Day 3 in Atacama involved a 6am start for a full day tour to Las Piedras Rojas, which includes Lake Miscanti and Miniques and Salar de Talar/Aguas Calientes (Salt flats). Again, being the only english speaker on the bus, the tour was in Spanish. There really aren’t many english tourists that come here, which is actually quite nice! The landscape from start to finish was stunning, and the altitude didn’t seem to affect me much despite being over 4000m above sea level. At times I felt a little bit more out of breath than i normally would doing anything remotely strenuous (so probably what fat bastards experience on a day to day basis). The salt flats in particular for me were the most breathtaking.
On my return I was in desperate need of a nice cold beer and so headed to CervecerÃa St Peters, where they brew their own. I ordered their speciality, rica rica pale ale (a herb grown in Chile) and paid £5 for the privilege, although the owner did give me a personal tour. Normally a beer in Chile costs around £3. I expected the country as a whole to be a lot cheaper than it is. For food and drink it’s more or less on a par with back home. Except for the Pisco Sours, which are only about £3-4 as opposed to £8-9. Which is why I find myself drinking so many of them. And also because they’re bloody delicious!
On my tour that day I made friends with a Spanish (well, Catalan) girl called Clara who turned out to be on the same tour group as me every day. That night we met up with Alejandro (the tour rep who I instantly liked). On his recommendation we went to a bar called Barros where they had some really good live music. We ordered Pastel de Choclo to share, which is a typical Chilean pie filled with chicken, beef, onion, egg and covered with a dough made of soft corn. Words cannot describe how delicious it was, I could’ve demolished the whole thing myself! This is also where I made the mistake of drinking two pints (yes pints) of Piscola. Not the best idea when I had to get up at 4am the next day for another tour, but I stand by my choices. #YOLO.
The bars in town close at 1am, with most people ending up in Lola (the karaoke bar I went to on my first night). It is actually illegal to dance in San Pedro de Atacama, I shit you not. This is because the town is said to be built on an ancient indigenous cemetery. My parents would have been arrested after 5 minutes in the town I know that for sure. They can’t be stopped. In Lola, the shutters are closed after a certain time at night so the police can’t see in. There’s your cultural snippet for the day!
Falling out of bed the next morning, I threw on the warmest clothes I had and set off on my first tour of the day, El Geyser de Tatio, where the temperature plummets. I love how you can be in various places, some only 10 minutes or so apart, and both the landscape and the temperature are completely different! We arrived in time for the sunrise, which made for some lovely photos. There was also the opportunity to bathe in the hot springs but I didn’t bother (it wasn’t a patch on the Blue Lagoon in Iceland!)
On the route back we stopped at some lovely spots, including Rio Putana, where they harvest cacti, and a small village called Machuche (where I purchased a goats cheese empanada). The photos really don’t to the landscape justice. It’s such a beautiful part of the country.
For lunch I went to Ckunna, recommended to me by a few people for their Quinotto (risotto made with quinoa funnily enough). It was really tasty, as were there pisco sours. I’ve literally lost count of how many I’ve had since I’ve been here. I’ll need to seek out a decent one when I get home to Edinburgh otherwise I’ll get withdrawal symptoms.
My next tour was at 4pm to visit Laguna Cejar. I’ve got tour fatigue at this point and I’m shattered. I’m going to need another holiday when this one is over in order to recover. I have to say this tour was probably the most disappointing. We visited a few of the lakes within a short distance of Atacama, one of which you can bathe in. The lake is heavily salted so you find yourself incredibly buoyant in the water and it’s difficult to keep yourself upright. When you emerge from the water you’re pretty much covered in salt. I wouldn’t recommend going in there if you have any cuts or scrapes!
I arrived back to town at 9pm to discover that the star gazing tour was on that night. I’ve been trying to go every night since I arrived but it’s been cancelled as the sky hasn’t been clear enough, so I was really lucky to be able to go on my last evening. It did mean yet another tour (15 hours worth in total to be exact that day). However, it was completely worth it as the stars here are incredible and I’ve never seen anything like it. The guide was really knowledgable and pointed out a lot of constellations, which personally I didn’t see. I think the Greeks were drinking too much ouzo at the time they named them. Anyway, it was the most amazing way to end my time in the desert! Now time for a 50 mile trek in Patagonia!
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