One of the things we enjoyed most about this trip was setting our own pace.  We were supposed to stay in San Pedro only two nights, but we so enjoyed the town, we exchanged our bus tickets to leave the next afternoon.  As luck would have it, there was no charge.  It was hard to leave San Pedro.  We loved the food, every place we ate seemed like a gourmet restaurant.  It was a bit expensive, in South American terms, not US.  The days were warm, the nights cool.  We met a couple from Bulgaria, who spoke great English, and who had 2 children back in Bulgaria the same age as our kids.  It was great to talk to them and compare life there with life in the United States.  They were encouraged to see how well our kids travelled.  Interestingly, we didn’t see any other families on our trip.  San Pedro definitely attracted a younger twenty something adventure crowd, or an older, pre-retiree crowd.  But the people we met, especially the twenty something group, were very happy to see our kids exploring the world.  They all wished their parents had done that for them.  I really think that says a lot. 

The next afternoon, we said a sad good bye to San Pedro and began our 17 hour bus trip, our longest yet, to La Serena.