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Published: January 14th 2023
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Monday 9th January - Saturday 14th January 2023
A small patch of oasis, with trees, birds and a river (albeit dried up!) San Pedro de Atacama is a little town in the middle of this hot, dry and dusty desert. It’s also a key lifeline for the many tourists travelling between Chile and Bolivia, as we did, with many hostals, bars and restaurants. Instantly feeling the higher level of wealth here (actual roads!) we enjoyed the feeling of cleanliness and the familiarity of a more western style bakery and coffee shop, but we also paid for it! Yep, as expected, Chile’s prices are definitely closer to home; yet, signal and the WiFi was really bad! I guess it is a desert after all.
With a couple nights here, we enjoyed wondering around the town, sitting in the square, visiting the archeological museum, and even ventured out for a self guided mini desert walk to a big white cross with an excellent view of the town, peculiar desert landscape and the many surrounding peaks; of which we later learnt are ALL volcanoes…over 40 of them! We also did a tour to the Luna Valley here, which we really enjoyed. With
a feeling of more like Mars, travelling through such a vast landscape of waves of layered red rock, peaking up and down wherever you looked, and speckled with shiny white salt was pretty cool. The guide tried his best to explain it all (how over the millions of years, the perfect conditions of explosive volcanos spewing out ash, combined with the water deposited from the Amazon, and the two mountain ranges causing pressure created this unique world) but I think a look on google may be needed to better understand it. Either way, it’s something we’ve never seen before, and, followed by a pretty sunset over the desert, was a beautiful afternoon spent.
There are also many observatories here, with a fabulous night sky to stare in awe at and study. However, the moon was out in full blast while we were there, and, as pretty as it is, this meant doing a star tour was probably not worth the price. Still, the secluded little garden at our hostal was a lovely area to sit in on the warm evenings and do our own star and planet spotting.
Leaving the desert, (on one bus that filled with dust
when the air con broke and a second long night bus) it really felt like the next chapter of our travels had started. Now in our fourth country, thoughts and feelings about going home soon are beginning and as we arrived in La Serena, a bigger coastal town, the fresher air, sea breeze and squawking seagulls really did blast us back to the feeling of home; although the continuation of bad WiFi and not such good coffee (Nescafé instant has the monopoly here) ensured we knew we weren’t home yet!
A much bigger place, but with only one full day here, we only saw a small slice of La Serena, but enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere here. With its colonial buildings, hidden courtyard cafes, brick churches, pretty squares, and market stalls selling different things, we enjoyed meandering around. We visited the pretty Japanese gardens and also found the archeological museum, which to our pleasant surprise, was free and had bits of text in English! Amazing! We also walked down to the busy lighthouse, and the very long and windy beach, spending some time just sat in the sea breeze.
Weirdly though, as we’ve felt in other places where there’s
more pockets of wealth, there was also a feeling of unease along some stretches and, particularly when walking down to the beach, a strong smell of weed. We weren’t too surprised then, to see a fight break out with a shifty looking guy, clearly high on something, and another guy. Rocks thrown and blood dripping, all the nearby men from the bars and shops went to help stop it. When we asked what was happening, a waiter said just a crazy guy. Sad to see, but also nice to see that, once a little calmer, the bar owner took bottles of water over and was just chatting to the guy.
Back on a bus, following the coast along and watching the dry land pass as we turn inland, we’re continuing down south now; next stop Santiago!
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