Monday, April 6 – Sunny and 75

We had a morning flight to Calama where we were met by Percy, our guide for the week. He is from Brazil and speaks very good English. We had about an hour drive from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama and our hotel, Terrantai. The hotel is situated in the historic old town San Pedro. All of the old town buildings are adobe and feature a door at the street that often opens to a wide space behind the door. The shops tend to be more narrow (perhaps only slightly wider than the door), but the restaurants and hotels have much more open spaces and many times gardens.

We had about an hour at the hotel before our driver and guide returned to take us to Moon Valley and a couple other places before we ended at an overlook for sunset.

Always carry water – this is the driest place on earth. They are coming out of the rainy season and we asked how much rain they get each year. Percy told us that they receive between 5 and 50 ml of rain per year.

Looks very inviting, doesn’t it?

The second stop was a place called Tres Marias because someone thinks these rocks look like three women..?? I think the one on the far left looks like a carving that might have been on an old sailing ship.

After the Tres Marias, we stopped at an abandoned salt mine and listened to the salt crack. Interesting.

We then had a snack stop along the side of the road before heading to the sunset view point.

Sunset…you have all seen one…

Dormant volcano – one of the tallest in the area.

We had dinner at Adobe restaurant in old town San Pedro.

It was an authentic looking place, but served pizza and pasta – as it seems many of the places in old town serve much the same fare.