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I arrived in Sanitago after my bus ride from Puerto Montt around 9.30am and upon arrival soon discovered there were no buses to San Pedro de Atacama that day because there were floods in the town that had affected the road in and out of town. Instead i booked the last ticket on the 3pm bus the next day and then headed back to Bella Vista hostel again where I arrived around 10.30am. Upon arrival there were 2 things i would have liked, one was a shower, having not had one in over a day, and second was to watch the rugby.
Unfortunately, the rains that had affected San Pedro had also brought down half a mountain in the Andesm blocking the route to Mendoza again, but also flooding the water treatment plant. The result was that all of Santiago apart from around 4 streets had no water, none, nothing! So accepting my smelly fate i tried to find the rugby on the hostels TV, of course with no luck.
After some help from reception i managed to track down the only Irish pub in town that was a) open, and b) playing the rugby and headed their as quickly as possible.
Once there i settled down to watch the Italy v Scotland game. There was only one other person in the pub at the time (except the 3 members of staff) so me and Chris (from Pontypridd) chatted our way through the game. Before long we were also met by Sian (from near Wrexham) and by the time the Wales v France game was ready for kickoff the 3 of us were ready to cheer, well we were the entire Welsh supporting population of Santiago.
After the game I went for another pint with Chris who had had a tough week with the loss of a friend, when things got a little worse as in desperation for a toilet he left his bag (and passport) in a bush! I returned to my hostel in the hope of a shower (no luck) before meeting up with Chris and Sian again that evening (now rather smelly) to try and find some food. This proved quite difficult seeing as with no water in the town we couldn´t find a restaurant or shop that was open, so rather than face a hungry defeat we went back to Sians rather swish flat (which even had water) where i enjoyed a shower and oven pizza over a couple of drinks.
Next morning I checked out of the hostel and headed back to Flannery´s Irish pub laden with bags to watch the England v Ireland match with Chris and Sian and a few more of Chris' chums. Fortunately, he had managed to recover the bag and passport. After a rather dull match i got back on a bus to Calama for a lovely 20 hours. After a couple of hours waiting in Calama I caught a bus to San Pedro De Atacama. In a couple of places the damage done by the recent downpour was clear as half the road was swept over the edges. Finally, after 27 hours i arrived in San Pedro De Atacama around 7.30pm.
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