Backpack Mack

So… As I left off in the last post, I crossed over the very official looking land border from Bolivia to Chile which put me on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama, a small town in the Atacama Desert. Why here? 

The Atacama Desert is an extremely unique place. It is the driest nonpolar desert in the world and has been used as an experimentation site for Mars expedition simulations due to its similarity in environment. The Atacama Desert is one of the few locations on the globe with over 300 days of clear skies per year. This combined with the lack of light pollution and high altitude makes it one of the best places to stargaze. Currently the desert is home to the largest ground telescope in the world (ALMA) and NASA has a presence here. 

So I set myself for 2 nights here to catch the stars and explore some of the surrounding scenery. Ironically, the day I arrived the sky was full of cirrus and cumulus type clouds (the wispy and fluffy ones) and the chance of catching those amazing stars was significantly diminished. That being said, it made for an incredible sunset. So I made the best of the situation and rented a bike, toured the town and figured out my plan for the next few days. I decided the following day I would do the Rainbow Valley hiking tour and stargazing and the day after that I would take the flight down to Santiago. 

I will say candidly, this was my worst hostel of the trip. Usually I am pretty picky and find one that has great reviews, clean rooms, privacy and amenities. This hostel was rated as a 9.6 on Hostelworld but unfortunately I think that was due to the lack of supply. I was in a very small four bed dorm room with three British guys traveling together. The bunks were essentially made of PVC pipe and I was on the top, maybe 1.5 feet from the ceiling. BUT you can’t win them all. Myself and my stuff was safe and I met some cool people so we’ll still call it a win. 

The Rainbow Valley was a very cool spot to visit with its mineral deposits and striations across the rock formations. Our guide gave us information about the types of rock and their volcanic formations. I also made a German friend on the tour who I hung out with for nearly the whole time I was in San Pedro. She was doing a four week tour that included hiking almost every day (very German). I also met up with the kind of travelers who are an absolute blast but you truly wonder how they are alive. I struck up a conversation with an Irish girl named Clara who was hanging out in a hammock at the hostel and made plans to grab a drink that evening. Little did I know nighttime Clara was a whole different beast – apparently it was the last week of her twenties, a life stage that needs to be heavily celebrated. Her stories mostly consisted of getting drunk and making questionable choices internationally (like getting on strangers’ boats and riding off on motorbikes) but hey she’s still around to tell the tale!

Not visited but also sounding very interesting was Valle de la Luna (a 45 minute bike ride from the town of San Pedro), Mars Valley, sand boarding down the dunes, and the Red Mountain Hike. 

The stargazing was, as promised, spectacular. You could see the milky way with the naked eye and with the telescopes provided (which were far superior to your average toy) you could see into different galaxies. Its honestly hard to fathom how extensive the universe is when you are looking into space like that. In addition to our planet system which we still haven’t fully explored there are other stars/suns and likely planets far far away potentially with little people staring back us through their own telescopes.  

But before I get too deep into contemplating other life forms, I will also say it was absolutely freezing! If I didn’t need to pack so lightly and for so many different climates I would have brought a winter coat. 

The following day I got up early and took a shared ride to the Calama Airport and caught a flight down to Santiago. I was debating how much time I wanted to spend in Santiago and my decision was ultimately motivated by two factors: First, my boyfriend really wants to revisit Chile and Argentina so I didn’t want to do EVERYTHING now and then have it be a repeat. Secondly (and perhaps more pathetically) I was a little tired of being cold. I had reworn my warm clothes over and over and really just layered most of them on at the same time, and my skin was so dry from the air and altitude. So all that being said I was going to jam pack a full day of activities in and then take off to Spain the following day. 

I walked the neighborhood and wandered into a park that had a funicular up to the statue of Mary viewpoint. This was a spectacular view of the (albeit hazy) city. It is absolutely wild looking across a sprawling city that directly butts up against the snowcapped Andes. From the top of the mountain viewpoint I took a cable car down to another part of the city. I have come to really appreciate this type of transportation because it gives such incredible aerial viewpoints of the city and surrounding areas. When I returned down to solid ground I met up with another walking tour. This one, like the others, was quite informative regarding the history of Chile, some of the challenging political history, as well as important landmarks throughout the city. A movie recommendation that I haven’t gotten around to watching but that details some of Chile’s history is Machuca. It’s currently on my watch list.  

On the tour I met two women who I ended up grabbing dinner with. One of the reasons I love traveling is that you get to hear so many different life stories. One of the women was a teacher at the British School of Panama and the other was an engineer from Brazil. I’ve met a lot of teachers given the time of year but I’ve also met people similar to myself taking a break between jobs, I’ve met archaeological researchers sent to Central/South America to study artifacts, I’ve met grad students on summer break, I’ve met medical professionals volunteering, I’ve met remote workers, I’ve met couples and single people and groups of friends. I really enjoy understanding the lives people live at home and how we ended up in the same place together. 

All that to say, I had a lovely day in Santiago and am looking forward to going back soon with my partner! 

One thing worth noting is that I was heavily cautioned that cell phone theft and scooter grabs are common here so if you are taking a trip, be careful!