We started in Chile way up in the north in San Pedro de Atacama. The de Atacama part refers to the desert that it is situated in, and it really was very very dry and dusty. Town proper was only four or five blocks square of shops, a wee plaza, a church or two, and a whole heap of hostels. It was one of those towns where just about everybody else on the street was foreign too (or at least on holiday).

We had a really good time renting some bikes and pedalling out to a ruined incan-period fortress on the edge of town. The fortress was built on a steep bluff overlooking the river, and without much investment in the way of walls the locals were able to fight off the Spanish twice when the came a calling.

We pretty quickly ran out of enthusiasm for the desert and started heading down the coast to Santiago. We broke our trip at La Serena which was a pretty ordinary town where ordinary folk go about their lives, nothing much for tourists to do but wonder why half the student population of the town were dressed in designer rags and were begging for money. My big excitement in La Serena though was that directly behind the bus terminal was a great big mall, complete with a movie theatre showing Watchmen. It was even in english as they don't seem to get around to redubbing things before the DVD release.

To all my geeky friends out there if you have not read the original Watchmen comic or seen the movie you are missing out. But if your not that geeky (or at least nerdy) you should probably avoid it.

Anyways Santiago beckoned and we pretty quickly heeded its call.