San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

After my aimless wandering around the narrow streets of Valparaiso I embarked on a 25 hour mega-journey by bus to San Pedro de Atacama, in the Andes of Northern Chile, located at an altitude of 2400m above sea level. Not that I deserve any sympathy but the journey was mentally taxing and there was a lot of time dedicated to counting down the hours until I arrived at my welcome destination. Some of the trip was spent reading Paula Radcliffe's autobiography and while it is a great read and for all the respect and admiration I have for the women's world marathon record holder it did little to ease my boredom and longing to be off that automobile. The scenery was quite impressive at times with most of the 25 hours spent travelling through the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. There were parts where there was absolutely no vegetation whatsoever. What is amazing about this desert however is its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The desert runs up through the north of the country hugging the coastline throughout. It was a unique experience witnessing the desert literally reach out and touch the sea. One negative aspect of the Atacama however was the amount of litter at the side of the road, the culprits obviously being people throwing their disgusting waste out of the windows of their cars. Given how remote some of the areas that have been polluted are it is hard to imagine it ever being cleaned up.

San Pedro in itself is a nice desert town with cute old style buildings. However it is completely saturated with tourism comprising numerous restaurants and gift shops along with an endless amount of tour agencies. Not that I have a problem with that, as that would be hypocritical of me given I am a tourist myself, but the town itself doesn't really reflect what real Chile is like. Supposedly some of the locals aren't too pleased about the huge influx in tourism over the last 10 years.

The main purpose of San Pedro to the tourist however is as a stepping stone to the amazing landscapes that surround it with most attractions being part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve. My first afternoon in San Pedro was spent sandboarding in the nearby Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley) which contains a large sand dune approximately 50 metres in height. At the top I strap my feet into the board and away I go, down a steep slope which must be very close to 45 degrees. I have never skied nor snowboarded in my life so it was to no great surprise that I had severe difficulty in getting my turns up to scratch, and as a result there was some pretty spectacular falls. All in the name of good banter though, that is until the following day when delayed onset muscle soreness started to kick in.

Afterwards the tour guide brought us to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) for sunset which gets its name due to its moon-like scenery offering stunning clinal and anticlinal formations in a perfectly barren landscape. At sunset our tour guide Sebastian provided us with the Chilean alcoholic beverage Pisco Sour (Chile and Peru both claim it), a delicious lemon flavoured drink with 20% volume. It is the type of refreshment one would need to be careful with as it tastes like a soft drink and goes down a treat, but too many of them and you will be on your ear! Speaking of Sebastian, he is without doubt the coolest tour guide I have ever had. A native of Chile, he is the quintessential hippie, the spitting image of Bob Marley. From the top of a high rock as the sun set over the Moon Valley, while guzzling a glass of Pisco Sour he presented us with the craziest theories on how certain mountains and rocks were formed, one of them being a fight between two mountains who were brothers over some random female mountain. Ridiculous stuff but very entertaining. He also loved to speak in a posh English accent from time to time.


The following day I was up at 4am for a tour to the Geysers del Tatio. The reason for beginning at such an unearthly hour was so we could arrive in time for sunrise. However as we neared our destination the driver rammed the bus into a rock in the very bumpy road and butchered the suspension in the process. Supposedly the element that connects the two wheels to each other (I know very little about cars!) was hanging on barely which resulted in us driving the last few miles at four hour marathon pace and consequently we missed sunrise. One middle aged German man was not impressed and gave the tour guide hell for about 10 minutes. Despite missing the sunrise the Geysers were still an incredible sight. Located at 4300m above sea level these are some of the highest geysers in the world. There are approximately 80 in total. Although the height of the geyser eruptions are quite low with the tallest being only 6 metres high, the steam columns can reach heights of over 20 metres.

After breakfast at the geysers we were all offloaded onto various other tour buses for the rest of the trip as our vehicle was in no state to continue. It actually worked out really well in the end as our tour guide on the new bus was far superior to the moody chap who shrugged his shoulders when questioned by the angry German man. The remainder of the tour was very enjoyable. First we visited a volcanic river at 4300 metres high, followed by a remote backward town called Machuca where I tasted some delicious barbecued llama. Afterwards we admired some Vicuñas (Andean Camels) in the wild. Finally we visited Putriama Valley, home of hundreds of cacti and nicknamed Cactus Valley.

There is so much more to see in the areas around San Pedro de Atacama but as my next destination is a 3 day tour into Bolivia incorporating the Salar de Uyuni I decided to save the rest of my scenic viewing until then and spent my final day in San Pedro just chilling. Sometimes it can be nice during travelling to take a step back and relax before undertaking the next activity.

For the last few days there has been a French man staying in my hostel who is deaf. He is travelling the world for 3 years and is currently 1 year into his adventure. I could not help but feel extremely sorry for him as he struggled so badly to communicate with the women working in the hostel. It got me thinking how hard it must be for him to meet and interact with fellow travellers, which is the greatest part of backpacking. But it is wonderful that he is not letting his disability hold him back from following his passion. I think we all struggle to put things in perspective, its just a human trait. However I will try to keep this in mind when I am possibly suffering from altitude sickness during my first night in Bolivia.

Chile will see me again, but tomorrow it's Destination Bolivia!