We make it to Atacama!

It feels like a milestone - we finally make it to Atacama on 3/7/22 after 2 years and lots of itinerary changes and Chris’ hard work.

We start before the sun came up waking up at 4am for our flight to Calama Airport. We spend some time in the airport having some McDonald’s coffee. The boarding was a mad crush again, so much for priority in economy plus. We did, however, get nice breakfast sandwiches and coffee that wasn’t bad during the 90 minute flight to Calama.

We saw the sunrise from the plane and were able to see the desert floor that had very interesting patterns. The mountains were very old.

Next miracle - we were actually met at the airplane and were transported to the town of San Pedro de Atacama, about 90 miles away and where our Explora awaited.

The roads were paved and the environment looked a lot like Saudi Arabia - a lot of empty and trash strewn everywhere along the roadside. The little town of San Pedro was an uninspiring cross between Indian and Spanish architecture with daub walls and brown one story houses. The area was very similar to the approach to the Explora in Sacred Valley.

The hotel itself is “Eco lodgie” and also uninspiring, with a “horsey” theme as the main drive takes you by the horse stables. It reminds me of where Alex and I stayed when we were in Brazil visiting friends. They converted their stables into guest rooms. While waiting for our activity we looked at the 5 swimming pools, and, although my first impression wasn’t really high, the rooms and food are great. Dinner is quite late - 8pm, but more on that later.

Our room looks out on a field with blue flowers and a huge active volcano!