A stop over in Chile - San Pedro de Atacama

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YOu would think that passing over a border into another country by about 100m would not make that much difference....oh how wrong we were! Within 10mins of getting on the bus at the Chilean/Bolivian border we started to notice a massive difference. First of all the roads have tarmac...almost unheard of in Bolivia and there are safety barriers on the sheer drop side of the mountains! We have never felt so safe!

We came into Chile thorough the Atacama desert....apparently the driest desert in the world desending steeply into the small village of San Pedro de Atacama. Before entering the village the bus was stopped at customs so we could get our passports stamped and have our bags searched to ensure we werent carrying any ´presents´from Bolivia. Even though we signed a declaration to say we were bringing cereal into the country (you have to declare any food) Seamus was white as a sheet throughout the entire procedure convinced they were going to arrest him for carrying powdered milk with the cereal much to the amusement of the rest of us!

Just to explain we had been given the oatmeal by some nice Canadian girls a few weeks before as they were heading back home. Oatmeal is suprisingly versatile as lunch, breakfast and dinner when you dont have much money!

Anyway they decided that the powdered milk wasn´t dubious and much to Seamus relief they waved him through...

We arrived in San Pedro which had very much a feel of a holiday town. Nice little cafes and bars in dusty little streets and lots and lots of sunshine.

Along with Ilhame we arranghed to meet the rest of the group from the Salt flats later on and found a hostel run by a little old lady. Then we went for lunch! Fresh salad and fruit juice! It was amazing! Fresh salad is hard to come by in Bolivia and was a welcome treat after all the rice we had been eating!..However it came at a price! Chile is SOO expensive! Prices are much the same as home and when yu have come from a country that charges about 7p for a bag of shopping it is a bit of a shock! As such we decided only to stay for two days and get the first bus available to Argentina.

In the evening we went for a few cocktails and bid farewell to Matthew and Monse (hope you got home ok guys!).

Aside from being expensive San Pedro was great for a rest bite and aside from drinking cocktails and eating nice food we decided the next day to spend the morning at some thermal springs (its a hard life) and in the afternoon go on a short treck into the desert to the Valley of the moon out in the desert and do some dune jumping! Was a really nice treck and scenery was again stunning. Our guide started off speaking in Spanish and both of us were shocked when he then repeated what he was saying in a perfect South Lonson accent! It is amazing where londeners crop up! SO we also had a chat about the merits of living in London verses Chile! Unfortunately we didnt take any pics as our camera was full but Ilhame is going to mail them to us soon so will add them then.

The following day we headed off to Argentina, where we will spend the rest of our time in South America....

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Comments

[Rich and Jane]

Be careful....
....those sand dunes can be real dangerous!!!