Atacama Desert

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From Iquique, we headed south and east into the great Atacama desert. This marked the halfway point in our trip in both time and distance. We had traveled nearly 3,000 kilometers north from Bariloche to Iquique. The first leg of the second half of the trip took us us east through the desert to the Tourist Mecca of San Pedro de Atacama. We had been wondering if San Pedro would be able to live up to all of the hype that we'd been hearing. It has become a must see stopover for Gringos traveling in South America. After an easy 7 hour drive from Iquique, we stopped and marveled at Valle de la Luna which overlooks the oasis town of San Pedro. We found San Pedro to be remarkably charming. It has a stong counter-culture element and is filled with nice restaurants and hostels. Almost all of the buildings are low and made of adobe and mud and many of them have elegent and unique interiors . Eco- tourists from all over the world come here to make excursions into the desert to see the many natural attractions. We stayed in a campground on the edge of town which was only four or five blocks from centro. At the campground, we met an interesting and informative German chap named Eugene, who was camped there. He had a large and sturdy rig which he uses to drive tourists to the volcanoes in the area. Eugene inormed us that unlike most other tourist places in South America, the locals who work here as guides and shop workers actually make a decent living wage. He mentioned that because it's common for travelers to complain about the higher prices that they find here. Also staying at the campground, was an intrepid home-schooling family of five from France. They have been traveling all over the world in their land rover with an amazing pop-top which comfortably sleeps the whole family. We spent the greater part of our first day sandboarding on the dunes by Valle de la Luna, just a few kilometers out of town. At the dunes, we met two young ladies from New Zealand and an American guy. After practicing together on the smaller dunes, we all decided to climb way up to the top of larger dunes at the summit of the mesa. It was easier as a group to make such a long climb and before too long we were at the top where we were able to make some long runs down to the bottom. Most of the days all year long are sunny and warm in San Pedro. At night the temperature drops as soon as the sun goes down.
From San Pedro we headed up the desert road to Pasa Jama across the southern reaches of the altiplano and into Argentina

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Photos

Atacama Blue
On the road to San Pedro

David and Sam
At Valle de la Luna

Surfs Up
David Practices the Bunny Hill Before We Head Up The Big Hills

David Flips Out
Too Much Desert Sun

Around the World
French Family's Land Rover Camper

Homeschooling In The Campground
This family crossed the Middle East, including Iran, went from Cairo to Cape town America is now in South America and will be heading to USA a few months down the road.

Comments

[Heather]

I LOVED Your post and photos from the desert, etc. They reminded me of my own time there and how I didn't want to leave! I miss the sand boarding so much! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, etc, to share. It's a comunity blog where we post things like a "photo of the day," and I would LOVE to post your photo of that French family's Land Rover/camper van. We always give photo credit, of course! If you have the time, check out our blog at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me at [e-mail]. Continued fun on your travels! Heather :)