Awasi San Pedro de Atacama

... then there was the shallow, freezing water to cross.

Surrounded by the gorge’s steep rocky sides, we did quite well with the difficult footing and ascending an affixed “ladder” at the end of the day. Cosmo Andino organized the trip.

See the videos I made!

Meine letzte Tour hier in San Pedro fuehrt Christina, Manuel und mich ins Valle de la Luna, nord-westlich von San Pedro gelegen. Nach unserer etwas speziellen Exkursion ins Rainbow Valley starten wir ausgeruht erst spaet im Nachmittag.
Wir stehen hoch ueber dem Eingang zum Mondtal vor einer langen Duene. Alle Lucken dicht machen (Fotoausruestung ...) und ein Sprung ins ...

... my des**t rats amongst much s******ing from oth** guests. The guides cannot hold themselves back:

‘Hey, Eenglish! I think you should wear trous**s not shorts. It is minus 10c up th**e!’

‘It’s always minus 10c in England.’ I reply rath** feebly. I cannot possibly go and change now, even though I want to. I cannot let them think that the Brits are a gutless, soft centred bunch.

Tragically the pow** of the geys**s has been ...

... only 3 blocks. With much relief, I discovered that Hiyasmin and Kushal had already checked in (which meant that our plan to meet up in the desert was coming into fruition). The reception lady took me to our room, and I hurriedly collapsed on the upper bunk bed, glad to be lying flat and eager for a bit of sleep...

Didn't do much for the remainder of the day - surfed the net a little at a small, cramped, hot internet café with ...

... till it finally started climbing to the top to go back inland towards the main highway, it was an awesome view with no one in sight and not seeing another car for 3.5 hours. Passing thru Antofagasta it was just another city to me( second largest in Chile), I kept heading north along the coast with a short detour to the Natural La Portada which is a natural arch just off the ...

... golven had gesmeten, besloot ik omdan toch nog maar een dagje extra te blijven en eens te checken wat er snachts zo allemaal te beleven valt... bwa, voor het dindagavond-uitgaansleven had ik nie moeten blijven. Bestookt en achtervolgd door een bende hiphoppende en beatboxende snotters, om dan om 3 uur al de last man standing te zijn. En op strand maffen bleek toch ook niet zo ...

Purely a destination of convenience, the point at which we skip a couple of thousand miles of bus journey and take the sensible option of a flight. Iquique is a bizarre town that feels like it is in the wild west era. The overnight stopover was however vastly improved by great sushi!!!

... do. So I spent most of the day reading in a cafe or working on the internet. Which is the same thing I did the next day before it was time to catch my SUPER PLUSH bus to Santiago. I decide to treat myself and went with the deluxe sleeper where the bus rocked me to sleep and I was very refreshed by the time I got to Santiago. Really not too exciting of an entry... but I wanted to document it anyway. Sorry.

... I used to picture when I thought of SA. It was tiny with only a few streets all of which were dirt. The placed seemd to solely exist for gringos passing through. Everywhere you turned was a hostel or some special deal for tourists. We decided it was best to get strait into the salt lake tour so booked to leave the next day. Probably not the smartest idea as you are supposed to acclimatize before heading up to 5000 meters. Bah.