San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Our guide Roberto speaks only Spanish and here we are, Kara, Helen, Tom, Eric and I, trying to learn sandboarding on a sand dune just outside San Pedro de Atacama and I'm the only one that could understand a few of what the guy says. Eric has experience with snowboarding, having the mountains of Alberta, Canada as his playground but none of the girls has had any and so do I. Sounds like a recipe for a disaster right?

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

THE LONG & WINDING ROAD TO SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA

"Ah Filipinas!", the Chilean immigration officer exclaims as he looks at my passport and eyes me discerningly. Everyone else in front of me at the Chilean border control has just taken less than a minute of formality check and here I was, feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed, holding up people behind me as the sole officer looks for another colleague who in turn makes some calls and all I can hear was the chatter about "pasaporte, Filipinas, Nueva York". OK, I get it, this guy really wants to make sure I'm not entering Chile with some fake documents.