Chile: Northwards to San Pedro de Atacama
The journey from Valdivia to Santiago would be approximately 800km, but we chose to stop a little under 200 km before Santiago. Once again, we were worried about finding a hotel in the early evening, so we phoned a couple of hotels the previous night to check availability. The first was in the Santa Helena winery, but was fully booked already, so we called the Hacienda los Lingues who had vacancies so we made a reservation.
The drive from Valdivia was completely uneventful, however it was the first and last time that it rained on our trip! The journey probably took around 8 hours including a couple of quick stops for fuel and food etc.
Reception at Hacienda los Lingues
We arrived at the Hacienda and checked in. It looked beautiful and lovely place to stay and there were a lot of cars in the car park. After being shown to our room and ordering dinner (we had to pre-order), we went on an exploratory walk around the grounds and discovered that the vehicles belonged to a film crew shooting a pilot/preview for Chile’s next novella (soap opera). Perhaps we met Chile’s most famous actors, but didn’t know… We then met the manager and one of the owners of the farm. It is owned by the original family who still live there and run the hotel.
The unkempt vegetable garden at Hacienda los Lingues
After seeing more, we realised that the hotel wasn’t quite as nice as first appearances and various parts were a little neglected. The price was very for a luxury hotel, but the service didn’t really come up to this level. The dinner was ok, but my order was different from the menu. All in all, not a place I would recommend and the price they were charging.
Our room in Hacienda los Lingues
The next day we had to get to Santiago before midday to return the hire car and check-in for our flight to Calama (the nearest airport to San Pedro de Atacama and the city that supports Chile’s largest and one of the the world’s largest copper mines – Chuquicamata). We had pre-booked flights on Sky airlines, Chile’s second biggest airline after Lan Chile. The prices of Sky were much much cheaper than Lan. The only problem with them was that don’t except foreign credit cards on their website, so booking involved phone calls and emails. It all worked out well and I’d thoroughly recommend that others consider making the effort to do this.
The flight to Calama was about two and a half ours with one stop (different cities in each direction). Once again, this was uneventful and we were met by someone that was going to provide the 75 minute transfer from Calama to San Pedro. We had pre-booked this transfer, but I don’t think it was necessary with hindsight.
A typical shot of terrain around San Pedro de Atacama
The journey was through the desert on a good road. You leave Calama and go over a mountain range which takes you to height of around 3,400 metres before dropping down into the valley between these mountains and the Andes. San Pedro is at the foot of the Andes on the far side of the valley across the salt lake (more next post). It is a town based around a natural oasis whose water source is in the Andes mountains.
20 January, 2010 | Written by Steve | Comments: Add comment