Hostal Mamatierra San Pedro de Atacama

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צ&# 1508;ון צ'ילה ידועה כאחד המקומ 93;ת הטובי 01; בעולם לצפיה בכוכב 97;ם בגלל מיעוט הישוב 97;ם ותנ ...

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So I'm back on the road alone again as the old song says. And now into the coldest of all countries, Chile. The close second coldest country-name is, of course, Iceland. The capital, Santiago, is a really cool city. Not too big so you get confused but lively enough to remind you you're in South America and times are good. I met some really nice people in my hostel too and, for the first time on my trip, all of us went for a meal together ...

... trips to observatories a little chilly!)

The facts about the mighty, and 23 million years old, Atacama desert are crazy. As everybody knows, itīs the driest place on Earth, 50 times drier than Death Valley in California; it contains several weather stations that have never recorded any rain and studies suggest that some of its dry river beds may have been dry for 120.000 years! Some random guy on the bus said that certain parts havenīt had any rainfall since the ...

... etc and fill in multiple forms with the same info many many many wonderful times...

So we load all our stuff into the Camel of the desert - a Toyota land cruiser! The tour is meant to be 6 people but as were only 4 it means we have plenty of space. Alberto our driver then sets off into the desert at a frightening pace!!!

So we went to the white lagoon then the green lagoon then the lagoon of colour ...

... It was only about 7am (still cold outside) and the 3 Dutch girls said they had been in 2 or 3 other hot springs already in South America. I was on the fence, but decided I didn't come all this way to wuss out!

Next to Laguna Verde. Minerals (copper?) make the water green. But the water is so clear you can see the reflection of the mountains!

Had to be at the Bolivia/Chile border by 10 am for the 3 Dutch girls and James to catch their bus. Some ...

... met een Duits meisje, dus ik kan weer een beetje aan mijn duits werken, is tenslotte al weer 2 weken geleden dat ik dat voor het laatst heb kunnen doen ;-)
Gisteren heb ik een star tour gedaan. Was heel erg leuk en heeeel erg koud (daar hadden ze ook voor gewaarschuwd, dus ik had al mijn warme kleren die ik bij me heb aangetrokken). Midden in de desert vlakbij San Pedro heeft een Franse astronoom een observatroium waar je īs avonds een tour kan doen. Begon om 22.30 en om half ...

... etant une auberge de jeunesse qui se trve etre super chere!!!) un dortoir pour 5000 pesos (environ 7euros)
je flane un peu et rencontre un francais sebastien de haute savoir qui a laisse ses amis depuis qq jrs ( snif, comme moi), on papote et on mage esb en attendant son amie qui arrive de santiago a 3h!!! le courant passe bien puis on bouffe ts les 3, et du ceviche svp (poisson cru accompagne de cirton et doignon) super bon!!!
on papote pas mal et on met ...

... as the moon (quite a vital component of the sky), Andromeda, various star clusters and constellations etc. Again the science geek is never too far away as I loved all this malarkey, although it was flipping cold out in that desert in the night!

The following day we randomly bumped into one of the guys who we did the Inca Trail with, so celebrated with a beer before catching the nightbus to La Serena...

... on a drip within minutes and the doctor spoke pretty good english and explained everything really well. After a couple of hours we got all the test results back and they were happy to let us go on with our trip. We were back in San Pedro (by bus this time) and back in our hostel room within 7 hours which was great!

Obviously because of this there wasn't a lot of activity from our side... We did however spend a morning at the El ...

... though but got a few good pictures. It was so cold that we got back in the jeep and headed to our next destination - the salt museum. This was a hostel which had been made of salt. It was no longer used as a hostel but it was more of a tourist attraction. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside but managed to get a few pics through the window and even all the furniture inside was made of salt. Initially we wanted to stay in a salt hostel ...