Altiplanico San Pedro de Atacama

Arrived in San Pedro after a mere 23 hour bus journey from Santiago, completing my trip from Punta Arenas to the Tropic of Capricorn in 3 days! It was an interesting ride - the whole route was pretty dry, passing at various times cacti, pisco grapes, Andean mountains, the Pacific Ocean. I have to say that this area seems to have clear skies and perfect sun sets more or less every single day and the mountains are home to many of the world´s top observatories.<br><br>The ...

... The "hostel" was so basic you could just feel the wind blowing through the windows... <br><br>Waking up at 6am freezing cold to watch the sun rise was pretty cool and very cold... <br><br>So day 2 we drove into the desert proper it was really really dusty and very hot during the day. The desert is called Dali's Desert as he was known to paint it... <br>We also visited a number of lagoons and saw flamingos ...

... other star clusters. <br><br>Monty celebrated his birthday here in the desert. I made him avacado on toast for breaskfast and we spent the day trying to stay out of the sun but getting around San Pedro De Atacama. In the evening we went out for dinner. <br><br>Given the heat we moved on after three days and decided to jump the boarder back in the Argentina to Salta. <br><br>

... warm. In contrast, the descent is a breeze as we step down into warm**, oxygenated (comparatively!) air. <br><br>I want to add one grumble! The Chilean bord** post is at San Pedro de Atacma, a m**e 40km from the bord** post with Bolivia that is stationed at their national boundary. How absurd! This is an ideal space for smuggling illegal fruits and whatev** you like and und**lines p**fectly the stupidity of the ridiculous stance that the idiots at Santiago airport took. Nuff sed!

... out my skin was white due to the salt but they have a small water pump system to wash you down.<br><br>Next stop is Tebinquiche Springs which is 2 waterholes in the middle of these salt flats. There is no fencing, so if you didnt know these small round springs were there you could easily drive straight into them. Some went swimming and said it was even colder then the last lagoon.<br><br>The tour then takes us to Tebinquiche Laguna for sunset and Pisco sours. It was great to ...

... budget on a taxi to the nearest town, Calama, that had a proper hospital for tests etc. <br><br>So, we arrived at this place (much like a Medi-Cross in SA) and adopted the GQS (Gringo Queuing System) - i.e. charge right to the front deliberately ignoring the 'Please take a number' sign, tell them in English what the problem is and walk straight into a treatment room. Bad luck for the locals. To be fair though, the clinic was fantastic. Ang ...

... so worth it! By the evening Celia was feeling a little better and managed a small amount of dinner with the group. We awoke at 5.30am the next day to head across to the salt flats to see the sun rising. This was amazing and a great start to our last day. It was so cold though so we were unable to stay out of the jeep for too long! We carried on across the salt flats, finding the smooth ride very refreshing after the last few days, and arrived ...

... the village to give back the bikes &amp; boards.Fitzy argued with the dude for a while while we all kinda looked at the floor.He some how managed to get away with paying about a tenner.Not bad at all!Headed to get some much needed food ina cool bar/restaurant &#8211; got a pizza for a couple of euro!Headed back to the hostel to clean the bazillion litres of sand that we picked up.<br><br>Cleaned up and headed for ANOTHER BUS &#8211; outa 4 nights we only stayed ina hostel 1 night!3 Night buses.