Peter and I left Chiloe and went to Puerto Montt. Peter´s birthday is boxing day, the 26th of December. The only sit down restaurant we could find was a place in a mall food court that only served things on french fries. Chicken, chili, chicken and chili, cheese... We went back to the hotel and watched Waterworld on tv. He´s probably had better birthdays.

The next day I flew back to Santiago, and then to Calama. Calama is in northern Chile. A short bus ride away is San Pedro de Atacama. From San Pedro I am going to cross the desert by 4x4 into Bolivia, assuming that I can get across the Bolivian border. They can be hard on Americans.

We leave tomorrow, and I´ve been killing time until then. I got in on New Year´s Eve, met up with a couple of very nice Colombians, both named Miguel, and ended up at a rave in the desert, Death Valley, until 5 am. Then one of the Miguels and I hitchhiked back into town in the back of a pickup. The next day I went sandboarding and to see the sunset at the Valley of the Moon.

The internet at my hostel is unreliable at best, so I can´t write more at the moment. I leave tomorrow for the three day trip in a jeep into Bolivia. I´ll have more details in Bolivia. Including about the new year´s celebrations in South America, which are pretty exciting.