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Published: December 8th 2012
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After La Serena failed to hold my attention, I changed my bus ticket and headed to San Pedro de Atacama. The 19 hours in transit wasn't too painful and I found myself in a dusty little oasis in the middle of the driest (in parts) and highest desert in the world.
As the hostel I had originally booked was full for my amended arrival date I ended up at this tiny little hostel about 10 mins from town called Sol Atacama Hostel. There were three rooms that housed a total of 12 people and boasted only one toilet and one shower (both in the same outhouse) to service us all. I certainly was glad when I got to move to Hostel Campo Base two nights later and had a private bathroom in my dorm of only 4 people.
While the town itself is quite tranquil, the number of tours that you can do surrounding the town means that it is flooded with tourists and the prices to match. Sand-boarding was first on the agenda. As my new Pommy friend had booked the tour while I was on the bus I didn't really knew what it entailed until it
began, but it turned out to be really good. We headed to Death Valley and waxed up our boards before trekking up the massive sand dunes. Needless to say, by the time I'd made four runs I had sand in places I didn't think it was possible to get sand and my legs were dead. The tour ended with a trip to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) for Pisco Sours as the sunset. It really was an incredible view.
After being bitterly disappointed by all 4 beach locations I have visited so far during my travels in Chile (Thanks for ruining it for me Australia!) I decided that it was time for some guaranteed swimming and booked onto a Laguna Ceja tour. The Ceja Lake is just like the Dead Sea. There is so much salt and minerals in it that you can't wear any metals into the water and can't have any of it go into your mouth or eyes. Of course when it came to taking photos and we were instructed to put our hands and feet in the air I was the only spaz who managed to sink- God knows how that works. Also being
allergic to life meant that I got a slight rash from the water, but the guide had a pump pack to rinse us off so it was all good. The Britt was actually impressed that I didn't look worse. Such a charming fellow.
My final tour was a trip to the thermal hot-springs. Apparently back in February they had some really bad rain and it washed the infrastructure away so it had actually only been reopened for a couple of weeks. As my new friends had all moved on to other places I got to experience the occasional down side of travelling solo and sat there in the minibus trying to understand my spanish speaking guide (almost everyone on that tour spoke spanish so majority ruled) as we climbed to 3500mts above sea level. The pools were really pretty. There were 8 of them in total and they all flowed on from one another. They started at about 35 degrease and went down to 28. It was really relaxing to be there, however at the same time I would recommend going there with friends as I felt like a bit of a creeper hanging out with these two French
girls that must have taken pity on my soloness.
San Pedro, just like Santiago and everywhere else I've been in Chile, also boasts a large population of stray dogs. In fact it is sometimes referred to as San Perro de Atacama - perro being the word for dog in Spanish. These dogs however are not vicious, diseased things. In fact they are all well fed and in winter the locals even put jackets on them to help with the cold. It is not uncommon for one of them to follow you around town. They say that San Pedro is such a nice and quiet town that the biggest worry that you have is the dogs who are only ever any mild concern when you're on a bike -which they seem to hate. When we were walking home from dinner one night the 5 of us had managed to adopt about 4 dogs who had decided that we were their pack and we needed protecting. When a couple rode past on bikes they all barked and one even lightly bit one of the girls on the arse!
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Matt Feld
Sounds like fun
Well written, keep it up!