1000km nothing but sand.... but where is the next dentist??

Our first days in South America we walked around like Zombies... 7hrs jetlag, 2 nights without sleep, 20 degrees less and a Paradise lost. But South America charmed us straight aways with its relaxed Latino attitude, the colonial architecture and - of course - the great food!!

In Santiago de Chile we did not much more than strolling around the streets, hanging out in nice street cafes and eating Parilla at "Las Vacas Gordas"; Fabri's favorite restaurant! During one of our long coffeehouse breaks we met a lovely Dutch couple (Ivo & Loraine) who left us half of their European medicine against Fabri´s rising pain with a tooth (or so, we didn´t know). Drugged with antibiotics and painkillers we thought all was fine and took a 24hrs bus ride up North to the amazing Atacama desert.

1000km only sand and 50 years no rain (it´s the driest desert of the world!!) .. but nothing was fine - the drugs didn´t work! So instead of exploring amazing San Pedro de Atacama I spent my time trying to explain in rudimentary Spanish to the nurse, the pharmacist, the supermarket guy and whoever else sold drugs in that place, what we needed. After 4 days of experimenting with all kinds of medicine we gave up, and drove back to the last oasis town 2hrs away to finally see some doctors. In the end Fabri spent his birthday (!!!) getting a devitalization of a tooth. Poverino!

Besides checking out the Chilenean health system we thoroughly enjoyed the stunning landscape of the Atacama desert: the deep blue sky, the countless volcanos at the horizion, the turquoise lagunas with its pink flamingos and the bright white salt plateaus (reminded us a lot of Bolivia). And we enjoyed our little oasis, San Pedro, which is actually a great place to hang out. Cool restaurants with open roofs - to see the stars - and fireplaces (against the temperatures around 0 degrees at night). In San Pedro we also met up again with Ivo and Loraine and spent some cool evenings chatting around the fire into the night..

Due to the Doc hunt we spent almost a week up North before we took the bus over the Andes (5000m altitude, but after the Himalaya we hardly noticed..) on a stunningly beautiful ride into Argentina heading towards Salta.