Blogs from San Pedro de Atacama, Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America
San Pedro de Atacama
Published: May 22nd 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaThere were three reasons why I went to San Pedro de Atacama: 1. My previous travel buddy, Felix, had written to me to tell me that he was there; 2. To go sandboarding, which had been recommended to be my many people; 3. To go to an observatory and gaze at the stars. Unfortunately, due to the full moon, a stargazing tour was not possible, yet my time that followed in the high deserts of Bolivia more than sufficed for this missed opportunity. To put you in the picture of how renowned the night sky is in this part of the world, just outside of San Pedro, construction has commenced on the most powerful telescope on the planet. This area was chosen due to the eternally cloudless skies, the high altitude and lack of ambient light. ... read more
Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama
Published: May 4th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaI'm currently in the driest desert in the world, having not seen a tree or a cloud for over two days. I arrived in San Pedro yesterday, after a 30 hour bus journey from Santiago. I woke up at 3.30am this morning to see the nearby Geysers at sunrise and I'm now killing time before visiting the famous Valle de la Luna this evening. I'll then take an overnight bus to Arica before taking another bus over the border to La Paz tomorrow morning. It's fair to say I've picked up the pace a little. This is largely my own fault. At the time I wrote my last blog I had a careful plan mapped out which would allow me to see Santiago, nearby Valparaiso and Mendoza, before heading up to San Pedro de Atacama and ... read more
Zigzagging across the Andes, when the weather gods permit...
Published: May 3rd 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaWe didn’t get into Bolivia the first time we tried. Or, rather, on the day that we were supposed to try. Snow, in unseasonal quantities, had led to the closure of the Bolivian border and threatened the closure of the Paso de Jama back into Argentina, so we weren’t going anywhere. Quirky San Pedro de Atacama in north-eastern Chile would have to put up with us hanging around for another day. There are worse places to be stranded. Two days’ earlier, we’d made our third Andean crossing in five weeks, each one very different and, if possible, each more spectacular than the last. The road from Bariloche in Argentina’s Lake District to Pucón in Chile had led us up to and around the side of the lone triangularity of snow-capped Volcán Lanín, before tumbling down the ... read more
Testing out my desert boots in the desert
Published: April 21st 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaSo to San Pedro de Atacama. A small village of around 2000 souls high up the driest desert in Chile at 2,400 meters above sea level. All the houses are adobe type construction of a single storey. I am writing this entry sat in a hammock in the terrace of my accommodation, the Florida Hostel. Dry, hot day. I am a D.V, a desert virgin so I suppose this is typical deserty weather. Stepping out of the bus at a stop in a mining town of calama i I spark up a cigarette and get chatting to Zane (Zano) and Lisa. They are from Cape Town, South Africa . Zano is a good looking, very amenable 27 year old guy and is of mixed heritage but prefers to be thought of as coloured. This is the ... read more
Up, up, up in the Atacama
Published: April 14th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaFrom Caldera, the next jump is up to San Pedro de Atacama, deep inland not far from the Chile-Argentina-Bolivia border. The struggle to get two tickets to get us there shows just how popular our next destination is. A tiny oasis town in the middle of the Atacama Desert, San Pedro is a minute, almost insignificant blip on the landscape. But oh, what a landscape! And this is why visitors to Chile flock to San Pedro de Atacama in their thousands. It's hot, it's dry, it's high up - the 2,400 metre altitude doesn't agree with everyone - but this little town of barely 5,000 inhabitants is surrounded by some of the most astonishing scenery in Chile. Again, here, the pictures will do most of the talking. We spent a delightful four days here, visiting the ... read more
Last Night I Dreamt of San Pedro
Published: March 26th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaK - After an 8 hour journey up the Chilean coast we enter the Atacama Desert and arrive in the pretty town of La Serenaand check into our great little hostel, El Punto. We spent a few days here and spent time exploring the streets and eating out in cafes. On one day we decided to walk to the beach via a Japanese garden, which was very pretty but not at all tranquil thanks to its location next to a very busy dual carriage way. However, the trip to the beach nearly killed us – it was a good hour from town and then we walked along it for what felt like miles looking for somewhere to have lunch. The weather on the coast is exactly the same everyday – cloudy until about 2pm, then the ... read more
Dust, Sand, Stars and Ricardo - Three Days in San Pedro de Atacama
Published: March 26th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaOur unexpected trip to San Pedro de Atacama has been an awesome stop! We arrived via TurBus in the early evening to multiple people trying to sell us on their hostel. It is actually great when this happens becuase we can compare prices and get a general idea of the area without having to trek from place to place with our big packs. We found our way to a company with star tours and booked it for 10:30p that night. Though we didn´t know at the time, it turns out that this area is one of the best in the world for star gazing. Locally the average annual rainfall is below 100 mm which, combined with the 5000m altitude, makes an excellent location for astronomical research. Currently the largest astronomical project in existance, ALMA (Atacama Large ... read more
Though the desert from Bolivia to Chile
Published: March 2nd 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaApparently, it is well nigh on impossible to drive across the border from Bolivia directly to Argentina. Therefore, Dragoman drives from Bolivia to Chile first and then into Argentina. Today was all about crossing the desert to ultimately reach Argentina..... A 5.00am start with bread rolls toasted on the Dragoman gas burner and a quick hot drink of tea or coffee, then on the road towards Chile. Across the desert with a local guide along mainly single tracked dusty compacted tracks.. The drive across the desert was extremely varied. We stopped for a late breakfast at a stagnant lake at which a large group of flamingos had settled. Bumped along many more tracks over a high pass of over 5,000 metres to a plant where they made boric acid and which was the border point for ... read more
La Serena and San Pedro
Published: February 28th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaAfter finally escaping the horrible vina del mar we got on an 8 hour bus to la Serena, a coastal town north of chile. As far as the town goes it wasn't the most exciting or the most beautiful but the beach definitely ticked all the right boxes. Quiet,golden sands and you could even go horse riding along the beach. We spent four days lying on the beach and eating, it was bliss, except for once again a really annoying hostel. The staff were rude, the bed slats moved around and they overbooked so we had a mattress in the middle of our room. The bathroom almost made me sick but it was still better than the last place. On the up side we bumped into a couple we met before in valparaiso. After our stay ... read more
San Pedro & Arequipa
Published: February 8th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de AtacamaI started my first week of backpacking in Peru, after forcing myself to leave the luxury of staying with friends in Arica. After a 7 hour (very short by Latin American standards) bus journey through yet more deserts I arrived in Arequipa, a large town in the Andean foothills. I was initiated into backpacker lifestyle and soon realised how easy it was to meet people. Although the majority of people are in their late 20s (everyone my age is in Thailand), it was easy to get on with people. Unfortunately, the hostel operated tours which left at 3am, at which point each morning half of the dorm would evacuate and wake me up. So far I have met backpackers from at least 20 different countries and its great to get so many different perspectives on the ... read more









































