When studying in Chile, a visit to the Atacama Desert is usually on everyone’s list. I’ve been looking forward to my trip up north for several months, especially after seeing so many pictures of the area in my geography class and realizing that the trip would signify the beginning of my “summer vacation.” I had a wonderful 5 days exploring the region and relaxing in the driest desert on earth. Prepare for many many pictures.
Day 1, Saturday: We departed from the Santiago airport in the early afternoon with thick fog all around us. Thankfully I had a window seat on the flight so that I could witness the change when we emerged from the fog. I could see the tops of the Andes mountains, but it looked like there was a sea of clouds below them – a truly amazing view. Upon arrival in the Calama airport, there was some confusion on how we would actually get to San Pedro de Atacama, but we eventually settled on paying a van to take us to the small town about 90 minutes away. It was a bit of a struggle trying to find our hostel in the town, where streets are not clearly labeled and building numbers don’t go in order. Thankfully, we eventually found our cute little hostel and settled in for a nice few days. We walked into town, approximately 15 minutes away from our hostel, and found a small food store to stock up on food for the week. San Pedro is a very small town with four things: travel agencies, souvenir shops, restaurants and small grocery stores. Nevertheless, it’s a charming and rustic little village that, despite being primarily populated by tourists throughout the year, still retains a lot of its South American charm. When we returned from town, we had a lazy evening of cooking, watching television and lounging – the perfect start to our relaxing vacation.
Day 2, Sunday: We slept late and had a lazy morning in the hostel. We walked into town to try to find some tours of the area to go on. There are several agencies in town that offer tours to all of the most popular sites. Unfortunately, the tours are often quite expensive given the cost of transportation in the area and the popularity of the sites. Thankfully, we found a deal with one of the agencies that included four tours over our four days in San Pedro. When I was reading my travel book on the plane ride back to Santiago, I was excited to see that we had covered almost all of the sites that the book mentioned in our tours.
After booking our tours, we found a cute ice cream shop in town to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends, Miranda. I got quinoa ice cream, which turned out to be really delicious.
After booking our tours, we found a cute ice cream shop in town to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends, Miranda. I got quinoa ice cream, which turned out to be really delicious.
We headed back to our hostel for a bit to get ready for our first tour of the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) and the Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). Valle de la Muerte was the first stop, and we found out that it was actually supposed to be called the Mars Valley but there was a translation error. It really did look like the surface of Mars, at least from the pictures I’ve seen since sadly I’ve never been to the surface of Mars. The next stop was what they call the Coyote Canyon, though Chile doesn’t actually have coyotes… Apparently it just reminded people of the Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon, so they named the valley after that. Our final stop was Valle de la Luna, which is a very famous national reserve right outside of San Pedro. We visited an old salt mine and watched the sunset over a gigantic sand dune. I wasn’t overly amazed by the view, perhaps because I’ve seen so many rock formations in my life (thanks for the rock vacation, parents) but it was still nice to enjoy the sunset. The hike up the dune was a bit difficult given the high altitude, so we were all pretty proud of ourselves.
That night we watched the US versus Portugal game. That awkward moment when, at the end of the game, we realized that the other guy in the hostel was from Portugal… We all felt a bit ashamed when we ended up tying and he asked us, “No one in America really cares about soccer though, right?”
That night we watched the US versus Portugal game. That awkward moment when, at the end of the game, we realized that the other guy in the hostel was from Portugal… We all felt a bit ashamed when we ended up tying and he asked us, “No one in America really cares about soccer though, right?”
Day 3, Monday: The day began at 4 am when we woke up to get ready to watch the sunrise at the Geysers El Tatio. The geysers are about a 2 hours drive away from San Pedro, so we were picked up at 4:45 am to drive there before the sunrise. The geysers were so beautiful and so big – definitely a cool sight. Apparently, all the tours go in the early morning because the low temperatures make it easy to see the water coming out of the geysers. Unfortunately, that meant that it was well below freezing when we got there… Silly me didn’t think to look up the temperatures before leaving for the trip, but thankfully I was able to stay fairly warm by wearing every piece of clothing I had brought, including two pairs of socks on my hands. On the way back from the geysers, we stopped along to take pictures of vicunas (Chilean deer) and llamas. We stopped at a small town called Machuca, which has a population of 6 or 7 (and I thought Croton was small…) We got back to San Pedro just in time to watch the Chile vs. Holland game of the World Cup. Unfortunately, Chile lost, but both teams had already made it to the next round, so it could have been much worse!
Day 4, Tuesday: We got up early again to start our full day tour of the Salar de Atacama, the gigantic salt flat in the region (approx. 100 km long, 80 km wide and 2 km deep, if I remember correctly). Our first stop was the national reserve that is home to several flamingo populations. It was absolutely beautiful to see the lagoons and the flamingos, especially when they started to fly over us. Our next stop was two other lagoons which were equally as beautiful, though very very windy. We stopped in a small town called Socaire to eat lunch, which was very appreciated after being so cold in the morning. We also stopped in the town of Toconao to visit some of the local shops and stop by a woman’s house who has pet llamas (when in Chile…) After getting back around 4 pm, we had a lazy evening and went to dinner in town at the Delicias de Carmen, where I had the most delicious cheese, tomato and basil empanada.
Day 5, Wednesday: After two days of getting up early, we let ourselves sleep in and had a lazy morning. We went souvenir shopping in town, where I picked up some postcards and a flag of the region, which has many different colored squares. We stopped by the main plaza in town, where there was a cultural event going on including dance classes. That afternoon, we went on our last tour to the Laguna Cejar. The lagoon has such a high salt concentration that it’s impossible to sink – the only other place in the world besides the Dead Sea where that is possible. The water was completely freezing, so it took several minutes for us to convince ourselves to go in… Feet were first, and we figured that would be enough – “At least we went in the water!” Then we said we would at least sit in the water – “At least our legs floated!” By that point we figured we might as well just go all the way in – how often do you get to float in saturated salt water in the driest desert in the world? So we eventually made it in and it was definitely worth it, though my body hated me for a bit after. Floating was so cool though – my hair was completely dry after coming out because I never made it that far in. Our skin definitely felt the repercussion of the salt water after and my already dry skin was yelling at me – but still worth it!
Next we visited the Ojos [Eyes] de Salar, two large, circular pools of fresh water in the middle of the salt flats. The final stop was our last lagoon, where we watched the most beautiful sunset and snacked on cheese, crackers and Pisco Sours. The most perfect way to finish off our experience in Atacama!