Jaza's World Trip

Annoyances of San Pedro de Atacama

I only have three serious gripes with this small, mostly charming little town in the middle of Chile's northern Atacama desert, and they are the following:

  1. The Internet is really, really slow here — slower than anywhere in Bolivia (and that's saying something)
  2. The prices are ridiculously high, even for Chile (e.g. some places are charging as much as USD$10 per person for dinner — waaay more than what I've gotten used to lately)
  3. Despite being significantly lower down than the Bolivian altiplano (a mere 2400m asl), it's still freezing cold here at night

Other than that, San Pedro really is quite a beautiful place. It really is a tiny town: not much here, except for a gaggle of tourists, and the various businesses that serve us (e.g. hostels, tour agencies, restaurants, bus stations). But it's very clean, very laid-back, and very quaint. Also has quite a strong "frontier" feel to it; and rightly so, since it is the main tourist gateway from Chile to Bolivia, and vice versa.