The past 3 nights I spent in a small desert town of San Pedro de Atacama, near the Chile/Boliva/Argentina borders. The town is very touristy with about a bazillion tour companies offering the same excursions and another million restaurants with the sameish menu. But it also has a rugged feel about it and is very quite outside of the bustling main drag. We were in a cute hostal with puffy colorful comforters which was by far the cleanest hostal I have stayed in on my travels...particularly impressive considering all the roads are sand and dirt.
Day 1. we arrived after an overnight bus trip and just got ourselves oriented. There are only 2 ATMs in the town and only one that accepts visa, which of course was broken. Ash needed cash so she turned around and went back to Calama. I slept in a hammock at the hostal all afternoon then cooked dinner for us.
Day 2. the plan was to rent bikes and bike out to valle de la luna for sunset but there was a vicious wind storm stirring up sand all over town. bikes got canceled. then we booked a tour to salar de atacama which the company proceeded to cancel on us due to the wind but really because there were only 4 people on the tour because other agencies went. we ran after another group going on a tour to valle de la luna and jumped on the bus with them. worth the trip other than the fact we got utterly abused by the sand and the wind on top of a ridge by a dune where we were watching the sunset.
Day 3. much nicer day. actually went to salar de atacama and saw flamingos in salt flats with the setting sun over the mountains. pretty epic.
Now i´m on my way down to Santiago/Valparaiso. i have a 24 hour bus ride ahead of me which sounds awful, but i actually quite enjoy buses. lots of time to stare out the window, think, sleep, listen to music, read, and stare out the window some more.
And Chloe Neely will be waiting at the station for me! YAY!
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