Monday, January 21, 2008

things that go bump in the night ...

So, this is where we slept last night.

After our first driving day (a mere 12 hours) in the truck we arrived at a "ghost town" just over the border into Chile, camping for the night in and around these deserted buildings just off the shoreline highway.

As we pitched camp a Chilean guy pulled over in his car and helpfully informed us that he remembered eating at the restaurant here - before Pinochet decided the have the whole town shot. Such a jolly location.

It wasn't so much the location that aided our sleep last night, more likely the consecutive 3am drinking sessions of the previous evenings as we have been "getting to know" the ten people we're travelling with. Two days in and they all seem like a good bunch, hopefully we'll be able to maintain the general spirit of bonhomie as we hit more challenging conditions over the coming three weeks.

Tomorrow we have another lovely land border crossing back into Argentina. If it's anything like the last one, the trickiest bit will be where our driver swears blind the 10 cartons of cigarettes he has in the cab are "for the whole group". Despite the fact that none of us smoke.

After a visit to the duty free shopping area in Punta Arenas this afternoon, we have a similar strategy in mind for 2 cases of Orangeboom, two bottles of Malbec and a litre of Stoli ...

More news when I can.