No Fixed Plans

Prior to getting to the boarder, we had all been pre warned that there was to be no talking out of turn, hats to be worn, or any sign that we weren’t taking things seriously as the Chile boarder tends to be the strictest in all of South America. 

Upon exiting Bolivia (the easiest in the whole trip), we had to wait for a Chilean guide to meet us to help us get through the Chile boarder, which went smoothly once we could actually start the process. 

All up, the crossing took 2 hours and 45 minutes, coming in second for the longest boarder crossing (but still an hour off first). 

We had the Chilean guide until our hotel, who was telling us about the best shop for empanadas (which happened to be 60m from our hotel) and then left us at the door. 

Our ceo got us checked in and then gave us about 10 minutes to put our stuff in our rooms and meet her for the orientation walk. 

She pointed out the street to exchange cash and showed us to the atm and gave us all an opportunity to take our money as our next stop was to pay for our optional activities. 

Everyone in the group had to pay them for the stargazing we were doing that night and a few of them chose to opt in for the valley of moon visit. 

We all then separated to shower and have dinner before the stargazing. 

The activity started at 10pm that night, ending at midnight, however we happened to be there a bad night as the activity was almost cancelled due to all the clouds in the sky. When we got to there, we could point out about 4 stars in the gaps. However, the provider was still able to make it an enjoyable activity and provide lots of information. By the end of the night, the clouds had almost completely gone and we could use the telescopes properly. 

The next day we were all choosing our own thing to do. 

San Pedro’s mainly just three streets so I had gone to the empanada shop to eat breakfast, walked around the streets for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel to relax the rest of the day. 

I saw the group doing the valley of the moon tour before they left, spoke to them for a bit and then once they left, went back to the empanada shop to get a snickers cheesecake that was recommended on google and headed back to the hotel continue updating my notes (the cheesecake tasted exactly like a Reese’s). 

We had a meeting that night to talk about activities in Argentina and then 9 of us went together to exchange cash and go to dinner. 

We all then went back to the hotel to get ready for our bus the next day