San Pedro de Atacama

Oh hi! After our massive journey we quickly made a hideous blunder with our choice of accommodation and secured a room that was not only freezing but also seemed never to have any hot water, ever...oooh perfect after 33 hours in the same clothes without a shower.

What a strange place San Pedro de Atacama was...full of tourists hiking or cycling up and down the main street, that was in turn full of tour operators and repetative souvenier shops. There were very few Americans, but lots of young Brits it seemed. This is an early morning piccy, minus the tourists.


Single story mud brick constructed houses and mud roads. It was very, very bright and sunny in the day and freezing at night. Most tourist restaurants cleverly lured people in with an open fire, we were not immune to this ploy.


The dazzling church.


Aaah emptyness and no Brummie accents!


There were some interesting details in the construction of buildings, but it was sooo super touristy we loathed ourselves for being there, and decided to whirlwind the places we wanted to see on some tours...and then leave pronto.


Leading up to the modest but pleasant main square, where dance music (rush hour stylee) was pumped out non-stop from a van on one particular day, a bit odd. Lots of Euro-hippies stationed themselves here making woven jewellery...the devil really does make work for idle hands.


I felt jaded, Lol, but part of the problem. The locals seemed genuinely cheerful though.


Hey, hey! The R. P. Gustavo Le Paige Archaeological Museum was great though with excellent displays and even explanations in English (It was still fun to make our own up though.) Like many of the museums that we have visited from Mexico onwards, the illustrations were often first hand and consistent in style and quality, rather than reproduced and laminated.

Here is a textual and visual explanation about the Inca's prep and use of hallucinogens. Loving the wooden carved trays and pipes.


Ceramic artifacts.


Ceremonial drug paraphernalia.


There was no text about this object carved in wood.


Apart from the obvious hilarity of freezing cold showers and accommodation...did I mention that? The hostel had this very happy little poodle that did actually live there. It was always cheerfully skipping about but seemed to be shunned by the euro guests. We caught some British girls telling it to go away and I asked them why. They said it was because it was dirty and always bothering them. I said surely its the personality that counts, but they didn't get it.

It loved Wiji and always recognised him. Lol.


It was here that I was trying to put one of the poodles arms back in its coat and was remarking on how dirty and broken its pink coat was, whilst giving it some fuss. Minutes later the poodle appeared sans broken pink childs coat. The owner of the hostel had heard me it seemed. Funny how she suddenly could understand English. Lol.