9th December La Serena – Bahia Inglses 252 miles

I know everyone is waiting for photos, please bear with us as we have now got them all transferred from Martins defunct computer to mine and are in the process of sorting an upload, sorry for the long delay.
Today, Martin is up first as usual, but not early, about 10.30, he has another cold shower. Another family staying at the same place sort the boiler and I have a hot shower. Martin is once again in damp clothes relying on his body to dry them but i have some dry stuff.
We meet a chap called Marcela Coleman, a good old English name but he is as Chilean as they come. Talking to him and his wife we establish where to camp near Copiopo.
So gas up and away and we soon go into the Atacama Region and it all feels quite desolate all of a sudden. Its amazing, we travel through miles of nothing and suddenly see a sign for children at school and a tiny village emerges and we the do another 50 – 60 miles and the same again. Again the roads are fantastic winding through the mountains, climbing, climbing and then descending.
This road on a map is a red road and there is a major town on it and being accustomed to maps at home it is strange to disappear into a desert and come into a town that you could blink through and yet on a map appears to be the size of Guildford.
We arrive at Copiapo and gas up and move off to find a campsite. We go past the mine, although we have seen no signs, where the miners were trapped, we will try to visit this tomorrow. We are finally set up in a campsite and also manage to get the route for the Dakar tomorrow.