Day 38 - 39: San Pedro de Atacama Tours
- Vik Leann
- Jan 29, 2016
- 4 min read
September 20 - 21, 2015
While on the long bus ride to Salta, Vik researched on the 2 southern entry points for Bolivia's Uyuni salt flats: San Pedro de Atacama and Tupiza via Tilcara. Despite the overwhelming odds against it in terms of cost, names like moon valley and death valley in the world's highest and driest desert stood out. They overshadowed the potential savings and experiences of the Tilcara route, and so it was decided. But, we allowed ourselves only 2 nights there, and squeezed 2 tours into one day.
Astronaut Rabbid has successfully landed on the moon
Death Valley
Day 1 Border crossing was pretty slow as usual, but we still managed to arrive ahead of schedule. Interestingly, there were no signs from the bus station that led us to the city. So we followed people, some of whom were as clueless as us. But we eventually arrived in the city centre, found a tourist information centre and got a map. Knowing that our hostel would be a 15 minute walk, we decided to run all our errands before heading to the hostel. The town was as tourist oriented as tourist oriented gets. It reminded us of some of the beach towns in Thailand. Tour agencies, restaurants and souvenir shops packed the small town. We started off with the highly recommended Cordillera tours to book our Uyuni salt flats tour. The standard 3D2N cost us 180USD. The only difference between that and 4D3N (220USD) was the return trip to San Pedro. They didn't accept card and thus we had to head out to draw money from the only ATM a few minutes walk away, back round the corner of the tourist information centre. As it was our last stop in Chile we had to be rather calculative about how much we needed to have left in Chilean pesos. On the opposite end of town, we also took the remaining Argentinian pesos and changed them for some Bolivianos (as suggested by all tour operators). We then made payment for our tour (slightly happy in our mind that there were less 15 on the list) and proceeded into another acclaimed tour agency Andina Tours and booked a sunrise tour for the geysers and a sunset tour for the valleys. We finally checked in to our hostel at Casa Los Duendes. Definitely the most expensive hostel we paid for so far (50USD/night) and it was a long walk into an unknown lane. But the conditions were good, and we were happy to have a private bathroom. It was also dark enough at night to see the stars. Day 2 So we kicked off our packed day bright and early, but not before a moment of blunder when we stumbled into a shared apartment in the same farm hostel thinking it was the shared living room. The six people who lived inside were of different nationalities and looked like they were also waiting for transport. It was cold outside so we decided to knock the door and head in. It was only after a while that we realised they all knew each other, and seemed to be laughing at us. Truth came to light when their tour bus came, and we all laughed at the awkwardness as we had to wait outside once more.
The geysers at sunrise
Our tour was led by Daniel, an ex-English teacher who was very informative, but rather boring in his monotone presentation and philosophical view of nature. Breakfast provided was nothing short of ordinary, which made me question my agency choice but I soon realised they all offered the same breakfast. The highest known geyser field, formed thousand of years ago, was pretty large, and rather impressive. As thousands of years go by, many of the small potholes will eventually merge to form a thermal pool and then a crater lake. The main reason for the early morning tour, according to Daniel, was that the sunlight against the billowing steam would make it a magical sight to behold. However, we weren't too impressed. But we were quite happy with the side trekking excursion to a hidden gorge full of cacti.
Francisco led our second tour, and we were told that he was a different breed of tour guide altogether. An ex English teacher as well, Francisco was much younger, more energetic, more articulate, and more charming than all the tour guides we have seen so far. Beyond the excellent command of English, you could also sense his sincerity when promising you the best tour possible. Armed with his iPad, he dished out interesting facts about San Pedro and the research stations based in the world's driest climate.
Coyote rock
Needless to say, we had a great tour of the surreal landscapes in the death valley and moon valley. We also had a side excursion through the garganta del diablo: a dried up narrow river with steep rock surfaces and formations. The garganta stretched upwards long and far (we walked for a good 30 minutes one way thrrough some impressive rock formations) and provided bike enthusiasts with one of the longest and most exciting trails.
This looks like a T-Rex head
Las Tres Marias, because it looks like 3 women praying
Sunset over the moon valley concluded the awesome day and Francisco gave a good tip: the best part of the suset here is after it sets. When the mountains facing the sun change colours to different hues of red. True enough, that would have been a better time lapse!
We grabbed ourselves a good dinner (checking that they accepted credit card or credito tarjeta) before getting ready for another early morning for our Uyuni Salt Flats tour.
Tips:
When booking at Andino Tours, ask for the tours with Francisco as the guide. Go with him and him only. You won't regret it. If you don’t trust me, trust TripAdvisor.
We did not have time to shop around for tours and went straight for the reputable ones. No regrets, but I’m sure you can ask around. The tours may sound the same across the agencies but the itineraries do vary as both valleys are huge and have different vantage points and areas to visit.
If you plan to head to the Uyuni Salt Flats, you may also consider skipping the geyser sunrise tour. It's pricey and not fantastic.
Pity we were short on money and time; sandboarding, stargazing, and the Salar de Ojo came highly recommended!
Remember to wear sunscreen, hat and sunglasses! The sun is extremely strong.
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