This segment is San Pedro de Atacama 2 or the Calama Calamity or the 72 hour journey, no wait, 96 hour journey. After driving from the Salar back to Uyuni we took a quick lunch which was something green with noodles that tasted like hamburger helper. It was pretty good although disturbing to look at. From lunch we went to Bolivian immigration and received our visas (Yay, we are no longer illegal) walked around for a bit and then jumped in a Land Cruiser with our ...

The trip to the Salar de Uyuni was absolutely amazing. This is one of the most remote places I have ever ventured to and nothing gave us more of a clue of that fact than entering Bolivia. In San Pedro we boarded a bus headed for the Bolivian border and were traveling on a very nice highway when all of sudden the bus turned onto a dirt road full of stones and potholes in the shadow of a snowy volcano. We meandered through the desert for a bit until we came to a bl...

San Pedro is located in the Atacama desert, which is the driest place on earth. So dry that when we saw it rain the locals were taking pictures because it was the first time it had rained in San Pedro in five years. The town is a little oasis of one-story adobe walled buildings hiding beautiful courtyards filled with low shade trees and hammocks. Our hostel had one really nice hammock under a shade tree with spiraled seed pods. The city market is covered in a...

Traveling to Arica gave us our first border crossing opportunity, which was an adventure in itself. Our guidebooks said that the quickest and cheapest way to cross the border from Tacna, Peru would be to take a taxi into Chile from the bus station. So, when we got off our bus early in the morning, that is exactly what we did. The three of us, a British girl named Chanade, and a Chilean guy joined forces and haggled with the cab drivers for the best price. We obta...

We arrived in Arequipa at dawn in the rain. This colonial desert metropolis is at the base of the snow-capped volcanoes Misti and Chachani. Here we found fountain plazas with huge palms and bougainvillea, colorful intimate streets, very friendly people, perfectly preserved mummies, and spicy food. And it is a photographer's paradise, a very beautiful place. We were all sad that we had such a short time to visit. From the bus station we traveled into the city c...