Pedro de Atacama

We made it to San Pedro. Everything went smoothly. There is a lot of disinformation out there on travel sites. I was worried about the Uber not picking us up, I was worried about LATAM airlines not flying on time. I was worried about LATAM airlines not allowing our carry on luggage. I was worried about the rental car company Budget demanding that we had to take out extra insurance on the car in Calama. These were all worries gathered from reading travel forums. Everything went very smoothly probably easier than traveling in Canada. We stopped in Calama at a Lider- think Walmart to stock up on food. They were blasting the Christmas songs in English. Seemed pretty nice despite some Internet paranoia. After stocking up on provisions we drove the 1.5 hours to San Pedro. It is a desert all the way with very little vegetation for the first 40 minutes. Think the movie Dune. After telling Cheryl that no animals could survive in the desert we did see an animal looking like a llama just off the side of the road. This is the biggest desert I have been in. Palm Springs one can't see the desert for the Condominiums. That is kind of like not seeing the forest for the trees. We are now at our hotel just chilling out. It feels very dry here and Cheryl has just told me it is one of the driest deserts. We brought some bottled water with us from Calama which is good as the water here in San Pedro contains Arsenic. We will have to buy more. San Pedro is at 2400 metres elevation so we are feeling the elevation a little. For comparison the town of Lake Louise is at 1800 metres and the top of Lake Louise skihill is at 2700. We are taking a drug called Diamox which may or may not be helping. Cheryl got carried away taking photos of windmills in the desert. These were the largest ones she has seenLue lisää