Altiplanico Hotel San Pedro De Atacama

... if you didn't know. Even drier than rich tea biscuits! (pause for laughter)). It is only a small group and we will be spending the next twenty days together on the tour. The group consists of Colin, a top chap from Scotland, Simone and Claudia, two excitable friends from Germany and Austria respectively, Boris, an hilarious eighty one year old from Russia (seriously), Andrea, a very nice lady from Australia and my room mate for the first two nights, Frank from Germany. Or, as we ...

... to Calama tomorrow - I would prefer to stay here for one more night, but I have an early flight to Santiago on Saturday morning then a connection to Auckland NZ. - So, being unable to get an early bus means I have to spend one night in Calama.<br>The lonely Planet guide grades Calama as "a shithole" - I'll keep you posted!!!!!<br>I'm off now to find a bonfire party !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br>A Luego .... Ronaldo

So Today I took a tour of the salt lagoon We left at 4pm and went by mini bus to the first lagoon which was salty and you could float in it like in the dead sea! very cool... about a 30 minute drive later and our bodies covered in salt we arrived at a fresh water lagoon - well more of a hole in the ground.. It was so deep ...

... denk je dat toch altijd.<br>Jammergenoeg bij aankomst in Arica geen directe aansluiting meer op de bus naar San Pedro, dus ik heb maar een kaartje naar Calama gekocht en vandaaruit was het nog maar anderhalf uur naar San Pedro. In de verloren uurtjes tussen bussen heb ik samen met de Engelsman lekker op een terrasje aan een verlaten strand gezeten bij een eigenlijk gesloten strandtent (bediend door de schoonmaker). Was wel even lekker na zo´n lange busrit en vooral met zo´n lange ...

... that is so named because it reflects the surface of the Moon. It has steep sand dunes, soft, she** rock hills that have flat, dry riv** beds winding between them and salt and Gypsum crystals that glint in the sunlight. Our trek wand**s through the landscape off**ing many wond**ful vistas from vantage points at the highest locations and the clear, dry air completely robs us of our sense of distance. Objects that look close by are, in fact, many times furth** away than we ...

... sind Viehwirtschaft (Geissen, Schafe, Lamas), Gemüse- und Fruchtanbau, Tourismus und Salzindustrie (Salzgewinnung und -verarbeitung). Das jodlose Salz wird in der weltgrössten Kupfermiene in Calama (ca 100km von San Pedro) zur Kupfergewinnung benötigt. Daneben gewinnt die Extraktion von im Salz enthaltenem Lithium zunehmend an Bedeutung.<br>

10:40 hit the bus to San Pedro &#8211; 25 hours woohoo<br><br>7th July<br><br>ON THE BUS!<br><br>8th July<br><br>Arrived into San Pedro at about half 11 at night &#8211; totally pitch black &amp; we hadn't a clue where the taxi was that we had booked!Asked a taxi driver and pointed us in the wrong direction past all these crazy drunk dudes &#8211; saying 'who knows&#8217;.We literally wandered all over the place, into Police stations, other hostels, asking strangers &#8211; they pointed us to ...

I barely slept on last night´s 11 hour overnight bus ride to San Pedro. But on the bright side I met two Americans who were really cool- one was from the South and told me was glad to hear "ya´ll". We had the most bizarre stop in the middle of nowhere at some customs office. We didn´t even leave Chile but I think there is some zona franca around Arica that we left. Who knows? We had to get off the bus in the freezing cold and then climb back on.<br><br ...

... too which is good. We are also still eagerly waiting for Julia and Andy, and wondering when and even where we will meet up...<br><br>On another important note, things are so much more expensive in Chile than in Perú! I am still in shock after 3 days! (edit: also, it is much more difficult to do math in your head since $1 USD = 600 Chilean pesos! On the plus side, one kinda feels richer having thousands of pesos in the wallet.)

... the pitch black. Occasionally the bus went off road to make a short cut. Maybe it was better to not be able to see!<br> <br>The road wound up and up as the sky got slowly lighter outside. Dawn was just breaking as we got off the bus. The air was cold outside and our bums were numb after the trip! We were very glad we wrapped up as it was below freezing. <br><br>The guide gave us a short tour round whilst breakfast cooked in the ...