Chile (Part I)

I decide not to return but to take a short cut to Chile. The 4x4 leaves me at the edge of a desert lake, no road, just mountains and sand. When over the horizon on an indeterminable track comes a bus. I am hurried on and we visit the lonely customs office, placed like a sugar cube on a empty shelf . Turn right after the mountain and burst onto a tarmac road, yellow lines and sign posts. Its like turning out of a farm gate on to the M1, very odd. My first experience of Chile was disappointing, horrendously expensive for really crappy accomodation almost as bad as Bolivia but six times the price. The walls shake with every step, I can hear every toilet flush,and i am stuck here, not another bus out of the place for three days, great. The rough guide says the mueseum is unmissable so I dont miss it and waste the price of a good meal. I have worked out I can only eat once a day before my cash runs out. hmmmm.

No breakfast and I have a twelve hour journey ahead of me and the remains of one small packet of biscuits. To my utter surprise they serve cooked food on the bus. Its bad, but I was so happy and to round it off they provide a free game of bingo. This kind of makes up for the three hour delay getting into Argentina. Bus full of people, one computer and a single fingered typist records each and every passport detail. Listening to tap, tap, tap, its the modern equivalent of water torture.