Getting hot in San Pedro

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Enough of big cities. Enough of resting. I wanna drive around. I wanna travel around 😊

And I got my dose of travelling. Bus "cama to calama". And buses here are really wow. Size and comfort-wise, europan buses are really small against these. As I went travelling for around 24 hours, i decided to get a bit more expensive bus to Calama, bus cama, which was really comfortable (and around 55US$ - around 40.000 chilean pesos). It was actually a doubledecker, below beds (cama), upstairs semi-cama... If beds were like business sits in plane, semi-cama were economy sits. But, with a twist... even semi-cama has lots of leg space, and really declines... excellent... still, i'm a little bit to tall for any of these buses, but was perfectly comfortable with my cama... And part of the trip I was sitting upstairs, sightseeing... and bus was really empty (only 3 passangers below, and a handful on the top), so i could pick my sit 😊

My destination was Calama, in north of Chile. This a miner city, and in the surrounding there is still one of the biggest (open) copper mines in the world. So they say. And this mine was made famous by Che Guevara, as he went to Chique during his south american trip, and apparently was shocked by the conditions the people worked and lived in. And this was a breaking point in his life, and he became more "socially" aware... not to say sociallistic... Well, from those times, a lot has been changed. Copper mine is not anymore in the hand of the US industrial firms, as it was nationalised in the seventies. And apparently workers not work and live in much better conditions. Calama was one of the cities that really profited from the mine, and you can see... And as for the traveller, Calama is an interesting stop on the way to San Pedro.

My goal was, before catching a bus towards San Pedro, to have a visit of Chique... Unfortunately, I came on a wrong day. Due to public holliday, everything was closed. And I was not able to contact the office, and go there... so i skipped the visit, and apart of the nice story above, i don't have any adventures to tell...

While walking with my backpack around Calama I found a main sqaure with its church and an interesting adjacent restaurant. Club Croata 😊 In other words, Croatian restaurant, so far away from Europe. I had to check it. And went there for lunch. Of course nobody spoke croatian, and nobody knew anything about Croatia. Just, that the first owner (several decades ago) was croatian. Lunch was of course chillean, not croatian, but good. And getting fuller by minutes (maybe because a gringo walked in, don't know why). And there was an interesting phenomenon. All tables were turned towards the TV. All people were turned towards the TV. And we were all enjoying the meal with nice TV midday programme 😊))

After a few hours, I had another short drive to San Pedro. Apparently its around 110km, 1h30m to get there. Not knowingly, i took a "slow" bus. It didn't stop anywhere, it just went slowly. 2h30 😊 But it was interesting drive, and another opportunity to catch a sleep.

... and there was a shock. San Pedro de Atacama... I didn't know that there are so many tourists in Chile!!! It was like a disneyland, with all infrastructure for tourists, and everything was open (not unlike Clama). I got a bed in a nice Hostal Sonchek (which is slovenian run, so, not too far from Club croata), but unfortunately owner was visiting Slovenia, so i had no opportunity to speak with her in my own language. I went discovering the the city. Can I even call it a city? Its a village. And after approx. 10 minutes it was discovered, and i got familiar with it. But as i said, that i will take it easy, i just didn't want to push myself too hard... so, i did a lot of cafe-hopping to have different teas, to read a book. As I only had Lonely planet to read (and nobody wanted to sell me an english book) i started reading Lonely planet Chile for the first time 😊)) And started planning bike trips, geyzirs and more for the next days.
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As a budget conscious traveller i wanted to try a local restarants. Restaurants here look nice, they are "posh" in certain way, all overpriced. So i found myself the best restaurant. There was no glowing sing outside. Inside a bit dark, a one elderly lady, one scruffy traveller and a few locals. Yep, this is it... Of course, she didn't speak english, of course the main was in spanish only. Yep, I was looking for this.

Actually, the owner (and the cook and the waitress - in one person) was extremly nice, and the food was great. I had the Aijaco soup. Njam. And not only that. She gave me a long lecture about the church in San Pedro, its history and how she was unhappy with the new priest. She would prefer to go there more times, but usually its closed. So, we had a nice discussion (with my extremly poor spanish) and I promised to come back for a dinner during my stay.

And for the end... Did i mention, that it was VERY hot in San Pedro??!? 36C 😊 Time to warm up my old bones...

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Photos

Chillean meal
Club Croata, ribs :)

Church in San Pedro
... which apparently is never open... or there is no service for locals.