San Pedro and Co.: Desert, Lagoons, and Lots of Salt

After my surfing experience in Arica, I traveled by night bus to Antofagasta. There I met my Swiss travel companion No. 2 - yay 😊. We stayed two days in Antofagasta and then took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama.

San Pedro is a small dusty (tourist) town in the Atacama Desert. From the very first day, we felt very comfortable (even though the prices are similar to those in Switzerland...). We generally prefer small towns over big cities and find it great when we can do everything on foot. From San Pedro, you can do a lot of tours and also explore the area independently. By pure coincidence, we ended up at a beautiful viewpoint because we just wanted to take a little walk. On another day, we rented two bikes and rode to a canyon. That was an incredibly beautiful experience. The gorge was quite deep (or the surrounding rocks were quite high) and in some places very narrow. Moreover, we were lucky: we were out there all alone. Only when we had already come out did a large group come towards us. But we weren't actually alone… a dog accompanied us for the entire journey! He always waited patiently for us when he couldn't see us after a turn (or we were going too slowly). Aww 😊! We also made another trip to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). Our guide there was probably a bit hyperactive or just really enjoyed his job 😉. In any case, he explained everything to us with a lot of enthusiasm and guided us around (he was often bouncing or hopping around). The landscape in this valley truly lives up to its name: It looked really like it was from another world!

From San Pedro, we also did a 4-day tour, of course, it included the Salar de Uyuni. This tour is practically a must-do in San Pedro. Again, we can completely understand why so many people travel here every year. It was a fantastic experience. Additionally, there are (apparently) always many tourists in this area, but either we (again) had very good timing, or the people just spread out very well since it is, of course, a huge area. The tour from San Pedro to the various lagoons, rock formations, and to the Salar de Uyuni (really) blew us away. Especially the Laguna Colorada (see photos of the 'red' lagoon) was amazing. Once again, we could hardly believe that we were really on Earth and not on another planet.

Our conclusion from the time in San Pedro: Wow, wow, wow! 😊