Hotel El Mirador Calama

So after arriving back from the observatory at 3.30 am , we took a 6 am bus to the city of Calama, some 3 hours away through the Atacama desert. We would be arriving at around 9am, and then be taking the 10pm bus to the city of Arica, which is on the Peru/Chile border. So what do you do if your in Calama for 12 hours? Ask the towns tourist office and your answer will be ...

After leaving San Pedro de Atacama on a mini bus, which should only cost you about 2,500 pesos, we traveled through more desert! But this time there were colors in the rocks and landscape and it was a little more pretty. Calama is only about an hour and a half away and much more metropolitian than San Pedro.. It even has paved roads!!! And more than 1 ATM ...

... would be staying as the city has a bad reputation for being a very dangerous place for the likes of a shabby looking hobo traveler like me! My words not theirs, having given up on shaving I have grown well for me at least quite a substantial beard.. shabby.. With the time coming up to 10 at night I became a little apprehensive of mooching about the streets with all my gear to find a place to stay for the ...

... culpa seva, que no han vist que els papers estaven malament (això no els diem, per si de cas)... ens han vist tant fet pols, que també han sortit a veure si ens podien ajudar... a aquest ritme, ens hi farem amics. Després d'això decidim trucar a Avis a Antofagasta per avisar-los que els hi anem a tornar el cotxe, que ens anem a Argentina, que s'oblidin que els hi paguem el permís i l'assegurança (121 $), que els hi tornarem el cotxe amb el dipòsit buit i que ja poden ...

Hallo all, Here we are in Chile in a very dodgy internet cafe waiting for our onward connection to Arica, where we´ll cross the border into Peru. The week has been mentally busy - in a fit of eagerness we booked ourselves onto every trip leaving Salta for 5 days, and ended up with five 6.30am starts in a row - yikes! It was worth it though, as the Salta province is mindblowing. It varies from mountainous regions to salt flats to desert ...

Hi again, Well the rest of the week in Salta improved as the tour company, Nordic Tours, managed to pick us up each day, although they did leave us sweating for around an hour the day after they left without us! We visited Cafayate, Catchi and also did the trip to the clouds, but by bus not train as its either booked up or not running depending on who you listen to. I know I said in the last entry ...

... ponchos, hats and pottery to tourists) for as little as 50 US cents per hour, and receive no help for any of the numerous medical complaints which arise as a result of their jobs. In addition, all the buildings in the town are built from salt, and the condition of most (the town looks on the verge of collapse) suggests that traditional bricks have nothing to fear in terms of construction competition. The flats themselves are an amazing sight. The pure flat white surface ...

... hemos pasado el menor tiempo posible, y hemos hecho lo imprescindible, una visita al valle de la Luna y valle de la Muerte (por lo visto el nombre viene de un malentendido, de "Marte", por la apariencia del lugar). De nuevo paisajes increíbles, a veces surrealistas, del desierto más seco del mundo. By Pato

... food was fantastic, worth far more than what we paid, and we returned to the hotel very full, and very satisfied. Day one had been a great success. Day two started very gently for us. Our hotel had laid on a fabulous buffet breakfast. Carmen was excited by the presence of bran flakes, yoghurt and fresh fruit. Pablo´s eyes lit up at the sight of chocolate and banana cake (pronounced cakey), raspberry tart, apple tart, omelette, home made white and wholemeal rolls and fresh ...

... were so bored the few restauraunts that were open could harldy be bothered to serve us. The one that did anyways did´nt have any menus in english so we didnt know what was on the menu. All of the dishes had local names on the food that wasnt in the dictionary we had. So we were hungry now at this stage with no-where else open and no idea what was on the menu. Brainwave! Google it! Leggered over to the internet shop and typed in the ...