Day 61 - To the desert

Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

We had a flight early this afternoon to Calama in the north of Chile, which is the closest airport to San Pedro de Atacama, our ultimate destination. Right from the beginning of this holiday many other travellers we had met had told us that Atacama is one of the highlights of Chile, so finally after 2 months we are making our way there.

We left earlier than needed to get to the airport as neither of us likes the time stress involved with flying - lucky we did as that tourist bubble we live in was ready to be pricked. We hailed a taxi only to find that the streets were gridlocked, the taxi driver told us that the first president of Chile after the dictator Pinochet was deposed had died three days earlier and his state funeral was today, only a few blocks from where we were staying. It took us almost an hour to get to the bus station, but fortunately we were able to get straight onto a shuttle to the airport and arrived with plenty of time.

We had picked up a US$17 fare with Sky Airlines, a real bargain, though we were still a little dubious as Sky had cancelled on us when we tried to fly from Valdivia to Santiago, but our fears this time were unfounded, as we had no trouble checking in and the plane left on time.

We landed in the incredible barren landscape of Calama, a mining town in the north of Chile. The airport was very new and modern, and as we exited the baggage area we were greeted by touts for the shuttle buses to San Pedro de Atacama, there were at least half a dozen different companies vying for the tourist dollar.

The shuttle bus ride was 90 minutes through desert with snow capped volcanoes visible in the distance, a real contrast to the green landscapes we'd visited in Patagonia. The shuttle dropped us at our hostal - that's service!

Desert and snow .... interesting combination

We had booked four nights in SPdA as that is the time recommended to acclimatise to the altitude. The town sits at 2400 metres, but the sights accessed from the town, as well as our planned future travels are at levels as high as 4000 metres. We had a little trouble checking in as the room we had booked had been mistakenly given to someone else, so we walked into town to have a look around while it was sorted.

The main square was full of people and vehicles participating in the Atacama Solar Challenge, we had passed solar powered cars on the trip from Calama, so we had a quick look at some of the cars, then had a drink, followed by dinner at a very busy restaurant. Fortunately when we returned to our hostal the issue with our room had been resolved, so we didn't have to worry about finding alternative accommodation.

Plenty of sun around to power these things