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Published: April 13th 2006
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San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
We caught a Pullman del Sur bus from Santiago to Calama (20hrs overnight) for $30000p each for Salon Cama, downstairs on the bus, very comfortable. In Calama, we caught a TurBus bus to San Pedro de Atacama (fairly regular, about 1 hr trip, $1300p). The Atacama desert was extremely barren in places along the bus trip, sometimes absolutely nothing resembling life at all. San Pedro (2400m) is a nice little village in an oasis with adobe buildings everywhere. It has all the amenities a tourist could want but that also means the place is crawling with tourist. Still a very nice place to hang out for a few days, particularly if you are acclimitizing before heading up even higher. We did a good tour of the Valley of the Moon and Death Valley with Cactus Tours ($5000p each) which included a 2hr walk through a salt encrusted desert canyon. Apparently it is the driest desert in the world but it poured with rain on us for about 10min. To be fair there are parts of the desert, inland from the coast, that have never had recorded rainfall. We also did a good tour of the
Taiti Geysers (4300m) with Desert Tours ($10000p each) which was spectacular (again, lots of tourist, including us). The tour also included a fairly good breakfast with eggs boiled in the Geysers.
The altiplano tour to Uyuni
We did a three day tour from San Pedro, up into the Bolivian Altiplano, through the Eduardo Avaroa national park, to Uyuni across the famous Salar de Uyuni with the company Estrella del Sur. It cost US$90 ($48000p) each for all the food, accomodation (but not potable water). We had three 4WDs, six tourist and one driver in each car. We were lucky enough to have Carlos as our driver, very experienced and sensible, he was great. His brothers were driving the other cars and were also very good. Pretty much everyone on the tour really enjoyed it. When things are busy they may subcontract other cars and drivers, who have been reported by other people to be bad. If you can get one of the brothers (particularly Carlos the legend) you should have a safe and very enjoyable tour.
There are dozens of tour options and it is worth comparing them and checking the latest comments in the town
tourist office (on the main Plaza in San Pedro). This website (in spanish) gives a run down on the park that the tour goes through and list some of the operators (there´s heaps): http://www.bolivia-rea.com/index.php?pg=main_oper.php
The landscapes in that part of the Altiplano have to be seen to be believed. It´s like being on another planet for three days with constantly changing scenes of multicoloured desert mountains, active snow capped volcanoes and lakes of all colours with Flamingoes. The first night was in a very basic hotel (dorm rooms and short noisy beds) at about 4300m which had most of us gasping for air in our sleep. The second day is amazing but the roads are very rough and it was a very long day, slept at the salt hotel on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni at about 3700m. All the food was very good considering the bumpy ride with lots of pasta, fruit and veg (and wine on the first night). The final day took us across the enormous Salar de Uyuni (12000 square km) for the whole day. We started before sunrise, driving for about and hour in foot deep water, like driving across the ocean,
Hotel Colorada (4300m)
Basic but clean accomodation in the heart of the Bolivian Altiplano quite surreal. Then it was shallow or dry and dazzling white. The entire Salar is a solid crust of very thick salt. In some places we drove across areas where underground streams bubble up through small holes. We were lucky enough to be in a car of happy, friendly people which really topped off a great trip. Uyuni is a fairly bland looking place but it has a very good tourist information centre and the Sunday street markets were also well worth checking out.
Uyuni can be difficult and uncomfortable to get out of as the surrounding roads are terrible and the train service is basic and notoriously unrealible. We took the most comfortable bus option (US$25 each) to La Paz with Todo Turismo, Calle Jordàn 280. The bus was semi-cama style, heated with dinner (before beginning on the bumpy roads). It left Uyuni at 8pm, took 10hrs, with the first 5hrs being very rough and slow, only covering about 180km, then it is paved and fast. Expensive by Bolivian standards but still the safest, fastest option to La Paz.
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susan
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great entry
Thanks for details and all of the information to help out fellow travellers. My partner and I are leaving Santiago and headed to Bolivia, researching best routes and options. Your shared experience is helpful! All best--