There's little to report today. Juan, Leo and I went to the huge shopping Mall that had been our landmark for trips to and from the airport a couple of weeks earlier. It's one of those Malls that once you are inside, you could be in Any Mall, Any Place in the world. All the seasonal decorations were in place and a (not) surprisingly large number of piped Christmas 'musak' was in Spanish. The main difference between this Mall and the ones in England at this time of year is that here there were perhaps only some 10% of the crowds I would have expect to be swarming all over the merchandise. One of the large doors on the top floor was open and gave us a glimpse of the Andean foothills and as we stepped out of the air conditioned environment into the soaring heat of the car park, I was quickly brought back to earth in Chile. After 50+ European Christmases, I found it hard to imagine what Christmas in the southern hemisphere would be like. I made a note on my checklist of life to find out.

The great eye opener - or rather, the thing that we tended to forget in preparation for past Chilean adventures is that there is really no need to spend weeks back home, buying things that we might need on a Copiapoathon. They are all available here, in one place and at prices that were on the whole a good deal less than in the UK. Everything, including camping equipment, light weight / quick dry outdoor wear, first aid kits and the usual painkiller and tummy settling medicines, together with bags, rucksacks etc to carry them in were all here under one roof, 30 minutes drive from the airport. Perhaps I'll just take hand luggage next time, as cameras and laptops were still quite a bit more expensive in Chile.

Back at Lonquen, I updated some more Diary pages before some 'mad panic last minute packing'. The one thing I do not have is any pictures taken today.