Day 6/Part 1–

I’m going to begin by stating that there are NO pictures to accompany the first part of this post! As you read in earlier entries, we rented a camper while we were in Chile, but we decided early on that we weren’t going to use the shower and the toilet in the back of our living space. Both needed to be emptied and cleaned before returning the camper, and we just didn’t want to deal with the hassle. Up until this point, we had been able to find restrooms for the more delicate matters, and we both felt comfortable using “nature’s toilet” when we had to pee. Simply put–everything was working out according to our plan.

When we woke up in the morning, I told Pierre that we needed to scrap our original plan. We were quite far away from town, and we weren’t near any sort of facility that had a bathroom. We were in the desert, and I had done it before, but this time, we parked beside two roads–one beside the camper, and the other in front. We hadn’t seen any cars go by since we were up, but I knew with my luck, exactly when one would go by–yes, you know what I mean. I told Pierre that I was going to have to use the toilet in the camper.

Pierre had another idea–

The passenger side of the camper was facing away from the roads, so he dug a hole right between the front passenger door, and the back door. Finally, he opened the doors to create a little visual block.

He made me an outdoor loo–Brilliant!

When I finished, I filled the hole up with sand, and put a rock on top as a marker. A marker for what, I’m not really sure, oh yeah–that’s what Pierre had insisted that I do the day before! LOL! Next I heated up water, so I could wash my hair and body. A few days ago, I came up with an extremely “high-tech solution”–standing behind the camper, I bent over at the waist and poured warm water over my head. I used a dollop of shampoo and I scrubbed my hair until it was squeaky clean. I used the remaining water to rinse out the soap. Pierre shaved his face for the first time on the trip, using the the driver’s side mirror, and of course, he also washed his hair and body. For some reason, it’s very satisfying to bathe and get dressed outdoors.

As you can see above, I named this post, “Pooping, Shaving, and Showering in the Desert…and Worrying if Anyone Would Drive By!” I’m not sure why I worried so much, because we didn’t see a single car the entire time!