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Published: January 11th 2008
After spending Christmas in Punt Arenas we headed back up to the north of Chile to continue our journey. WE covered 10 of the 12 regions in 48hrs, not bad considering it is the longest country in the world. So we ended up in San Pedro de Atacama. The driest or highest (I can´t remember) desert in the world. It was a shock waking up in the desert. We caught an overnight bus and the terrain still had vegetation etc in it, but when I woke on the bus it was just sand, sand sand, the occasional rock, sand and more sand.
After getting used to being in the Atacama desert, we settled into our hostel. The coolest thing about San Pedro is the style of the building. They are still built with mud and only one story tall. They look like something out of a western movie, appropiate considering it is the desert.
Our first adventure was to the Gustavo Le Paige Archeology Muesum. He was a priest who came to the parish and ended up doing some crazy digs and finding heaps of artifacts. There were meant to be mummies, but we didn´t see any. Which was disappointing because some of these mummies go back 8000 yrs, way before the egyptians.
Since our tour of Bolivia will be short lived and we won´t get a chance to see the salt lakes in Uyuni we settled for the salt lakes near San Pedro. It was fun ride and anyone who has ever been on our driveway at home, it was like that except for about 30-40mins worth of bumpity bumpity bump. We were able to swim in the salt lakes. They are 7x saltier than the ocean so it was more floating than swimming. We saw some flamingos and they´re not as pink as other flamingos. We watched the sunset over another salt lake. This was a lot shallower and we were given special shoes (thongs) so we could walk on it. The crystals that formed were actually quite sharp. The ride home is part of the reason there will be no more photos. I managed to lose my camera. I spent the next few days trying to find it, but as we have discovered with other items that have been misplaced, its not the locals, but other backpackers that are the sly ones.
The next morning we were up at 4am to go see the highest giesers in the world at about 4600m, Gieser el Tiato. Another reason it is chillie in Chile, it was about -12C when we hoped out of the bus to pay our park registration. the geisers were pretty awesome and we were able to watch the sunrise and have b´fast while walking around them. The temperature inside is about 80C+. They all go off at different times and one that I was investigating was bubbling away. I walked away and about 5mins later it started spurting out its hot rubbish. So looking down a geiser hole is similar to looking down the barrel of a loaded shotgun. There were also thermal baths there, that we were able to swim in. Having being sick I didn´t fancy hoping into 30C water and then out into -4C air.
WE had the luck of spending new years in the desert. The day before we were walking round town and found this ´cool´ bar called Los Toros. We thought this would be an awesome place to spend new years with the locals. It had bull skulls on the wall, cheap cerveza and it seemed to have atmosphere, but sadly when we rocked up there was nothing but seedy old men. One problem we discovered and it has been a recurring problem, is that we party to early. Me, I´m happy if I make it to 1am for New Years, but over here, they don´t start till 12am. We were wondering the streets of San Pedro (along with all the other tourists) at 9pm looking for a party and there was nothing, but these dolls that apparently get lit up at midnight. So we found the nearest bar and continued drinking and met up with a Dutch couple. Come midnight everyone in the bar starts hugging everyone, even the police outside. So we watched the dolls burn and some punk kids throw fire crackers into them and tried to find a bar without a cover charge. A few more beers and it was 3am, which is where my night ended.
New Years day we woke up and were meant to be out of our hostel by 11am, but thankfully the hosts were just as hungover as us and ignored the clock. The only problem was we had about 8 hours to kill for our bus to Arica. So we hung out in the main square of San Pedro along with others in the same situation. A few card games and a nap and we were on our way to our last destination in Chile.
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Sam
non-member comment
HIYA
My god I am sooo jealous....sounds like you guys are having a ball!!!! Had another dream about you and Johnny Warren. You both had moved around the corner from me and I was over all the time using your scooter and I borrowed your ironing board. That last part can't be true and I never Iron. Hi to everyone and I hope that you are all well and taking care. Look forward to catching up when you get back EEEENNNNNNN! sam xx