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With all that free time we had, we were able to find a flight to Calama cheaper than the bus, avoiding 10+ hours in a bus. Chilean buses are great but if we can skip them, even better. We are literally seated on the right side of the plane and are treated with gorgeous views of the Andes. It's clearly a desert with what looks like a salar at some point. Calama is super dry. The air is so dry after the very humid one of la Serena. A few minutes away from the airport there's nothing anymore but a few mines in the distance and wind turbine fields. Rocks and dust as far as the eye can see.
The bus ride to la Serena was once again very nice. You've got to love Chilean buses! The country side is empty but for beautiful and very green mountains. Chile is a very long country and most of the population is in and around Santiago.
We hear about a free jazz festival and start the day by getting our tickets for the next day. The city has a lot street art and is perfect for walking randomly and getting lost. It's a taxing thing as it's stuck between the see and countless cerros or hills ;) The guide talks about an outdoor graffiti museum so we head there. It's meh, we actually like the unreferenced one better.
Full day tour = full tourist mode :D 5 min into the tour, the bus breaks down but they bring a replacement swiftly. Our first stop is Akahanja. It's a rocky plain by the sea with ruins of boat houses and fallen Moais looking inland. We first wonder why they were giving their back to the sea but it's not that. They look at the village they protect. They are he ancestors watching over the family/tribe. At some point in their history, they decided to overthrow the Moais, claiming they were not protecting them anymore.
As we are landing in São Paulo, the thing that we notice immediately is the amount of public lights. It's 5am but that's a huge difference with Africa. The transfer is seamless and well organized and we get in with the 5th leg of our journey. The landing in Santiago is spectacular with the Andes within arm reach it seems.