Sunday, September 15, 2019
Maurice picked us up at 8 am and took us to the airport in Santiago to catch our flight to Calama. We had printed our boarding passes the day before and with the help of an agent, we were quickly able to check our bags and get through security.
Our flight took us above the Andes and we could see them above the clouds.
As we approached Calama, the landscape changed to a barren desert.
The flight was approximately 2 hours from Santiago to Calama in the North of Chile.
We arrived in Calama, picked up our bags and as we exited the baggage area, we found our driver waiting for us.
The driver took us from the airport to the Don Thomas hotel in San Pedro de Atacama.
The view along the 96 km ( 55 mi ) drive was of very barren, however, the road was paved, with little traffic and it took us about an hour to get there.
We arrived at 2:30 pm, checked in and then relaxed at the pool for a while.
At 5 pm we decided to go for supper, however, I wasn’t feeling very well, so I stayed at the hotel, which was a good idea. Shortly after they left, I got the chills and suffered Montezuma’s revenge, which I attributed to food poisoning from the sandwich I ate on the airplane.
Pete, Kathy and Fr. Richard went to a local restaurant, where they had a very nice chicken dinner, before returning to the hotel for the night.
Ralf Hamm 
It looks like they are drinking wine out of beer bottles
It was sparkling wine.