Starting off in Calama, we tried to get an early start so we could have some off time on the beach. On the way out to the coast, my bike rolled over 30000; I figured that was picture worthy... Once we got to the coast it was the sea to sky in desert mode which Eduardo had passed days before. It was as stunning as he made it out to be with the road winding along the blue beach with waves crashing which were in contrast to the foothills on the other side which rose for up to 700m.
We got into town pretty early that night and drove around for the afternoon looking for a hostel which paid off as we found the best on yet in my books. Pool table, foose, tv room, wifi, computers, and loads of people. We ended up finding the third member in a hostel 4 blocks away from the beach, and we played some pool that night with a few freinds, one of which is a kiwi making his way up the coast searching for waves. The other is fellow who has been travelling for 8 years, and is a pro on the bbq.
The next morn, after some sleeping in, we went straight up into the foothills to do some paragliding. The para gliding was pretty simple for us, as we were strapped into a pilot. Mine was apparently a acrobatic paraglider who is one of the few in the world that can do flips. I told him to pull some off but after a few turns in riser, I figured a little more a calmer flight would be fine. Once we both touched ground, and feeling a little light headed from the flight we made our way to the hostel for a seista.
One of the guys in our hostel was past day 600 of his bicycle tour from Alaska. We have definitely come to appreciate our motors on our two wheels. Paul Gareau at http://www.panamericantour.net/.
We watched the sunset on the beach, played some paddle ball and then went over to eduardos hostel for a bbq our friend was planning. We had some steak, sausage, peppers, onions and potato salad, all done on the open flame brick bbq that seem to be scattered everywhere. Had a relaxed night playing pool with the guys and got a good nights rest for our goal of Peru.
