Drive to San Pedro de Atacama

A nice quiet cool night at the hand of the desert. We got up and took some more photos by the hand with the RV and the kids played outside. We did not have cell signal or starlink for the first time on the trip and it felt a little naked. I decided to head back to Antofagasta and figure things out.

We parked at the same mall and got online and within a minute of sending a troubleshooting ticket starlink send a message that they were sending a replacement to me. The problem was that I was not at my service address, which was in Cartagena because I needed an address i South America for my regional plan. I sent off another ticket requesting cancellation of the order and requested picking one up at an authorized retailer but there was no reply. I looked online and saw there were stores where I could buy starlink in town so we went to the biggest mall in town which was on the water and we split up so I could find starlink. I went to three stores and finally found it. It was $350 for the gen 3 version, or v4, depending on who you talk to. This was $599 less than a year ago in the US.

The kids went and played at a trampoline area for 20 minutes and then had lunch at Burger King while I set up starlink which was easy, just replacing the router. 

The kids finished lunch and we hopped back in the RV and headed off. It was 3 pm. Fortunately San Pedro de Atacama was only four hours away.

We backtracked north and headed inland and slowly climbed. The drive was nice and easy and we could see storms in the distance with lightning. We drove through some brief showers as we crested a ridge and descended into the Atacama desert.

We saw some wild vicuna by the road. We stopped to take photos overlooking the valley of the moon. There were quite a few tourists there doing the same.

We headed down into the valley and drove some dirt roads to our campground which is outside San Pedro de Atacama.

The roads had puddles evidence of recent showers. I asked the manager later and she said it had rained the last three days which was not uncommon. San Pedro de Atacama averages 23 days of rainfall a year.

The campground had a large puddle that we did not want to drive through so we parked at the first camp spot. The pool was half full and murky but would have been nice in the heat and if the water was not murky. There were two other camping groups, one was a German defender with a pop top roof. I never saw the owner. The other was a suv with camping trailer. They were a Swiss-Chilean family visiting for a week from Switzerland traveling with their cousins' family from Chile. There were five kids there and our kids played with them. The youngest was a six year old, Madeline, who spoke English very well, surprisingly. 

The camp wasn't the best. The rain appeared to have caused some mud to flood into the bathrooms and shower. But it was good to see other travellers.

I did some repairs on the RV. The straps limiting the rear door had torn in the wind yesterday at the hand of the desert and I replaced them and one screw to a window shade had come out that I screwed back in.

We had some Argentinian sausages and rice with kale for dinner. The Swiss family invited us over for an asado but it was getting late and we never went over. It was already 10 pm. The kids came back and we got ready for bed.