Name: Hostel Chango Backpackers
Address: Ignacio carrera pinto, Caldera, Caldera, Caldera, 1570000, Chile
Rating: 9

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At the hostel

Caldera Beach

Desierto de Atacama Airport

Chamonate Airport

Hostel Chango Backpackers

Clean comfortable room - I'd booked a dorm but since there were only about 6 or 8 travellers, Veronica (the concierge) put me in my own room. Maybe I ended up paying more, but if I did it wouldn't have been more than a dollar difference. Wifi was reliable. And the hot showers delivered. Towels and lockers for hire, but breakfast is included, prepared by Veronica herself. 
Caldera is a small place so this hostel was close to the bus station and Centro. I even walked to Bahía Inglesa in just over an hour from the hostel. Veronica even let people stay in the hostel and use the facilities after check out while we waited for a night bus. Met some wonderful friendly people there who I continued to meet further down the road. Staying at this hostel is one of my fondest memories.

I personally loved the town. This place is near the beach, and a few blocks away from the main square. It's quiet and clean. Our room was on the bottom floor with a tiny window, so it got pretty hot at night. I recommend a room with a bigger window if they have it. We had a private room (bunk bed, and a twin, private bathroom) for 36000 Chilean pesos which is roughly $50. Upstairs they have a big dining space and kitchen. Clean and easy to use for whatever cooking needs. Breakfast is included, your typical coffee/tea, juice, bread, and little fruit. Filled us up nicely though. What's not included are towels. It was 1000 for a shower towel and 1500 for a beach towel. Enjoy the place! Met some awesome people there, oh and fast wifi! Always a plus! 

Caldera

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Fond Memories

Very nice 

The hostel benefits from the price, location (next to the beach and 15 mins away from the supermarket) and cleanliness of the rooms.
But note that you will have to share the hostel and common space with a dozen of miner workers. It's okay during the working time, but when they come back after work or during the weekend, this place is their home. It's noisy and super crowded (usual entertainment is football matches on tv loudly in a big company) till 12am and early in the morning before the alarm rings for wake up (7am).
Breakfast is poor: coffee and a piece of cheese between the two poor quality chilean buns. If you are happy enough to have breakfast with the workers (I didn't get why the hostel has Backpackers in its name, when it's a motel for workers), you will see how they get unlimited bread with butter and avocado, while you are swallowing dry piece of bread with black coffee.
In a hope to get decent dinner we bought the food in the nearly located supermarket to cook it in the kitchen... but there was barely some gas! We ended up trying to make it hot in the microwave. I was surprised to see that the second day it didn't change, however, the matter was discussed with the host. Three guests (the only backpackers) had their dinners uncooked.
I left with the feeling of paying for something that wasn't worth it: inattentive service, poor quality of the facilities, disagreeable audience in the hostel.

Good room, bad service

While it's a nice hostel, it's pretty far from the beach and on the off season Caldera doesn't have much to offer. 
You think you're getting a good deal when booking through booking.com or hostel world searching prices in the local currency of chilean pesos.... when you go to pay it turns out you could have stayed at the beach for the same price. The hostel uses their own conversion rate to USD per night meaning your nightly rate magically goes up in price then you must add a high tax on top (19%). 
Their inability to read a sign in sheet of names is also on the high end of the frustration spectrum; resulting in our booking.com booking being cancelled as we apparently didn't turn up, potentially meaning that our credit card could be charged due to their cancellation policy. I wouldn't recommend staying here, take yourself to Bahia inglesa instead - you'll essentially be paying the same. 

Good hostel but false room rate 

Friendly staff and good location. No hot water in the morning, but breakfast was good. Price to quality ratio ok. Parking a motorcycle inside the gates wasn't a problem. The place was quite empty when I visited.

Hostel Chango Backpackers

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