Hostal Florida, San Pedro de Atacama

Fairly basic joint in sleepy and touristy San Pedro: has about the same offerings as most other hostels in town, and is also about as overpriced as its peers (even the Israelis can't find a good deal in this rip-off town, much to their annoyance). Hasn't got proper dorms — only rooms of 2 or 3 beds — so it's better if you go in a group. The owners are also really anal about paying in advance for each night (apparently, it's a Chile / Argentina thing — I don't care if it's a legal requirement, it's a gawdamn pain in the a$$), and about not being able to leave your bags in a storage room or to use any facilities for the rest of the day, if you check out in the morning (i.e. they force you to pay for another night, if you're going to just be in town until the evening — how cheap-a$$ is that?). But good nonetheless.

Rooms: quiet and lockable, but cold at night.

People: nice, slightly rugged bunch — though most don't hang around very long.

Staff: quite friendly; although as I said, annoyingly anal about certain things.

Location: in town. And "town" is very small; so if you're in it, you're in the middle of it :P.

Food / Internet: no free breakfast, but a good public kitchen is available (with a fridge — another thing I haven't seen for a month!). 1 PC for free Internet: but it's quite slow, and always occupied.

Hot water: unreliable; we discovered that the girls' showers are closer to the boiler than the guys', so if there are girls showering, then guys get stone-cold water.