San Pedro is a lovely little oasis in one of the driest places on earth. I was once told that it is amongst the best places in the world to view the night sky because there is cloud cover only 30 days of the year. San Pedro is at 2500m above sea level and so was an ideal place to rest for a few days, aclimatise before we take the magnificent 3 day 4WD crossing into Bolivia - during which time you'll reach altitudes of close to 5000m!!! We stayed in a lovely hostel - an error in our favour saw us upgraded the first night which was nice - if only the hostel had hot water!!! We amused ourselves in town, buying colourful socks, hats and coca leaves - the circus was in town but we decided not to go. When I saw broccoli at a fruit & veg stall I went a little bonkers (according to Bernard) - I bought the lot and told Bernard we're having veggie pasta for dinner!!!
We bought our 4WD off Roco - the slightly charming but dodgy Chilean (Bernard prefers to describe him as pushy) who lied to everyone about many aspects of the trip - but delivered in terms of quality cars, drivers and value for money. And so, early the next morning we set off with our new English and Israeli friends into the Bolivian wilderness. This was my favourite adventure from my previous trip - and so was eager that Bernard should enjoy it. However, its a little bit harder on the body going from Chile into Bolivia because you climb 2000m to reach the border crossing into Bolivia and you stay at that altitude for the next two days. We crossed gorgeous lagoons, geysers, thermal pools, volcanos and rock formations and the endangered vacunas (smallest of the llama family). Bernard had a pretty tough first day/night adjusting to the altitude whereas I had a pretty hard second day. But we both enjoyed the trip and arrived safe and sound in Uyuni.
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