San Pedro de Atacama

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As i said, I was super glad to arrive in Chile. San Pedro de Atacama was where we stayed for 2 nights, following the harshness of the Salar. We had arranged our accommodation ahead of time and although pricey by Sth American standards we were very excited at the concept of having a heater in our room. And a shower, with hot water!!! The weather was a lot warmer in San Pedro and we really enjoyed the little town. It was a dusty place and really windy at times, but we liked it because it was funky. The streets were lined with many traditional buildings, but for the majority of them, the inside was very different to what one would have assumed by walking down the street. The restaurants and bars were all very different, some modern, some out there, but all cool and atmospheric. There were lots of cool places to eat, drink, and be merry and we did lots of all that. We spent a lot of time recovering from the Salar, but did get active for one afternoon. We had arranged a sandboarding trip to Moon Valley after which we would enjoy the sunset. Our tour guide was Rodrigo, a 30 yr old dude with an abundance of charm and character. He made us laugh from the word go and we sensed we would be in for some fun. He crammed us into his 4wd, with 2 young french guys and we were off. The scenery just outside San Pedro was pretty spectactular i thought. Desert, but unlike anything i had seen before with really cool sand and rock formations. Unfortunately the weather turned bad and it was far too windy for sandboarding, i was spewing. But Rodrigo suggested we could return the following day to do the sandboarboarding, and we could continue on with the journey and he would improvise. It sounded like a plan. His improvisation started around 4.20pm when he stopped the car and declared that it was -marijuana time- in his funny accent. He full on pulled over and prepared a joint and proceeded to speak of his love for the drug. Shortly after this part of the tour, he drove to the national park entry and collected our entrance fee to pay the parks official. He returned to the car promptly and announced that he had paid for 4 of us instead of 5, and would use the extra cash to purchase wine for the sunset. So sure enough he drove to the store, bought 2 bottles of wine and plastic cups and off we went to the top of some mountain to watch the sunset. It was a fantastic view. The mood took over and we all forgot about the sunset. That night we went out for dinner with Rodgrigo, and then onto the bars for drinks. Need i say more, it was a big one and none of us were well enough the next day to go sandboarding, shame. Anyways it was a fun night, but made for a horrible next day of travelling to Santiago. At least we managed to convince Lan Chile to put us up in a hotel for a night after they stuffed us around. It was swish too, the Crown Plaza and we loved the 4hrs we got to spend there before we were off again, this time on a a flight to Rio, Brazil, which is where i am now enjoying the sunshine. Thank goodness for some warm weather. xxxx

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Photos

Out on the town
Rodrigo is on the right and that is his friend Renee on the left.