San pedro de Atacamas Chile

After a month and one week in Peru, I decided to go to Chile next instead of Bolivia.  Chile is a very tall country.  The North is all dessert, the middle has famous cities like Santiago, Valpraiso and the south is all beauitful mountains and lakes.  It appealed to me because Chile is more modern than Bolivia and the Chileans I have been meeting this trip are really cool.  But seeing this country means crossing the North, which is nothing but dessert!!

This is a shot from the South of Peru on the bus when the landscapes started to change to dessert.

After spending a night in the bus station in Arica, the first town in Chile, i was finally able to catch a bus to San Pedro.  This small tourist town is loaded with tourists from across the world, but first and foremost tourists from Chile.  I met so many people from Santiago in this small Northern Dessert town.  It reminds me a lot of if you were to mix Banff and Keremeos (Canada) into one town.  Lots of beautiful sightseeing and tourism with loads of hostels, but at the same time in the dessert and quite small and tranquil.

People walking the streets with bicycles.  If you live in this town you own a bicycle.  And if you are visiting you rent one to check out the sights.

A shot of my beautiful hostel.  The structure here is for the tents to give you shade during the day. It was a great hostel and the cheapest in the city for 5000 pesos (or ten dollars canadian a night).  Chile is very expensive compared to Peru and Ecuador.  In Ecuador i could camp for five dollars a night.  That being said my campground in Chile is the best and had two kitchens, a parilla and showers.  The guests from Santiago staying here were so nice and always willing to share their delicious barbequeud meat.

One day I took a tour to Valle de Luna to see the caves.

The caves were filled with beautiful glass like crystals.  Que linda!

Dessert Shot!  it gets hot here during the day like 30 degrees.  At night it cools off a bit but no much.  The climate here in San Pedro is supposed to be the driest in all the world.  There are snowcaped mountains nearby but the town (at only 2000m) rarely gets any rain.

Tres marias rock formation in Valle de luna.

The reason they call it valle de luna is because the landscape is supposed to look like the moon... and it does.

Huge Dune in the dessert.  Some people go sandboarding but I haven't. I am spoiled with the mountains of Canada, i dont want to go on a slow sandboard that you need to stop every two minutes to wax it if you want to go down the hill.  When I get back to Canada April 10, i will still have one month left in snowboard season to hit the slopes.

As the sun sets over the Valle de Luna the dessert is transformed into a yellow paradise.

The time in San pedro was amazing.  Travelling solo here was one of the best locations because everywhere i went, people wanted to hang out with me. Every night there is a campfire on the beach with hippies playing music and doing firespinning.  it is a cool and enchanting dessert town.