Name: El Ají Rojo
Address: Tocornal 453, Caldera, Caldera, Caldera, 1570000, Chile
Rating: 9

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Caldera Beach

Desierto de Atacama Airport

Chamonate Airport

El Ají Rojo

We really liked El Aji Rojo. It's more like staying in someone's holiday house than a hostal and will suit anyone looking to be left alone and independent. Having said that the owner Domenica is there if you need her (though not on site) and appeared every morning with an awesome breakfast for us. She also provided lots of information about things we could do, tours etc. The room was also cleaned every day and we had the best sleeps we had for ages. Caldera itself is lovely with some great restaurants and a traditional fishing harbour with visiting seals and resident pelicans. Highly recommended for a bit of Chile off the beaten track. Please note, while there is TV there were only 2 channels and there is no wi-fi, having said that the cafe next door has good connection.

We spent one night in this hostal. Warm welcome, clean rooms, the kitchen was perfectly equipped. The hostal is very close to the bus terminal and the center. A lovely backgarden to read in. A very charming and welcoming owner :) Last but not least if you are lucky you can even get some home cooked bread. We loved it! 

Excelent in terms of price- quality. Clean and nice rooms with private bathroom and TV. Good breakfast. The owner, Domenica, was extremely nice and helpfull. Very close to plaza central. Definitely the best option in Caldera.

I highly recommend staying at the Aji Rojo when in Caldera, it is really good value for money, centrally located and quiet. We stayed for two nights and it was like being at home. The beds are very comfortable and a tasty breakfast with fruit is included. 
The highlight was the hostess Doménica who was very friendly and chatty, she had breakfast with us every morning and suggested places to visit and restaurants to eat in. She also helped us with booking our bus and hostel at our next destination. Thank you for your hospitality Doménica!
I would recommend emailing in advance as there are only a few rooms, it's also hard to find, you would definitely not stumble upon it.

Caldera

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Chilled hostal in a chilled town

Home sweet home

A Home Away from Home

The best option in Caldera

Okay, okay.. I must admit that:
1. The location of this hostel is quite good; close to the bus station, Unimarc (grocery store) & centre of town where you can catch a cheap taxi to Bahia Inglesa.
2. The rooms are nice; we were provided (or possibly upgraded to? we aren't sure as the entire process was quite convoluted) a couples room which was clean, comfy & had a nice private bathroom.
3. The kitchen is fairly well equipped, large & pleasant to cook in (especially after the tiny hostel kitchen in La Serena).
4. There is a record player & a huge box of records which we had a lot of fun with one evening.

But the normalcy ends there.. And truthfully, we are baffled by the reviews below talking about great service. 
We booked this hostel fairly last minute so we could continue our journey to the north of Chile but also stop over somewhere near to a nice beach for my birthday. We arrived at the Caldera bus station early Sunday morning & had previously notified the hostel via email that we would be there at 0900 to check in. We arrived about 20 minutes early & proceeded to wait 20 minutes- knocking on the door all the while- for someone to let us in. Although it may be unfair to expect anyone to let us into a room before the agreed upon arrival time, we found it strange that the hostel was seemingly abandoned just before 9:00am. Eventually we woke (who we believe was) a fellow guest who let us in & groggily called Domenica, the hostel owner. When Domenica arrived (about 15 after the agreed upon check-in time) she was friendly, showed us to a nicer room than we thought we had booked (so thankful for that, truly), quickly showed us where things were, and, upon us asking if there was WiFi (the booking site didn't indicate that there was), gave us details for the WiFi which we were pleased to find existed at all. We then went for a nap after not sleeping much on the overnight bus.
A few things to note here: 
1. There were no towels in the room (which is fine, if that's the kind of hostel you're staying in). The problem is: we were not advised on who to ask if they were available or not. It was a bizarre ghost town the entire time we were there.
2.  The toilets don't have a normal flusher; there is a strange string + shell contraption which you can pull on. However, this works intermittently; luckily we figured this out fairly quickly but still: be warned.
3.  THERE IS NO WIFI. I don't know why we were given a network name & password, but we couldn't find a router in the whole place and none of our devices were able to pick up a signal anywhere on the property (much less the network name Domenica appeared to have created arbitrarily in order to satisfy us) the entire 3 days we stayed there. We would have been totally fine if we were told there was no internet but instead we were given fake details. WHO DOES THAT?!? Absolutely bizarre. Meanwhile there is a cafe just on the corner which does nice juices & does have wifi. More about this cafe in a moment.
4. We were not clearly told about any breakfast although did have some coffee one morning which was fine.

And lastly...
4. We never saw Domenica ever again. Not once. She left a note for us however & told us that we had to make payment to a lady named Roxana who we thought, perhaps, was a lady we'd come across a couple of times in the hostel. We initially thought this lady was a guest but then we saw her cleaning & she ended up giving us towels. She was not Roxana though. Roxana was a lady who we found at the cafe on the corner (maybe the owner or just a regular?!) We had to pay her for some reason & weren't provided with a receipt or anything. So weird. We were not given any guidance, help or information otherwise during our stay in Caldera by anyone but managed to figure it all out by ourselves. 

So, 2 stars for the comfy & clean room plus the kitchen but really, that's about it. We let ourselves out when we left & there was no one around to say goodbye to.

El Ají Rojo

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