San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Arriving in Chile after two months in Peru and Bolivia was a welcomed change. Chile is the most stable country in South America and the juxtaposition with Peru and Bolivia, which are two of the poorest, is felt almost immediately. Showers are consistent and adjustable to an enjoyable temperature, rather than being either freezing cold or boiling hot. Roads are well maintained, you can use credit cards pretty much anywhere, and they actually have large grocery stores with plenty of fresh produce and other good-for-you items. Upon arriving at our hotel in San Pedro de Atacama, we both had a collective sigh of relief. It was nice to be somewhere that had a bit more of the comforts of home that we’d both grown up with.

Also upon arriving in Chile, there was no second-guessing what country you were in - there were chilean flags everywhere. At first I thought, that’s weird, I don’t remember Chileans flying so many flags when I lived here before, but then I remembered that it was September. September 18th is Chile’s national holiday, and the Chilean people start celebrating right from the start of the month. Therefore, flags and viva Chile! Signs everywhere.

We were quite excited for our first stop in the Atacama Desert. For Jo, it had been a long-time dream of his to come here. Julie, as well, had wanted to visit for a while after seeing the photos from some of her Chilean friends’ recent trips there. Jo had also somehow scored a really nice hotel for more than half the price that it usually is, so we had a nice place to stay with a swimming pool, a tasty breakfast and bikes all included. San Pedro is a pretty cute little town, too. It’s like an oasis in the middle of a massive desert. Nearby is a fairly famous place called el Valle de la Luna, or The Valley of the Moon. It is called this because of the landscape - when you’re there, you feel like you’re on the moon.

Our first order of business was to grab the hotel bikes and go visit the moon valley. You can take tours that take you in a van, which is probably a better option in the hot months of the summer. We, however, were there at the tail end of winter, so riding bikes in was enjoyable. It was about a 40 minute, fairly flat bike ride to the park. In high season it’s better to buy your tickets ahead of time online, but we bought them at the door. The park opens at 9am and is open until sundown. In the summer time, bikes have to leave the park by 11am, which we think is likely to do with the heat and lack of shade. In the winter, however, we had until 3pm. The stricter rules for bikes (we think) comes down to safety. There is no shade in the park at all (it’s a desert, after all), the UV index is always above 10, and you are not allowed to eat anything inside the park. We think this is likely why, in the summer, bikes have to be out by 11am, so as to avoid people getting heatstroke. Another rule for the bikes is that all bikers must be wearing a safety vest and a helmet. The hotel provided both, but all of the helmets were too small for Jo’s head. We were unaware of the rules, and so Jo just went without a helmet. I forced him to wear the vest, because we had to ride along roads to get there. We were lucky, because when we got there, one of the park workers gave Jo a helmet he could borrow. I don’t know who’s helmet it was, but I do know from reading comments online that this is not the norm. So if you’re heading in on a bike, don’t forget your vest and helmet because they normally don’t have them available at the park.

The other reason why I suggest in the summer to just do the park in a car rather than bikes is because you will only have two hours, which won’t be enough to see the whole thing. You ride along the roads inside the valley to the different trail heads. There, you park the bikes and hike to the different viewpoints. None of the hikes are very long - the guide at the gate told us certain ones would take an hour or even an hour and a half, but there wasn’t a single one that took us more than 30 or 40 minutes, including stopping to take pictures.

The views and landscapes were fabulous, with many of them really making you feel like you’ve gone to the moon. There were plenty of cool rock formations, and we had a brochure with a map and additional information to help pinpoint what we were seeing. Getting out on the bikes was also really fun. I am not the strongest cyclist, but it felt amazing to move again. We hadn’t done much sports or exercise since the Andes Race and so we were eager to stretch the legs.

All told we cycled about 35km, but that includes to and from the park. The hiking was less than 7km in total. The only problem is that you are not allowed to eat inside the park. We’d had a fairly large breakfast, however, by the time we arrived at the end of the park and had to ride back, I was starting to feel quite hungry. We were down at the final viewpoint, for a rock formation called the three sisters, and Jo wanted to keep taking photos. Finally I said to him: Jo, if we don’t go back now, I am probably going to start saying mean things soon. That’s when Jo realized that when I had said I was feeling hungry 10 minutes prior, we were on a time limit until hunger turned to hanger - hungry + angry. So, we rode back.

There were a few uphills in the park that we walked the bikes up on the way in, so on the way out that meant those were downhills. This is easier on the body but also pretty scary (at least for me). I was proud of myself, however, because I did keep calm and even got a little bit of speed going on some of them. Finally, we made it back to the park entrance, where I immediately sat down and had a snack. There was no way I was biking back another 30 minutes without eating something first!

That night Jo and I took advantage of the communal kitchen that this hotel had to cook dinner for ourselves. We had to go to the main kitchen, however, to get all the utensils and cookware that we needed, because I am pretty sure we are some of the only clients to ever actually use it. We made some ratatouille to put over some pasta. In Chile, they make good red wine, so we got a bottle to go along with it. Normally, as I said, the wine is really good. We decided, however, to try a bottle that was made there in the region of Atacama. I was surprised, because I had lived in Chile for 6 months and had never heard of wine being made that far north. Turns out, there is a reason for that. It was awful. We even let it sit open for a bit, thinking maybe it just needed to aerate, but no - we ended up just dumping the bottle.

There was a really lovely French couple staying in the hotel, who we ended up eating breakfast with each morning. They were from the Paris region, just like Jo, so he enjoyed getting to chat with people essentially from his home town each day. We made sure to warn them about the Atacama wine - we took the fall so they didn’t have to.

The next day we went out for our first run since the Andes Race, a full two weeks with no running! We went gently, not pushing it, as I was testing my lungs out to see how they were. We were still quite high in altitude, as well, so I didn’t want to push it. We didn’t go out long, only about 7km, but we didn’t end up going alone, either. We first left our hotel and did a little tour of the downtown before going on a small outing in the desert. As we were running through the main street we passed a fairly large, black dog. I guess after running past her, she decided that a run looked like fun - all of the sudden she was running next to us! We had to stop and walk for a little bit because she was very excited as was trying to jump up and greet us. We thought she would just join for a bit and then turn back, but no - she decided to come the whole way. With no water for her and no shade, we took a route that went alongside a little river so that she could easily cool off when she wanted to. She had a lot of fun running and splashing in the water. Often, she would run up ahead, lie down in the water, and wait for us. Once we finally had no choice but to leave the riverbank, we decided to cut our route to head back into the oasis where there were trees. Again, we were worried that our new friend, who’s collar and tag read Nala, would overheat.

Nala was truly a great running buddy - she almost felt like our dog. If a car was coming, a cyclist passed us, or another dog would approach, we’d just clap our hands once to get her attention, tell her to come, and then keep her by us until whatever the reason for calling her was, had passed. One time, she started to run after a cyclist, and I clapped my hands and called her and she turned on a dime and came right to me. I was really impressed.

Back in the town, we found a place that served dairy-free ice cream and we also got a bowl of water for Nala. We sat with her on the sidewalk, us enjoying our ice cream and her drinking her water, before we left to go and get lunch. This time, I didn’t feel so bad leaving her, because her tag didn’t just say Nala, but it also read my family loves me. I knew that she was in loving hands.

That night, we had another activity that we were quite excited about: stargazing! The Atacama is known for stargazing as it is completely flat and also doesn’t have much light pollution. We went on a tour that cost 30 per person. There were other tour operators offering it for

We went to the offices for 8pm, where we got in a van with the six other people in our group. From there, they drove us to the home of the photographer, who would be taking our pictures with the stars. The night starts out with everyone in a reclining chair looking up at the night’s sky and our guide giving us a talk about the stars, the solar system, and the sky of the southern hemisphere. He helped us find constellations, explained to us things about astronomy and astrology and how they are connected, and also helped us pick out a few planets. In the southern hemisphere, in order to find other constellations, you just have to find the southern cross. From there, you can more easily find the others. We also learned how the night’s sky is slightly different every night of the year, but the stars are in the same position on the same date each yea; the only thing that changes are the positions of the satellites. For example, every year on your birthday, the stars will be in the same positions.

Once the chat was over, they set up a nice little apero for us. This included wine, water, tea, hot chocolate, and some snacks. This time, the wine was good - it was from the actual, proper wine regions of Chile. During the apero everyone chatted and had the opportunity to ask the guides more questions. Once that was done, they split us up into two groups of four. For our group, they put the four Brazilian and Portuguese people together, and then Jo and I went with a German couple. We went to do the photos first.

The photo portion of the night is really quite fun, and the photos are absolutely incredible. The photographer has a specific camera set up so that he can properly capture the stars. He then lets you come up with your own pose ideas, but also gives suggestions if you’re unsure. He shows you after each one to make sure that you are happy with it, as each person gets three photos included with the price of the tour. Going in a couple meant that we had 6 photos altogether; we chose to do four of them together and then one individual photo each. I didn’t expect the photo portion of the evening to be that fun, but it really was.

After that, we switched with the other half of the group to go look in the telescope. There, the guide who explained about the stars continued his explanations, setting up the telescope and positioning it so that we could easily see the different things he was showing to us. Everything was stunning, but the most beautiful of them all was Saturn. In the telescope, Saturn appeared a mix of red, orange, and pink, and you could clearly see its rings. We each took a few turns looking at it because it was so marvelous.

It is around 10:30 or 11pm by the time you are heading back into the town, so the tour drops each person off in front of their hotel. Happy but tired, we went straight to bed. The next day we would be continuing our journey south.