Today we dragged ourselves out of bed for an early start on a tour to the Elqui Valley. It gets lighter later in Chile compared to Peru and Bolivia, so getting out of bed early is more difficult (although at least we're not getting up in pitch blackness as we would most likely be doing at home by now!) We were switching hostels as we had reserved our first choice (Hostel El Punto) for the following 3 nights. Hostel El Punto is run by a German couple and conseque...

Ahead of schedule we arrived in La Serena at 5am instead of 9am. This caught us off guard as we were both asleep. Slightly dishevelled we got our bearings and headed for the first hostel. Like San Pedro most places we tried were fully booked due to the holiday. We loitered around on the streets like professional travellers waiting for places to open - more like tramps actually. We managed to find a possible place to stay in Maria's Hostel. Just in case they didn'...

Not a lot to report today - the majority of it taken up by a long bus journey! We woke late at about 9am and stayed in our rooms until checkout at midday. The morning was leisurely - watching a bit of TV, repacking our rucksacks and munching on a few biscuits for breakfast. We made another skype call and managed to speak to Scott's niece. It was a relief to have had a bed for the night after the events of yesterday. I would have to say that apart from the first f...