Northern Chile

We left Valpariso for La Serena. In La Serena, we stayed in a fabulous hostel. Hostal El Punto had great breakfast, very nice and clean rooms, a large patio area, and very friendly staff. We booked immediately onto the evening tour for Mamauka Observatory. It was quite a drive to get there, but the stars were worth it. We saw the southern cross and got to look very closely at the moon. Our tour concluded with a little Pisco Sour, a local cocktail in Chile and Peru. The next day in La Serena, we saw several churches, a market, and just chilled out. We were suffering from a travel hangover from Easter Island. As we are now almost done with our trip, we had begun to drag through the motions a bit and not care all that much about what we were seeing. (Spoiled, I know.)

After La Serena, we went all the way up to Iquique, Chile. We stayed at Iquique Hostel which has the perfect location. It overlooks the beach and is just a short walk away. We wanted to paraglide over the sand dunes in Iquique, but the weather was against us. We just layed on the beach all day and I finished One Thousand Splendid Suns and then The Gatekeeper.

Our bus from Iquique to San Pedro was quite early in the morning. We were supposed to take two buses for the 9 hour trip, but got lucky. Until now, our trip has been free of a major transportation breakdown. We were lucky enough to break down in the middle of nowhere right before noon in a spot with zero shade. We exited the bus to learn, no its not a flat tire (a problem than can quickly be solved), but engine trouble. As luck would have it, our friendly Nathalie studied abroad in Rochester, NY. Fluent in English, she explained to us that there was a town not very far away. Most of the passengers on the bus began hitchhiking. Nathalie learned that it would be at least 2 hours, if not more, until another bus was coming along to take us to the next city. She hitched a ride and told us she would look for us in town. We were thumbing it, but luckily another bus from the same company came by and picked up the few of us left and our luggage. They dropped us in the town that was roughly 15-20 minutes away. When we got off and headed to the bus office, our friend Nathlie explained that our bus was to leave around 3:15 to continue to the trip and its law in Chile for the company to feed us due to the delay. We waited while she argued with the Tur Bus and her mother called the central office. Finally, the aggervated lady at the desk gave in and showed us next door. We got crappy sandwiches and a drink compliments of Tur Bus. Our bus didnt leave until after 4 pm and we had to exchange our 2nd bus ticket for a later time. We got onto the 2nd bus and arrived in San Pedro de Atacama around 9 pm.

Unfortunetly, We were unable to book a hostel in advance. Mike and I got the `no room at the inn` for the first three hostels and then got lucky with numbero quatro. It wasnt anything special and the sign was odd so I am not exactly sure what the name was. We had the joy of hot outdoor showers and then walking back to our room nice and wet. There was no heat in the room either, but really warm blankets. San Pedro is the most overrated place we have been. We booked three different tours and only enjoyed one of them. We were not sorry to be on our way to Bolivia for an amazing three day salt flat tour.