From Copiapo the road was extremely long and straight (and boring) as we joined the Pan-American through the desert, heading south.
Not really used to boring rides, the 350km to La Serena really dragged, but eventually we found ourselves reaching the edge of the desert and descending towards the sea.
Here we thought the heat would increase as we lost our remaining altitude and reached sea-level, but in fact it was quite the opposite - as soon as we crested the ridge at the end of the desert the temperature dropped as the cold air from over the Pacific hit us straight in the face.
Nevertheless the road now had some curves and hugged the coastline, and we were very grateful to have something notable for the day's ride.
La Serena was a very pretty city, and luckily absolutely nothing like Copiapo. We stayed in one of the nicest hostels we've stayed in so far (and for a reasonable price!) and enjoyed exploring the city. Rather like Salta in Argentina, La Serena felt more like being on holiday in Europe than being on the crazy adventure that we'd been on so far and, at this moment in time, we weren't sure if we were thrilled by that feeling or a little disappointed by it.
Because, for all the moaning that we did whilst in the depths of Peru or on the plains of Bolivia, where everything felt so foreign and we felt so distant from the life we knew, now that things felt more like 'real life' we were already beginning to miss that feeling of real adventure. But with so much still to see we tried not to get too ahead of ourselves and just enjoy the civilisation for the time being.
We had decided that to make our budget stretch further (and help keep our sense of adventure satisfied) we were going to need to incorporate camping into our onward journey. So we popped over the road to the giant shopping mall where half an hour later we emerged, $150 poorer and with a whole lot more stuff to carry!
Luckily we surprised ourselves with how we managed to rearrange the bike to make it all work, and later as we set up camp an hour from Santiago, amongst the trees as the sun went down (for free!) we were pretty happy with our decision.
The morning was a slightly different story as I tried to warm up after a restless night's sleep on the floor (my previous camping experiences had only involved blow-up mattresses, duvets and pillows), drinking my tea out of a Spiderman cup and eating cereal with a fork, but I convinced myself I'd get used to it.
Next it was on to Santiago, where we were to stay with some family of Tom's which we had never met.
Rather like our stay with his (kind of) aunt in Antigua, Guatemala, our estimated two nights staying with Tom's cousin in Santiago turned into over a week. We had the most magical time getting to know many new family members, from one-year-old nephews, to aunts, to cousins and more. They weren't remotely related to me of course but by the end of the week they truly felt like family. We're still missing the smiles and laughs of the little ones and the kindness and friendliness of the whole family.
Our time in the capital mainly involved family, but we did manage an excursion to the Plaza de Armas and downtown Museum, plus lots of pottering about getting to know some of the city as a local rather than a tourist which, in all honesty, we definitely prefer.
We also took a day trip to Valparaiso on the coast, which up in the hills is a beautiful UNESCO heritage site, full of colourful homes, old funiculars and fantastic street art.
Sadly after eight days it was really time to stop outstaying our welcome and get back on the road. A daunting thought after being surrounded by wonderful people, sleeping in a comfortable bed in a wonderful home, eating great food and (perhaps best of all) drinking Twinings Earl Grey.
After some sad goodbyes we managed to drag ourselves back out of Santiago, north towards the nearest border with Argentina. Sadly our time in Chile had been short and sweet, as we were getting to the point in our trip when we had to make decisions. Go any further south and we wouldn't have time or budget to get back up north before Christmas, when we wanted to be heading back to the UK. Our new plan was to head back into Argentina, and head north-east to Asuncion in Paraguay, across Paraguay into Brazil, and south into Uruguay where we will ship the bike from Montevideo (actually making our total countries seventeen, not fifteen, but it's a bit late to change the logo now!).
So for now it was time to head back into Argentina, crossing the Andes one last time!