San Pedro de Atacama May 10 - 12

The night bus to San Pedro was an interesting journey to say the least, the initial leg was 15 hours to Calama on a semi cama bus. We thought this would be fine as we'd managed to sleep on one previously, however this bus appeared to be much older and we were unlucky enough to have a chronic snorer two rows infront of us! On the plus side we were provided with English films such at the Social Network, along with a snack box and breakfast box! All for about a tenner.

The second leg was just a two hour bus ride from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama. We arrived around midday and walked the short distance to the centre of the town. San Pedro itself is a little town of single storey houses and unpaved roads, surrounded by a number of stunning natural attractions such as volcanoes, sand dunes, geysers and lagoons. It was originally a stop on a pre Columbian trade route and also became an important stop for cattle drives.

Even though we had gone from quite a developed city to a tiny little town made from dirt we really liked the place. It was nice to be somewhere that although was quite touristy, was also quite traditional and was in the middle of the driest desert on earth! As this was a base for the Salar de Uyuni tours there were many PR's about town trying to get you into their restaurant, of course one of them wore a Robin Hood hat and seemed to be on the corner 24­/7!

We found a hostal with the two guys we'd travelled up with, basic and not the most secure
of places for your belongings but what more can you expect! We then went enquiring about tours to the Salar de Uyuni. All the agents were charging the same prices so we decided that we would book the following day with the company we felt were the most competent. After orientating ourselves in the small town and grabbing some food we went back to the hostal for a siesta. It was much needed after the sleepless bus journey.

In the evening we went to a really nice restaurant, sat by the fire as the soaring daytime temperatures plummet in the evening and enjoyed a nice salad and pisco sour for once! We then went and met a couple of Kiwi girls that we knew from Valparaiso and La Serena and enjoyed a couple of beers in the local bar. There is one main bar in town which is full of locals, gringos and dogs! Being at altitude meant a couple of drinks and our heads were spinning a little bit!

That night in bed we were awoken by a loud Spanish voice shouting, for some reason I thought a random man was standing in our room and thought I'd tell Zara this but of course this made her scared. After turning the light on we realised that there was no stranger in our room and he must have been outside! This wasn't helped by the fact that Tom, our room mate then had a nightmare and was scared to move from the room!

The following day we booked our tour and wandered around the town, seeing the outskirts along with the views of the mountains and enjoyed a great steak sandwich for lunch. Some friends headed out to the lunar valley on bikes but we decided we wouldn't bother as we would be seeing similar things on the tour. We made the right decision as they came back exhausted, so we knew we wouldn't have been fit enough. We enjoyed an afternoon sitting in hammocks (I got shat on), skyping and reading! Just what we needed. An early night was had in preparation for the tour and we just hoped that we would be given a good group to spend the next three days with.