Monday 23rd December 2013
Christmas in the desert
We decided before our trip through Uyuni that we wanted to be in Chile by Christmas. We had been at altitude for so long on and off doing lots of things which were challenging in different ways. Originally we had planned to see the jungle in Bolivia but this time of year would be wet season which would mean more heat, more humidity and more mosquitoes – after all the recent challenges we weren’t quite ready for another. A trip to the jungle in Bolivia would also mean staying in the country over Christmas and New Year. There would always be another chance to do it in Brazil before returning to London and failing that we would definitely be back in Brazil in the future.
We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama in the afternoon the day before Christmas Eve. After resting for most of the day, we headed out for dinner at a restaurant called Adobe that our Footprint guide book claimed was “Greenwich Village/Islington in the Atacama” :). After 3 days in a bumpy 4×4 it sounded like just what we needed. We ate dinner at a table in the courtyard which had an open fire in the middle. Sure enough the food was the kind we would find at home, and so were the prices. Actually everything was expensive here compared to the countries we had travelled in so far.
We planned to spend Christmas here and get an overnight bus to La Serena on Christmas Day, yes Christmas Day. It was going to be the biggest departure from the standard Christmas Day I had ever had. Till now Christmas Day had always been spent at home with family, eating a roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings, pulling Christmas crackers, drinking, playing connect 4, jenga and such.
Christmas day here passed like a murmur. I guess Christmas isn’t such a big event in Chile. There was a Christmas tree in the main square and model nativity scene. People would respond with “Feliz Navidad” if you said it but otherwise not. The streets were not deserted as they are at home, but then I guess this is a town which exists entirely for tourism so one might expect them not to be. We went for a wander, ate ice cream under the blazing sun in a town overlooked by volcanoes with the desert all around.
Ramblers Rumblings 