San Pedro de Atacama

📍San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

We're fair firing through the countries now! We're just finishing up a two night stay in the desert of San Pedro de Atacama, a wee tourist stop off point with loads of travel agencies on the main street where people book tours for the area. When I said the last place was dusty, SP is DUSTY. Actual hot desert sand blowing around, wrecking havoc with my nose and eyes. Small price to pay though for our stargazing tour which is a highlight so far...

We first got a glimpse of the stars here on the overnight bus journey where we climbed to 5500 metres above sea level on a mountain road with 78 hairpin bends, and I woke up and literally gasped at the sky you could see. A few hours later, Adam was convinced, and we went on an astronomy tour for our first night. Totally breathtaking.

Other highlights include eating our first non-cheesy, non-fried, non-sugary food of the trip. Yum.

Pleased we came to Chile of course, but glad we're not staying too much longer on this trip as it's so much more expensive than Argentina (£1.80 for two apples at the supermarket!) which would eat into our backpacker fund muy rapidamente.Read more