Our flights out of Brazil were going to test the strength of my nerves and the efficiency of south american efficiency. Our itinerary included two layovers and flights with three different providers. We thought either our luggage isn't going to arrive - or even we might not make it to Santiago as planned. But, I am incredibly impressed with how seamlessly the day came together. We checked our bags the whole way through to our final destination, and although we had to collect boarding passes from the next carrier every time we arrived in transit - still managed to make our connections without any difficulties. We arrived on time, as did our luggage, and we even bought bus tickets and checked into our hostel an hour earlier than we were expecting. Our hostel was a cute little place not far from where we stayed last time. I'm not sure whether I was overly hard on Santiago last time, but this time the city felt different, more inviting. Perhaps it was due to the fact that we were more comfortable in our surroundings - and in general there were lots of more people about.
We made the most of our day in Santiago - between watching the impact of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and across the pacific, exploring the fish market, going to the Bellas Artes museum, through to stocking up on toiletries and other necessities (Ladies - let me tell you, its very hard to find tampons in South America). We have since perfected the art of making veggie/tuna pasta in hostels regardless of the size of the kitchen. We headed off to our night time bus to San Pedro de Atacama - Bernard got the last seat in Cama (he's tall - he needs the room) whereas I took the semi-cama seat upstairs, which proved to be a good move given the bus wasn't completely full. I ended up moving to a spare seat at the end of the bus and remarkably ended up sleeping rather well.
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