We got up at around 5:30am today. Everyone was in slow motion, especially the german girls. Andreas was rushing all of us because if we took too much time, we were not going to make it to our bus to Chile at 10:30am.

Our first destination this morning was the geysers which are holes with hot air bursting out from the pressure from the volcanoes. We then were just in time to see the sun rise through the horizon of the desert...a really beautiful site. We stopped for breakfast at these hot springs. There was a giant pool that had water that was warmed from the volcanoes. I went into the pool along with Stephanie and Olivia. It felt sooo good! The german girls just put their feet in, because they did not want to face the cold if they would have completely soaked their whole body (it wasn't that bad...).

Andreas prepared us a very nice, big breakfast with fruit and cake! Afterwards, we had time to see la laguna verde, and then catch our busride. It was a bit sad to have to leave. We all took one last picture together and left Andreas at the border while we left Bolivia.

The bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama was about one hour. We arrived in Chile at around 12pm and had to go through customs. Stephanie and I then started looking for a hostel (since the others had already found one and there was no more place in those hostels).

We found a hostelling international hostel (finally my membership to HI will serve a purpose!), and then decied to go for lunch. I got to know Stephanie a little more (she was able to open up a little), and found out about her ambitions and boyfriend. She is really a great girl, once she soffens up a little. Afterwards, we went to go buy our bus tickets (i was going to Santiago and she was going to La Serena). We then met up with Olivia, Becky and James and went to a pastery shop that my book recommended.

Becky and James were newlyweds that, after 3 years of dating, got maried, and now were on a 6 month honeymoon around the world. I found that so amazing, and thought to myself that if they can survive this trip, they will have a really healthy marriage. It kind of gave me the idea of doing the same thing when I get married (if I would be able to with my job, and my future wife's job). We ended up staying there until 5pm. I then decided to go on the internet for a bit. We were all going to meet up at 7:30pm for supper.

When supper came along, we went to a place that the waiter at the pastery shop recommended to us. We spoke to the owner at the door and she told us that she had a complete menu for 5500 pesos (about 11 USD, you can see the difference in price compared to Peru and Bolivia!). The menu included salmon (finally a healthy dish!). When the waiter came along, he told us that the price was actually 7500 pesos. We asked to see the owner again, and when she came back, she said, again, that it was 5500 pesos. She even offered us free classes of wine for alll of the trouble (how nice!).

After our wonderful meal (by the way, the wine was one of the best wines that I tried in my life!), the waiter fronted us the bill, which he charged 7500 pesos per person. Now we were mad at this point, so again, we asked to speak to the owner...the owner came and told us that she told us before that the price was 7500 pesos! We ended up fighting with her for a while threatening to tell everyone not to come to this restaurant (how can she just lie in our faces like that, and expect to get away with it?). After a while of making a scene, the owner finally said that we can pay what we feel is fair. We paid 5500 pesos plus a 5% tip...that was fair.

When we walked out of the restaurant, the waiters ended up chasing us down the street as if we just dined and dashed, however, the owner called them back saying that it was taken care of. What an experience for our first night in Chile!

After supper, I decided to go to back to the hostel. I was so tired. Stephanie and I were glad that we could sleep in tomorrow! After 3 days in the desert with barely enough sleep, we were due for a nice cozy sleep...