Chile.. San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis in the driest region on earth

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Arrived in SAN PERDO DE ATACAMA (an Oasis in the middle of the Atacama Desert.. the driest desert in the world apparently) and booked into a hotel with a pool for a couple of nights, so we could enjoy the head of the sun and a bit of luxury after 3 days in a jeep! .. This sounds much posher than it was.. the pool was about 2m square (which I guess is all we could expect in the middle of a desert!), we were in bunk beds all sharing a room, there was no hot water, and sporadic electricity.. but it was worth it to be able to take a dip! Then moved into a cheaper hostal.. all of the accomodation we checked out was lovely.. mostly built in adobe with shady courtyards.



Planned on staying in San Pedro for a couple of days at most, but we got stuck as there were only 3 buses a week to Salta (Argentina).. Still, it was a great place to get stuck and we made the most of the restaurants and sunshine, and visited a bit of the surrounding area..


Met with Cameron, who was travelling down from Cuzco a few days behind us, and visited some of the desert surrounding San Pedro: VALLE DE LA MUERTE, where it hasn't rained for 200 years! Walked through the burning sand in flip flops and drank about a litre of water in half an hour! VALLE DE LA LUNA where we climbed a hugesand dune and watched the sun set over the valley.


... and then another 12 hour bus ride.. to Argentina

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Comments

[noelie]

hotel san pedro de atacama
Hi! do you have a recommendation for the hotel in san pedro? The small pool looks funny, we might stop there... thanks

[Katharine]

san pedro
hi! we stayed in two places.. hotel tatio had the pool, and it was really nice.. a bit more expensive (7000 pesos each) but there were 4 of us in a room. and then we moved to a really nice, friendly hostal called hostal puritama which i would really recommend.. shady courtyard, friendly staff, clean, good showers.. 4000 pesos for a dorm bed. and there's a hotel-spa just behind the hostal with a swimming pool that you can use if you go in and buy a drink! .. enjoy.. katharine.

[anonymous]

cool