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Published: October 4th 2011
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San Pedro de Atacama
My hostel in San Pedro. An amazing week in San Pedro de Atacama, North of Chile.
Hello hello,
It's about time for an update, I guess! (Apologies.)
3 weeks ago I had a week off university and I decided to go and spend the week in San Pedro de Atacama, a cute little town in the Atacama desert, North of Chile.
After a 24-hour bus ride I found myself a hostel and started to explore the pueblo. First thing I realized was that I should have bought all my food in Santiago instead of buying everything in San Pedro because there I paid about 4 times the price for pretty much everything. Well, next time!
I found the cheapest travel agency in San Pedro and booked the four major tours around San Pedro for 45.000. The very same day in the afternoon I went on my first tour to Valle de la Muerte and Valle de la Luna. Beautiful place for hiking, and watching the moon and sunset. Which is exactly what we did: climbing on a mountain and watching the sunset with all its changing colors. We finished off the day with a glass of red wine, some good old hostel-pasta and a lot
of fun.
The next early tour took us to Laguna Miscanti in the mountains. They had told us the day before to not drink any alcohol because of the altitude. And again, they didn’t lie. Due to the alcohol the night before I had a hard time breathing, and I had to walk very slowly to keep it together. Laguna Miscanti is beautiful! Surrounded by mountains and snow, it is a big lake with deep blue, clear water.
That day, when we all got back from the tour, I rented some mountain bikes with a couple of friends and we went all the way up one of the mountains around San Pedro. Absolutely beautiful, breathtaking view and everything.
The next day in the afternoon we went to Laguna Cejar. The first stop brought us to a flat landscape, covered in salt, and two beautiful lagoons where I got to see my first Chilean flamingoes! We went on to have a quick breakfast on the side of the lagoon and then drove to the Lagoon Cejar where I went for a quick swim in the freezing water. Lagoon Cejar contains about 4 times as much salt as the ocean and
our guide told us that we can just sit in the water, like you would on a chair, without sinking. I tried it, it’s true.
After, we went to the Eyes of the desert – Los ojos de Salar- two big round water holes in the middle of the desert.
The next morning we then went on the final tour, which also happened to bet he best one, I think. We got up at 4.30 and drove into the mountains to see the Geysers. When we arrived it was still a bit dark and the white fog coming out of the ground created a spooky and amazing atmosphere. Geysers and little water holes everywhere, and watching the sun come up behind the mountains made it a very special morning. After a quick breakfast, we went on driving to the bigger Geysers. The temperature in the mountains was about -12 degrees, very cold, but there was a big water hole with a hot spring and water up to +37 to +40 degrees. Bathing in the hot spring was a lot of fun, but getting out of the water wasn’t. On our way back we stopped at a tiny pueblo,
San Pedro de Atacama
Mountain biking - beautiful view. (population: about 15 people), and had a llama empanada and an obligatory tourist-picture with the Chilean flag in front of the mountains. I also saw my first vicuñas and wild llamas, lots of them everywhere!
All in all the most beautiful week I’ve had in Chile, I fell in love with the Chilean desert, and if I end up having some money left (which I somehow doubt), I will go back and visit the desert again. There is way too much to see, anyway.
A fantastic Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and Independence Day-celebrations in Pichilemu.
On my way back, I got a text message from my house mates that they bought a bus ticket for me for the 17th to go to Pichilemu for the weekend. The weekend of the 18th is huge in Chile, because it is their independence day, and they go wild! I had heard a lot about the celebration in Pichilemu, a few hours south of Santiago, and I was quite excited to go!
Other than that, the 24-hour ride back wasn’t too spectacular, same thing as before. When I got back on Thursday night, my house was empty, and the only person
there told me that apparently while I was gone they were having troubles with fleas and bed bugs and that the terminator had come earlier that day to spray his chemicals everywhere. Also, someone had fallen from the roof on top of our washing machine, breaking it in half. So that was great news. I was not allowed to sleep in my room for the next 3 days (the chemical smell in there was horrifying) and I couldn’t wash my desert clothes. I ended up sleeping outside in the cold, which didn’t go all that well...
However, everything looked better the next day, because it was Red Hot Chili Peppers day. I had bought tickets for the 16th a while ago, and I was very eager to see them. We had a pre-party on our rooftop, and then went to the Stadium. A huge number of people, and of course I got lost, and didn’t manage to find anyone until after the concert. Which was fine, because I got to spend the concert with a fun group of people, pretty close to the stage, singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow.
Saturday morning we then had to
get up early to catch our bus to Pichilemu. I didn’t manage to get money before, so I got to Pichilemu without any money – which turned out to be a huge problem, because of the many people, there was no money left in any cash machines in P.
Since we didn’t have a hostel, and everything was sold out, we made plans to just stay awake the whole night and then go to sleep on the beach during the day. However, the first night we were invited to an awesome hostel for an even better barbeque. The guy from the hostel then told us that there was a spare bed and if I one of us wanted to have it. My housemate and I decided to share it so that we would at least have the option of sleeping in a bed during the night/day. After the barbeque we went to the biggest Fonda, which basically is a huge space with a band, drinks, and millions of people that try to somewhat dance (which is almost impossible, because there is no space for moving). Sounds like a bad party, but I had a lot of fun! We met a
lot of people we knew from Santiago and ended up with a huge group of friends, dancing and having fun.
Sunday the 18th was supposed to be even bigger, because it was the actual day of celebration, but I had gone horseback riding on the beach earlier that day – and I had fallen off the damn horse. Beautiful back flip and all, of course, but it still hurt like hell, and I wasn’t much in the mood for a lot of people and dancing that night, so I only stayed until around 3 and went to have empanadas with a friend afterwards. They have the best empanadas in Pichilemu! You might have to wait for almost an hour, but it’s totally worth it!
We went back home Monday, back to the usual Santiago- life (now without bedbugs or fleas).
¡Peru's calling!
Exciting news, I just bought two flights, one to Peru this friday, and one to Bolivia for the end of october. I will spend about 7 days in Peru, and 3 days on the plane/bus, and I am very excited to visit Cusco and to hike the Machu Picchu! More updates and pictures of Peru when
I get back!
Hope everyone is well!
Besos chilenos!
L.
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