In the morning I went for a walk in Calama. There are so many homeless dogs in the town, more than I have ever seen in my life before, with exception of Bucarest in Romania. My heart was bleeding when I saw them sleeping in the streets and eating from the rubbish bins.
At 4 pm I took an extremely comfortable bus which crossed Atacama desert again.
When I arrived in the bus station in Antofagasta, I experienced a nightmare Couch Surfing situation (second of this kind in my trip). My host who I spoke to a day before and who confirmed that he would be waiting for me, wasn't answering phone all day. I was wandering in the bus station for 3 hours, phoning him every 10 minutes. Then I got angry. I went to internet cafe, found a number of another guy from CS who I had contacted before too, and I phoned him. Somehow, Jorge wasn't surprised that I was calling. He said I could stay in his flat and that he was going to pick me up in 10 minutes.
So I sat on the floor, very tired, and after a short while a girl approached me and asked: "Aga?". It was Shirley from Cali, Colombia!! I recognised her from her profile picture, I sent her an email a day before asking if she would like to have coffee with me in Antofagasta. It appeared that she rents a room in Jorge's flat. Such a coincidence :) My mood changed immediately, I felt I was in good hands.
On the same evening I went with Shirley to a jewellery shop of her friends, to put up Christmas decorations (in the picture - they needed somebody tall :)). Oh my god... is it Christmas yet? I don't feel the atmosphere at all, where is the snow??...
Few hours later, owners of the shop invited Shirley and me to a bar for dinner and drinks. I had Peruvian pisco sour and peach sour; both food and the drinks were lovely. At one point a drunk guy introduced himself to me and asked if I needed help. He wanted to phone Polish consulate or Chilean government... ha ha ha ha... No, I definitely didn't need help :)
Next batch of my pictures:
3-day trip to the Bolivian desert
