Birds Flyin' High...: Two Days in the Desert

San Pedro de Atacama is a small, dusty desert town, on the edge of the Atacama desert. It was swarming with tourists and each street was lined with travel agencies and souvenir shops, but I thought there was a nice feel to the place, nevertheless.

The main street in San Pedro

Despite being right next to the Chilean border, it felt a million miles away from Bolivia. Things just seemed more advanced somehow, and the bars and restaurants were a bit more modern and stylish… with prices to match. On the first night I had by far the most expensive meal I’ve had in South America so far… and it was only a Caesar salad! (Not very Chilean, I know, but it was the first time in months that I’d seen a salad on the menu and I seriously needed a break from rice and potatoes!).

It was a lovely restaurant though. It was so nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the warm, balmy evening (the days were unbearably hot here but the evenings were gorgeous). I’m that much further South now and of course its summer here, so the evenings are staying light for longer. They had what I can only call a posh bonfire in the centre of the little courtyard, and it was nice to sit by it as the darkness drew in and the stars came out.

Being in the middle of the desert, the star-gazing is meant to be spectacular here, and I was excited to sign up for a very highly recommended “star tour”. However unfortunately it was cancelled both nights, due to clouds. I was really disappointed! (And for the benefit of my former colleagues in the US… yes, I did have my “space shirt” with me. What a missed opportunity!)

I did do one short tour though, to la Laguna Cejar, which is a lake with 40% concentration of salt, meaning you can float on it as you can on the Dead Sea. This was a pretty cool experience. It’s incredibly deep so obviously you can’t touch the bottom, and instinct tells you to try to swim, but you can hardly move your legs down through the water as the salt almost pushes them back up! We then visited another lake to watch the sun set , whilst enjoying a nice pisco sour! Mmmm.