San Pedro de Atacama

Hola,
It's been a week since my last post so thought it time to put fingers to the keyboard (doesn't quite have the same ring as put pen to paper). Its been a strange week for a number of reasons. I arrived today in San Pedro de Atacama which is in the north of Chile, essentially in the desert with the Andes towering up on one side.I have four days here which I'll hopefully be posting about. Anyway, back to where I left you last week. Friday night was another late night, I didn't actually go out until gone midnight I think. A civilised drink with some charming company went on until the early hours of the morning. Saturday lunchtime I had intended to get up and watch the FA cup final which for some reason this year was pushed back to 5 pm UK time I think. It's bad enough that the traditional finale to the season is now a few weeks before the end of the season without moving it from its traditional 3pm slot. I suspect money and TV has a large part to play in the break with traditions. I hadn't brought my Liverpool shirt with me to Chile so I went and bought one especially, incidentally, replica shirts in Chile are one third the price they are in Australia so someone somewhere is making a lot of money, this was from a genuine Adidas shop as well not a street market vendor. Anyway, I didn't actually make it to watch the game due me being distracted the details of which I'll spare you for now. Lets just say it was a sacrifice I was prepared to make, especially as Liverpool lost.
On Sunday I was invited to a Fiesta la Vindimia in a small village about 40 minutes by train outside Santiago. The festival was to celebrate the late harvest of wine I think, there were lots of food stalls, entertainment and of course wine tasting. I went with the three members of the Moldovian Mafia who I work with, a Russian, a Peruvian and a German to complete the International nature of the afternoon. Anyway it was a fun afternoon as was the rather crowded train trip back. It was a really good weekend.
Monday wasn't a public holiday in Chile so I had to work, which was a bit of a struggle due to the weekends activities. I still managed to drag my tired body on a 4.5 km run after my Spanish class in the evening. Tuesday was a complete write off. I woke completely exhausted, every muscle and bone in my body ached and a feeling of nausea. I slept until lunchtime then thought I had better think about doing some work. I dragged myself to the local Starbucks to download some files, check email etc. but realised I was wasting my time. So I went back to bed and stayed there until the next . I felt better the next morning but a bit weak as I hadn't eaten the previous day. I felt stronger as the day went on. The only thing I can think of having caused this is some goats cheese I eat on Monday evening which possibly had been in my fridge a bit too long. Anyway, Tuesday disrupted my plans for the week as I knew I was going away on Thursday. So everything suddenly became more urgent and I had no chance to plan anything for my trip, all I had was a flight booked. Anyway I am here now, it all worked out, the transfer, finding a hostal. Now I need to go and book some trips for the next few days.
More later.

A