Andes to the Himalayas: Chile, Atacama Desert

San Pedro and The Atacama Desert

Our arrival into Chile was purposely delayed due to Bolivia's wonderfully cheap prices. When we finally, or should I say, reluctantly had to cross the border nothing could have prepared us for the shocking rates that were thrown at us. This gorgeous little dusty village of adobe houses, had prices that would make Cannes or Cascais look cheap. When we stepped down off the bus we were, like always, bombarded with many hostel sales people trying to woo us into staying with them. We still hadn't worked out the exchange rate after leaving Bolivia, but we knew something was wrong with so many appealing offers. Within a matter of minutes we painfully realised that an extra zero was needed for the dollar conversion. Let me just add right now that the price of a pure orange juice in the Atacama desert was the same price for a private double bedroom in Uyuni Bolivia! What used to be a poor little town in the forgotten part of Chile had within 10 years boomed into being the most luxurious and driest place in South America.

Despite it's beauty we wanted and needed to get the hell out of there, but as there was only two buses a week to Argentina we were forced to stay three whole god damn nights (which we of course enjoyed immensely despite our dwindling funds)

Sand Mountains (zoomed in)

Sand Cliffs

During our tour of the sand dunes, we were all encouraged to run like maniacs down one of the steepest dunes. As you can see from the photo below, Bruno absolutely loved it. Oh! how it all could have ended so badly.