The lady running our hostel In San Pedro de Atacama owns a toy poodle called Nube which means cloud, this is quite ironic as you rarely see a cloud in the Atacama Desert. We started another cloudless day (not counting Nube), took a stroll into town to take in the sights and shop for lunch and dinner including the 'booze' shop which had so far alluded us. On the way back to our place I spotted a hostel with a car grill outside and a table made from a car engine....

From Vicuna we headed to La Serena to catch a night bus to San Pedro De Atacama - in the desert! The bus ride started fine but during the night they put the heating on and it was like a sauna - too hot to sleep. I went to look for the conductor to complain but he was locked away in the driver's compartment, so we just suffered. We got in to San Pedro at 8am, our hostel was just a short walk away from the bus terminal bus was all locked up. I was ready to just l...

We made the most of what Elki Magic in Vicuna had to offer. We hired bikes, Adeline briefed us on their recommende route and supplied detailed maps, her husband Lincoln drove us out to Pisco Elqui for us to ride back to Vicuna. We met Hendrik and Francine from Canada who were also being transported out to cycle back, but were being dropped off at Alcohuaz further out than our start point. Even though the Elqui valley has only a handful of days of rain per year,...

We had a 7 hour stop in Santiago between buses, we found a food hall near the bus station and settled in. We were pestered by a never-ending procession of people trying to flog us all sorts of rubbish. They patrol the food hall putting items on every occupied table and return 5 minutes later in hope that you will buy them - plasters, candles, metal sculptures, plasters, chewing gum, headache tablets, plasters again. When will the plaster lady get the message we...

Chillan doesn't have much to offer backpackers, it's just an ugly city. We booked 2 nights here to give us a full day to gather information of how to get to Valle de Termas and get a trekking map. You can trek through an area of geysers, mud pools, hot pools and camp wild. Not many people go there so it's quiet walking and camping. After booking our accommodation and bus tickets I found out just by chance that Volcan Chillan 80 kms east of Chillan is very livel...