Antofagasta

The flight surprisingly only took a little more than two hours but it had a two hour time difference. So we landed at 04:00 AM and then went to the little bit chaotic immigration but it went pretty quick and smooth. A little while later we were in a taxi on the way to the main bus terminal. And we already saw that it'll get a little more expensive with an ATM fee of 12$ 🙄
Just 15 minutes after we arrived at the bus terminal the bus departed to Calama. It was a super comfortable and modern bus that even had WiFi. Which we didn't use because we immediately fell asleep 😁 When waking up a few hours later the sun had set and we were in an unreal desert landscape with the Andes as backdrop 🤩 We got dropped off at the tour bus shop and they told us that we can continue to San Pedro de Atacama in the shop next door... But they sent us 4 blocks further where we were able to get tickets an hour later. So we had breakfast with the snacks from the airplane and then just enjoyed to stretch our legs out. The second bus was not as nice as the first one but sufficient and we got an amazing spot right at the front on the top floor. Even though we spent most of the time sleeping we woke up in time to see the town appear like an oasis in the valley below us 🫶 Additionally some vicuñas appeared along the road, never getting enough of seeing these cute, fluffy animals 🥰
When we arrived in the town of San Pedro de Atacama we had some things on our to-do list. First we went to the tour company for the pre-booked 4 day tour to the Uyuni Salt Flats to check in and clear up open questions. She wouldn't accept the US Dollars we had because they need to be in "perfect condition" 🙄 It's not like we could select the state of the bank notes... Well, at least we could also pay by PayPal. Then we brought our clothes to a laundry and checked in to the hotel. Even though we were tired we decided to go back into town and see if we can take a tour today. There were only a few options as it had rained and the main attraction, Valle De La Luna, has been closed because the road isn't accessible. Therefore we booked a similar tour for the sunset which left us just enough time to walk back to our hostel and put on our trekking shoes. On the way there it started raining a bit and then a thunderstorm moved in 😲 The house or something nearby was hit by lightning and the electricity went off.

After a misunderstanding they picked us up an hour late 🙈 But we were on our way to see the worldcup rock, an abandoned bus and some interesting salt rock formations. Usually there's also a trekking tour but the weather was too uncertain. It was overall still a fun tour and by the time we reached the viewpoint for the sunset the rain and thunderstorm had moved on. With some snacks we saw a magnificent sunset with dramatic rock formations and clouds like painted. Back in town it started raining again and we collected our laundry and then went to the nearest restaurant. It was lucky that we stopped at one that had a vegetarian menu and was still open 🙂 Afterwards we went home and packed our things for tomorrow's tour and fell asleep 😵Læs mere