SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA: the driest place in the world

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Next station was San Pedro de Atacama, located at 2.400 meters above sea level in one of the driest deserts in the world. The Uyuni tour left us at the Bolivian border around 10am, where we had to complete the pass formalities and take a bus that was already waiting. This bus took us to the chilean pass control and Aduana, located at 45km of the border, at the entrance to the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

Except the caothic exit at the bolivian site, all other things went fine and we arrived into the town around noon. It was a very hot day, just as everyday.

The town itself is small but nice and clean, and very turistic. It´s streets have no paviment and the houses do not have a second floor. There are many restaurants, pubs and hostals offering tours to places around San Pedro. All of them have front signs made of wood in similar style and siye, McDonalds and Starbucks included.

I had lunch at the main square with a canadian / french couple as there were no free tables. They are also travelling to Ushuaia and had just bought their bus tickets to get there. I heard that over 2/3 of the 3 day Uyuni tours are now ending in San Pedro de Atacama; these tours use to go back to Uyuni.

In the evenning I had dinner with Felipe (from Santiago) and Meg (Ohio). Both were very curious about my trip and had questions about Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Máncora. I wish you good luck and a nice trip in case you read this!

The next morning my Andesmar bus to Salta left at 9:30am. I think I could have stayed at least one more day in San Pedro doing nothing, it has a good vibe. At the bus station I met again Maria from Hungary (we were on the same Titicaca tour) and Ida and her friends. Ida & Co. were on the same Sucre-Uyuni bus, took a similar 3d/2n tour as I did (different driver and hostels), stayed one night in San Pedro, and are now heading to Salta.