the small orange spot in the picture lower left's corner its me, contribuiting to the Chilean wildederness and scenic views with my stomach fluids. After descending from almost 6.000mt to 3500mt my altitude sickness did not get better at all... it was not party related, i swear... but there was some wine involved since we did not plan well, there was no civilization or food selling along our way and everything we had to share between the four of us was a bottle of of wine and one small package of salty crackers.

we had decided to rent the cheaper car in La Serena and drive along the Elqui Valley for a couple of days. while slowly leaving pieces of our compact car behind along the rocky roads, we saw on the map this side road leading to the Argentinian border, and we decided to go up there, 6.000mt. Amazing view, not a soul on the way, crappy altitude sickness.

the coolets thing about it all? despite how miserable I was feeling in that moment, debbie managed to get that picture and I am so happy about it. second coolest thing? we were a group of four solo travellers. I had met debbie in the streets in La Paz while shopping for hostels, we travelled along together for a couple of weeks before she freaked out and decided she needed some me-time. it was when I met Mette in Atacama and we headed to La Serena together. Couple of days later I heard of Debbie that she was around and Mette heard of Oliver - a friend she had met somewhen in her travels - and we all ended up in the same hostel, for a few nights of chilean wine drinking and seafood cooking.

that was 3 years ago. this july Mette got married, and I headed to Denmark for her wedding (still paying for that ticket...) and so did Debbie and it was a hell of a reunion with a lot of old memories revivals, new memories being built and many more nights of beer and wine drinking.