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Left Ruben and the cats early to catch the bus to Calama (northeast Chile, 23hr journey 9.15am - 7.30am), at the bus terminal we met Nicole, an Aussie from the hostal in Villerrica, had a quick chat and jumped on our bus. The bus left Santiago and we were quickly on the coast road headin north past deserted beaches with perfect surf and small towns, stopping infrequently for passengers to alight and board or change drivers. Our seats were towards the front of the bus and we were treated to the driver's musical tastes, the pick being big band jaz.
Just before dusk we stopped at the seaside resort of La Serena and a Chilean man who we could not fail to notice - talking american english into his mobile phone - boarded the bus. At another stop - the loo had to be cleaned - we got chatting and found out that his name is Jorge, he lives and works in Vancouver, Canada, and his family own huge mining interests in Chile and around the world. Jorge was visiting his mines in the north of Chile and showed us some of the gem stone samples - Champagne Diamonds - one of which he generously gave to Claire. The conversation took a strange twist when Jorge claimed that he'd been abducted by aliens from the top of a volcano in Ecuador, cloned, and returned to earth, apparently Jorge's clone is now flying around the universe in a space ship. We were also informed that northern Chile is favourite haunt for UFOs with lots of sightings and abductions - I don't expect to travel further than the Earth on this trip, but will take any opportunities presented to me. The 1 and a half hours listening to Jorge flew by and before we knew it we had to say goodbye. We bedded down for the night and drifted in and out of sleep as we crossed the Atacam desert.
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