This past weekend, Jess and I went to San Pedro de Atacama, the desert in the North of Chile…and the driest place on earth. This trip was absolutely my favorite for scenery, and I’m hesitant to even begin my blog because I know that my words cannot do it justice. Even the pictures cannot quite capture it, but since each says 1,000 words, they will have to do.
Friday -- Arrival
Getting to San Pedro is no s
imple feat. Right after Art, we took a bus from school to the terminal de buses, then another bus to the Metro/bus stop called Pajaritos in Santiago where we boarded yet another bus to the airport. After some iced coffee (a real treat for two deprived and desperate coffee addicts such as Jess and I) at Dunkin’ Donuts, we boarded our flight to Calama. After 2 hours of riding in the plane, we disembarked at the tiny airport, located in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere. There, we got a taxi to the bus station (which, until we arrived in San Pedro, was the smallest bus station I had ever seen), where we boarded our 4th bus of the day that took us to San Pedro de Atacama.
That evening, we scoured the town for an ATM machine…because we did not realize how much the tours were going to cost and we needed more dinero before we could make reservations for the following day. We stopped at Café Esquina (Corner Café) for some jugo natural (natural fruit juice)—I got sandia (watermelon) and it was perhaps the most refreshing thing I’ve ever tasted, especially because nothing stays cold for very long in San Pedro.
For dinner, we met up with Alex and Angie, two students from our program who were also in San Pedro for the weekend. Jess and I got to pick the restaurant and we
were craving pizza. Alex called me for directions, which is a difficult thing to give when the streets are only marked sporadically. I listed off a few landmarks and general directions, such as “It’s on the street before the lights go off” (the power went off in half of the town…apparently San Pedro is run by 2 diesel generators). Miraculously, they found us. We ordered two pizzas…including Pizza Brasil, which combined traditional favorites like tomato sauce, cheese, and oregano with the unexpected flavors of banana, pineapple, and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. My taste buds did not know what to think about that, even after 2 pieces.
We went to bed fairly early that night…because we had to be up early for our geyser tour the next AM.
Friday -- Arrival
Getting to San Pedro is no s
imple feat. Right after Art, we took a bus from school to the terminal de buses, then another bus to the Metro/bus stop called Pajaritos in Santiago where we boarded yet another bus to the airport. After some iced coffee (a real treat for two deprived and desperate coffee addicts such as Jess and I) at Dunkin’ Donuts, we boarded our flight to Calama. After 2 hours of riding in the plane, we disembarked at the tiny airport, located in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere. There, we got a taxi to the bus station (which, until we arrived in San Pedro, was the smallest bus station I had ever seen), where we boarded our 4th bus of the day that took us to San Pedro de Atacama.It was impossible not to immediately fall in love with this charming little pueblo.
The buildings and walls of the town are the same col
or and texture as the ground, s
o they seem to naturally rise out of it. In fact, the entire landscape is the same slightly rusty color, offset by an incredibly blue (and almost completely cloudless) sky. At night, it was so clear that you could almost see more stars than sky.
However, despite its quaint personality, San Pedro is not for the faint of heart. The high altitude made it difficult to breathe at times, and the dry atmosphere made us constantly thirsty—we lugged around 1 liter bottles of water the entire weekend. The days could be almost painfully hot while the nights were cold. Even still, as they say in Chile, “Vale la pena” (it’s worth it).
After checking into Hostal Cabur, we explored the plaza and the adorable white-stucco church, made reservations for the next day’s excursion (and realized this trip would be much more expensive than anticipated—you needed to book a tour for almost anywhere you wanted to go), and ate the first of our many strange meals in San Pedro (noodles covered in guacamole—we were so hungry, we only began to care halfway through our plate). We went to bed pretty early after all that traveling in one day.
Saturday – Salar de Atacama y Lagunas Altiplanicas
The next morn
ing, our tour left around 9am. While we were waiting, we saw this extreme-looking vehicle that was a hybrid of a military Jeep and a garbage truck. Jess and I both laughed and joked that we hoped it was our tour—and, to our great delight, it was.
Our first stop was the Salar de Atacama (salt plains) where we saw flamencos (flamingos). The salt formations covered the entire landscape, except for the carefully laid-out paths where we could walk and a few pools of water fed by underground reservoirs where the flamencos spent their time. Although I would usually consider us to be good world citizens, Jess and I made a deal that potentially broke a few national park laws—she would touch the water to see if it was hot (it wasn’t) and I would like a rock to see if it really tasted salty (it did).
The buildings and walls of the town are the same col
or and texture as the ground, s
o they seem to naturally rise out of it. In fact, the entire landscape is the same slightly rusty color, offset by an incredibly blue (and almost completely cloudless) sky. At night, it was so clear that you could almost see more stars than sky.However, despite its quaint personality, San Pedro is not for the faint of heart. The high altitude made it difficult to breathe at times, and the dry atmosphere made us constantly thirsty—we lugged around 1 liter bottles of water the entire weekend. The days could be almost painfully hot while the nights were cold. Even still, as they say in Chile, “Vale la pena” (it’s worth it).
After checking into Hostal Cabur, we explored the plaza and the adorable white-stucco church, made reservations for the next day’s excursion (and realized this trip would be much more expensive than anticipated—you needed to book a tour for almost anywhere you wanted to go), and ate the first of our many strange meals in San Pedro (noodles covered in guacamole—we were so hungry, we only began to care halfway through our plate). We went to bed pretty early after all that traveling in one day.
Saturday – Salar de Atacama y Lagunas Altiplanicas
The next morn
ing, our tour left around 9am. While we were waiting, we saw this extreme-looking vehicle that was a hybrid of a military Jeep and a garbage truck. Jess and I both laughed and joked that we hoped it was our tour—and, to our great delight, it was. Our first stop was the Salar de Atacama (salt plains) where we saw flamencos (flamingos). The salt formations covered the entire landscape, except for the carefully laid-out paths where we could walk and a few pools of water fed by underground reservoirs where the flamencos spent their time. Although I would usually consider us to be good world citizens, Jess and I made a deal that potentially broke a few national park laws—she would touch the water to see if it was hot (it wasn’t) and I would like a rock to see if it really tasted salty (it did).
Before reaching las Lagunas Altiplanicas (the main attraction of our day trip), we stopped in the very small town of Socaire, home of an iglesia linda, a vicuna crossing sign, the best homemade cheese sandwich in the world…and not much else.
There were two Lagunas Altiplanicas—one was called Meñique (which means the littlest brother) and the other I don’t remember. What is the difference between a lake and a laguna? Lagunas are fed by underground reservoirs.
The lagunas were so blue, it was almost unreal. Jess said that they were exactly the color of lapis lazuli (a gorgeous deep blue stone only found in Chile and Afghanistan). We also saw some vicuña here and the driest but m
ost persistent little scrub brushes. After gazing in awe at the first laguna, we piled onto the roof of our indestructible tour truck and drove to the next laguna, where we had lunch. I could hardly eat anything, though, because I felt a smidge of altitude sickness (4,200 meters above sea level—can you blame me?) for about an hour…lots of water and a nap on our drive to Tocanao were enough to make me feel better.
Tocanao is an indigenous town supposedly with a lot of history that we didn’t see. Wha
t we did see was another adorable church and a couple of llamas. I decided to be brave and pet one of the llamas, and we got along nicely until it tried to eat my shoe and then stood up and I saw how big it actually was. After some much needed ice cream, we were on the road again to return to San Pedro.
The lagunas were so blue, it was almost unreal. Jess said that they were exactly the color of lapis lazuli (a gorgeous deep blue stone only found in Chile and Afghanistan). We also saw some vicuña here and the driest but m
ost persistent little scrub brushes. After gazing in awe at the first laguna, we piled onto the roof of our indestructible tour truck and drove to the next laguna, where we had lunch. I could hardly eat anything, though, because I felt a smidge of altitude sickness (4,200 meters above sea level—can you blame me?) for about an hour…lots of water and a nap on our drive to Tocanao were enough to make me feel better.Tocanao is an indigenous town supposedly with a lot of history that we didn’t see. Wha
t we did see was another adorable church and a couple of llamas. I decided to be brave and pet one of the llamas, and we got along nicely until it tried to eat my shoe and then stood up and I saw how big it actually was. After some much needed ice cream, we were on the road again to return to San Pedro. That evening, we scoured the town for an ATM machine…because we did not realize how much the tours were going to cost and we needed more dinero before we could make reservations for the following day. We stopped at Café Esquina (Corner Café) for some jugo natural (natural fruit juice)—I got sandia (watermelon) and it was perhaps the most refreshing thing I’ve ever tasted, especially because nothing stays cold for very long in San Pedro.
For dinner, we met up with Alex and Angie, two students from our program who were also in San Pedro for the weekend. Jess and I got to pick the restaurant and we
were craving pizza. Alex called me for directions, which is a difficult thing to give when the streets are only marked sporadically. I listed off a few landmarks and general directions, such as “It’s on the street before the lights go off” (the power went off in half of the town…apparently San Pedro is run by 2 diesel generators). Miraculously, they found us. We ordered two pizzas…including Pizza Brasil, which combined traditional favorites like tomato sauce, cheese, and oregano with the unexpected flavors of banana, pineapple, and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. My taste buds did not know what to think about that, even after 2 pieces.We went to bed fairly early that night…because we had to be up early for our geyser tour the next AM.
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