Driving to San Pedro de Atacama

The drive continued through the northern Chilean countryside.  We passed dried up rivers and lakes, and entered the Atacama Desert.  After a couple of toilet stops in the middle of nowhere, we stopped for fuel in the city of Calama.  Ritchie said it was a toilet stop, NOT a lunch stop, but it was 2.30pm, and we were all very hungry, so we all got coffee and sandwiches anyway!

Back on the truck, as we neared San Pedro de Atacama, we drove through the Valley of the Moon.  It was a very surreal but beautiful landscape!

After a quick stop at a supermarket in town to stock up on drinks and ice, we arrived at the Andes Nomads Desert Camp 10 kilometres outside San Pedro, our home for the next three nights, at around 6pm.  It was very dry and dusty as you would expect in the desert!  Our pitch was very small.  Once the truck was parked up, we were all pitching our tents almost on top of each other!

As soon as we were set up, the usual suspects in the group continued the drinking they had started earlier and just got louder and rowdier as the evening went on!  Any of the other guests on the site who were hoping for a quiet Christmas were sadly mistaken!

Nikki had organised pre-dinner fizz for everyone to wish us all a happy Christmas.  For dinner, we had spaghetti bolognaise with a sauce made for us by the owner of the hotel in Uyuni.  It was very good. 

We supplied the port for everyone to have a nightcap after dinner. 

When we had cleared away, some of the group, including us, went to bed.  It was 9.30pm and it had been a very long day!!  However, sleep was not going to come!  Nikki made the party people move from the side of the truck where we had eaten to the side where the tents were so as not to disturb the other guests.  The consequence was that it was those of us who were in our tents who were disturbed!  The noise continued long after the 11pm curfew.  In the early hours, having had no sleep whatsoever, I got up to tell the culprits to be quiet!  They still didn’t, so I had less than three hours sleep all night!Read more