Tuesday (06/07/2011)

The saga to get to the Atacama Desert….

After 13 hours by bus from Pucon, I arrived at the bus station in Santiago Around midnight. I took a taxi to the airport and I confess that I was pissed off that I spent more on it than on the bus ticket from Pucón to Santiago. Life goes on…

1st day – Wednesday (06/08/2011)

I arrived at the airport in Santiago and then I looked for one locker to leave my backpack of almost 20kg. I walked around a bit, visiting the few shops and restaurants open at dawn and soon decided to lie down on a bench with several backpackers and only woke up to do my check-in around 4am. After the check-in done, I went back to my seat to sleep a little more and only woke up close to boarding time, at 7am.

I took the flight to Calama with the company LAN Chile and I found everything excellent. Punctual, polite, good food, very comfortable. The view of the Andes Mountains is incredible, as is the arrival in the desert region, so it was impossible to sleep during the flight, which is very short.

After the 2 hour flight, I arrived at Calama. What a dark place… The airport is a runway and a mini building…very, very small. I felt like I was at the end of the world when I got off the plane.

I got one transfer only to the city's bus station and from there I took a bus to the famous San Pedro de Atacama, which took about 2 hours. There are even transfers that take you directly from the airport to SPA, but I wanted to save a little. (NOTE: There are several transfer options at the time with the same price, so don't worry about booking in advance).

I arrived in Saint Peter and then I went in search of mine hostel, the San Pedro de Atacama Hostel, which is very well located, by the way. I was impressed with the city! It is all made of earth and the houses are made of different materials and are very simple, very rustic. It was hot, of course, after all it is in the middle of the desert, but nothing that surpassed the 40° of summer in Rio de Janeiro, because the humidity is non-existent. I stopped at a small supermarket to buy some snacks and water and I almost fell backwards with the prices. Everything is very expensive compared to the rest of Chile. Talk about a 2 liter bottle of water costing almost 7 reais…punk.

I arrived at the hostel and had a big surprise: my room had 2 huge bunk beds, with the third bed about 4 meters high. I immediately took the middle bed, because the ones below were already taken. Since the city is all dirt, it is a fact that our bedroom floor was also very dirty, so it was really sad to put my beloved backpack there, since there was no floor. locker in the room. The walls had several holes too, so I couldn't help but think about the animals hiding there. Take a look:

Anyway, the room looked bad, you feel like you're in trouble, abandoned, but then that feeling goes away. I grabbed my things and went straight to the bathroom to take a shower, after all, my last shower had been about 30 hours ago (horrible, I know). Look at the sign I saw when I got to the shower: SHOWERS ARE NO LONG AS 3 MINUTES!!!

I obeyed and took a quick shower, but at least it was hot. Even though it was really hot during the day, I like to take a hot or lukewarm shower. After the shower, I spoke to the receptionist to find out which tours were best and when, and she spent a long time explaining them to me. There are so many options! Seriously, there is enough to do for more than a week there. I need to go back, because I had to skip some really cool tours due to lack of time.

As it was almost noon, the only way to schedule the tour was for the same day. Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte. The whole tour lasted about 4 hours, with several stops along the way and an amazing sunset!! Oh, I did the van tour, but you can do it any other way. bike too. Our first stop was at Valley of Death, which is very close to the city. Look at this cool view:

Then we continued and stopped at what they call 3 Marys, which is a kind of earth sculpture. I couldn't even visualize 1 Maria, let alone 3... use your imagination:

We continued in the van for a few more kilometers until we reached the Moon Valley. We had to climb a mountain to see the sunset from up there, which is breathtaking. It was SO worth it!

After the sun went down, we went back to the city and I went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hostel (I don't remember the name) with a friend I made on the tour. I ate some wonderful spaghetti and went back to the hostel to sleep early for the tour the next day. I discovered that hot showers are only good during the day...at night, no way. Since it was freezing cold, I had to sleep dirty, because I had showered before the walk. When I lay down in bed, I realized that two men in the beds below were SNORING very loudly and I had to resort to headphones + iPod.  Dido lulled me to sleep very well…lol.

2nd day – Thursday (06/09/2011)

I woke up relatively early so I could take a hot shower and have breakfast, which was served outside inside the hostel. It was so cold…it must have been about 5 degrees! I ate everything I had (that is, almost nothing, lol) and then went across the street to buy more. snacks for the tour of Tara Salt Flats, which would last all day. At 8am sharp, a 4x4 arrived to pick me up.

We started to hit the road and at each stop for photos, we suffered from the cold, but the beauty made up for it. San Pedro is about 2,500 meters above sea level and we were heading to a place that is almost 5,000 meters, so it was a given that the temperature was going to drop. Some stops were very quick, just to capture the moment, others took a little longer.

This road is the same one people take to go to Bolivia, usually to visit the Uyuni Salt Flats. It has a beautiful view, with several salt flats and volcanoes. Everything is very different from what I've seen before. I loved the tour, especially because the other tourists in the car were very lively and we listened to great music (RHCP, Tiesto...), so the day went by really quickly.

After a long journey, we finally arrived at Tara Salt Flats. What an awesome place! Several huge and different rock formations before the Salar itself. It's hard to describe...better to show the photos:

Then we left the rock formations and walked to the Salar.

After walking around the area for a while, we went to have lunch at a little isolated house, which I can't even call a restaurant. The food was already ready in the car and we just took the opportunity to get some shade and sit for a while. I don't know if it was because I was so excited, but I thought the food was delicious. 🙂

Then we got back in the car and headed back to town. We did a lot rally, which was really, really cool! Woe betide us if we didn't have a 4x4 car. I found it really interesting that the cars all leave and return at the same time, so if they have a problem, they can count on their colleagues. Imagine having a problem and being stuck there, hours away from the city... total hassle.

Upon arriving in the city, I went out to dinner with people from tour and we ate a wonderful pizza, but again, I don't remember the name of the restaurant (sorry!). I returned to the hostel exhausted and fell into bed, thinking about tour the next day.

3rd day – Thursday (10/06/2011)

I woke up early again, took a shower, had breakfast and waited for the people from tour of Atacama Salt Flat and Altiplanic Lagoons. They weren't as punctual as the other two companies – they ended up being almost 30 minutes late and I panicked thinking they had forgotten me. Anyway... We left SPA around 9am and hit the road towards Atacama Salt Flats. Halfway there we stopped at a place called Toconao to see a real oasis. Look how cool:

We followed the road and soon arrived at Atacama Salt Flats, which is huge!! There is a very long trail through it so that we don't step on the salt flat itself, so you can walk around a lot and take some really cool photos. While walking along the trail, I came across a cute fox, Judite (lol):

We watched an explanatory video about Salar and then had a snack and drank lots of liquids. Important: bring plenty of water! They recommend a 2L bottle per day of travel. And I think I would even drink a little more…

After Salar we continued to the Miscanti and Miñiques Lagoons, which are incredibly beautiful! The reflection of the mountains in the water makes the landscape even more special…

They made a trail around the lagoons and asked us to respect the path and for no one to enter the water. This way, that paradise remains intact. It exceeded my expectations!!! I recommend it.

We spent some time walking around and enjoying the view, until we got back on the bus to San Pedro. I arrived at the hostel and went straight to take a shower, because there was still hot water. I went out to drink Pisco and have dinner with the guide and some friends from the hostel and the night was super pleasant. I went back to the hostel early, because at 4 am my van for the tour of the Tatio Geysers would come and pick me up.

4th day – Friday (11/06/2011)

I've slept in all kinds of clothes and then woken up at 4am and just had to brush my teeth and walk to the van. What a wise decision! It was incredibly cold, my body was so tired and I just felt so lazy...

I put snacks and water in my backpack and went back to sleep when I sat in the van. The tour leaves so early because the place geysers It's a little far from the city. I think it's about a 2-hour drive, which was great because I slept like a log. We arrived at the park geysers and we came across a place crowded with visitors. Several buses, vans and regular cars were parked in front of the park.

We started to get off the bus and realized that the temperature was really low! The thermal sensation was -20°. I repeat: minus twenty degrees! It was really cold!!! This thermal shock was really bad. We started walking along the park trails to see the mini geysers with water splashing from the ground… what a crazy place! The smell of the place is a little strange, I confess, but the experience of seeing water bubbling everywhere is worth every stinky, chilly second.

The main attraction of this place is a geyser that sprays water very high at a certain frequency. This moment was amazing! After that, I made the mistake of warming myself up with some steam that was really warm, but guess what?! Right after I got out of the steam and faced the cold, the water condensed and I got very, very, very cold! DON'T DO THIS. I REPEAT. DON'T DO THIS.

I made the mistake of wearing non-waterproof sneakers, so when I got out of the warm steam, I realized that my feet were soaked and with the cold wind blowing, my feet were practically frozen. The worst feeling in the world! While my group had breakfast (milk and hot eggs, heated in the steam of the geysers) in the park, looking at the view, I asked the guide to open the bus so I could stay inside, warm. As I was shivering… I had breakfast there and when I felt better, I decided to go out to finish the tour.

We continued walking along the trails and visited heated pools, where many people were taking a dip. I even felt like going in because the water was really hot, but just thinking about taking off my clothes and wearing a bikini in that cold weather made me lose my motivation in 2 seconds. I walked around the pools taking pictures, warming my hands and body with the steam, until I realized that there were some very serious warnings in certain places. Some people have already been burned to death in that area, because they went beyond the limits of the fences that the park built and fell into very, very hot water. I was shocked by this information…

We left the park of geysers and we went to a small village where it is possible eat llama meat! Yes, that's right! Llama meat barbecue, that horrible, smelly and hairy animal famous in South America. Despite the huge line and the expensive price of the barbecue, it was the BEST BARBECUE of my life! It was very, very worth it. I highly recommend it!

I ate 2 whole sticks and was left wanting more after we were on the bus heading back to the city. Too late...

I arrived in the city and started preparing my things to do the checkout from my hostel. I took my last 3-minute shower, packed my backpack and waited for my transfer to the city of Calama, scheduled at the hostel itself. While he was waiting, I took the opportunity to shop in the city for cute and expensive souvenirs. We arrived at the airport just in time for our check-in, but the plane was a little late. I slept like an angel during the two-hour flight, arriving in Santiago only at 9pm.

Until next time, Atacama Desert! It was great meeting you 🙂

READ THE REST OF MY BACKPACKING TRIP IN THE LINKS BELOW

• ARGENTINA – Buenos Aires and Tigre
• ARGENTINA – Córdoba, Alta Gracia, Villa Carlos Paz and Villa General Belgrano
• ARGENTINA – Mendoza, Uspallata and Puente del Inca
• ARGENTINA – Neuquén and San Martin de los Andes
• ARGENTINA – Bariloche
• CHILE – Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas
• CHILE – Pucon
• CHILE – Cálama and San Pedro de Atacama
• CHILE – Santiago, Vina del Mar and Valparaíso

BOOK YOUR TOURS IN CHILE