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Published: December 11th 2009
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We arrived in San Pedro from one of the longest straight downhill roads I have ever been on (well not one of - it was the longest) about 40 minutes driving straight down at a decent angle, there were plenty of emergency exits, a few crosses marking the road and a driver that yawned too often, so I didn't feel comfortable taking a nap on that trip. Chilean border formalities are a little longer than others but we made it to dusty San Pedro around midday. The town is a small oasis, no paved roads, just dusty streets and a small plaza. Chile seems more expensive at first glance, the people lighter skinned and less indigenous than Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and have even seen that young babies are not wrapped up in blankets and thrown over the shoulder. And their Spanish seems a little different, more mumbled and they drop out the 's' in many of their words, often leaving me a little confused.
San Pedro is the driest place in the world, it never rains but is supplied by the rivers from the Andes. Our first aim was to boook to get out of San Pedro but it seemed
buses in nearer days were full and the towns computer systems were down and they couldn't call the office in other towns, not sure why really, but Rorie and I had to do a bus trip to Calama to get our tickets out as we didn't want to get stuck. We stayed at a laid back hostel, with a table tennis table and some hammocks for us to enjoy the days sun and the famous Chilean wine.
We did a brilliant trip one afternoon to see the Valle de la Muerte (Valley of Death) and Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon). The scenery was amazing with rock formations and colours. We also ran down some steep sandunes which really was a great fun, you really can get some great air time and with a soft landing. Some of the trip we were on the roof of our truck and gave great views. As the sun set we had amazing scenery, the pics are great. It was so surreal and a great afternoon.
The food in San Pedro is fantastic, it is quite a popular tourist destination and has some really nice restaurants, a really nice surprise and it
feels like we are eating out on holidays. We did another afternoon trip, this time to the Salar de Atacama just south of town, the scenery was similar to the other trip but we were on the flats, great view of Volcan Licancabur. The Salar was different to Uyuni, not as concentrated in salt, more a mixture of salt and dirt. We first stopped at Laguna Cejar, the colours of the lake of light blue, dark blue then grassy yellow and red mountains gave a stunning scene, the contrasting colours just beautiful. The Laguna has a high concentrate of salt, so the water was unbelievably bouyant, you didn't have to paddle to keep yourself afloat, hands and feet in the air and still float! It was a cool sensation and even got Deb in the water. Second we went to Los Ojos del Salar which was two large holes about 30 metres in diameter in the salar, filled with water about 3 metres from the top and said to be 1km deep. The water wasn't as concentrated in salt but you were able to run and take a jump in to the water. We had great sunset view on the
way home as we stopped at a shallow lagoon again with lovely colours on display.
I have also been taking in the Cristal beer at a good rate and Deb enjoying the Chilean reds. Overall San Pedro has exceeded our expectations, the surroundings are out of this world. We have booked now to go to Salta, our first glimpse of Argentina and having heard good reviews we are looking forward to it, Deb in particular. Page 2 for more pics
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