Sometimes I wish I was a reptile

I am feeling a strange sensation during the nights, here in Vicuña. I think it's called: COLD! I did a quick mental calculation and it seems that I am experiencing my first winter in 16 months. How I could I allow this to happen?

The climate is rather strange. The days are really warm and sunny - today it's 21°C. I'm looking outside and there's not a cloud in the glorious, blue sky. And I just had a double-scoop of ice-cream to cool down. But the nights are a different story. After the sun goes down at around 17.45h that bone chill begins to sink in.

At nights I find myself wearing: a thermal shirt, thermal leggings, a t-shirt, a pullover, a windproof top and jeans. That's 6 items of clothing (not including underwear and thick woolly socks) - I only have 10 items in total - and I'm still cold! When I climb into bed I'm still wearing 5 layers, but then I have 4 layers with which to cover myself. That just about keeps me right - though I have to curl up into foetal position for 15 minutes until it heats up under there first. I'm sort of dreading my next destination, San Pedro de Atacama, where the temperature drops as low as -3°C.

These last few days I've just been relaxing and taking it easy. Reading, writing and trying to improve my Spanish. Vicuña is perfect for this because no-one here speaks English. I'm also watching a bit of the local TV channel - mostly The Simpsons and the news. I think the king of Chile must have just died because they keep talking about the death of the Rey ("king").

Actually, they keep saying "Rey de Pop." Though I'm having trouble finding "Pop" on the map. It must be a small province. The other new Spanish words I have consequently learned are:
- artista
- fanáticos
- Billie Jean
- Thriller

So, piecing all this together, I think the King of Chile considered himself an artist. He he was fanatical about fancy jeans, and he died in a terrible circumstances. Yep... that must be it.

[Rest in Peace Michael Jackson.]

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