Santiago to Calama

13 October, 2024 from the Itinerary: drag yourself to the airport in time for your 7am flight on LATAM LA148.

You will be met by an Explora representative and driven to the town of San Pedro de Atacama and the hotel.

Weather: sunny and cool

We were up before the birds at 4:30am to make our 7am flight. The terminal was literally a 5 minute walk, so we were there in plenty of time. As of September of 2024 they have re-structured the domestic terminal and also include flights to Easter Island on the domestic side. We got a bit lost, but had plenty of time for a glass in the lounge

We were business class on the short 1 hour 50 minute flight to Calama and they fed us an awful vege sandwich, which I didn’t eat, with some vegetable chips and some terrible coffee with the powdered cream.

The Calama Airport is small and we were met by Explora and led to our private 4WD transport to the hotel.

We had a bit of a hitch in that we couldn’t seem to get out of the parking lot. Neither of the ticket machines were working and we were stuck for about 15 minutes….

The airport is in the middle of nowhere

The trip to the hotel takes about 90 minutes, during which we crossed a mountain saddle which took us over 11,000 feet.

We saw some guanaco along the way

and the salt formations.

The town of San Pedro de Atacama hadn’t changed much in the 2 years since we were last here, but were told that it has grown.

The hotel looked much the same as it did in 2022, but they took away the front desk and now you use WhatsApp if you need anything.

We were very nostalgic thinking of where we met Lisa and Rob who are now best of friends and travel buddies. Here’s the bar where we met, Rob with us in the hot springs and a photo of the 4 of us from 2022.

A short explanation of this trip. We wouldn’t ordinarily have come back to Atacama, but we are doing a “Travesia Atacama.Uyuni.” This is an exclusive trip from lodge to lodge from the Atacama Desert in Chile to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. This will take 10 days and we must start in Atacama. We will stay in the Explora lodges in Atacama, Chile and then have private 4x4 transport with a driver and Explora guide across the Bolivia border to stay at the Explora mountain lodges in Ramaditas and Chiricahua before staying at the Explora lodge in Uyuni. All of our explorations (daily hikes/experiences) in each of the lodges will be private.

We were upgraded to a suite because we are now top tier Explora customers. The room included a sitting room and whirlpool bath (and bidet).

We were also spared the welcome briefing since we were here before. We met Philippe, one of the guides, before lunch and we agreed on our exploration for the afternoon, more on that later.

We had a champagne and a bar salad to hold us over to lunch which wasn’t for another hour. Lunch was a buffet.

We had a rest before our exploration which didn’t start until 4:30pm. This was to Valley de la Merte (known as both Mars Valley and Death Valley). This area has been closed until this year. It was close by and a short hike to help acclimatize to the higher altitude. The middle picture was the actual drive to the trailhead and the right is the 2.44 mile hike.

We met our guide for the 3 nights we stay in Atacama, his name is Adrien. He is 33, unmarried (also no children) and comes from a small village in the middle part of Chile. He spent 2.5 years as a guide on Easter Island Explora and, we believe, is a new guide to Atacama (more on that later). Our driver is Mauricio whose English isn’t so good, so no details on him.

This was a really enjoyable short hike. There was one rather short, steep uphill on a VERY sandy slope. I was breathing so hard I think both Adrian and Chris were ready to call the paramedics. I told them it was entirely normal and I felt fine….

The views were amazing - lots of sand and a nice overview of the area and town.

The best part was the return. The only way down was sliding down on the sand dune - about 200 feet down- and it was very steep. I fell at one point, but you didn’t care because the sand was soft. SO FUN. It reminded me a bit of the fat tire bicycling in S. Africa, but this was so steep there’s no way I would do it on any kind of vehicle.

The moon was waxing and made for a nice picture as the sun set.

Dinner was all from local ingredients and I include the menu. We started with Pisco sours, then on to soup and the comfort food options. We shared the rose ice cream for dessert.

What an enjoyable start to our stay in Atacama.