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Published: July 27th 2010
After Bolivia, little bus trip to San Pedro de Atacama...and a new country for Ma'ri. For me, I actually onyl came twice to Chile, but does not really count. The first time was back 6 years ago...between LA and Bariloche, I spent the night at a friend place...and two years ago, I had to transfer from the international terminal in Santiago on my way to Antartica....you can barely call this "going" to Chile!
But this time, our program is 10 full days in Chile...and even this is clearly not enough to consider knowing a country. First stop, San Pedro de Atacama. First mission, to find a room...first impression...wow, nothing is cheap around here! Found a nice, clean, proper room for three nights. Back to a nearly hot shower, but finally a proper bed.
People use San Pedro as a base, and from there you do excursions all over the place. What I'm amazed by is the difference in landscapes by simply driving 30 minutes around. So the plan, 3 differents excursions....first day, sunrise in the Salar de Atacama followed by one more Laguna, and Toconao. Second day program, Valle de la Luna and sunset. The program for the third
day, before getting back on a plane....geysers and cactus valley.
Our least favorite must have been the Salar. Well, once you've seen Salar de Uyuni, the Salar de Atacama is clearly not that impressive. But this time, we saw the flamingos...cute...after this we visited a Laguna and more volcanos. Ok, for volcanos Bolivia was also better. We shared a nice lunch in Socaire before visiting the little city of Toconao with the church and Bell Tower.
The next prefered one must have been the Geysers. This is the third biggest geothermal field in the world, the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. Geysers were one more time less impressive than in Bolivia, but still very nice. After this, we visited a little village...enjoyed the companies of few lamas...and many more Vicunas. Finishing the morning by visiting the PuriPica valley and the cardon cacti...nice.
Our best tour must have been the Valle de la Luna...Moon Valley....this place is amazing! Hundreds of canyons to play around...huge amount of crystals, and my first "reverse" sunset...The lights of the sun at sunset is used to "light" the Salt Range Mountains and the changing of colors are amazing....this will stay a very impressive
souvenir.
The best part of all this may have been our guides. We used Cactus Travel...wow, I'm impressed...we didn't learn much in Bolivia...we just opened our eyes...big eyes...but here, guides speaking perfect english where impressive. My spanish is honestly not good enough to enjoy scientific explanations. Guides of Cactus Travel where just so into their job...with a nice crowd of guests too....questions can be challenging when 50% of the guests are holding Phds!
San Pedro is a very cute city...and Chile, means wine...yes, we are back on the wine trail...enjoying some nice and simple food on the way!
As for our last entry, better simply to enjoy the pictures. We are as usual late on our entries....so a lot more to come!
The dream continue...at least for us!
With Love...still in Chile!
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Mamy
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j'y retournerais bien "encore une fois"... même si déjà fait deux fois.... Esto es uno de los lugares que prefiero en el mundo !!!!