San Pedro de Atacama

It was love at first sight with San Pedro de Atacama. After the bitter cold from the high planes of Bolivia, the heat of the desert was a welcome change. The small oasis town had a laid back vibe, with cool small shops on sandy streets and funky open air restaurants. Lots of Chilean hippies come to work the largely tourist town which adds to the atmosphere. We found a great hostel with hammocks and a fully equipped kitchen to get back to some "home cooking" and save some money. The only downside of Chile so far is the cost, which is a bit shocking after Bolivia - still less than Canada, but not by much. No big deal as we enjoyed making our own meals accompanied by 1L of wine (only $3!) and eating on the sunny patio. It was also fun to meet other travellers from Portugal, Holland and Brasil in the kitchen!

We spent the hot, sunny days wandering the streets eating homemade ice cream and chowing down on delicious empanadas. The two local (and thankfully inactive) volcanoes rise above the town and provide an interesting back drop. We also beat the heat one day at the local pool. Day trips are plentiful, and we elected to bike into the Valle de la Luna, named after the moon-like geological formations including caverns and canyons. The day ended with a climb up to a view point to watch the sun set over the desert.

On our last night in town we took advantage of the world renowned visibility to indulge in a tour of the night sky lead by a local French astronomer. Our guide turned out to be a real character as he rhymed off star facts and fiction with ease, all while adjusting the array of giant telescopes at our disposal. We saw everything from a red giant sun (500 times the size of our sun), to a double sun (apparently most suns come in pairs or more...ours is in the minority being single), nebulas with amazing gas clouds and also a clear look at Jupiter where you could see the two distinct horizontal lines running across the surface of the planet. It was an incredible experience that pictures from our basic camera cannot do justice. Ben had fun experimenting with nighttime photography!

After four nights in lovely San Pedro we said our sad goodbyes and boarded a 24 hour (yikes) bus to artistic Valparaiso, a coastal town, to enjoy more of Chile.