An oasis in the desert
Trip Start
Dec 28, 2006
1
54
135
Trip End
Dec 2007
San Pedro de Atacama,
Chile
Sunday, April 8, 2007
We passed through a small salt lake on the altiplano and we saw lots of tiny goats grazing away. Then we descended past a volcano to San Pedro. After going through customs (the Chilean customs are very strict about what comes into their country and with good reason) we met someone from our hostel and were glad to check in.
The hostel is lovely and we had a great wee double room with, at last, a real mattress with real pillows and real duvet. Even though we were tired we walked into town and were so happy as it is a fabulous wee village in the Atacama desert. The wee streets are lovely and the backdrop of the Andes, desert and volcanoes is very dramatic. That night we had a great dinner in a restaurant with live local music and then headed back under the stars for much needed sleep.
The next morning was spent walking around the village and soaking it up. We dandered around the streets and poked our heads into lots of little Quechuan run craft shops. We finally found a gorge Quechua design photo album and Sara got a lovely alpaca scarf for the winter back home. We also, after a lot of thinking and debating, booked a tour for the Bolivian salt flats. There are so many options and none of the agencies have very good reputations so it was difficult to decide which one to go with.
We booked an unusual tour for that night, an astronomical one, and at 10pm we were collected and taken by bus to a French astronomers house a few Km south of San Pedro, in the middle of the desert. He and his wife showed us how to recognise different constellations e.g.
01 - Over the Andes
the scorpion, southern cross etc. and then we went outside to look through huge telescopes to see galaxies, nebulae, galaxy clusters, Saturn (we could make out the rings), Jupiter, Sirius (a star which, due to being low in the sky changes colour like a diamond), Alpha Scorpio, the Milkyway and very close-up views of the Moon. It was absolutely amazing, so beautiful and a special and unique experience. The guide was great and it was all made that much nicer by getting hot choc after we came in from the cold night time desert.The next day was filled with organising again, getting ready for Bolivia, booking onward travel and accommodation (which can take longer than you think) in our next stop, La Serena and doing a bit of food shopping. After lunch we had a much needed nap as we were both still exhausted and suffering a bit from the flu - you lot back home might not realise that traveling is actually hard work at times. So we, still tired, had a lovely evening sitting in the main square watching the sun setting behind the beautiful old church and then having a nice wee dinner in an outside restaurant in the square. Wish we could do that every night.
