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James >> Tonight we are camped on our way to Nevado Tres Cruces National Park at around 2500m above sea level in a meadow full of wild donkeys. We started the day camped by the sea heading North through a desert landscape, going through the Llanos De Challe National Park. Where we were camping people had been collecting seaweed, they then bailed them into small rounds and we think left them to dry. We saw our first indication that we were in Lama territory, a sign saying to be cautious of them. Of course a few hundred meters on there was a similar sign warning of the cacti, you really must be careful of the fast moving cacti. We continue to see memorials to people who have died on the road, this remote road was particularly littered with them. Unlike at home the people here (Catholics) make quite a structure. The road along the coast continued to be very flat and very barren. At one point we came over a slight rise and saw some industry, in the middle of no where. From what we could interpret from the sign we think it was a calcium plant of some sort.
We continued through Copiapó where we picked up some supplies; food, water, fuel and a vegetable peeler. Then we continued towards Nevado Tres Cruces National Park. Soon we started to climb and climb and then climb some more. We started passing signs that we were reaching high altitudes, the first being 1500m and not long before we set up camp there was one at 2500m. Initially the drive up the valley saw beautiful coloured mountains littered with tiny mine shafts, we stopped at some ruins. Of course this wasn't actually the route we planned to take (two wrong turns), but it worked out none the less. Suddenly after driving through very very dry sandy and

rocky areas we pooped out into a grassy meadow in the valley, with a little stream running through it. Not too much further down the road there was a heard of donkeys that clearly live on this grassy patch. Then further up the road, a heard of horses, with the occasional mule amongst them!
It is quite cold so we might be in for a little bit of a cold night.