Terrantai Lodge San Pedro de Atacama

... visiting the geys**s. We can see into Chile, Bolivia and Argentina as all three bord**s meet 20km from wh**e we stand. To the East we can see the Bolivian salt flats, wh**e we will be tomorrow, that stretch away to the horizon. Th**e is v**y little precipitation in this part of the World and the peaks of the Andes are clear of snow as they frame the pictures in ev**y direction. The views are completely absorbing and we spend 40 minutes soaking it all up whilst trying to ...

San Pedro de Atacama

Ein Zwischenstopp in Chile mit mehr egal eineinhalb Stunden für die Einreise, jede Tasche wird gescannt, damit man auch ja kein Obst oder sonst irgendwelche Naturprodukte ins Land kommen. San Pedro an sich ist ein reiner Touristenort, warm und direkt neben der trockensten Wüste der Welt, da regnet es einen Teelöffel ...

... t the border (open b*gs on the t*ble, etc.) we *rrived in the town of S*n Pedro de At*c*m*, which *t first gl*nces w*s * dusty border town with * bit of desert feel (with, in f*ct, no p*ved ro*ds *t *ll).

We bid f*rewell to Cl*ire *nd J*mes with * promise to meet up for dinner in the evening *nd went in se*rch of *ccommod*tion. We s*w * few pl*ces th*t were quite expensive *nd quite underwhelming *nd then c*me *cross * somewh*t decent pl*ce with * sh*red b*throom, down ...

... in the world) seeing alpacas, various birds and even an active volcano! The desert really is special - virtually no rainfall at all, clouds are rare (we saw none in 5 days) and nothing green (only rocks and sand).

On our last night we visited a local observatory and had a fascinating and hugely funny evening with a mad Frenchman discussing the stars and our solar system. There were several telescopes set up so we got to see stars ...

Leaving Taltal my plan was to reach Tocopilla to make up some time instead of staying in Antofagasta which I had planned. Heading north to a town called Paposo on the coast the road was bitumen all the way then it changed to gravel for the next 140kms and took about 3.5hrs to negotiate. Some sections you could travel about 80km/hour then you would have to slow down to 20km/hour ...

... and it was the standard Valley of the Moon/Death Valley tour. At sunset all the tour parties converged on the giant sand dune to watch the sun go down. No chance of a peaceful sunset! However it was still spectacular as the sun went down by Licanabur. The volcano dominates the skyline wherever you look in San Pedro and the surrounding area and it's easy to see why it was worshipped.

After the sunset we went ...

... 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!!!

My bus arrived in Iquque around 4 am, but they let us sleep on the bus until 8. After finding a hostel and having a little nap, I went out to buy my bus ticket to Santiago, and check out the town. The town square was really nice, however, not a lot too look at. So I headed to the beach, where I sat and watched the waves and the surfers for about 3 hours. It is always nice to just relax and have nothing ...

... as the first. The rest of the trip was ok but very long 26 hours or so. Hello cabin fever. The scenery on the ride was just mind blowing it was like nothing I had ever seen before. There was just dirt and sand for miles. No trees bushes or water just desert. We imagined it would be much like that on the moon. As we neared the ocean the view just got better. Huge mountains up to 5000 meters hovered over the water line ...