The driest desert in the world, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile (Part 1)

In order to satisfy our massive need for excitement and adventure, we took an overnight bus from Caldera to the driest desert on earth, the Atacama desert, in northern Chile. San Pedro de Atacama was going to be the fun filled destination we so desired.

As soon as we got off of the bus we could feel it right away. Taking a few steps toward the station we were out of breath already! San Pedro de Atacama sits at 2,400 m above sea level (7,900 ft) so trouble breathing and altitude sickness is not uncommon. We did end up feeling a little lethargic and felt drained by the sun throughout our stay there. But seeing the things we saw in San Pedro, made it totally worth it!

San Pedro looks like a little adobe town of close to 5,000 residents. With no paved roads within the town, lots of small shops, restaurants, an eclectic mix of people, plenty of tour businesses and lots of stray dogs, you get the feeling that you’re not in Kansas anymore…

San Pedro de Atacama

A typical street in San Pedro

Our hostel Juriques was an interesting one to say the least. It was our second time on bunk beds! There was a tiny kitchen to work with, which was hard to do when you have 30 other people wanting to use it as well. The bathrooms you ask? Let’s just say they were less than tolerable. The trials and tribulations of staying at a cheap hostel…

Juriques Hostel

Juriques Hostel

Juriques Hostel

Bunk beds…

One of the greatest places on earth to stargaze is San Pedro, so that was at the top of our list of things to do. We booked a tour (through spaceobs.com, they have the most official setup) and around 10:00 pm that night, a bus took a group of us to a place outside of the town where the lights can’t obscure the clear black skies. We were met by a Canadian astronomer who gave us the basics of constellations (using the coolest laser pointer ever!), star distances and some general history of space and time. We all then moved over to the 10 outdoor telescopes set up for viewing and saw colorful stars, dead stars, star clusters and Jupiter along with three of its moons! The group had to take turns on each of the telescopes as there were about 20 of us on the tour. We finished off with some coca tea and hot chocolate as we listened to our guide answer our questions. Needless to say, we don’t have pics from this trip since it was pitch black! We did manage to get a crappy picture of Jupiter through the telescope lens though. Check it out, you can see three of its moons!

Jupiter with two of its moons

Jupiter with three of its moons

Our next experience in San Pedro was sandboarding! We booked a morning session (with sandboardsanpedro.com) that way it wasn’t going to be too hot. Our group consisted of 4 guys and 3 girls, a good mix. Everyone was at the tour office early and we were all talking about how much “experience” we each had, talking our nerves away the best we could! Our guide Sebastián showed up and we were off to Valle de La Muerte (Death Valley) to the huge sand dune we were to conquer that day. The first run was a little rough but the more we kept doing it, the smoother it became. The toughest part was walking up the sand dune, in the heat and in our snowboard boots, phew!! At first we were a little skeptical, but in the end we had a lot of fun!

Sandboard san pedro

Its a long way to the top of the dune!

Sandboard san pedro

We look like pros, right?

Sandboard san pedro

Selfie with our GoPro

Sandboard san pedro

Some of our crew at the end of the day

Sandboard san pedro

Us with our guide, Sebastian and our friend Kayla

Meanwhile, back in town, aside from our usual ham, cheese and avocado sandwiches, we were excited to get a taste of good Chilean desert food. There were so many restaurants to choose from! Check out some of the delicious plates below!

San Pedro de Atacama food

Sopaipillas (simply fried bread with a spicy dipping sauce)

Pollo al Pil Pil (chicken in a signature spicy pil pil sauce) with a side of chilena (tomato and onion salad) and rice

Pollo al Pil Pil (chicken in a signature spicy pil pil sauce) with a side of chilena (tomato and onion salad) and rice

Basic meat and fish dishes served with rice and potatoes

Basic meat and fish dishes served with rice and potatoes

San Pedro de Atacama

Yes, we ate shrimp in the middle of the desert

When booking all our tours outside of town, a local told us that we should also visit some cool ruins located about 3 km away from town. It was not a short walk in the desert heat but we finally made it to Pukará de Quitor. During the twelfth century, it served as fortress used by the first inhabitants of this area, the Atacameño people, to defend themselves from invaders. It’s situated on top of a hill that overlooks the San Pedro River. The stones used to build it were taken from the riverbank below. You can actually still see the individual homes with their attached silos!

Pukará De Quitor

Walking to Pukará De Quitor, cool desert scapes and a chocolate milk river!

Pukará De Quitor

The path leading up through the ruins

Pukará De Quitor

Former homes of the Atacameño people

Pukará De Quitor

Good view of the site

Pukará De Quitor

Incredible views from the top!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our San Pedro adventure! There’s still more to come!

Bahía Inglesa/Caldera, Chile

We took another bus even further north in Chile to visit a small town called Bahía Inglesa. We stayed in the nearby town of Caldera (it was cheaper) for a couple days so we could get a glimpse of the turquoise waters that Bahía Inglesa is known for. Just a short 7 min drive south of Caldera, it was the first beach we had hung out on since Rio!

The first thing we saw stepping out of the car was the beautiful bright blue waters with lots of different rock formations creating little coves for people to swim in. The sand was very white and there was not a shortage of seashells at all!

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Chile’s version of the Caribbean?

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Pelican poop covered rock

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Lizard sunbathing

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Beautiful day on the beach

Bahía Inglesa seashells

Thousands of awesome seashells!

We pitched our umbrella, read books, practiced our Spanish, and had fun collecting seashells to make “abstract art”. Give us a break, we were bored! The shells were incredible though.

Bahía Inglesa, Chile

Shannon’s creation

Back near our hostel in Caldera, there was not too much going on. It’s a quiet little port town, with a lot of stray dogs. We walked around and were able to snag a few pictures of some pretty old machinery. Maybe something to load or unload boat cargo? In any case, it was very interesting to imagine what it looked like back in its hay day.

Caldera, Chile

Our gang of dogs came with us wherever we went

Caldera, Chile

Huge structures falling apart

Casa Mariela Hostel Caldera

Our hostel, Casa Mariela

Later on that night, we went out to dinner and made a few friends, listened to some live music and danced a little, too!

Caldera, Chile

New friends, they are from Viña del Mar

It was a nice few days, but we had enough of the beach and were definitely ready for some real adventure! On to the most visited destination of northern Chile, San Pedro de Atacama!

Vicuña/Pisco Elqui, Chile

After filling our minds and eyeballs with lots of art and port culture, it was time to escape to a more rural area. Abundant with vineyards and located in the Valle de Elqui, Vicuña seemed like the ideal environment we were looking for.

So, we finally did it – after 50+ days of traveling, we actually missed our bus to Vicuña! Literally sprinting towards the bus terminal (following a couple of different metro lines to make our 1:00 pm bus), much to our dismay the bus had already left. It was only 1:06pm….!

Thank goodness there was another bus going to the next closest city, La Serena, and we were able to catch a ride with them. Interesting enough, our bus actually caught up with our original bus and we were able to hop on and continue directly to Vicuña, phew!!

Our Airbnb host, Carlos, surprised us by picking us up from the bus terminal and taking us to his home a few minutes away. Him and his wife were very accommodating! They owned a small shop in town where they sold children’s clothing but we didn’t know it until we stumbled upon it while walking downtown. They welcomed us out of the hot sun, into their shop and gave us some juice. While hanging out, we showed them our blog and they were excited to read about our adventures.

Jen showing our blog to our hosts

Jen showing our blog to our hosts!

Vicuña is the place of birth to the other Chilean poet and educator, Gabriela Mistral, who, 26 years before Pablo Neruda (one of her students!), also won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the first Spanish-American woman to ever receive this honor.

During our stay, one of the things we did was take a bike tour. This time there was no guide – just us, our bikes, and a map! The map led us through a couple pisqueras (or pisquerias), a Hare Krishna retreat, some small villages, a cervecería, solar kitchens, several vineyards and most of all some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve ever laid our eyes on. The whole trip was a total of about 18k, in the blazing hot sun!

Vicuña bike tour

Vicuña bike tour

Vicuña vineyards

Vicuña vineyards

Hare Krishna retreat called EcoTruly

Hare Krishna retreat called EcoTruly

EcoTruly, Vicuña

EcoTruly

Aba Pisquera, Vicuña

Aba Pisquera

Aba Pisquera, Vicuña

Distillation area

Cerveceria, Vicuña

Cerveceria Guayacan

Pisco vineyards, Vicuña

Pisco vineyards

Vicuña

More beautiful Vicuña scenery

Vicuña donkey

We stopped to say hello to this little guy

The following day, we visited the neighboring town of Pisco Elqui, which is known as the heart of Chilean pisco production. You can’t come here without trying a few pisco sours, yum!! We also walked around the small town and admired some of the street art and quirky restaurants.

Pisco sours, Pisco Elqui

Pisco sours, trying different flavors

Mistral Pisqueria Pisco Elqui

Pisco Mistral

Pisco Elqui

Salad in Pisco Elqui, so good!

Pisco Elqui restaurant

Pisco Elqui restaurant

Pisco Elqui street art

Pisco Elqui street art

Church in Pisco Elqui

Church in Pisco Elqui

Selfie :-)

Selfie 🙂

Vicuña was a great scenic, relaxing place to hang out for a few days and pickle ourselves in pisco. Next up, the coastal town of Caldera!

Valparaíso, Chile ((AND a chance for YOU to WIN!!!))

Take a walk with us through Valparaíso and you could WIN your very own walking tour! Continue reading to find out how…

During our time in Santiago, we heard it was worthwhile to visit a couple of coastal towns just west of where we were staying – Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, where a well-known music festival is held annually. We didn’t actually see the festival because there were plenty of other things to do and see around town.

Valparaíso, the now colorful, artsy, bohemian city of Chile used to be a thriving port town until they opened the Panama Canal in 1950, killing the economy. It also became a place where the famous poet, Pablo Neruda, while overlooking the ocean from his bedroom window, wrote many of his well known poems. For his impact on the literary world, he was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Cerro Florida (Florida Hill) in Valparaíso is where he has one of three homes, La Sebastiana, which is now a museum.

Pablo Neruda House Valparaíso

Pablo Neruda’s House in Valparaíso

Pablo Neruda House Valparaiso

View from Pablo Neruda’s bedroom window

Pablo Neruda

Wall painting near the Pablo Neruda museum

Although we’re typically not super excited about museums, we took a tour of the house since it was listed as one of the top things to do. From the moment we walked in, we were absolutely engrossed – the architecture, colors, collectibles, furniture, artwork, portraits – everything was so unique and full of character. As we listened to the handheld audio device, we wandered from room to room, floor to floor, it felt as though we had traveled back in time and could feel his presence. Unfortunately we were not able to capture any of these images because it was against the rules to take pictures of anything inside the house.

The next item on our agenda was a free walking tour of one of the main sections of Valparaíso. Our group of about 20 followed our guide through the vibrantly painted streets. The variety of street art ranged from simple scribbled graffiti to fully commissioned building-sized murals. Every corner we took, there was another piece waiting to be discovered. To keep their homes from getting “unwelcome decorations”, many homeowners have given some artists permission to create beautiful murals on their walls.

Valparaiso city scape cemetery

More vibrant views, the city’s three cemeteries are in the distance

Street are Valparaiso sidewalk

Art literally spilling into the street

Inti street art mural Valparaiso

Mural spanning several buildings by street artist Inti

Chinchinero hostel Valparaiso Chile

This hostel was named Chinchinero, which is a Chilean street performer

The city is full of small passageways, multicolored staircases and narrow streets. Some have said, it is not a city to be seen, it is a city to discover.

Piano staircase Valparaiso Chile

Piano staircase

Valparaiso street art stairs graffiti

Intricately detailed stair artwork

Street art Valparaiso Chile

This crumbling wall art was so fun to look at!

Valparaiso Chile walking tour

Strolling along the streets of Valparaiso during our walking tour

Chilean flag mural Valparaiso

Chilean flag mural

During the tour, we saw homes that were burned, crumbling and falling apart for different reasons. Because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city of Valparaíso must protect what are called patrimonial homes. These homes are not allowed to be torn down, even if already partially destroyed due to earthquakes, fires, etc. They can only be remodeled or refurbished from the inside. The facade cannot be changed whatsoever! The homes end up staying in these run down states due to the unaffordable expenses it would take to restore them. Interesting!

One of the most noticeable things about this city is that it is mainly made up of hills, 42 to be exact. For many people, climbing up these hills to get to their homes can become tiresome. Many take the peculiar looking elevators, known as funiculars that were built in the late 19th and early 20th century. Some of them, now using electricity instead of a water scales system or steam engine to function, are still used today. We braved a couple of the rickety looking contraptions and enjoyed the beautiful panoramic views they offered.

Valparaiso ascensor funicular Reina Victoria

The first funicular (ascensor) we took was the Reina Victoria

Ascensor Concepción Valparaiso Chile

Ascensor Concepción

Some of the homes had a nautical theme to them and were built to look like ships. They had a triangular shape, like the bow of a ship, and round windows resembling portholes. One home, the most famous one in Valparaíso, is well known for that look and has been nicknamed the “cruise ship house”.

Cruise ship house Valparaiso

The famous cruise ship house

Port of Valparaiso Chile

Port of Valparaiso. Can you see the hidden message?!

We discovered so many little gems while walking the city of Valparaíso and probably didn’t even scratch the surface. It would take months, if not years to see all of it!

The other coastal town we visited just a few metro stops north of Valparaíso was Viña del Mar. Think of it as a bit more of an “upscale” neighborhood with bigger restaurants, hotels and a huge casino!

Beach in Viña del Mar

Beach in Viña del Mar

Reloj clock in Viña del Mar

Famous clock in Viña del Mar

Viña del Mar castle

Castle on the shore in Viña del Mar

Selfie Shannon and Jen

Don’t think we’d get through a whole blog post without a selfie!

We didn’t spend as much time in Viña because we were mainly there to check out the beaches, and of course eat! We ended up having one of the best salads and pizza we had ever tasted. If you’re ever in Viña del Mar, we highly recommend Diego’s Pizza. Below are some pics of our pizza and other food from this stop!

Pizza with avocado, tomato and sweet corn cake

Pizza with avocado, tomato and sweet corn cake

Salad with shrimp, avocado, palm hearts and grated parmesan cheese

Salad with shrimp, avocado, palm hearts and grated parmesan cheese

Tapas Bar del Tio Valparaiso

Tapas at Bar del Tio, Valparaiso

Chicken and avocado sandwich in Chile

Chicken & avo sandwich before visiting Pablo Neruda’s house

Nachos in Valparaiso, Chile

“Nachos” in Chile? Almost!

Sushi Valparaiso

The sushi was pretty good!

Completo hot dog chile

The famous “completo” – a hot dog topped with avo, tomato and mayo. Bomb!

Do you love to discover cities on foot like we did in Valparaíso? If so, submit a comment and let us know about your next travel destination and why you’re heading there – whether it be local or on a whole different continent – and you could win a free self-guided walking tour to a city of your choice, courtesy of GPSmyCity.com. GPSmyCity currently has over 470 cities worldwide available to choose from!

The promo codes work on both iOS and Android devices. The first 20 readers that leave a comment on this post telling us about their upcoming travels will each win a free code. Click below for a list of cities to choose from – some may be closer than you think!

*** Important – remember to include in your comment your upcoming travel destinations and/or a city you’d like to visit using a self guided tour!***

GPSmyCity – List of cities to choose from

Giveaway ends April 6th 

Good luck!

We are not hippies we are happies Valparaiso Chile

We are happies!

Taking it easy in Santiago, Chile

Santiago was a city we had been looking forward to visiting for quite some time. We had planned a visit here – long before we even left home – because we were going to meet and stay with the family of one of my favorite patients, Isabel!

Isabel and I talked and planned for many weeks before Jen and I left for our trip. We were all very excited for us to be able to meet her sister, Carmen and Carmen’s husband, Andi. At last, all of our schedules aligned and we were all set to meet Isabel’s family. Andi was kind enough to pick us up from the airport in Santiago. We had a grand welcome waiting for us – see the pics below!

Paparazzi meeting us at the Santiago Airport

Paparazzi meeting us at the Santiago Airport

Ok, so the photogs weren’t for us. But we did ask one of the camera guys what the hubbub was all about and it turns out they were waiting for a famous Spanish singer named Ana Torroja. She was in town for the huge annual music festival in Viña Del Mar, a beautiful coastal town west of Santiago. We actually brushed shoulders with her as we were heading back into the airport to make a phone call to Andi because we couldn’t find him!

Once we found Andi, we headed home (but not without first stopping at a panadería to pick up the first of the many loaves of delicious marraqueta bread we would be eating over the next few days!) When we arrived, Carmen greeted us at the door. They offered us a room in their small home in Puente Alto – but as they say in Chile, the homes are small but the hearts are big!

Over the next few days, we shared many meals with Carmen and Andi and we also had the pleasure of spending time with Isabel’s brother, Carlos and his wife Lorena and their two children Paula and Mattias. Andi made sure we were well fed every morning and made fresh coffee for us which is very hard to find in Chile.

We visited the tallest building in all of Latin America, the Gran Torre Santiago, with Carmen and Carlos. We were able to see all of Santiago from there and learn about some important points of interest and history of the city.

Gran Torre Santiago

Gran Torre Santiago

Jen, Carmen, Carlos and I

Jen, Carmen, Carlos and I

View from the top

View from the top

A different view

A different view

Both Carmen and Lorena were amazing cooks – we were so lucky to have tried some home made Chilean dishes like parilla (barbecued meats), choripan (sausage wrapped in bread), chilena (a mix of tomatoes, onions, olive oil and a bunch of spices), and our new favorite drink, pisco sours. Lorena made some of the best pisco sours we have had in Chile up to this point, adding fresh mint leaves to really enhance the flavor.

Pisco sours with fresh mint

Pisco sours with fresh mint

Carlos making some choripan

Carlos making some choripan

Parrilla

Parrilla

More parrilla!

More parrilla!

The whole family (minus Jen!)

The whole family (minus Jen!)

Spending time in Santiago with the family was just what we needed to recharge our travel batteries. We relaxed, ate, saw a movie, did laundry and took the metro to several places (which most of the time came with live entertainment!)

This metro singer sounded just like Elvis!!

This metro singer sounded just like Elvis!!

It was very low key and that was alright with us after all the traveling we had been doing. We absolutely loved our time with Isabel’s family and we someday hope to return to see them again!

Honorable mentions: Laleona and Martín, our sweet home away from home kitties that belong to Carlos and Lorena.

Snuggle time

Snuggle time