A short travel vlog by Nate Buchanan (with Kara) documenting their journey from San Pedro de Atacama to Antofagasta, Chile. They narrate bus travel logistics (about a five-hour ride), a problematic taxi/currency-exchange episode after arrival (confusion over meter and poor exchange rates), and eventually reaching a Holiday Inn Express booked using IHG points (5,000 points/night for four nights). The vlog closes with food, recovery, and a promotional 30k giveaway mention.
Questions this video answers
About 10:00 AM.
About five hours.
500 pesos per US$1.
About 650 pesos per US$1.
About US$15.
Chapters
Big taxi just for us.
It is about 10am and we are leaving. Where are we?
San Pedro de Atacama.
But we're not leaving Chile.
We are jumping on a bus and heading five hours west to a coastal town called Antofagasta.
Going to the beach.
We also took a taxi from our place this morning instead of walking because it was less than $5 to not trick our bags. Like 30 minutes across town on dirt roads.
Worth it. Go make sure that's not our bus.
Yeah, we should do that. I did pay a couple extra dollars and book the nice seats on the bus. So I'm kind of excited about this bus ride.
Hope that's not our bus.
This is Santiago. 900 bus is Antoasta.
What is that bus line?
Let's go talk to somebody.
So as we showed up at the bus terminal, there was a bus pulling out that said it was going to Antofagasta. And we saw a sign that said it left at 9:45. Our tickets say 10:15. I thought I'd screwed up again and made us miss our bus, which just would have been terrible. But I showed my ticket to somebody who didn't speak English. They kind of gave me the impression that if we just wait here that our bus is going to come. So. Feeling good? Yeah. Still a little nervous.
There's two of us here and we're hoping it's ours.
Nate showed the guy our tickets and he nodded yes. So I guess we're getting on with Santiago bus. Putting our bags on. Now we're committing. If I put Santiago in my Google maps. You technically do right through Ant. That makes me feel a little better.
Not bad.
Nate was interviewed on the travel stories podcast and so I'm going to start off the bus drive by listening to it.
It is a little past 3pm we just made it to the bus station in Antofagasta. We have a few hurdles we have to get over before we can get to our hotel. We're about three miles away. I looked at my phone. It said public transportation takes almost an hour, which just seems crazy to me. Biggest hurdle is we have no money. So now we have to figure out where we can change money in order to be able to get a taxi to make it to our hotel. And we haven't eaten lunch and it's three o'. Clock. Thankfully, my debit card is supposed to be getting shipped to our hotel, so we shouldn't have these problems anymore.
No. Say $1.
Oh, I think he's saying $1. 500 pesos.
Is the meter Running.
So we got in a taxi and thought we agreed that he was going to take us into town to exchange money and then to our hotel, and then we would pay him when we got there. And after being in the car for a few minutes, we realized the meter wasn't running. So Nate told him to turn it on, and he said no, and he wouldn't turn it on. And then he was trying to convince us to exchange money with him with a terrible rate of 500 pesos for $1. But really it's like 650 pesos for a dollar. And then we got our bags and we got out in the middle of the road, and we have no idea where we are or what our plan is.
Yeah.
It all went downhill really quickly right after this. It was not one of our fin during our travels. We were walking down the sidewalk in the blazing heat, and it turns out that Kara didn't agree with my decision to get out of the taxi in the first place. So that was already creating a little bit of tension. And that tension was made stronger by the fact that neither one of us had eaten lunch. So after walking down the sidewalk for what seemed like an eternity, we happened up on a hostel. We rang the little buzzer because I was going to go in and ask them where the closest thing bank was that we could exchange money. They wouldn't even open the door for us. So then there was a nice family that had their car parked on the side of the road. So I thought I would go ask them where the closest bank was. And they were nice enough to offer to take us to the bank. However, once we arrived at the bank, the bank was closed. Admittedly, I've made some poor decisions since we've gotten off the bus. So we walked down the road just a little ways to another bank that had an atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was like they were changing the money. So we had to wait like 15 minutes.
Kara, I'm sorry.
She'S not happy with me. Then I went to use atm. My card wouldn't work. Sorry. I let a bunch of people go in front of me and then tried again. Finally got the card to work. We got money, but I did pay way too much in fees to get it out. Wish I could say I was happier, but I'm pretty sure we just paid about $15 to get money out of that atmosphere. Probably just should have stayed in the first taxi. So we thought after that we were home free. We were just gonna jump in a taxi and head to the hotel. Well, it turns out it wasn't that easy. We were just standing on the side of the road trying to flag down a taxi. Actually, a couple stopped for us, but they all acted like they had no clue where the Holiday Inn Express was. Or one acted like he did, but he wouldn't take us. So at this point we were very confused. And it turns out that here in Antofagasta, the taxis are like collective taxis. So they'll pick up multiple people and I guess they all kind of run certain routes. And we just hadn't waved down the right one, but we didn't know that at this point. So we finally waved down one and I decided I'd just tell them we wanted to go to the center of town because I figured if we could get to the center of town there, hopefully we could find a real taxi that would take us to our hotel. So we finally got in the taxi. The taxi driver did not speak any English, but he was extremely nice. We communicated that we wanted to go to the Holiday Inn. He took us to the center of town and then pointed us in the right direction to catch the public bus, which then took us really close to our hotel. And then after like another five or ten minute walk, we finally made.
Was a rough two hours.
Things are looking up. Not a bad view. And now we're going to get some of our favorite comfort food.
I am so happy we're finally eating. We did not eat lunch. We barely ate breakfast. And along with everything else that's gone on the past few hours, I needed this.
Is it good or is this hungry?
Just having a moment here.
Even though I did not have the best attitude earlier when we had our little situation, if that's the worst thing that happens to us today, then I'm sorry. Still really thankful. Just easy to lose perspective in the moment, I guess. But on the plus side, our hotel is super nice. We have an awesome view, we have a pool and a workout room and just have the best pizza ever. And I think we're gonna get some ice cream now.
Still a good day.
Also, before we end the vlog, I thought I should explain why we're staying at a Holiday Inn Express with because this isn't our normal style. We do have a large stash of IHG points and we're redeeming some of those to stay here for the next four nights. This is what's called a points break promotion. So this hotel is only costing us 5,000 points a night. And for those of you who aren't into the miles and points stuff, in the miles and points world. 5000 points is like nothing. So we're staying here completely free. Just spending 20,000 points on the next four nights. We're both really excited to have a place that has really good air conditioning. Most of the places we've stayed haven't had any air conditioning. One of them had an air conditioner in the bedroom, but that was pretty much it. And they had free breakfast.
Can't wait for breakfast.
Sa.
What's going on?
So after this, we started walking down the sidewalk in the blazing fast heat.
Think she's not mad at me anymore, though.
Maybe she still is.
The good news is we don't fight very often, and when we do, we tend to get over it very quickly. It's a few days later, and we just wanted to remind you that we're doing the 30k giveaway where you can win lounge access for a year, as well as early access to my travel hacking course where I'll teach you how to travel around the world for pennies on the dollar.
So make sure you look in the description below, Click the link enter to win. Tell your friends.
Also, this priority pass and my course have a value of over $400. So if that encourages you to, like, enter a little bit more, we're gonna pick a winner on February 9, so make sure you're gonna report it Thursday. Thursday, February 9.
