San Pedro de Atacama

Monday 7th Febuary

Arrived into San Pedro about 09:30. Met a nice couple from Sweden (Alexander and Hanna) on the overnight bus from Iquique who were also staying in Backpackers Hostel San Pedro so we all made our way to the hostel together.

I wasn´t feeling the best when I arrived into San Pedro ... bit of a flu or a cold (probably from all the late nigts in Iquique). After arriving to the hostel, Fabiola, the owner gave us all a run down on what to do in and around San Pedro. I wasn´t feeling the best but figured I would join the others and go on an excursion in the afternoon to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). Glad I went .. absolutely amazing views.

Tuesday 8th Febuary

Feeling miserable today. Really bad cold and I´ve aches and pains all over. Went to the chemist who refused to give me antibiotics without a doctors prescription so I had to go to the emergency room in the local clinic to see a doctor. I was in and out in less than 5 mins with a prescription for antibiotics. All for free!

I also got my ticket to Salta, Argentina for next Sunday (31,000 CHP ... very expensive!). No places on the bus until then so I´m going to be spending 6 nights in total here in San Pedro. Alot longer than I had hoped. 3 days (maximum) is required for San Pedro, but as I was not feeling the best, I figured I could just take it easy here after all the partying in Iquique the week before!

I spent Wednesday and Thursday hanging out at the hostel, and walking about San Pedro. Nice town, but very touristy and can be quite expensive.

Friday 11th Febuary

Was feeling alot better today so decided to go on another afternon excursion .. this time to Laguna Cejar and the Salt flats outside San Pedro. A few other backpackers from the hostel were also going (Anna and Chris from UK and Juan from Spain). Laguna Cejar is a salt lake .. so you cant actually drown even if you tried which is good for me as I cant swim. Anyway .. it felt very strange floating on the salt lake ... but good fun.

After, we went to the Salt flats near San Pedro and took some funny pictures:

Some photos of sunset at the Salt flats:

Fabiola prepared food and some Pisco Sours for everyone to watch the sunset at the Salt flats.

Saturday 12th Febuary

Very early start today ... was up at 3am as I was getting picked up at 4am by a tour agency to go and see the geysers outside San Pedro. This is one of the most popular tours to do in the area but the early start is a nightmare. Everyone had to wrap up really warm as the geysers are at a high altitude and its really cold. We arrived at the Geysers around 06:30 ... had a short tour followed by breakfast.

Later we visited the thermal baths near the Geysers:

We started making our way back to San Pedro about 10:00, stopping off in a few places to take some pictures of the wildlife and also a small town.

We arrived back to San Pedro about 13:00 so had the rest of the afternoon to hang out in San Pedro, have some dinner and relax back at the hostel. 

Sunday 13th Febuary

Bus to Salta, Argentina (630km) ... to be honest, although I liked San Pedro de Atacama after spending 6 nights here I was looking forward to leaving. Myself and an Australian girl from the hostel both had tickets for the same bus so we headed down to get the bus about 10:30. I think the bus eventually arrived at 12:00.  So happy to be heading back to Argentina and looking forward to seeing Salta as Ive heard so much good things about the place. On the otherhand also a bit sad leaving Chile for the last time ... have seen so many fantastic places in Chile since I first arrived here back in late November.

Iquique

What can I say about Iquique? ... Fantastic!

Tuesday 2nd February

I arrived here from Arica (4 hours trip, 325 km) ... had planned to stay for 2 nights but ended up staying till Sunday! I cant say enough good things about Iquique but as I write this blog I´m trying to think back what I actually done for my 6 days in Iquique and all I can remember is steak dinners, niteclubbing, so many new friends and lazy days on the beach. I´m so happy I came to Iquique and even as I write this I want to go back!

Iquique is just what I needed after spending the last few weeks travelling from town to town in Chile and not really meeting up with any backpackers. Iquique is full of them ... well at least my hostel was. I checked into HI Backpackers Hostel Iquique on Tuesday afternoon and was sharing a 6 bed dorm with some English, Australians and Chilean. The hostel is pretty big and probably has room for about 50 or 60 backpackers.

http://www.hosteliquique.cl/english.html

My room and some views from the hostel:

Its probably easier if I give an overview of my 6 days rather than a day by day account. The hostel is located right across the road from the beach so suffice to say I crawled out of bed in the morning and made my way over to the beach to sunbathe for the day.

This was literally how I spent every afternoon in Iquique .. me and a crowd from the hostel on the beach and in the sea (Iquique has really big waves .. but so many jellyfish)! It was really good .. even if you made you way over to the beach in the afternoon on your own, there was always a group from the hostel there and everybody just seemed to join up in one big group. Was really good for any solo travellers.

The hostel had BBQ`s on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and the food was super.

Lovely steak and salad and red wine. BBQ nights are always great for meeting new people, and usually after the BBQ everyone hung out at the hostel having a few beers and then onto a niteclub about 1am.

I really cannot possible mention all the great people I met at this hostel but here are a few pics from BBQ nights and of some of the people who made Iquique great for me:

On Thursday I decided I better get away from the beach and take a look around the town centre (even if it was for only one hour or so).

I had planned to travel back up to Arica as I heard there was a folk and dance festival on at the weekend but apparantly I got my dates wrong as it was for the following week. As it turned out there was a folk and dance festival on in Iquique Thursday - Saturday. On Friday myself and some friends from France and Australia (Paul and Kerryn) made our way downtown to check it out. We saw some traditional folk music and dancing from different countries in South America. Was nice to see it but it wasnt exactly a festival .. more of a stage in the town centre and people gathered around to watch it.

Sunday 6th February

A very hectic Saturday night meant that I was really tired on Sunday and I also had to check out early. Spent the afternoon on the beach (as usual) and got a lovely Chinese takeaway (which was almost as good as Chinatown in Lucan!). Got my overnight bus at 23:55 to San Pedro de Atatcama (c.480kms, 13,000 CHP, 9 hours incl the layover in Calama as I had to change bus).

Very sad to leave Iquique :-(