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.

Huan Chaco, Përu

From Guayaquil I took the bus from 9pm at night before arriving in a city called Chiclaya in Peru, the next day at around noon.  Bypassing Mancora which is the big party location on the Coast, most famous on the coast of Peru.  I was pretty exhausted although for the first time ever I was able to sleep on the bus.  In Chiclaya there were no affordable hostels, only expensive hotels.  It was on the beach but it was not a place I wanted to stay being a backpacker on a budget.  I hear rumblings that further down the coast was a place called Huan Chaco.  I remember meeting a French Canadian couple that I met in Ecuador that raved about Huan Chaco.  These hippie french Canadian surfers were my type of people so I decided to go to this Huan Chaco place instead of Chiclayo.  Another 5 hour bus ride and I was in Trujillo.  From there it was a 50 cent bus ride to Huan Chaco.  On the bus I met this surfer from California.  He made me promise myself never to start surfing because it is a contagious disease and I would never stop.  He led me to the hostel he was staying and it was a very good one. 

My boy Eric.  Born in NYC but living in San Fran.  Still getting used to my new camera, finger in the shot.

The view from the hostel I was staying at.  I am getting very good at knowing how to relax and not feeling like I have to explore and go to tourist destinations everyday.  Spent a lot of time on the terrace looking at this view.

BMX and two young guys hanging in the outdoor basketball stadium in Huan Chaco.

Beautiful streets like this everywhere in Huan Chaco.  You can literally wander for days through the maze of streets like this finding new and amazing restaurants everyday.  The seafood here is to die for.

Big ass waves here in Huanchaco.  This picture doesnt do it justice but they were the biggest waves I have seen anywhere on the coast so far: Colombia, Uruguay, Ecuador.  But maybe I just hit it at the right time of the season, and the other ones at the wrong time.

Coke truck rolls through on the beach to stock a nearby tienda.  Hippies and Bohemiams sit on the ledge of the sidewalk selling trinkets and bracelets.  A really laid back beach vibe hear in Huan Chaco but at the same time it has great tourist infrastucture.  Tonnes of affordable hostels and good restaurants mixed with discotecs, bars and a multitude of surf rental shops.

Really can't say enough about Huan Chaco.  Those French Canadian Hippie Surfers I met in Ecuador were sure right.  This probably has been my favorite spot on the coast so far.  If I ever meet that amazing couple from Quebec again I owe them huge.  Fuck Lonely Planet!  Instead I use Word of Mouth Planet.

Back to Trujillo.  The nearby city to tiny Huan Chaco.  Trujillo has a population of 300,000 people.  It is even bigger than Cusco.  Here you catch the bus to another city.  Bye bye beautiful coast.  Time to head to the mountains for Christmas.