Smuggling Rodrigo into Chile ...

So as I said we caught a bus into San Pedro de Atacama on Friday morning with Rodrigo in a zip lock bag in between Liv´s boobs. The people on our Salar tour told us we should be careful about bringing anything into Chile because they check everything and are very stricked. I had to chuck my Coca leaves.. not that I would use them.. they´re pretty disgusting. We past the border and drove into San Pedro de Atacama, where customs is. We got our bags searched and were on our way. It was that difficult concealing Rody though, we just left him in the bus. Could have smuggled in a kilo of Cocaine into Chile and left it in the bus, no one would have known!
The bus driver took us to several cash points until we were able to get money out. It was Good Friday and therefore, the cash points were litterally empty! Lucky Michael has a Mastercard. The only card able to withdraw cash for some reason! Shame for him though, us beeing hungry all the time didn´t make him a happy bunny! The currency here is the Chilean Peso and 10 000 is about 12 pounds! So everything seems very expensive.. well it is in comparison to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador! We are actually in a civilized country now!
So besides the fact that we were stranded in San Pedro with hardly any money, we still managed to celebrate Liv's birthday. We went out for dinner and then made our way to this desert party that everyone talks about. You're told to follow the crowds so that's what we did. It was freezing and there we were walking out of San Pedro into the country side. We ended up getting a ride to a small house in the middle of nowhere. You had to pay 1000 pesos to get in which is about 1 pound 30. The place was packed and playing loud music. I danced away the night to Chilean Salsa.
On Saturday, we decided to rent mountain bikes! Yes that machine that I almost killed myself with on death road! The terrain is not quite so dangerous here so I thought I would be fine! We set off around midday (planned time was 9 am! I knew that wouldn't happen!) and headed north torwards Quitor and what we thought was Quebrada del Diablo (The Devil's Gorge) only to realize we had biked in a loop for 3 hours and were back in freaking San Pedro!! It was quite a hilarious moment when I recognized the market just at the beggining of town! So we had lunch and set off in the other direction which led us to the Devil´s Gorge. Google it because it´s quite beautiful. We biked through the canyons of the gorge on dirt and sand tracks. Geeze its difficult to bike on sand! Of course, I fell. Twice. First time was pretty ridiculous, we biked down a part of the canyon and it turned into a dead end, so I leaned against the wall and fell straight down between the bike and the wall. The second time however I skidded on the sand and flew over the front of the bike onto my knees and hands. Grazed my knee and it hurt to walk on for the first few days.
Sunday was Easter Sunday and all I wanted was to be in Pignans with my family and eating chocolate! We had breakfast in our hostal. We were staying in a ladies house and she had amazing bread and jams. We made brunch a bit later, eggs, sausages, tomatoes.
As we were leaving Monday morning for Santiago, Michael decided he should get Rodrigo ready for the big trip, by changing his water and putting him into a bottle, only to drop him on the floor and put him in a bottle of water filled with air bubbles! Poor Rody kept getting covered in air bubbles and floating to the top. We woke up in the morning to find the poor guy dead!!! Michael killed Rody!! Poor little man must have died of head trauma and suffocation! We gave him a fairwell down the toilet and walked the 75 miles to the bus terminal with our massive backpacks.
We just got to Santiago, after a 23h bus ride. It was so uncomfotable sitting next to a snorer, a fat  perv and then an elbower! We are now in a hostal waiting for a room to become available because its only 9 am.