San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Felipe, Myself, and Jacopo enjoying some beers in San Pedro
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Coming into Chile was a significant change from Bolivia. The scenery was very similar due to the combination of the high Andes and the Atacama dessert (you can't get any drier), but the infrastructure and cost was definitely elevated. This was apparent as soon as we crossed the border. The rocky gravel road below magically switched to a paved one with lines and some definite engineering. I found it interesting that the Bolivian border control was right at the border while the Chilean was 25 miles down the road, at the entry point of San Pedro. This might imply easy access to Bolivians crossing illegally but I've been told it’s too expensive for them to start a life here, and that the Chileans make it difficult. Besides, they would have to dodge all those mines scattered across the border from the previous wars. Continuing, on a small bus with 15 passengers we finally stopped at immigration in Chile (50 minutes later) and went through the standard stamping followed by a bag search. Knowing the crowd, certain items crossed that shouldn't have, but immigration was just searching for the large stuff. So no issues, and overall it was quite painless for everyone.

The 17th-century adobe Iglesia San Pedro
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In San Pedro, 3 buses leave a week (Tuesday, Friday and Saturday) to Salta, Argentina. Being Monday, and the local scenery looking similar to Bolivia, I did not want to get stuck here until Friday. My strong urge to leave was solidified as we got into town – hotels were booking up fast as tons of gringos made there way through the streets, coming and going for Bolivia. To make matters worst none of the ATMs in town were working (no dinero). Learning my lesson on previous adventures I pulled out my spare US money and changed some to Chilean pesos at a “local” rate. This was necessary as the bus company didn’t take USD – as well as everywhere else. Basically you had hundreds of hungry tourists with no money, and no place to stay (at least the cheap ones). The places that accepted credit cards made out just fine as lines formed everyday next to the ATMs, waiting for a person with the money to come and fill them up. By shear luck I got my bus ticket to Salta and we ended up paying 40,000 Chilean pesos for a room at a local hostel. At 500 to 1 on the USD, and three of us (Myself, Bruno and Felipe), it worked out to 25 bucks a person. Considering I hadn't spent more than $15 a night for a place this whole trip it was a little bit of a shock. I accepted it though as I only had one night. Bruno and Felipe, having 3 or 4 more, would eventually move.

A Somewhat Nice and Expensive Bolivia...

The 17th-century adobe Iglesia San Pedro
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After settling in (needed that hot shower), we said our last good byes to Jacopo, who had booked a bus out to Calama and Antofagasta to pick up a flight to Santiago. Over beers we discussed our experiences over the last 4 days. It was a fitting end to our adventure in Bolivia. As for San Pedro... as you can see I’ve painted a somewhat bad picture of it, but if you can get past the gringos and elevated prices, and explore the surrounding areas, it's not that bad – it's just not inviting.