Atacama Desert Self-Drive Adventure

Planning on doing an Atacama self drive holiday? Unless you want disappointment and frustration to be the keyword for your holiday. this is the blog you need to read. We hired a car in Calama early on day 1 and took our time driving to San Pedro. We and had 3 nights and 3 and half days in the area. We could have spent more time if we opted to do a few of the surrounding walks. Just as an aside if you are over 60 there are many discounts to be had. Valley de la Luna. Ignore what the tour operators tell you. They will say that the park is closed or that you can only visit in the morning. Recommendation would be to drive out at around about 3 pm (last entrance is 4 ). Park at the entrance buy your tickets from the machine and a nice man will give you a map and familiarise you with the points of interest. Spend one and a half to 2 hours at the Valley and then leave the park before it closes at 5:45 pm and drive around to the coyote lookout for sunset. Actually the paid spot is not necessarily the best view. There are many views around the same area that provide similar sunsets vistas. We arrived in San Pedro around 12, found accomm and spent some time wandering through town. San Pedro South Laguna Chaxa/ Socaire/Laguna Miscanti y Monquies/Red Rocks/Salar de Aguas Calientes. Laguna Chaxa is fairly straightforward and you can buy a ticket at the entrance. From Laguna Chaxa you can head to the town of Socaire. It is here that you can buy a ticket for Laguna Miscanti and the Red Rocks. That little ticket office (if you can call it that) closes at 2 pm. The alternative is to buy tickets online which is what we would recommend. We didn't actually make it to Laguna Miscanti (because it was after 2 pm and there was no Internet to buy a ticket) however I would like to have seen this from what I read). We drove onto red rocks/Salar de Aguas calientes and we were greeted by a stunning vista of red rocks, salt plains and lakes with a mountain back drop. The best vantage point is the first view as you come down the hill and there is a viewing point where you can stop. Frankly, we were glad we didn't bother to buy ticket to the Red Rocks but the drive was definitely worth it. San Pedro North El Tatio Geysers I know everyone says to be there by sunrise, but there are a lot of good reasons to have a sleep in and leave San Pedro at about 6 am. If you leave at this time, you have no traffic on the way up, it's a really rough road so you will be driving in daylight, and you get to the Geysers just as the crowd is leaving, which means you have the place to yourself. And the experience was just as good. No need to pre-book, pay as you enter. We spent about an hour and a half at the Geysers. The pool to swim was closed. Another advantage of going later is that you then head back down to San Pedro without any traffic and you can stop at multiple places along the way to experience the view. Puritama Hot Springs On the way back from the Geysers you could stop at the Puritama hot Springs. We actually didn't do this on the way back because we wouldn't really have had enough time to enjoy the experience but drove back later in the afternoon (aim to leave town at 2.30 so you are at the pools by 3.30). There are two times available, am and pm, check the website and bookings should be made in advance and take your own towel. This was an amazing experience and I would say a must do. The springs are set in the Guatín Gorge, surrounded by pampas grass and there are eight different pools in which to laze about or be massaged by the waterfalls. Laguna Cejar The Laguna is only open to DIYers from 9-12 and although it says you can pay cash, when we got to the ticket office they said we should have paid online..arhhh! However they then produced a credit card machine so all was good. We got to the Laguna at about 8.45 and had the huge salt pool all to ourselves. (You are actually only allowed 30mins in the pool). The pool is not all that warm and the showers afterwards are really cold so each to their own but we opted to shower when we got home. If you are pressed for time you could do this in combination with others sites south of San Pedro but it would be a high day. We did it on the last day and had plenty of time to pack, have lunch and drive back to Calama in time for a 3pm flight. Enjoy and stay calm.😃 Roz Doyle Australia