Jack John Pedro de Atacama

The bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama took about 24 hours. We played a lot of games and stuff on the bus to pass the time...but the ride was not easy. I slept maybe a total of two hours. We arrived in San Pedro Wednesday morning and started our search for a hostel. Esteban and Kristin went off looking for a place, and the rest of us hung out in the plaza with our suitcases. We met an American traveler and talked with him about his journeys around the world.

Kristin and Esteban found a nice little hostel on the edge of town called Hostal Tuyaso (I think). It was about $9.50 a night per person...not too bad. The water pressure and temperature was not too good. Sometimes you had to do a handstand to wash your hair...and even for a desert the water was chilly at night. Sometimes they just didn't have any water....but what can you expect from the driest desert on earth!

After we got settled in, we went to book some adventures. We signed up for three days worth of trips. Salt Lagoon, Moon Valley, Geysers. With transportation, meals, and guide, it came out to about $60 USD total. The deals weren't bad...but everything adds up! We had our first trip planned for the same day at 4pm. We got on the bus and headed out to the salt lagoons.

The salt lagoons have been around for thousands of years. They are natural water formations in the desert...to a parched desert traveler, however, they offer little help. The salt lagoons have 8 times the salt content of the ocean. Check out the pictures! Try taking your hands and feet out of the water in your pool and floating...really really cool. While floating, Christian claimed he was going to dissolve salt in a pool and have his very own lagoon. He quickly changed his mind when we got out of the water. The salt was caked onto our bodies! Our swimsuits were like cardboard, our skin cracked and moaned when we stretched...and it soaked all the moisture out of your skin (you barely had any to start with in the desert!) It was a really cool and unique experience.

We hopped around to a couple other cool places to go swimming and jumping in the water (note the video). I will try to get some pictures of me from my friends...but for now you can look at life through my eyes!

It was a fun beginning to the trip...but we got to bed early because we knew there was going to be a lot more fun to come!