San Pedro de Atacama is technically speaking a village in the middle of the Atacama desert, it did how ever offer much more than this title would suggest. The bus ride to this dust bowl was a long one and we arrived late in the evening, the bus "station" was in fact a bamboo hut on the edge of town and we had no definite hostel booked as Steph had taken the plunge the day before making a phone call in Spanish so we had no idea if it was confirmed or not. She did very well though and I would not have had the confidence to make that call!
After getting off the bus and reclaiming our bags we headed out into the dusty street to try and locate ourselves with the odd street name or two but alas before we had chance to do this out of the pitch black we were approached by some people talking in Spanish. They soon realised we were in fact useless and spoke to us in perfect English instead, the guy asked us where our hostel was as we continued walking. After getting down the road a way we met some more of his friends and the chaos began. One man who spoke no English at all was insisting on getting us to go camping and the others were trying to figure out which way our hostel was, in the end they flagged down a white land cruiser and told us the man would take us there for 2000 Chilean pesos ( about three pounds). Tired and confused we bundled ourselves in and he did indeed complete our delivery as planned.
The next morning we realised what an eye wateringly beautiful place we had found ourselves, completely surrounded by the Andes on all sides with the odd volcano and all topped in perfectly white snow, the feeling of being able to stand in the desert and look up at snow covered mountains is a special one. The first day was spent milling around the town not doing very much and trying to acclimatise.
The next day we decided to hire some bikes and get out of the town to see the views of the surrounding mountains this was a great idea apart from the fact the guy gave us a photocopied map that had very much seen better days and to be honest so had the bikes. Aside from our poor navigational aids and some what tired steeds we pressed on fumbling around the narrow streets and pot holes attempting to find the road we needed, Countless u-turns later we settled on cycling out of the town on the main road and the view just got better and better.
That afternoon we booked ourselves onto a tour of the Vally of the moon, we arrived at the tour agency to realise that me and Steph were the only people booked onto this particular tour bus and the driver spoke not a word of English and our Spanish levels does not cope with tours just yet! Regardless of this the tour was amazing the Vally is covered in salt deposits and huge sand dunes which is an unusual mixture we had some spectacular views and the weather could not have been better. At the end of the tour we sat and watched the sun set over the whole Vally with all the other tour groups it was a worthwhile trip for sure.
That was our last day in San Pedro and our last day in Chile, at 8 am the next morning we got picked up by a mini bus to take us to the Bolivian border to start a three day 4x4 tour of the Atacama desert and the Bolivian salt flats. The bus took us up to 4400 metres above sea level to the smallest hut which was in fact the Bolivian boarder crossing. Having previously been stamped out of Chile in San Pedro in a long que and by tough looking guys behind the desks this could not have been more different. There were two very happy Bolivian officials doing the stamping and no bag checks, questions or anything just a smile and a stamp! Off we went to find out which one of the many Toyota land cruisers was to be our ride and we got very lucky. The tours are usually supposed to carry six people in very tight conditions but we ended up with three of us, me, Steph and a Finnish guy called Jake who ended up translating for us for three days. Our driver was a young Bolivian guy called Reuben and he was as layed back as they come.
Day one of the tour saw a number of lagoons and lakes at high altitude, we reached the highest point of the trip on that day at 4600 metres above sea level. We pressed on and had lunch next to a lake with hundreds of wild flamingos it was awesome. We pressed on that afternoon through the mountains to see the lost city of Italy, this is an usual rock formation in the desert that is so called because two Italian cyclists lost their lives here after loosing there map trying to cycle through the Atacama. That night saw us lodged in a small village caqlled Via Alota with all the other tour groups, you flushed the toilet with a bucket and no showers or constant electricity.
Day two was a drive from here to Uyuni taking in a market town called San Christabel which happenned to also be the first place we got refered to as "Gringos". We also stopped at the grave yard of the trains where french locomotives from the sixties used to haul copper had been dumped and left to rust, it did however make an interesting attraction. Uyuni is an unusual town as it is very isolated and still very traditional it made for a cool few nights stay but was also the jump off point for the third day of our tour to see the amazing salt flats.
The salt flats might as well be a different planet, this time of year they are covered in 6 inches of water and acts like a giant mirror. As you will see from the pictures the sky and clouds come together and there is no sense of perspective. We saw the salt hotel and had lunch here. Unfortunately because of heavy rains we could not explore much as the rain forces into the salt forming caves underneath and its not safe for vehicles to cross.
At this point i would like to mention altitude. Altitude sickness can in fact be deadly and we had purchased some tablets in San Pedro to ward off the headaches and nausea but it is surprising that the most rapid and effective form of doing this is chewing Cocoa leaves. Now i imagine at this point most of you are thinking it didn't take us long in South America to get on the drugs but it is in fact perfectly legal and is not a drug in any form as the leaf on its own does not make cocaine. You chew the leaf with an alkaline such as baking soda or as we did a solid form of sugars taken from a plant this gives a numb feeling in the mouth much like the dentist but that is only temporary. The science behind what happens i am not sure of, but it slows breathing and increases oxygen transfer in the lungs it also acts as a mild stimulant in the same way caffeine does. We both have struggled with the altitude and have both been helped by this traditional method of coping with it.
We left Uyuni on the over night train to Oruro, we had this time decided to splash out on a first class train ticket which came to the heady price of 10 pounds, Bolivia is a very cheap place! The train was amazing with food served and alpaca wool blankets for the cold night ahead. Oruro is dirty, cold, wet and busy and at first we wished we had taken another 23 hour bus to La Paz rather than coming to this place. Whilst trying to find the main plaza we got the pleasure of meeting Brian. Brian was a very drunk very happy Bolivian man who seemed very happy indeed to see us and could not stop informing us of what beautiful people we were but it gets to the point when it has been said seven or eight times that you cant help but feel awkward. He then kissed my hand as was away to find some more beautiful people....it was only after that Steph informed me he had been sick all over himself!
We struggled to find a place to stay or eat as it was a Sunday and most places the guide book recommends had shut down! But that first day did have a single gem to it which was the Oruro street carnival which was a small affair. Our first night also will probably be remembered as the night of the chicken dinner, there are many places selling chicken and chips and its fast paced, easy and cheap. Except for Steph it was not so easy and in a tired and hungry state had the most hilarious game of bad Spanish and hand signals to end up with chicken and chips and 2 litres of coke. Who knew the choice of battered or non battered chicken was such an event and with a hungry crowd forming behind her it was a pressure situation, everyone came out of it laughing though. The people here were very friendly but we were glad to depart for La Paz.
I am now sitting in the adventure brew hostel in La Paz which is half hostel half micro brewery, i have just booked myself on the cycle trip down the worlds most deadly road for tomorrow which I'm very excited about. Needless to say my partner in crime has let me take this risk alone, i think she prefers the idea of going shopping for gifts for her sisters!
Well that's is for this post, Steph will include La Paz in her next post.
Enjoy!
Take care all.
Jack
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