San Pedro de Atacama

Me on the way to the thermal springs
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DAY 36 - 8 JANUARY 2008

We arrived in San Pedro at 1.30am.  We were dropped near the town centre in the pitch black after walking in the wrong direction for a while, we finally got our bearings and headed to our hotel where we had made our booking.  Only to find there was no booking and they wouldn't let us in.  We rang a couple of other places in the vicinity but everything was fully booked.  So here we were in the middle of the night, in a town we didn't know without any accommodation.

Beautiful scenery and lovely town, but soooooo expensive

Scott enjoying some thermal spring action
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We headed back to the Plaza de Armas where we had seen a church and Scott thought we could camp in the churchgrounds without much problem, but we found a couple of english speaking lads from Santiago who were staying in the local campground and advised we could get a tent there, so off we went in the pitch black with a group of strangers.  We got to the campground and they put us in a tent where we unpacked a thermarest and a sleeping bag to await sunrise - which felt like an eternity.

Bliss.
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At 8am I headed out with the Lonely Planet knocking on doors and found a couple of places that may have rooms but booked a place that had a double room with a shared bathroom - better than the campground, trust me.  I headed back and picked up SB and our bags and headed to Hostel Florida.  Most places seem to be full or were hugely expensive.  While I was filling out the registration form at the Hostel we got into there were at least half a dozen other people coming in asking if there were vacancies.

Us at Valle de Marte
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We had a shower and went out and booked three tours - thermal springs, Valle de Luna and El Tatio over the next few days.  We booked our tours through Cactus Tours as the guy spoke English and the tours they offered were slightly different and got off the beaten track a bit more than the other tours and if we wanted to do them ourselves we would need a 4WD which you cant hire in San Pedro you need to go back to Calama for that.

We headed to Tur Bus to book a ticket to Santiago but the power here in San Pedro seems to be forever going out, so no bookings etc can be taken.  This also means that the ATM doesn't work, and as we had to pay the tours in cash we are running a tad short if we have to pay the bus company in cash as well.

Me in Valle de Marte
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I also called the hotel in Iquique but the iPod hasn't turned up which is a huge bummer as I spent months uploading music to it.

We walked around the town and went to the Padre Le Paige Archaeological Museum which wasn't very exciting but at least had information in English.

We then headed to the local food stalls where there was no tourists, for a nice lunch at a cheap price.  We thought Machu Picchu was expensive, but San Pedro is nearly twice as pricey.  We headed back to the hostel and did some washing and lazed in the hammocks.  When the power came  back on SB got on the internet and got some ideas of bus and plane fares to Santiago but we have decided to catch the 24 hour bus as SB wants to go down the Panamerican Highway.  We then headed to the local market and bought some coffee, fruit and leche as the Hostel has a kitchen.

Yes that is me running down a huge sand dune at Valle de al Muerte (Valley of Death)
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We headed out for an early dinner as we have not had any sleep for nearly 48 hours and are knackered.

DAY 37 - 9 JANUARY 2008

We both had a wonderful nights sleep.  Got up, had fresh fruit and coffee con leche for brekkie and waited for the bus to take us to the Puritama thermal springs which was an 1 1/2 hours drive on very very bumpy roads.  We walked down a hill and there was a string of thermal baths, our idea of a tropical oasis.  The thermal springs are at the bottom of the valley, the water is hidden by reeds etc.  We spent a good 3 hours lazing in different baths with waterfalls it was absolutely lovely.  There are very few people around and we had the pools to ourselves.  The outside was really cold but the water was approximately 33 degrees.  The waterfall and relaxation soothed away our aching bones.  One of the pools was as long as a swimming pool.  The closer the spring is to the top of the valley the hotter the water is, although the first pool seems to be a private party as the people there have champagne etc.

Scott at Tres Morias
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Back in San Pedro and it was baking hot as there was no breeze.  We headed back to the bus company and a miracle occurred and there is power and we booked tickets to Santiago on 11 January and even paid by Visa.  From there we headed back to the food stalls for another good value lunch.

Our next thing on the list was a visit to Valle de Marte, Valle de al Muerte and the sunset at Valle de Luna.  The landscapes around here are just undescribable, similar to the moon all caused by erosion and after experiencing the wind, cant believe there is anything left.  We spent the afternoon running down sand dunes and walking through canyons.  The sand dunes are also used for sand boarding, but as I have already done that, couldn't be bothered to walk up and down sand dunes all day again.  The sunset at Valle de Luna was spectacular with the colours.

Me at Valle de Luna
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We arrived back into San Pedro at about 9.30pm and headed for something to eat which was overpriced and mediocre, but we were too tired to do anything else.  Although they tried to charge us a cover charge to listen to an extremely mediocre band, but I refused to pay.

DAY 38 - 10 JANUARY 2008

Well the alarm went off at 3.30am so we could make our 4.00am pickup for El Tatio Geysers.  It is weird to go outside and see other people also getting up and waiting for their rides.  This is a big tourist attraction around here, so we are expecting it to be busy.  The bus ride took approx 2 hours and was bone shattering, making it hard to sleep, although it was pitch black outside there isn't anything to see, considering the state of the roads, probably best not to be able to look at what is ahead anyway.  I ended up with a sore neck and shoulder again.

Me running down another sand dune
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The geysers were bizarre, even the road had steam coming out of it.  We were lucky to see the two main geysers go off and wandered around in the absolute freezing for a couple of hours (yet it was below zero degrees).  We were wishing we had unpacked our thermals, even our eyelashes frosted up.  It started to warm up slightly when the sun rose.  We were both surprised by the colours that were made by the algae and other living organisms.

We finally headed to another part of the national park where there is a large thermal pool, but although the water was hot, the outside wasn't and after such a nice time at the thermal pools yesterday we decided not to have a swim, besides it was very busy and there were no changing rooms etc and I dent think the rest of the world is ready for my very white and pale body, so we walked around looking at more geysers and surrounding countryside which included being surrounded by snow capped mountains and dormant volcanoes.

Scott pretending to be a mountain goat
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We left El Tatio and headed to Meniques Lagoon to look at the flamingos, which I thought were a tropical bird, but apparently not.  Along the way we stopped and photographed some Vicuna which are a protected species and rare, although we saw a load of them, just whenever we stopped, the noise everybody made getting out of the van made them run away.

At Guantin Stream we saw some of the worlds largest Gardon (cactus plants) which I had been wanting to see close up.  They were used as the frame for the church in San Pedro and are absolutely massive.  They are now protected and can only be used once they have collapsed and fallen to the group.  We found a stream which led to some waterfalls before boarding the bus back to San Pedro.  It is like the wild west around here.

Sunset at Valle de Luna
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We had a shower and headed out into town for lunch and a walk through some of the parts we had yet to go.  We bought a few provisions for the bus ride tomorrow, after all it is going to be 24 hours before we get to the other end.

Heading back to the hotel to play some backgammon which Tracy won 2-0, even with Scotts dodgy rules.