The Desert of Chile

PHOTO ALBUM 1: San Pedro Trip- link

This past weekend we took a trip up north to San Pedro de Atacama which is a desert in the north of Chile. I went with some of my gringo (american) friends from UNC. The 24 hour bus ride took us to the small but fairly touristy city of San Pedro. While there we got the chance to do some sandboarding on the dunes near the city which was quite entertaining. We did a little bike riding through the mountains and zipped down the hills at lightspeed. On one of the days, we got up at 4am to go to the geysers in the high altitudes of the mountains around there. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life. Maybe camping once or twice I was as cold, but not much. I had to jog in place the whole time to actually be able to feel my feet. But it was pretty cool. It was basically like 60 Old Faithfuls in the canyon area with bubbling geysers everywhere. There were some hotsprings nearby where you could take a little dip in water that was actually pretty warm. We were too cold to undress to swim, but our legs were revived by taking a dip. When we went for the bike ride, the guy who was leading us told us about all the celebrities that had visited San Pedro and how a number of them were pretty rude. I wish I remembered specifically which ones he mentioned. He talked about his crazy teenage years. He said that 10 years ago, he gave tours in which there was all you can consume pisco sour (chilean alcohol) and marijuana after the bike ride obviously with a higher cost. He said he didn't do that anymore. So that was basically our trip to San Pedro.