San Pedro De Atacama – Chile

Altitude, Aridity, and a Possible Crime Scene

Us in the Valle de la Luna.

Our bus ride across the Andes to San Pedro proved to be, for the most part, a great experience in itself. We were treated to fantastic views of plunging valleys and soaring mountains, strange, craggy rock formations, and wide flat valleys whose floors were covered in a dazzling layer of brilliant white salt.

Crossing the border itself proved to be a less enjoyable experience. As we were queueing to have our passport perused by Argentinean emigration Kim began to feel faint in an impressively dramatic way. This was our first brush with altitude sickness, and given the border was some 4200 metres above sea level, was perhaps to be expected.

By the time we had cleared Chilean customs, which fortunately turned out to be on the outskirts of San Pedro itself, it was about 8pm. By the time we had located a cashpoint which worked with our gringo cards, then managed to find a taxi it was closing in on 10pm. When we did eventually roll up outside our hostel and unload our bags we were told that the hostel we had booked some 10 days previously was full. The owner reassured us she had found us somewhere else to sleep,a relief as it was Easter weekend and everything in San Pedro was full to bursting. Our relief did not last long however.

Our first impression of our alternative accommodation was fairly good. There was a pleasant, shady, seating area outside, and we were some 10 minutes closer to the centre of town. Then we were shown to our room. It was, for the most part, a reasonable, if basic, double room. There was however the issue of the door.

The main street in San Pedro de Atacama.

It appeared that someone had, in the recent past, attempted to gain entry to the room without using a key.That is to say there was a large, splintered dent just below the handle through which small points of light could be seen. We were just digesting this when the owner directed out attention to the window which looked out into the common area, or rather the empty space where the window had once been. By now we were thinking of the space as less of a room, and more of scene from CSI San Pedro. Given the paucity of other options,we had little choice but to put up with things as they were.

Waking early the next day, pleased to still be alive and with all our possessions still present, we set about identifying alternative lodgings. It turned out we would have to stay in the crime scene one further night, but could then move to a great looking hostel across town.

We were also struck, not just by the heat, but by the utter dryness of the environment. Living in England tends to be a battle to stay dry against the will of the gods of constant drizzle, in San Pedro it is a constant fight to stay hydrated as the parched air strips every drop of water from you that it can.

Me looking over a valley near San Pedro de Atacama.

Our first excursion took us to see several fascinating geological formations in the San Pedro area, concluding in the other worldly Valle de la Luna. Our guide was both knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and the scenery was as strange as it was stunning.

We also got chatting to a great Aussie couple who had been living in England for several years, Lisa and Jarrod, and after the tour was concluded they joined us for dinner, and then we wandered across San Pedro’s main road for a few post dinner drinks. As it turned out the bar we choose had a rather limited selection of beverages, as Kim found out when trying to place her order.

Kim: (in spanish) A glass of red wine please.
Waitress: Solo Cerveza.
Kim: (in spanish) Do you have Pisco?
Waitress: Solo Cerveza.
Kim: Solo Cerveza?
Waitress: Solo Cerveza.
Kim: Una Cerveza por favor.

Nursing mild hangovers the next morning Kim and I moved to our new hostel, and were pleased to find all doors and windows in the room were secure and in place.

Our next excursion took us to one of the salt lakes in the area. Much like the dead sea, these small lagoons are so saline they make anyone swimming in them extremely buoyant. It was a particularly strange feeling to be able to lie back on the surface of the water, with our arms folded behind our heads, and a similarly odd one to be covered in a fine crust of salt within minutes of climbing out of the water.

After our swim we were taken to a series of small, perfectly round, freshwater lakes created by the collapse of the salt crusted surface collapsing into subterranean caverns, and then onto a large shallow salt lake with an almost mirror-like reflective surface. Here we were served Pisco Sours as we watched the sunset.

The shallow, mirror-like salt lake where we watched the sunset.

Our final activity in San Pedro took us a short distance out of town to a small observatory, where our evening of stargazing would be held. Before being let loose on the night sky we were given a brief lecture in cosmology, and told what we could expect to see. We were then led out into the open, and our astrophysicist guide, with the aid of a laser pointer, set about showing us the main features of the milky way as seen from the southern hemisphere.

As you would expect the blanket of stars was breathtaking. Within the Milky Way we could see the silhouettes of gas clouds which, during the time of the Incas, were names after animals and used to identify the correct time of year to sow crops and harvest. From here we were taken into the observatory itself and shown, under magnification, binary stars, nebulae, and most stunningly of all, Saturn; the planets famous rings clearly discernible through the telescope.

After San Pedro we were heading toward Uyuni, Bolivia, in order to see the famous salt flats nearby. While many people take a 3-day 4×4 trip from San Pedro itself, seeing the flats en route to Uyuni, we were concerned, given Kim’s experience at the border and hearing several cautionary tales from fellow travellers, about the altitude, especially on the first day of the trip. We decided to take our 4×4 excursion from Uyuni itself, meaning we would need to take a somewhat roundabout route via the Chilean city of Calama to reach our destination.