San Pedro de Atacama is a tiny, sleepy little town, full of chilling out hippies and tons of tourists (and lots of little cafes and cute restaurants). The pace here is definetely relaxed - even the dogs all take a nice siesta in the afternoon. San Pedro is probably the most touristy place in northern chile with some beautiful arid desert scenery. The area is also surrounded by volcanoes (I think there were approximately 15 in the area) so there are lots of opportunities for steaming geysers, volcano climbing and weird rock formations.

Although we were in South America during their winter, the weather overall is pretty much the same all year round - very hot during the day and very cold during the night. The stars at night are amazing as there is so little light pollution. There is also not much water in the city and apparently right after we left, water was to be shut down completely in the city in attempts to conserve water that is so scarce in San Pedro.

A great place to relax and slow down ...