We got another night bus from Iquique to Calama, only a 6 hour journy and we arrived at 6am and had to wait an hour in the cold for our connecting bus to San Pedro.
However... the bus never came! And at 7.30 I asked at the desk only to be told that it was delayed and wouldn't arrive for another 3 hours. This was the start of a long and draw out, pointless fiasco between me, the woman at the desk and a friendly bus driver called Hector.
Basically we had tickets for the 7.15 bus, the one that was delayed. The 8am bus turned up on time and there were plenty of free seats on the bus, however the driver, Hector, wouldn't let us on with our 7.15 tickets because his boss wouldn't accept them and he wouldn't be paid for our fare. So we had to change our tickets at the desk. However, the arrogant woman at the desk wouldn't change the tickets because you're only allowed to make alterations up to 4 hours before the departure of the bus. She would sell me another ticket but wouldn't return our money for the 7.15 bus (and buses in Chile cost a small fortune.) The next 25 minutes were spent with me, sleep deprived and ratty, standing between Hector and snotty desk lady trying to find a solution that would get Ric and myself on the bus. Eventually, due to my awesome spanish and natural charm (pah!) we got on the bus and made it to San Pedro.
San Pedro de Atacama is a little touristy town in the middle of the Atacama dersert on the border with Bolivia. In fact, when we did our salt flat tour we went up to the border, where the Laguna Verde was, so now I have seen the same volcano from both sides and from two different countries. The Chilian side is certainly a lot warmer.
We checked into hostel Cabur on the outskirts of the town. Awesome place, big courtyard in the middle with hammocks and benches and cushions.
San Pedro is nice, all llama shops, restaurants and hostels. The llama shops sell exactly the same stuff as in Bolivia and Peru just 10 times more expensive, not that that stopped us from buying 2 pairs of pants, 1 hoody, 2 postcards and 3 pairs of sunglasses between us.
We went on a little day trip to Puritama, out in the desert, to visit the thermal hot springs. On the way there we stopped and did a short hike through the "cactus forest", it was my kind of hike, no climbing up mountains, just a pleasent walk along a river clambering over a rock or two. The springs were lovely, lots of different pools running down the hillside, surrounded by reeds. There were even fish and ducks knocking about. We were there for 3 very relaxing hours, and by the time we left the sun had gone in and it was freezing.
On our final day, before we caught our bus in the afternoon, we hired bikes and went off into the desert to Valle de Muerte (Death Valley). It started out well until we took a wrong turn and cycled up a big hill - hill plus altitude plus 30 degrees midday sun is not a good mix! It took me half an hour to get my breath back.
It was only a minor detour though, and we soon found Valle de Muerte - dry sandy rocks in the desert. We climbed perilous rocks and a big sand dune. The landscape is very similar to what we've seen already in Tupiza and Huacachina. The bike ride totally wore me out, riding a bike on sand is near imposible, although good fun, and possibly the first bit of exercise I've done since I left Manchester so it felt pretty good.
We met some characters in the hostel, as per. There was Jaime, an old Chilian man who'd been staying in the hostel for 6 months, I think he just sat in the courtyard everyday looking for people to talk to. There was another guy called Claudio, from Santiago who was super friendly and enthusiastically explained to me the politial situation of every single South American country within minutes of meeting him.
There's lots of treks and things to do in San Pedro, like geysers, Valle de la Luna and more salt, but we mainly just chilled out and relaxed because: a) rocks rocks and more rocks - have already seen lots of wonderful exciting rocks in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina and I've had enough Inca ruins to last me a life time. b) Ric's already been to San Pedro and seen it all and c) its super expensive - officially the most expensive town in Chile, but then again what do you expect when the hostel is 6 grand a night each and bread costs over a thousand pesos!
Relaxed, caught a bit of sun and met some nice people. And then we got on a bus for 22 hours to Valparaiso.
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