How should you dress if you visit San Pedro de Atacama in winter? I haven’t found the right answer to that question but I can give you an advice or two.
San Pedro de Atacama is a town in the middle of a high altitude desert and as such produces temperature extremes between night and day. No, that is not true. The contrasts are also very apparent if you sit in the shadow or if you sit in the sun during daytime. As I am writing this I am in the shadow and I have my tuque on. If I sit in the sun I will be forced to remove my tuque and I will probably have to remove a layer or two as well.
Visiting any of the attractions close to San Pedro is a headache to organize. Let’s take the Tatio Geysers at 4200 meters above sea level. The tour leaves San Pedro at 4:30 AM to reach the geysers before sunset. At that time the temperature is a freezing -15 with wind chill factor probably clipping another 10 degrees. Once the sun rises around 7:30 AM the temperature gets closer to zero. In the afternoon during the walk in the canyon, the temperature is a solid 15 degrees with high risk of sun burns for those not adequately protected (after all San Pedro is located within the tropics). Too cold, too hot but never perfect.
Ania and I took the habit of putting on 4-5 layers of clothing and then gradually removing them as the sun rises above the sky. It is cumbersome to carry around that much clothing but we haven’t found a better way.
Of course these sudden changes of temperature raise the possibility of catching a cold. Well, for me it is no longer a possibility; it is reality. Back to bed for now…
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