Crossing the border at 4320m!

Our trip to San Pedro begun with a 10 hour bus from Salta, in which we had to stop at the border to get the appropriate stamps from both Argentinean and Chilean officials. 

The border crossing was located at Paso de Jama, at an altitude of 4320 metres. This was the highest we had gone BY FAR on our entire trip thus far. We were expecting to feel really crappy as we had heard bad, bad things about altitude sickness, especially when ascending quickly, however we all felt fine, besides some slight initial dizziness and tingling in our fingertips we were all good!

The location of this crossing was awesome, and far different to some of the dodgy and dismal border crossings we’ve done in the past. Sean even skated between Argentina and Chile.

Upon arrival in San Pedro de Atacama it was almost 40 degrees. All of us carrying our bags and wearing long pants for warmth in the bus were sweltering and could not wait to find our hostel. After wandering around for a little bit we finally found it, and put down our bags. It felt fantastic.

That arvo we booked 2 tours for the next day, Tatio Geysers for the morning and Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) for the afternoon/evening. We also had a walk around the small town, a super early dinner and attempted to go to bed early (very difficult in a hostel).