A couple of Pedro's in San Pedro

With both Craig and i having a middle name of Peter, it´s kind of apt that we've enjoyed the best part of our travel so far in a small town named after Saint Peter - San Pedro De Atacama. It's still in Chile near the Bolivian border and is about 2400 metres above sea level so we were taking the odd deep breath when we arrived due to the thinner than usual air.
We arrived after another gruelling bus ride, this one of 22 hours plus a connecting bus of about an hour and a half. So it was back to walking around like zombies for a while after that.

In fact, we were lucky we didn't do enough research really because we'd been hoping that we could travel straight from San Pedro through to Bolivia but it turns out that's not the case. Fortunately we ended up at the best town so far. It's got dusty roads, small white buildings, is extremely small and has a very relaxed atmosphere. There is not a cash register to be seen (it´s all paper receipts) and the food is good. Like a beachside resort in the middle of the Atacama Desert. We experienced the desert up close yesterday when we got stranded in it...

We had taken a tour that had us swiming/floating in some salt lakes, we then had a dip in another lake that was great for washing off all the salt and nearly froze us to the bone and then we were driven to a great expanse of salt that was a very dry lake in order to get photos of the sunset. It wasn't the best organised tour and there were only four of us on it but it was worth the money until on the way back our driver got bogged. Everywhere surrounding the area is just dry mud. Very dry and kind of pocked a bit like the top of a pavlova when you try to make those curls on it. Well that´s how it looked to me! Anyway, there are flatter bits that the 4 wheel drive uses as roads but our driver seemed a little too distracted by the very easy on the eye young lass in the passenger seat and suddenly our road had run out. He decided to keep going but we then got bogged in dry mud. It was dark at this point and cold, we were in bathers and thongs and he told us to walk back to the road! Not wise but the four of us stumbled and tripped along by the light of a full moon until we got tired of doing that and stopped. Eventually help came and we had to walk back to the 4 wheel drive where we tried a few tricks to get it out but it was stuck good and proper! At that point the 4 wheel drive was written off as a No Wheel Drive and we piled into a larger 4 wheel drive that got us back home safely. So yeah, the Atacama Desert is very nice but freakin' cold at night. I guess that's deserts for ya. (Not so with desserts however which come in both hot and cold varieties.)

So much else has happened but this has blog entry rambled on long enough. To summarise somewhat... we spent some time in Valparaiso which is a town on the west coast of Chile above Santiago. The main standout there was the poverty. So many people running street stalls where they seemed to be just selling bits of pieces of junk from their homes in order to get by. Very sad.
Today we got up at 3.30am to catch a bus that drove us to see some geysers that were up at 4400 metres. Because we were gained so much altitude so quickly we were told not to exert ourselves too much and were even given some coca leaf to chew which is quite legal in Chile as long as you don´t go around turning it into cocaine. They frown on that. :) The leaf is supposed to help with altitude sickness. Not sure it did as i didn´t feel much at all from it. Anyway, the geyser was pretty cool and i love they way they pronounce it as 'geezer' as it sounds straight out of The Bill. We then saw some alpacas, ate an empanada, saw some sort of ostrich variant and came back to San Pedro where we both had a well earned afternoon nap.

It´s now time for a couple of beers before dinner. Not sure when i will write next. We are trying to get to a place in Bolivia called Inti Wara Yassi which is an animal shelter where we plan to volunteer for about three weeks. The thought of getting to hang out with monkeys, pumas and other animals that have been rescued from dodgy owners sounds fantastic and I can't wait! The only tricky bit is getting there. We want a train but a bus is again looking like the best option! We'll figure it out as we go i guess. Seems to be working for us so far!
Cheers, D