LeoGoesCoffee: Atacama – a lot of desert but no sand (Part 1)

Let’s start a little earlier in the story, first of all I need to tell you, that this was probably one of the trips of my life. Contrary to my cultural origin I decided to just buy my plane ticket nothing more. Additionally I had some rather rough ideas what I wanted to see.

On the list were:

-Atacama

-Bolivia (incl. Salar Uyuni, la Paz & Lago Titicaca)

- Arequipa, Perú

So far my “plan” was successful in all aspects. Not Only have I seen all I wanted to, more than that I met incredible people, ideas of life, open minds and new wonderful experiences. But now to my first stop:

The Atacama Desert

San Pedro de Atacama

First impression: not how I expected a desert, but really beautiful.

The day before my travels I could FaceTime with my wonderful friend Lena, which had been traveling through Perú and Bolivia a few months before me. Not only had I wanted to hear her voice and catch up in general, more it was also a tiny panic attack that caught me the day before my trip – which I btw totally did by myself – as I for real just had booked the flight. No Hostel, no tours, nada. But even three months in Latino America my heart still beats a bit German :D Internet research showed me that Hostels were spiking as I hadn’t calculated the “fiestas patrias” in my “no-plan-plans”. While telling Lena about my trip and the fact that hostels were almost unpayable due to the Chilean national holiday she told me about her experiences with Couchsurfing. For all who don’t know what that is it might be cool to google it (otherwise this post will be way too long...)

Spring in the desert

As luck was my travel buddy already before I entered the plane in Santiago I really found a host in San Pedro de Atacama for the four days I would stay there. Vlass was a very warm and welcoming Colombian Couchsurfing host. Not only did he live really unique in the middle of a big garden, more did he also live in walking distance of the village center of the desert oasis “San Pedro”. Due to this way of staying there I could not only get to know the village and the nature of Atacama in a very different way, moreover I was taught all you can know within such a short time about Colombia.

Relaxing in the trees of Vlass´garden

Once filled up with delicious “Arepas” (typical food from Colombia and Venezuela) that Vlass prepared for me I headed to the “center” of San Pedro. There I thankfully already had a recommendation, which of the like 100 touristic agencies is the best one. As I am really satisfied with how the tours went the agency is calles “Estrellas del Sur”. With this agency I went on two half day tours and one full day tour as well as I booked my 3-day tour to the “Salar de Uyuni”. Once all was booked around 9 pm at night I went back to my Couchsurfing spot as my frist tour was starting at 5:00am the next day.

Tour no. 1: Tatio Geysers

My first tour started at a time where I normally would not be even close to be awake, but leaving at 5 o’clock made sure to arrive at the Geysers before sunrise, so the whole scenery would be even more impressive. The way to the geysers is “just” 87km, but the thing is, and I learn that a lot here, distances are not the same as in Germany or the Netherlands. Streets especially in the Desert are not asphalted but rather flat ways through the hills and mountains. Therefore the max speed we were driving was maybe 70km/h, if the street was strait.

Around 7:00 am we were arriving at the Geysers, all happy there would be a breakfast with sunrise soon. Our tour guide was first showing us around, making sure we won´t step onto ground where it was not save or destructive for the nature. Slowly the sun was rising putting the surrounding mountains into a reddish light that almost seemed unreal. On more than 4000m above sea level I could feel the altitude especially while walking fast, taking stairs and a light feeling of dizziness. Someone in the tour gave me the tip to look for some “coca” bonbons which would help dealing with the altitude sickness.

Walking through the geysers a kind of numbing feeling overcame me. This insanely beautiful nature was impressing me so much, that just now, that I am back, writing this post, realize that it was a really unique way of experiencing the Surrounding of Atacama. The word Geysers has it´s origin in Icelandic, and they said they looked almost the same in Iceland. The only difference I can imagine is that Geysers in Iceland are probably located in a more Bluish nature instead of the Yellow and red nature surrounding the Tatio Geysers. The bubbly big hole in the ground, spying big clouds of whatever chemical connection it might be (excuse me I forgot :D ). But enough words, see for yourself…

the sun painting the hills red.

the first tired but impressed view of the geysers

Not only where the geysers impressive but also the way to go there. Half way on our way back to San Pedro we stopped in a little “village” (of like 5 houses) of the indigenous people called “Mapuche”. There they sold Lama Meat (that is actually really delicious) as well are souvenirs. The whole atmosphere was very special as it is also kind of a weird feeling, realizing there are actually people living in the middle of nowhere.