I was in Santiago both after my Antarctica and Easter Island trips. At the end of my last visit, I took a 2 hr flight to Calama then a bus to San Pedro De Atacama:

SANTIAGO: On return from Antarctica, I had great few days here meeting friends I made in Patagonia and had the unexpected chance to hangout with my running hero, Richard Donovan, as he was also in town. Richard is the founder of the Antarctic Ice Marathon and has incredible stories like being the first person to successfully run to the South Pole. I would like to write about him at some point but I can say that he’s an extremely impressive but equally modest person. I’ve respected and liked him even more than I already did.

The very first day in Santiago was one of my ‘fancy hotel’ days so, I stayed at the Singular then, at super budget Hostel Forestal. The transition from luxury to basic was seemles and I was, again, reminded how little one needs for comfort and fun.

The second Santiago stay, after Easter Island was unplanned. I had in fact planned to be in Valparaiso but didn’t realise that my trip coincided with ‘la Inmaculada Concepción’ (the Feast of Immaculate Conception) which is a big religious celebration and a public holiday. On this day Chilieans make their way to from Santiago to Lo Vasquez Sanctuary, on Route 68, which is on way to Valparaiso. So, busses etc. are full and it’s rather chaotic. I opted for two more days in Santiago.

Did some nice walks and short runs around the town, especially on San Cristóbal Hill, which is a big hill right in the centre of town from where you can have 360 view of Santiago. It’s a heaven for active visitors of the city as it has a nice, challenging ride/run/walk up (depending on your preference). I chose to run and walk.

Among the places I discovered, Matilde, is a great roof top restaurant. On my last day in Santiago, I wanted to join a cross-fit class but the public holiday meant that everything was closed. Instead, I decided to run up the San Cristóbal Hill but because of pilgrims that way was also closed. I could only walk up to the Zoo level from where I saw this really cool looking rooftop bar/restaurant. Fitness plans out of the window, I quickly settled for the next best thing: A great dinner and two glasses of nice Chilean wine. The dinner was a large salad plate which even contained kale, a rare find in S.A. countries I’ve been so far!

Some pictures from Matilde and the view from the top of the hill are here.

Streets of Santiago also contain great grafiti art. I’ve added some of my favorites.

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA: I spent 3 days here and not sure if I liked it. The nature surrounding the town is fascinating. However, the town itself is an overcrowded tourist stopover, numerous companies compete to sell excursions to surrounding spots. Despite this competition, the price is very high, in fact I am told that the main street here was the third most expensive in Chile (I’m guessing Puerto Natales and Easter Island are among these but not sure if they are no 1 & 2. ).

Even when you’re willing to pay for the tours, you are stuck with guides with very little knowledge and are mostly encouraged to do just small walks around view points and take pictures. So, if you’re adventourous or prefer to keep active, some of these excursions will bore you! That said, I saw beautiful places like the Moon Valley and the El Tatio Geysers. If I had more time, I would certainly cycle to the Moon Valley instead of a tour. Here are some pictures from both trips.

The Moon Valley where we also watched the sunset.

El Tatio Geysers

Of the three excursions I did, my only favourite was the Stargazing which involves a crush course on stars, galaxies etc. followed by a late night sky viewing with varios telescopes and bare eyes. I even saw my first ever shooting star!

The most enjoyable thing I did was a run from the town to the nearby Devil’s Throat in the Atacama Desert. I waited for the heat to calm down then ran from the town centre there and back. It was about 10 k but you can certainly run longer if you leave earlier! It was a total contrast to my Antarctica run which I did just couple of weeks prior. Antarctica race was at -25/30 C but the Atacama desert run was at +25/30 at 2,500 m altitute. Despite this extreme contrast, one common thing was that I needed a face mask for both runs!

Two other things that made the trip enjoyable were the great yoga classes and smoothies I could find at the nearby Kimal Spa.

In the end, I left San Pedro de Atacama with a mix feeling. I think that I would still recommend the place but would urge you to try and plan to explore the area as independently as possible. In any case, this is a must-have stop if you are starting from Chile and would like to visit Uyuni which is exactly what I did. I will write about my Uyuni experience very shortly.