San Pedro de Atacama

02/06/13 to 04/06/13 - The next morning at 7am was our bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Again, it was another magnificent journey. The bus worked its way up a huge mountain to 4870 metres (higher than the Mont Blanc), and some people on the bus were suffering from altitude sickness. Once we were up on the plain we went driving across the Altiplano through amazing scenery. We made it to the Argentine customs check in the middle of nowhere up at 4000metres. It was mid-afternoon and despite hot sunshine burning our skin, it was still icy cold when we stretched our legs to get our passport stamped.  It was another 150km to the Chilean border, and another 2 hours drive downhill in between volcanoes and ice fields to the desert plain where we saw San Pedro in the distance. The first stop was not the bus station but Chilean immigration in the town itself.

San Pedro was small and had a couple of touristy streets with tour agencies and restaurants and shops selling hats and gloves. Despite this being the driest desert in the world, by night it is icy cold and we struggled to sleep under 5 blankets and with no heating. All the buildings are made of stone and mud and are really designed for hot days and not wintery nights. We were still up at 2000m. Once the sun was up it was pleasantly warm until midday when it was really hot and dry. We walked to the old Inca fort on the edge of town, and had to buy water when we arrived as we were so thirsty. We booked ourselves on a jeep tour to Bolivia for the following day after checking the comments book at Tourist Info to find a reliable agency.

By 6pm it was cold again and we dashed home to change into warmer clothes and find a bite to eat before we made our way out into the middle of the desert to an observatory. Here we were given a tour of the sky by a Canadian astronomer, (explaining how the Incas used the stars for daily life) and we were able to see constellations, nebula and even a close-up of Saturn. This is the 2nd best place in the world for astronomy due to clear nights, high altitude and minimal interference in the sky. Even better was the hot chocolate at the end.