HERE IS THE SUMMARY OF MY BICYCLE & BUS TRAVEL IN CHILE
From Santiago (Chile) to San Martín de los Andes (Argentina) & from San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) to Tacna (Peru)
I LIKED
- Free Walking Tours of Santiago & Valparaíso
- Pucón & Villarrica volcano climbing
- San Pedro de Atacama ("Valle de la Luna", SPACE: San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations, "Laguna Cejar", Sandboarding in "Valle de la Muerte")
- Food: Alfajores, Chaparritas, Empanadas, ...
From Salta I took a bus with Sami (the Australian girl) to go to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile (600 km/10h30).
It's really strange when you arrive in San Pedro de Atacama.
It looks like a ghost town.
But when you arrive in the main street it's really lively.
In my accomodation I met again Paul and Pierre.
In fact they told me before where they was.
The first two days it was impossible to do something outside because there was a sandstorm.
The third day Pierre left us to go to Uyuni in Bolivia.
Paul and I rented bicycles to go to "Valle de la Luna" in the Atacama desert where you can observe various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water.
In the evening we booked a tour with SPACE (San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations) to observe the sky with different telescopes.
The next day we went to "Laguna Cejar" in the Salar de Atacama also called the floating lagoon because the salt concentration is important.
The scenery is really beautiful. There are many pink flamingos along the lagoon.
At the end we took a bath but it was really cold.
Finaly the last day we went with few people of our accomodation to "Valle de la Muerte" in order to practise sandboarding in the sand dunes. It was really fun.
After Santiago I went to Pucón located in the Province of Cautín - Araucanía Region (780km south of Santiago).
I stayed in a nice accommodation called "Nativa Hostel" which looks like a mountain chalet.
It was freezing inside but the atmosphere was warmhearted.
The main attractions of Pucón at this time of the year are the volcano and the hot springs.
The weather was good so I decided to book a tour to climb on the top of Villarrica volcano (2847m).
Villarrica also known as Rucapillán (in Mapuche language) is one of Chile's most active volcanoes.
I was part of a group of 8 people (1 korean, 2 spanish, 2 finnish, 1 portuguese and 1 argentinian).
We wereaccompanied by2 guides.
It took a long time to reach the top (5h39) but along the path and from the summit the scenery was amazing.
It was more faster and funny to go down because we used plastic sled to slide on the slope of the volcano.
