e driest desert in the world. There really isn't much to the town beyond the pretty main square and old, adobe church. The town seems to live for tourism – people drawn to explore the desert or the bolivian salt flats which we'd just arrived from. Virtually all the restaurants in town catered to tourists, and the prices for everything – from lodging, to food, to services, were greatly inflated. Talk about sticker shock! We went several months in peru and bolivia, two of the most affordable countries in south america, to one of most expensive towns in the most expensive country in south america. A night's stay jumped 
from $10 for a nice room with private bath, to $40 for a dumpy cubicle with shared bath. Ouch! There was little to keep us in San Pedro, but that night we did have a festive farewell dinner with the gang from the salar tour, as well as friendly and fun Ilse from belgium who we'd met along the way. The next day we bought tickets to santiago, a frightening 23-hour bus ride away. While waiting for the afternoon bus, we were lucky enough to find one of the only affordable dining spots in town, a little BBQ shack near the football (soccer) field, where we had huge helpings of delicious grilled chicken for about $3 – the perfect send off before our longest bus ride yet.
To see our photos...
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| San Pedro de Atacama, Chile |
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