DAY 55 - 58: 6th September - 12th September - San Pedro de Atacama

On the 6th September, I left La Serena on a 15 hours bus journey to the driest desert in the world. The Atacama Desert had not seen rain in over 400 years, although this year it snowed for the first time in 100 years - so it was a special time to be visiting. The town od San Pedro lies at 2,500 meters above sea level, the whole town is geared towards tourism, with its main attraction a trip across the salt flats finishing in Uyuni, Bolivia.

I had booked a hostel that picked me up from the bus station - it's always a good plus from a hostel because I always end up getting lost trying to find the hostels. I arrived at the bus station and was met by the owner of the hostel Roberto…. After a very quick but bumpy journey I quickly realized that San Pedro was in the middle of nowhere. It was a little town surrounded by desert and mountians. I checked into the hostel and Roberto dropped me into town, I decided to check out what company to book my salt flat tour with to leave on Tuesday, once that was booked I got some lunch and walked back to the hostel. That evening I met a couple from Essex (Dave and Linda) who were also in my dorm we chilled out in the evening.

The next day I decided to go on a bike ride with Dave and Linda to some ruins that were a 24km cycle away on a bumpy desert track. We then stopped of for some lunch and then headed out again on the bikes to another historical site 6km away. It was really good, the houses; although ruins looked better than what the current locals were living in. After a long day of 30km at 2500m above sea level in 30 degrees heat we decided to get some beers and food too cook back at the hostel. We decided the next day that we were going to hire the bikes again and head to a swimming pool about 7km away. I thought it was going to be a hole full of water but in actual fact it was a proper out door swimming pool - check out the photos. We went for a swim and sunbathed around the pool. That afternoon we headed into town as Dave and Linda were leaving the next day for their salt flat tour, we went to the office and there were only the two of them on the tour, so I decided to leave a day early and go with them.

That evening I just organized my stuff for the tour and got some sleep as we had to be picked up at 8:00am in the morning.