Blogs from San Pedro de Atacama, Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America - page 20

San Pedro ist ein kleines Nest (auf 2300M gelegen) mit 8000 Einwohner. In der Touristenzeit steigt die Zahl aber um ein vielfaches an. Alle unsere Touren buchten wir bei dem gleichen Anbieter, der auch Touren fuer die Weiterreise nach Bolivien anbietete. Tours beginnen entweder um 4:00 in der Fruehe oder erst um 16:00. Tagsueber ist es hier sehr trocken und heiss. Atacama zaehlt zu den trockensten Wuesten der ganzen Welt. In den letzten vier Jahren hat es hier anscheinend nicht mehr geregnet! Unser erster Ausflug brachte uns zu den Lagunen "Cejar & ojos del salar" im Salar de Atacama, ein riesiger ausgetrockneter Salzsee. Im Gegensatz zur Uyuni in Bolivien ist die Salar de Atacama braeunlich gefaerbt. In der Hizte nahmen wir ein Bad in einer hoch konzentrierter Salzlagune. Hier kann jeder schwimmen. Unglaublich dieser Auftrieb! Spaeter ... read more

Fotos tomadas de San Pedro de Atacama en Enero del 2008... read more

Bus hell comes in different forms. What you find in Chile are not chicken buses. The cross-country ones have air-conditioning, overhead Tvs and comfortable seats in three classes: normal, semi-recliner and nearly full recliner. But from Valpo to San Pedro de Atacama is 1 350 kms, which means 28 hours of legs slowly turning to stone. There is a plane from Santiago to Iquique, a few hours' drive from San Pedro, but it was too expensive. The small town of San Pedro de Atacama huddles around the only water and bit of greenery left in the region. The rest has been evaporating for aeons and one day San Pedro will dry out entirely, tool, but for now it's doing well as it sits solidly on the beaten tourist track. About 5 000 people live here in ... read more

In San Pedro its difficult to get bored (at least during first days of stay). All that you do, is marked by 3 things. Heat, lots of driving and early departures. And of course, as any other tourist, after an arrival to San Pedro, you start contemplating different options and trips in and around. On the top of the list of all agencies is a trip to Valle de la Luna, which includes sidetrip to Valle de la muerte. So, i decided to join... my own way... As a big fan of cycling, I wanted to check local bicycles and paths around San Pedro. And I got myself a Trek bicycle. Not bad, just heavy as it was made of lead. At 15:00 I hit the road, when my temperature sensor was showing 36C... nice :) ... read more

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 ... read more