We arrived on the afternoon of the 13th November in San Pedro de Atacama absolutely exhausted from the 2 overnight bus trips and ready to stay in the 1 spot for a few days. We new we had until about the 18th to explore this place before we had to head towards Santiago. What a luxury. We checked straight into a hostel and crashed in the heat of the afternoon. We had decided to splash out and rent a car for the few days we were here, so in the afternoon we headed down to the local place and booked it in for the following day.

We spent a bit of time wandering around this amazing little desert town. It was quite incredible the number of tourists packed into such a small town. Practically every building was a hostal, a tour company or a restaurant. All of the building had 8foot high mud brick walls onto the street and we were soon to learn why when the afternoon winds began to whip up the dust and sand. As a strange contrast to most cities we´d been in, this town seemed to be dominated by cats as opposed to dogs, though there were still plenty of dogs to be found wandering the streets.

Street of San Pedro de Atacama

The following day, we checked out of the hostel as we had decided with the adition of a set of wheels, that we´d go for a spot of desert camping and stay in a small place about 3km out of town called Pozo 3. We went down and pickup up our Nissan Tarrano ute and headed straight to Pozo 3 to check out the huge swimming pool which was constantly filled by a spring. It could have used a creepy-crawly, but we were far beyond being picky and after setting up our camp (the only one in the whole place) we made good use of the pool.

Pozo 3

We then set off to find Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). The valley is part of the Cordillera del Sal (Salt) where the red rock is covered in a layer of white salt crytals, supposedly making it look like the moon... I thought it was more like a red mars personally. The first stop was at the salt caves. These were probably the highlight of our time in S Pedro. Exploring and crawling through the pitch black caves with our torch and then popping out into valleys or above the caves was amazing fun. Next we headed to the 3 Marias. Some impressive rock formations formed by wind erosion, then it was on to climb the great dune to watch the sunset. By the time we reached it the wind had really picked up and was intermittently pelting us with dust and sand... not very nice, but we reached the top and watched the orange sunset behind the mountains. What I found more impressive were the 2 distant volcanoes with small clouds perched on the top of each one... purple in the diminishing light.

Mucking around in the salt caves

The 3 Marias

Sara on the Great Dune and views of the sunset and volcanoes in the dimishing light

We returned to our campsite to find the gates locked, so had to go on a bit of a mission to find a way in, then get the caretaker to come and unlock the gates for the car.

The following day we decided to head South from S. Pedro and check out some of the sights that way. First stop was at a small desert town called Toconao and down into the Valle Jere. It was a small valley with a beautifully clear creek running through it. Fruit farms and a few sheep were crammed down into the valley. It was a bizarre contrast to the sand dunes and salt flats just meters away. We went for a walk up along the creek as far as we could and (I think) got in trouble from a local woman with her sheep for going where we weren't supposed to.

Valle Jere

Next stop was the Laguna Chaxa to see the flamingoes. The laguna was a strange salt lagoon in the middle of the salt flats... I say "flats" however the ground in covered in jagged rocks/salt crystals that makes it anything but flat and would be hellish to walk on without the man made paths. It was interesting to see the flamingoes... wierd birds. There were 3 types here, the Andean, Chilean and the James Flamingoes. We didn't stay too long as it was in the heat of the day and there was no shelter out there.

Flamingoes at Laguna Chaxa

Next on the path was the little town of Socaire where we stopped in the pretty little plaza for some lunch. It was interesting the sudden temperature drop between down on the salt flats and then being slightly higher and catching the cold breeze.

Socaire

Finally we headed on into the mountains and to the 2 lagunas Miscanti and Miniques. These are 2 blue/green salt lagoons nestled high in the mountains with volcanoes perched just behind them. Apparently on a still day they mirror the mountains magnificently. Unfortunately we weren't so lucky, but we were entertained by the regular willy willys or mini tornado like swirls of dust and salt kicked up by the wind on the waters edge.

Lagunas Miscanti and Miniques

Finally it was back into S Pedro to pick up some supplies and off to the campsite to make a bbq dinner. Once our bellies were full we backed the ute out to the clearing and lay in the back to watch the stars and enjoy the clear sky that the desert afforded... 9 shooting stars in a short time.

The next day we had planned to take it easy in the morning and go sandboarding in the arfternoon - see my previous blog for the events of that day. We also had to move campsite as Pozo 3 didn't open on Mondays and hence we couldn't camp for Sunday night so we headed back into town and found a place that allowed camping up the back of the hostel. The following day we also did very little as we decided to have a day of rest to recover from the Previous day.


On the Tuesday, 18th November, we got our buts up at 4 in the morning and headed up to the geysers at El Tatio, which are supposed to be most spectacular just pre-dawn. After a very interesting 2 hr drive on rough roads with limited visibility from mist and dust and following the countless tour buses heading that way, we arrived. It was definitely worth the trip to see the steaming, bubbling geysers and the massively tall plumes of gas rising up into the air.

El Tatio Geysers

Once we'd had enough appreciation of the geysers we headed back to S. Pedro, a short snooze, packed our stuff, took the car back and were ready to jump on the 2pm overnight bus to Santiago.... time to go get our bikes!