Tulor San Pedro de Atacama

... oder Begegnungsstaette war. Hier hielten die Medizinmaenner ihre Rituale ab, trafen sich die Stammesaeltesten zu ihren Beratungen und taten ihre Weisungen/Entscheidungen dem Volke kund.


















Langsa m gelangen wir in einen Canyon, der von einem kleinen Fluesschen durchflossen wird. Da ...

... for the stupid? On our return we can clearly see fumaroles coming out of volcano Putano.

Our last outing was to climb the C**ro Toco, a ‘quiet’ volcano the summit of which stands at 5,800m above sea level (18,200 feet in 'real money'). I can hardly believe that Debbie has talked me into anoth** lung bust** but it will be the first volcano we have climbed to the v**y top. It involves putting on all our warmest clothes including long johns and vests ...

... even though it s*id cerv*z* on it) *nd insisted he h*ve * t*ste to prove his innocence (it t*sted something like *n *lcoholic sod* but who knows). We weren’t too worried *s we only h*d * h*lf hour further to the Chile*n border *nd old Ju*n h*d worked like * dog *nd deserved * solit*ry cerv*z* on his l*st d*y…

[Leon writes…]

We m*de it to the border h*nd-over (no c*rs *re *llowed to tr*vel between Chile *nd Bolivi*) *nd s*id our goodbyes to the ...

... geysers. Tour bus picked us up at 4am (ow!) and we got to walk among the geysers for sunrise. They were fantastic - water bubbling up out of cracks in the ground forming huge plumes of steam. It was a strange feeling to be standing in -13 degrees just a few steps away from a hole in the ground with boiling water splashing out of it.

The rest of the tour was pretty much a drive through the mountains of the Atacama desert (the driest ...

... 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 ...

... Izgledao kao kaubojski gradic iz davne proslosti. Minijaturno je i kuce su sve prizemni i sagradene od gline ili cega vec :D svaka druga kuca je trgovina ili turisticka agencija i jako puno bolivijanaca zivi ovdje uzeci u obzir da je bolivija jako blizu. Nemaju asfalt na „cesti“ (koja je siroka ca. 3 metra) nego zemlju (crvenu). Mjesto se moze obici u 15minuta, ne voze auti kroz sve ceste nego samo jednu ili dvije. Puno je turista i cula sam da ima ca. 5000 domacih ljudi ...

... of the salt flat to 4500m above sea level where a gorgeous blue lake greeted us nestled in between 2 of the volcanoes. Another wow moment! Came back from the tour to a cold shower and a saggy horrible bed. Bad bed, cold shower and hippies. Time to change! So went round to my first choice the next morning and checked in and everyone and everything was normal, apart from maybe the 3 tiered bunk bed! The next day Gary (one of the guys from ...

... change from the middle of the afternoon, when you are wearing a t shirt! To start with, all the telescopes were explained to us, they were all pointed in different directions, to view various constellations etc, the moon and jupiter. The views of the moon were amazing, it was in such high detail, and jupiter with its rings too. After a bit, the astronomer himself gave a talk about the stars and astronomy in general, how to spot the southern cross etc ...

... for travellers who want to go to Bolivia. San Pedro is a cute and nice little dessert village, but there is not a whole lot to do and therefore not worth staying much more than a few days. In the hostel I met a young Dutch couple and two guys form Alkmaar. A good crowd to spend these two days with. With them I did a dessert tour. We visited a real salt lake in which we could float with water 7 x more salty than the ...

... been tarmacked - the plus side to this is lots of places to eat and drink, the downside is it can be expensive considering the country and location.

The hotel was very nice and had stocks of coco tea. San Pedro itself is not too high but the day trips involve high altitudes and I did get headaches when we got higher. The coco tea seemed to help.

Unfortunately although the hotel had the details of our ...