Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Our journey through the driest desert in the world

I mentioned we had quite an adventure trying to go north in the last few days. Well let me break it down:

  • Left Vina del Mar the 30th at 11pm
  • Arrived at La Serena on the 31st at 5am
    • stayed at the bus station until 8am waiting for cargo to open (at least we got rid of our bags for a bit!)
    • Searched for Almacen Don Oriels..never found it
    • Looked for 4 tour companies listed in the guide book- 3 didn't exist, the others closed
    • Ended up not making it to the penguin reserve after having no luck finding buses out there and realizing it was Sunday (who knew?!)
    • went to the mall
      • stopped at McDonalds at 11am for coffee and media lunas and a cheeseburger for Ashley
      • bought movie tickets for Horrible Bosses (Quiero Matar a Mi Jefe) and took a nap in the theatre
    • got back to the bus station at 7pm
      • Had to cut the cord lock that was connecting all five of our bags with travel scissors and a butter knife since it was jammed
  • Left on a bus to Calama at 9pm
    • Ashley did "emergency surgery" once on the bus
    • Got stuck in Agua Verdes (middle of the Atacama Desert) due to snow from 8am-2pm (the 1st)
      • it was hot where we were stuck
      • were given lots of cookies and juice to placate us
      • only had a 30min break while waiting to stand outside the bus
  • Arrived at Antofagasta at 4:30pm
    • had a moment of panic while stretching my legs that the bus had left us
  • Arrived at Calama at 8:30pm
  • Left Calama for San Pedro de Atacama at 10pm
    • which actually turned into 11:30pm since the bus was late
  • Arrived in San Pedro around 1am on the 2nd and went promptly to our hostel beds
To do some math for you: about 31 of the 50 hours of that journey were spent on a bus. However, San Pedro is an adorable town and we are spending time relaxing and resting. 


popping blisters

The line of cars behind us

The Atacama Desert

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