San Pedro de Atacama

... writing this from Salta, Argentina.... 3 countries in 3 days ... but that´s another story.

San Pedro first... sorry, pictures will have to wait.

Arrived in San Pedro by bus from Arica... not sure how long, but it was an overnight bus. We got on the bus around 10pm ... and arrived at San Pedro next morning sometime around 8 or 9 or 10am. Life is a blur. Another interesting bus trip. We had our big bags inspected and tagged at the bus station so when we arrived at a Control point somewhere in the middle of the night we only had to take our hand luggage off the bus... put it up on a bench and open the bags. No big deal, then back on the bus and back to sleep. We had our sleeping bags and were very comfortable - Semi-Cama bus and the seats recline well back.

From Peru - 2009

From Peru - 2009

The desert is spectacular. We must have climbed a long way up through the night - think Zac said we´d reach 5000m overnight, and then we went a long way down .... long, almost straight roads ... all the way to San Pedro.

Strange place ... reminds me a little of Lightning Ridge. All dwellings appear to be mud brick, low set and behind mud brick walls ... very dusty. Several touts for hostals met the bus, and Zac picked out a bargain for us ... 2 blocks (... plus) from the Plaza. That was an experience - bet you can´t wait to see the pictures of that place. ;-)

From Peru - 2009

We took an afternoon tour to Moon Valley - included a walk through a Salt Canyon, a couple of other places and a sunset view of the desert from a high point ... which was a really hard climb - we were still at 2400m.

From Peru - 2009

From Peru - 2009

Once back in town Zac organised a bus out to Salta the next morning - so we settled in for a meal ... and a few Chilean reds to complete our visit to Chile. Jeff even managed to do some work on the hot water system ... on the roof of the hostal during the night.... No wonder there was no water for Milka´s shower the next morning.

Chile is so much more expensive than other places .... but it is also so much harder to get used to the currency - BIG numbers with lots of zeros. Toilet stop costs 200 pesos. Large french fries at Maccas in Arica was 900 pesos. Pizza for lunch at San Pedro was 8,500 pesos - think that´s about $17 US - change that to Peruvian soles and it´s about 51 soles .... expensive in Zac and Milka´s eyes when you consider we had meals in top class restaurant with fantastic service for 35 soles.