepared some food for the long bus ride - the company claims to provide snacks but who knows what or how good they will be. I then headed into the town for one last walk around and to change some American dollars as all the ATMs in town charge $8+ to draw money out. I had trouble changing a $5 note I had stashed in my wallet as its condition wasn't so great but luckily today one of the money exchange places changed it for me; meaning I had a few dollars for when I arrive to Santiago. As I had nothing much else to do I went and found a nice park and lied on a bench grabbing some sunshine as I am guessing heading south the weather won't be so nice. I headed back to Luis's and made lunch and had a good chat with him about the prospects of working for him when I return from Easter Island. Basically I would work 8 hours a day - most of this would be in the hostel sitting behind tour desk waiting for new guests (usually morning arrivals), 6 days a week - the pay is $400 a month plus 5% commission which is on average $1000 a month. I am seriously thinking about it as I am sure if I worked a bit harder I could increase sales and thus commission. 2:30pm soon came and it was time to head to the bus station, saying goodbye to San Pedro Atacama for the time being. The bus arrived on time and was almost completely full - my first impressions of Chilean buses is very good - spacious, reclining seats, double deckers, working toilets and an attendant. At our first stop in Calama we picked up more people and the bus was now full- 2.5 hours later we stopped for dinner in the nice coastal town of Arica. We had 20 minutes to get something to eat and when I returned the bus was gone? Just at that moment another Singaporean girl who had been on the bus come and asked me if I new where the bus was - after a scary couple of minutes we realized the bus had pulled out of the parking bay and was out the back of the station filling up on water - thank God. I stood around and chatted with the Singaporean girl who had been on some very interesting travels; working for a New Zealand company out of Calgary Canada for the last 6 months. After boarding the bus again we were given some snack packs of juice and ham sandwiches - perfect for breakfast in the morning. The attendant then came and closed everyone's curtains, gave us all blankets and pillows and turned the lights out whilst putting on a new releases film - wow all this for a $50/24 hour bus ride.
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