Journey with Christina

After getting dropped off at the border of Chile we took an hour transfer to the closest town, San Pedro de Atacama. The town from the outskirts were the bus left us did not look like much. Jon and I were back and forth about whether to stay for a night or get heading right to Santiago. We decided to check out the town center and then make a decision. As we entered the main tourist square I immediately fell in love. The town looked like something out of the wild west. Quaint shops, restaurants, hotels and tour operators were lines up in small white adobe buildings on small pedestrian only streets.

Jon in the streets of Atacama.

Atacama is one of the oldest settlements in Chile and was originally a pre-Columbian trade-route between highland and coastal communities and later a stop for cattle drivers. It also sits in the driest desert in the world as Jon and I found out that night when we were trying to shower. It had been two days since our last shower and we excitedly made our way to the community bathroom. Jon had pretty good water pressure but it was ice cold. I had no water pressure at all (due to there being no water) but the droplets I did get were warm.

After finding a room up to Jon’s standards (aka the most expensive of the 3 we looked at) we jumped on bikes and headed to the Valle de la Luna to watch the sunset. It was a 20 mile rewarding bike-ride from town of lunar landscapes, jagged peaks, sand dunes and caves. The sunset turned everything shades of pink and was spectacular!

Landscape for our bike-ride.

The sunset.

Where we stayed, a random hostel (can’t recall name) in front of a hotel with nice grounds. We had a private room with a shared bathroom for $45 a night. Chile was an eye opener that we would no longer be getting $20 a night rooms with breakfast. The hostel, while nice, had none of the backpacker amenities that you would typically look for. In fact, they would not even allow you to be on the grounds or store your luggage for the day after check-out or you would have to pay an additional night’s fee. There was a restaurant for the hotel guests but we were not even allowed to pay to have breakfast there. For the lack of general service that all other hostels offer I would not recommend staying at this hotel.

Our hostel.