22nd November

By this time we needed money, maps of Chile, and the obligatory third party insurance for the car, so we headed off towards Calama and Antofagasta to get a few things sorted out. It was a slow drive from El Tatio to Calama via the villages of Caspana and Chiu Chiu, but the road was a lot easier than the one we had come up on the day before.

Calama is a small town, and a good stopping off point for lunch - empanadas - catching up on emails and getting some more Chilean Pesos. Ed managed to get a new horn for the Weasel (our previous one stopped working in Uyuni). Not a brilliant sounding horn - it sounds more like that off a Reliant Robin - but it does the job! No luck on getting maps, so that would have to wait until we got to Antofagasta.

By the time we reached Chile's second largest city, Antofagasta, we were exhausted. It had been a long day and we had been up very early. Not wanting to contend with city traffic, and intent on making the most of the warm, sunny weather, we drove along the seafront and headed just out of town to one of the organised campsites dotted along the beach. The one we stopped at had individual sites with picnic table and canopy, electricity, BBQ and a view directly onto the beach. The only downside was that it was on a main road and promised to be a noisy night - it was Saturday night and there would be lots of noise from the big nightclub across the road. But we were so exhausted, nothing could keep us awake.