La Serena and San Pedro de Atacama

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So I am a little bit behind in my travel writing at the moment, and for this I apologise. But, currently being stranded in La Paz (story to follow in Bolivia blogs!) frees my afternoons for some serious blogging. I hope you´ve been enjoying my blogs and they don´t brush over the surface too much, let me know if there are any improvements to be made!

I left off back in Santiago, where the weather was good and I was enjoying the buzz of city life. Santiago is where I began my three week overland trip up to La Paz via the Atacama Desert. And I was actually really looking forward to doing an organised trip. I had absolutely loved the independence and freedom of travel in Argentina, largely because I had no plan at all so if I liked somewhere, I could stay a few days, if not I was the hell out of there! Also, Argentina is so safe and so easy to travel independently. The buses are so comfortable, lots of people workig in hostels speak English, and I never met an Argentinian I didn´t like!

Filing my ´travel organisation´ part of my mind to the back of my head, it was great to have someone take care of booking buses, of booking accommodation and of finding out cheaper ways of doing trips! The first night of the trip, we had a meeting, where our tour leader, Ayelen (pronounced Ashelen, but from hereon in she will be simply ´Ash´) introduced herself and we went out for dinner to a nice, cheap place in the Bellavista part of Santiago. To give you and idea of everyone on the trip: I was sharing a room with a really nice lady called Sue, in her 40s. There was a young British couple, James and Susie, an older guy in his 50s called John, who is hilarious, and an Irish guy called Niall. So it wasn´t a very big group, which turned out to be really nice, as there was the freedom to do your own thing on the days in cities, but going out for dinner was easy as there were not too many people to try and please!

From Santiago, we headed north by bus to La Serena, which is a nice little place on the coast. Unfortunately the weather wasn´t brilliant, so having a beach day was out! Still, being British, I didn´t let that defeat me, and spent an afternoon wrapped up reading and watching a surfing competition on the beach! One evening we did late night trip to an observatory just outside La Serena to do some stargazing. and it was amazing! It looked like the observatory in The Simpsons, with the big opening roof and telescopes. And the view of the sky was breathtaking, I got to see the moon up really close, even the craters, and the guide explained and pointed out all the constellations and also how the Incas had different names for them. He also gave us the name of a really great program which maps the sky depending on where you are: www.stellarium.org. You can alternate the type of constellation to see what they looked like to different groups of people as well, very interesting. The other thing worth mentioning in La Serena is that it has the best seafood - I ate very well in coastal Chile, and now in Bolivia I wished I had made the most of it!

After La Serena, we headed further north to near the Chile and Bolivia border to San Pedro de Atacama. And if I thought Santiago was hot I had not experienced anything yet! San Pedro was baking! The first day there, we hired some bikes and a sandboard and cycled out to the big sand dunes where you can sandboard. Unfortunately our sandboard didn´t fancy taking part, as much as we tried, so it was fun to try but so hot we were all soon looking forward to a cold beer back in San Pedro. Which in itself is an odd little place. There is a small plaza and one main street, and that is it! All the buildings are sort-of mud style, and the hostel we stayed in was the same, making for a lovely cool interior! From San Pedro you can do trips to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), which we did one afternoon, and it was pretty incredible, especially at sunset. The whole landscape is big sand dunes, huge rocks and valleys. Unfortunately, everyone goes to the same place to watch the sunset, so I´m sure it would be a beautiful and (for the couple) romantic experience, if it wasn´t shared with a hundred other people!

From San Pedro de Atacama, we headed up to Bolivia, crossing the border to begin our trip across the salt flats...

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Comments

[Komal]

wow...!
Hi kat, so glad to read your newest entry!! was waiting for it...;). i think its well written, the great thing is i can sorta hear your 'voice' when i read it (not in a creepy way mind!) checked out piccies of Valle de la Luna as well: gorgeous!!! lots of love always, can't wait til your back, though i won't speed the day til your return cos i want you to enjoy/savour it as much as possible! xxx