Soaking up San Pedro de Atacama
After the cold winds and high altitude of the Bolivian Salt Flats, the desert heat of the haven that is San Pedro de Atacama was very welcome.
We hadn’t booked anywhere to stay yet but managed to find a hostel pretty easily when we got off
the bus. The walls of the hotels were made of mud and that made the rooms quite cool even through there was no air-conditioning.
San Pedro was once a mining town, but has now become a base for travellers who want to explore the area. We spent two nights here enjoying the rustic environment of dirt roads and mud-brick buildings.
There are a lot of tours you can do from here to explore the region but as we had just come from the Salt Flats and were nearing the end of our trip – the budget was pretty tight so we enjoyed a few chilled out days. Our first stop after showering was to get an ice cream and enjoy not feeling cold for the first time since Cusco!
This volcano is a constant backdrop to San Pedro
San Pedro de Atacama is not a big town but there are some nice things to see like the Plaza de San Pedro de Atacama, the church and the meteorite museum. There are nice coffee shops and restaurants in the town where you can chill out – which is exactly what we did.
One of the highlights is the gorgeous church near the main square – painted a stark white that contrasts with the rest of the town.
As soon as you get out of San Pedro, there is a strong feeling that you are in the middle of nowhere. Here was my very first experience of what it really feels like to be in a desert. Incredible landscapes but nothing around, no buildings, no power lines, no trees! Just the natural beauty of the place.
Once of my favourite memories of San Pedro is sitting around eating empanadas the size of my head. I became so addicted to this food that I still make various versions of it at home 10 years later.
If there’s one thing you do here, it’s to peruse the markets. There are amazing shops lining the streets of town and a bigger artisanal market near the bus station.
Because the town is full of backpackers and travellers, San Pedro definitely has a bit of a nightlife buzz. On our first night here, we had a few drinks well into the night around a fire pit with some other travellers and it was so much fun!
The days are desert-warm but the nights were still quite cool though so when we headed out to the conservatory in the middle of the night, we had to rug up!
After a long relaxing dinner and a good dose of Chilean Cab Sav, our one and only tour from San Pedro started at almost mightnight. We were headed an hour into the desert to an incredible conservatory to see the unpolluted night sky through telescopes and with the naked eye.
On arrival to the designated stargazing spot, we were provided with blankets, and a warm cup of hot chocolate, which definitely helped perk us up – it was freezing!
Away from all light pollution in the expanse of Atacama darkness, the vision is truly incredible. Crisp, clean air and unadulterated, white, bright galaxies. We were able to see a number of astronomical formations, only visible in the Southern Hemisphere, several planets including Jupiter, Saturn and Mars and lose ourselves among the cloudy Milky Way. It was really helpful having the two local astronomers there to explain what all the constellations are.
Book your San Pedro accommodation here.
Because we had an early flight from Calama to Santiago the next day, we decided not to risk a delayed bus and spent our second last night in the mining town.
The bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama (about 100km from Calama) through the desert as the sun was setting was quite surreal. We passed a barren moon-like landscape full of just sand and rocks that seemed to go on forever.
Arriving here and trying to get to our accommodation was probably the only time I have felt unsafe on this whole whirlwind South American adventure. This was also the only hotel we stayed in on the whole trip! Definitely not a place I would stop if I had the choice.
