Today was the day for us to leave Portofino, although we did not want to. Many times on this trip we have had to force ourselves to continue with our plan. Although places make us want to stay forever, the fact that each place is better in its own unique ways from the last shows us that we should keep moving and assess which places actually have our hearts at the end. We awoke at about 10am to the sound of Christian and Eduardo skateboarding on the half-pipe outside our bedroom window, they had called round to make sure that could give us a proper goodbye. We opened the window to the massively vibes that we always get here, we joined them for a while and messed around on the skateboard and Megans roller-boots. They then said a big goodbye, told us to come back soon and left to go meet other friends to surf. We cleaned up and the Sebastian came back from his girlfriends to take the keys and also say a big goodbye. He told us to take our time enjoying the rest of our trip and that we were welcome back anytime. We grabbed an Empanada and headed to the highway 'Ruta 5' for our first bash at hitchhiking. It proved to be very easy, as the first van that passed us, picked us up. The driver was only going up to the next city of Chanaral but we thought we might aswel get going early, so we jumped in. A guy called Mario then saw us hitchhiking from Chanaral and drove us through the Atacama desert, all the way to Antofagasta. He bought us dinner in a truck-stop, then dropped his truck at work and drove us in his own car all the way to our Couch Surfing accommodation. A great man with a big heart. We spent the day with him sharing music, practicing our Spanish and drinking in constant amazing scenery through the desert. 6 hours watching the light of the landscape change until the deep orange sunset that we have come to love over the Pacific turned the day into night.

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On arrival at our Couch Surfing hosts house they informed us that they had planned a little party to welcome us to their home, which was a beautiful touch. Danilo told us on arrival that he had been and got lots of beer, wine and snacks, as well as inviting 6 of his friends. The night passed by with great conversation, music and drinks until 4;30am. Needless to say my 6am online class did not go ahead. They were so accomodating, and told us that we could use the house as our own, and take anything food and drink that we wanted.