I´ve been at the beach too long!

Had a little lie in this morning and and was further delayed when there was a problem with the truck.  Andy jacked up the cab, tilting it forward and then climbed in the engine and started it that way.  He didn´t know what the problem was but it seemed to work from there so we headed off twenty mintues late.  Again the scenery wasn´t anything particularly interesting in the morning, just more desert and sand although at some point there was scrub and even an old railway track that had overgrowth in places.

Arrived at our campsite by the beach at around 4pm in a place called La Serena.  It is a beach resort in Chile, one of the premier resorts.  It has a long beach stretch with cafes and bars and some shops.  Went for a walk to buy wine and supplies for dinner and discovered a fantastic bakery that will have to be visited at some point soon! Headed back from dinner and then afterwards went out for a few drinks in one of the bars on the beach.

The following day was on cook duty and as there is an excurision for some people tonight, we decided to do a brunch of fried breakfast and pancakes.  Prepared dinner at the same time to give more free time as dinner needs to be served by 5:30 and it would have taken all day otherwise.  Headed to the beach and Julie and I shared a bottle of wine and were joined by Steve and Richard.  Went back to prepare dinner of BBQ and baked potatoes and made Andy his bangers and mash with red wine gravy (he had been going on about this for some time).  Some of the group headed out to the observatory, which was a 3 hour drive away and the remaining campsite people headed to Scott and Nicky´s room. Night a little hazy!!

Following morning needed to get up for a major truck clean that involved everyone.  After this headed to the shopping mall, as it was cloudy in the morning again.  Walked around with Julie and Jess, leaving Stuart in the food court.  They have some shops the same as the UK, such as Morgan but most are local shops.  Headed up to KFC for lunch, where you also have a drink option of beer.  Bumped into Andy and kept him company while he had McDonalds (local food here is obviously great) and then headed back to the campsite.  Went down to the internet and beach with Richard, Mike and Kate. Again this more or less involved hitting the bar in the sun spot for a few beers.  However, before hitting the beach bar, I visited the liquor store and was a little embarrassed to find the guy had remember not only me but had selected all my wine and put it on the counter without me even asking. He got the brands, variety and even the token bottle of water correct.  Decided at this point I´ve been here too long!  After the bar headed back for dinner and then out to watch the sunset from the bar and over the beach.  A fairly early night in the end for me anyway (see next journal entry for update on others....).