Satellite
Show on map
  • Day 6

    Day 5 - Chilling in the Desert

    January 1, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Slept in and relaxed today since we had nothing planned and most tours were not running. Confirmed various things, such as the ride back to Calama and our pickup times tomorrow and Thursday. Sat by the big, nice hotel pool reading. In the late afternoon, we strolled around several streets, buying a few gift trinkets then had a great pizza and salad at a Ford's recommended place - Charrua. We'll be off early tomorrow so will bed early tonight.

    San Pedro de Atacama is small town, seemingly poor town. Coming in from Calama we were surprised at the difference between them. The houses in San Pedro are almost all one-story mud brick or cinder block with mud daub (stucco) finishes. Only one street (of maybe 12 total) is paved; the rest are gravel or natural surface. It is dusty. The streets are a haphazard grid that could never have been planned. The streets are narrow, two cars have difficulty passing each other unless they find a wider section. There are cobble sidewalks on some streets but mostly you walk on road. The main street, Caracoles, is lined with souvenir shops and restaurants with an occasional small grocery store. It looks much like rural villages in back country Ecuador or Africa. The streets are thronged with tourists with hardly any car traffic.

    When we got to the Hotel Diego de Almagro, we were surprised to find it does not have air conditioning. The daytime temps are in the 80s but overnight it dips down to the 50s so, apparently, AC is not necessary. We opened the windows for a while but there are no bars or screens on the windows and Gail is afraid to sleep without that security so she closed the windows last night. The hotel is quite nice - clean, well-kept (maybe on par with a Comfort Inn) but nowhere near that level of our Santiago hotel, Magnolia. Breakfast is included and they had a diverse spread of fruits, breads, cold meats, a few hot dishes, and coffee, tea, and juices. Because so many tours leave early (our tour tomorrow leaves at 6:30 and Thursday's leaves at 5:00), the hotel will pack you a bag breakfast/lunch - although the early tours often include breakfast. The room has a fridge and we bought water and drinks to have. We couldn't get the room safe to work and neither could the hotel staff but they assure us that our things are safe. There are, as I said, many lodging choices from backpacker hostels to a plush resort outside the town that has rooms at $1,200/night.

    An interesting mix of isolation and luxury.
    Read more