San Pedro de Atacama - days uno y dos

17 hours north of La Serena lands you in the middle of the desert, and a small town called San Pedro de Atacama. We had booked ourselves into a hostel Aji Verde which proved pretty difficult to find, which was made more difficult by the 25 degree heat beating down down on us as we lugged around 15 kilos on our backs. 

We eventually caved and got a cab to the hostel (we were miles off) where we then acquainted ourselves with the resident dog and our tent before hitting the dusty streets to explore the small town. 

While traveling, days seem to slip away before your eyes and before we knew it, 3pm had rolled around without any food to fill our bellies so we tried out a Wikitravel recommendation - Sol Inti. We were pretty happy with the find when they served us up the biggest "sandwich"  you've ever seen, which is really a burger with sliced meat rather than a pattie, half an avocado, a ton of cheese and lettuce and some more heart of palm.

After lunch we managed to reconnect with a friend we had made in Valparaiso and hearing how he and his friend had cycled to Leguna Cejar rather than go with a tour we decided we could do that too. So instead of falling into the tourist trap of booking in for a tour "pack" like everyone on the streets is trying to hustle you into, we decided that the following day we would hire bikes ourselves and do the 60km return bike ride solo. 

After a yummy dinner at Adobe (I look forward to making quinoa risotto myself when we get home) and a few drinks around the fire back at the hostel we braved the tent to test out how frio it was going to be in the 0 degree temperatures that the desert enjoys overnight. Thankfully with the help of icebreaker we managed to have a cosy sleep and were feeling psyched for our mission to the lagunas. 

After a shaky start, a magnitude 4.5 earthquake than lasted about 10 seconds, we set off along the dead flat and dead straight road to Leguna Cejar. We were both amazed to feel how quickly we got a bit short of breath. This was due to the altitude here being 2,300m, so have us a hint of what we have to look forward to in the coming weeks! After about 1.5 hours we reached the lagoons which we were pleased to discover were all but deserted. 

We couldn't help but think of home looking at the volcano Licancabur we rode alongside the whole way as it looks so much like Ngauruhoe and the Desert Road.

A must do at Laguna Cejar (the floating lagoon) is to brave the cold temperatures of the turquoise waters and take a swim. You get to enjoy the amazingly buoyant waters that are a result of off the rictor levels of salt, rivaling  the Dead Sea in its salt content. It's such a bizzare but incredible feeling to jump into the oily looking water and just bob around like a duck without needing to do anything.

Unfortunately not long after we got there, hordes of tour groups arrived as it's the afternoon tour spot. This meant the tranquility of the place was instantly lost as the squeals of delight/shock echoed across the water. We decided to high tail it out of there then, not before having a shower to wash off our salt encrusted skin though! (Note the line on my shoulder where the salt stops).

Thankfully we had gone the long way there so the ride back was a little easier but we were both feeling pretty saddle sore by the end of it after such a long hiatus from bikes. We made it back just in time before the sun slipped away and the temperature dropped by about 15 degrees. It blows my mind how you can go from sunbathing weather to 0 degrees in the space of a few hours.

After a much deserved shower to rinse off the remaining salt crystals we decided why not get more of a good thing and return to Sol Inti with our hostel friends and enjoy another burger the size of my face (the photo doesn't do it justice).

Coming soon, our sandboarding in the Valley of the Moon experience...