San Pedro de Atacama

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama to find it brilliantly sunny and scorchingly hot. We went through Chilean customs without incident, and ventured into the town on foot to find a hostel. I had booked one in advance but it turned out to be much different than the website suggested, so we wandered around to find a new place to stay. It was hot and we were sweating carrying our heavy bags around, and by the time we finaly decided on a hostel we were both rather cranky. We soon discovered that San Pedro is a very expensive little town to stay in, and decided that the best thing to do would be to get out as soon as possible. Two bus companies run buses to Salta, our next destination, on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. As it was Monday, we were hoping to get a space on the Tuesday bus, but it was not to be. We were two people too late in the line, and were therefor going to have to make do in San Pedro until Friday.

San Pedro is a rather nice town despite it`s very touristy roots. The streets are small and dusty, with low adobe buildings, and large green trees in the plaza. We wandered the streets for a little while, poking around the market, and admiring the gigantic Christmas tree in the main plaza (for me a rather odd site in the middle of the desert, as I am used to white Christmases). We found a restaraunt for dinner, and enjoyed the set dinner menu of salad, dessert, and a damn good steak.

The next day we spent lazing around. It was my birthday, so we went out for a good breakfast and then spent some time at the internet cafe, so that I could get in touch with my family. Timb and I had a couple of gigantic empanadas for lunch, and played cards in the afternoon, as I attempted to get my tan back. For dinner we went out to a restaraunt with a fire pit and open air patio. We could see the stars as we ate. It was another great meal, though not a cheap one.

The following morning we initiated our budget plan, and after one last breakfast out, we moved to a less expensive room at our hostel, and went out to buy some groceries to cook the meals for the next couple of days. We had a siesta that afternoon, and then headed out to rent some bikes for a tour of La Valle de la Luna.

We were told that the best way to tour the Valle was to do the circuit, starting with a big uphill climb, but ending rather easily with downhill and flat sections for the most part. The beginning of the ride was fine, we stopped at the top and took some photos of the valley from the cliff viewpoints dotted along the road. When we crested the hill and began to descend the other side, trouble began. A head wind picked up, and as we pedalled vigourously as we descended the hill. It was actually faster to bike up the hill, we discovered than to continue down it. But we pressed on, and after about an hour of hard riding we came to a fork, with a field of land mines one way and the entrance to the Valle the other. We pressed on into the Valle, bu by this time we were quite exhausted. We stopped and took a few photos of the rock formations, and the red desert sands, but we had rather lost our enthusiasm for the trip. We biked through the Valle, forgoing the stop to climb the dune and watch the sunset, as we had to conserve our energy for the journey back to San Pedro. We pedalled our way through the rest of the Valle, and back into San Pedro, arriving quite exhausted. We dropped off our bikes and headed back to the hostel to cook dinner and fall into bed.

The day before we left was once again spent lazing around the town. As nice as it was to be in the quiet little town of San Pedro, there wasn´t much for us to do that we could afford. We spent a lot of time wandering around, playing cards, and reading. The next day we left for Salta, Argentina, and it felt good to be on the road once again.