16th May 2013
After a horrific 22 hour bus journey from Santiago we arrived in San Pedro. The bus was so uncomfortable and we were only provided with 2 cookies and a bag of peanuts so we were starving! We were dropped at what I presume is the main bus terminal, which was pretty much a wooden bus shelter. We had no idea where we were and it was pitch black. As we gathered our backpacks together we spotted a restaurant and decided that we wanted food more then sleep. The restaurant was cool, more or less outside and with a large fire in the middle. It definitely contributed to the desert vibe! We ordered 2 beers and a sharing platter of something we weren't sure what it was. They provided us with unlimited bread with Guatemala, then the platter came and it was literally amazing. A massive pile of vegetables, meat, and olives! Perfect for our empty stomachs and we demolished it. Josh definitely had more with his 70/30 ratio but I definitely have it a good go.
Not having a clue where we were and where our hostel was we asked the bar staff for directions. A man who spoke not the greatest English came over a tried to describe how to get to the hostel, eventually drawing a map on a napkin. So off we went in the pitch black desert with a napkin to lead us to our hostel. We walked for what seemed like ages trying to locate the hostel from our hand drawn napkin map. We got to what I presume is the more residential part of San Pedro and even Josh admitted we were lost. Great! Lost in the desert at night. One if the houses had lights on and we could see a couple inside so Josh knocked on the door for directions. A lovely Chilean couple Paul and Caroline answered, I found it quite weird that they had such English names! Apparently we were around 20 blocks away from where we were staying. Kindly Paul and his wife offered to drive us there, they were so lovely. Thank god we knocked on the door as we were so lost I don't think we would of been able find the hostel for a good few hours. After a slight struggle as even the lovely Paul found the hostel hard to locate we arrived. Josh tried to give Paul some money but he point blank refused, only asking that we came and visited him at the pharmacy he worked at in the town. We made our way into our hostel only to be greeted by an American guy and girl waiting by the reception, it didn't look like we were getting booked in anytime soon! Eventually after an hours wait a woman came and showed us to our 4 bed dorm which we were to share with two American girls. Also we were told there would be no bed the following night so we would need to find a new hostel. Luckily Robbie and Serena who we'd met in Mendoza were staying in the town so we messaged them in the hope they could find us somewhere to stay! After such a long bus journey and the drama of finding our hostel I was so happy to get into my bunk bed and fall asleep.
17th May 2013
We woke up at a decent time, showered and got ready to move hostels. Robbie had managed to speak to their 'chief' who had managed to squeeze us into a 12 bed dorm. Relieved, we made our way through the town to the hostel. It was so much better located then our hostel which felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. We were right in town, so only a short walk from any bars or eating places. Robbie and Serena had been enquiring for us and had managed to find a 3 day tour to Bolivia via the salt flats. We visited the tour guide and booked on for the following day. We then walked to a small restaurant in the town to eat. It had been slightly raining, which of course is very unusual in the worlds driest town! Not worrying too much about it we enjoyed our food, by the time we came out the restaurant it was tipping it down. We made our way through the rain and mud to the pharmacy in town where a very happy Paul was happy we had popped in.
When we got back to the hostel Josh and I decided although it was raining we needed to do something. Josh being the geology lover he is chose 'Moon Valley' tour. We were picked up in a small van with a few other people from our hostel. It was pretty cool we were taken to 'moon valley' which when you look around really does look like what you'd expect the moon to look like. The geology was mad there and I could see the fascination in Josh's face. We were then taken to see some rocks which were shaped like a lady. Apparently it was actually suppose to be a mother and her baby however a Japanese tourist climbed on top of it breaking the baby off. I could tell from the tone of our guides voice that he wasn't best pleased! We were then taken to to large cliffs, I couldn't get close to the edge at all. Literally mad me feel sick seeing Josh get so close. Also our guide thought he was funny to reverse to the end of the cliff, I was petrified. The thing is it was raining and being the driest place on earth with only 1cm of rain in 100 years I was pretty confident he wasn't the best driver in the rain. On route back to the town we passed a cliff we had seen earlier where the metal wall had now disappeared. We presumed a car must of gone over in the rain, made me glad we were heading back!
Once we were back we met up with Robbie and Serena, we all decided that we were going to have an early night as we now had to be up at 5am the next day as the normal Bolivian border was closed so we were going to have to take one much further away. We couldn't leave without a last Pisco sour! We walked to one bar where some people we had met from the hostel were to grab a 2 for 1 Pisco sour however the electricity had gone so when we got there it was candle lit. We decided to move on and eventually came to a bar which not only sold Pisco Sours but also had a massive fire in the middle.
On route back to the hostel there was a massive crowd on the street, apparently some electric wires were sticking out the ground and two dogs had come across them and died. You could see the locals were generally upset about it, the dogs might be strays but I got the impression that they care for them as a community. When we got back to the hostel we cooked tuna, sweetcorn and mayo pasta. We decided not to have a mad night due to our 5.30am start only to be told at 11pm that the tour couldn't go ahead to to the extreme weather! Not being drunk enough and the rain making it a bit depressing we all went to bed anyway.
18th May 2013
We woke up relatively early to no rain. Everywhere was muddy and their were leaks all over the place but it looked like the storm had passed. I've decided rather then to feel unlucky that we'd been there probably on the rainiest day in more then a hundred years, to look at positive that we actually experienced the wettest day in the driest place on earth for god know how long. The electricity had been turned on and it looked like that the town was returning to some kind of normality. Josh had gone with Robbie to check out the status of our tour, we were told that we would definitely be leaving the following morning at 5.30am, however due to the closure if the normal border and the fact we were going to have to travel a couple of extra hours to another one we were going to have to miss out the gezers and hot springs. We were slightly gutted as the gezers were something we especially wanted to see but I'd rather be doing the tour then not! Josh and I walked around the town and to the local market. The market was full of so many cool things but Bolivia and Peru were where I wanted to do my shopping so we moved on.
One thing we both noticed is the poor dogs. Firstly they were covered in mud, the poor things probably didn't know what was going on! Also they seemed kind of depressed, like the death of the two dogs the previous night had deeply affected them. After the market we decided to find some where to grab a bite to eat. We found a cute little restaurant where for £3 each we had a 2 course meal and unlimited bread with oil and vinegar. I had soup to start and spaghetti bolognaise and Josh had soup and fish. Such a good meal and healthy portions, but so cheap. When we had walked round town and passed the church which was white and splattered with mud from the previous night we returned by to the hostel and met up with Serena and Robbie. After a few games of cards we all decided alcohol was going to make our night much more fun! We walked to the nearest shop and purchased 4 cartons of red wine equaling 8 litres, and also some hot dog and buns to eat later in the night. So as you imagine it got rather messy! We were soon joined by some kiwis we had met Sam, Cushla, Blair and Gemma who were doing a different salt flat tour the following day, they'd bought alcohol to join in. After a few games of presidents and a*******s we were joined by two Israelis Schneur and Gavriel who were set to be on our tour the following morning. That's when the drinking games got serious! We played the pyramid which is a game where a large pyramid of cards is set up and the rest divided between all participants. Then when each card is turned in the pyramid if you have the card depending on with later it is on the can designate fingers of drinks. You can also lie about if you have cards but of someone calls bulls*** on you which means you have to drink double what you designated. So as you can imagine we were all pretty wasted! Serena and I stumbled in to the town to the shop and to be greeted on our return by Robbie and Josh who greeted us with a plate of hot dogs. Somehow we all got to bed with our alarms set for a 5am. Definitely wasn't looking forward to that!