San Pedro de Atacama

the desert and the stars

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After a long ride to Calama and an added one and a half hour bus ride from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama, I feel the most transplanted I have felt on this trip yet. The air here is so arid, it hurts to breathe and I feel lightheaded from a lack of water, food, an abundance of caffeine in my body and the elevation. It hurts to breathe and my eyes and my nose are doing the best they can to keep things going.

The hostel we're staying at is wonderful. It has good hippie vibes, there's a lot of space, a well equipped kitchen, books, games, laundry, a pool. We book a stargazing tour, relax by the water, read and do the laundry before heading out for some food. Mushroom ceviche and some piscos.

In the evening a shuttle takes us into the desert, where everything is set up for the brief stargazing affair. We get our photo taken with the beautiful night sky behind us and have a look through the telescope and see Jupiter, Saturn and the moon. The experience is accompanied by a dramatic soundtrack coming from the brushes and we end with some snacks and piscos. We take a bottle of the pisco to go and share it with some other backpackers at the hostel before calling it a night.

The next day, after checking out, we grab some food and read to pass the time untill our bus leaves for Calama. Once there, we have another 2 hours to kill, which we spend in a restaurant, but when we try to get on our bus to Arica, we realize, we're at the wrong bus station.

After frantically running and asking around, another bus is able to let us on, for roughly double the price of what we've already paid. We accept our fate and get comfortable for our 10 hour overnight drive to Arica.Read more