The thing with Chile is… I pretty much spent my entire time in one place:San Pedro de Atacama. Now, I’ve already talked about the Atacama itself, so if you want the deep dive on that surreal stretch of desert, check out the piece I wrote on my week alone there. But while I’ve already interviewed a hostel worker on this trip but I’d feel seriously remiss not giving this woman her moment.
Enter Fabiola Hernández Guzmán, my person for Chile.
Fabiola (right) with one of her hostel guests.
Fabiola is the owner ofBackpacker’s Hostel San Pedro de Atacama, and honestly? She’s everything you could want when rocking up to this wild little corner of Chile. One thing about San Pedro—it’s packed. There arelagunas, salt flats, canyons, geysers, hot springs, and more dusty desert hideaways than I can count. But with that comes the other side: the confusion. “Where do I eat?” “Which ATM won’t charge me a fortune?” “Is it alwaysthis dry?” “Where do I buy sunscreen without selling a kidney?”—you get it.
This isFabiola’s bread and butter. She’s a total anchor for all the slightly-lost, sunburnt backpackers rolling through town. She justgets it. The questions we ask, the stuff we forget, the weird travel mood swings—and she’s always got an answer, a fix, or a tip.
She also does something that’s way rarer than you’d think: sheactually helps us experience Chile. Like,really experience it. She brings out the flavors and local details—the spices, the foods you don’t know how to order, and the stuff that never makes it into guidebooks. On top of all that, she’s constantly building bridges between travelers. Whether it’s setting up casual wine nights, making it easier to meet other solo backpackers, or pointing you toward the next mysterious desert rave, Fabiola is the definition of plugged in.
I’ve stayed in my fair share of hostels. But I’ve never met a hostel owner more genuinelymotivated to help travelers have a good time.
Raw. Uncut. Action. Fabiola.
Fabiola’s Interview Transcript
Zach: Can I first get you to state your full name and what you do for a living?
Fabiola: I’m Fabiola Hernandez Guzman and I run this hostel.
Zach: So can you tell me why you got into this line of business? Like you seem very enjoyable about what you do, like what makes you so great?
Fabiola: Well, I studied tourism more of 20 years ago, I think. And I started working in a backpacker’s hostel in Pucon in the south of Chile. There I lived my with parents. And when I started to work in that hostel, I saw I have many… I don’t know, I like so much being in that type of business. So I prefer to live in San Pedro because here I found sun. I can see the sun every day. In Pucon was raining and cloudy every day, so that wasn’t so nice. And when I come in here, I start to live in this place. I rent a house here for living. And when my neighbors start to leave the place, I start to rent them until make the hostel. And now I have this hostel with my husband for almost 20 years.
Zach: You mentioned moving to San Pedro for the sun. But as a traveler, what is the best thing that you would recommend people do here? Or I guess just the experience, not even necessarily a tour. But why do they want to come here (Chile)?
Fabiola: To San Pedro? Because it’s still quiet. Inside of Chile, you have a place where it’s touristic, so you can work. It’s a lot of work because coming a lot of tourists. Also the weather let you work all year in the winter time in the south of Chile. You only work for summer time. And also here I come from Santiago, and Santiago is a jungle. I think I’ve been stolen like five times in my life. In my short life in Santiago. And here never happened. It’s very safe, and that I love. Now I have kids, so for me it’s very good to be in a place where it’s safe for me and for them.
Zach: For tourists that come here, like backpackers, what do you recommend they go see while they’re here (San pedro de Atacama)?
Well, many places in Chile you can visit and make activities. For example, coming from the south, and there only you can make trekking, you make rafting, hiking. But here you have many, many places, really beautiful, close to San Pedro. So that is why it’s interesting, San Pedro. Because you have activities, but also you have, for example, so different landscape. If you go to the geysers, it’s not geysers everywhere in the world, you know? And here you have the geysers one hour, 30 minutes from San Pedro. Then you have the desert 20 minutes from San Pedro, and it’s totally different. Many people say San Pedro de Atacama is a desert, it’s nothing. But then you go 30 minutes more to the south, and you will find the salty lagoon with turquoise color in the middle of the salt flats. And then you go to Toconao village, and you will find a green valley, like a little piece south of Chile, middle of the desert too. Then you have the volcano, then you have the highland lagoons, then you go to Rainbow Valley with a lot of colors. Then you have petroglyphs, and also you have a culture here of 12,000 years ago. So I think so many things, so close, that is why it’s so interesting.
Zach: Yeah, there’s definitely an endless amount of things you can do here. You can just rent a bike like you guys have, and you can see so much. Thinking back to your childhood, what was your favorite thing about living in Chile, like growing up here?
Fabiola: I love Chile, I think for the same. Because if you want beach, you want to go to the ocean, I have the ocean here, one hour, 30 minutes driving. If I want mountains, okay, we have Andes in all Chile. If I want to be cold, I go to the south, to Patagonia, and I have snow, and I have skiing. Then if I want sun, I come here to the north, to the desert. It’s a country with so many.
Zach: What did you think about the culture, I guess, growing up? What was that like?
Fabiola: The culture of Chile in general? It’s very, very, very different, yeah. People in Santiago, well, it’s very friendly in general. You can find people from all the type of, how do you say, economic…Status. Yeah, status.
And all the people in general is very nice, but stressing. That is the problem in Santiago. And then, for the pandemic, all the people is leaving to the other places of Chile, south or north, for to living. And it’s weird, but I think the people here in San Pedro is very dry like the desert, for example. I’m coming from… I’m living a lot of time in Pucon, in the south of Chile. And the people was very warm. In fact, when I start to travel, when I was young, with my bike, backpack, I was traveling a long time. And the people in the south of Chile received me with open arms. And when I come to San Pedro, yeah, I have the sun, I have all this landscape. I love the culture, like the ancient culture that you can live here. But when I arrived here, nobody opened the door. They open the door just like a little bit, they look to you and they close it. Yeah. But it’s so many people, foreign people, not foreign people, like people from the rest of Chile that come in here. In San Pedro you have 2,000 Atacameñan people, and that is the dry people. Yeah. But here in total we have 10,000 people living here. So all the rest of the people coming from the rest of Chile. And that is why I’m here, for all the rest of the people, you know?
Zach: Yeah, fair enough. And so you mentioned on the phone at one point that you were a mom? So, What do you look forward to for the future of Chile for, I guess, your kids as they grow older and start their own business adventures later down the line, I guess?
Fabiola: So you’re asking if I will continue if I want?
Zach: No, it’s like, so for, I guess, your kids and the future of Chile, where do you hope the future goes, especially for them as they grow older, I guess?
Fabiola: No, I don’t think in future for my kids. Yeah, fair enough. In fact, I’m believing they must make their own future, and if I’m thinking in which future I will give, I will press them for make the things that I want. I don’t want that. Yeah. I want they grown up and they see the world. In fact, with my husband, we are saving money now, because for the 2027, we want to go to Europe for one year in another home. Yeah, yeah, okay. For visit other culture, because we visited already South America. Yeah. Not all South America, but part of.Yeah. And now we want to, they know other cultures, and for me it’s good they know other cultures and all the world now when they are kids, because when they grown up, they will have a panoramic view of how is the world, not how is Chile. Yeah. And then they will decide where to stay, where to live, what to do, whatever. Whatever they want. And will be happy. Yeah. They want what make them happy. That’s it.
Zach: And so this is my last question. I ask everybody this, and you can answer it as big or as small as you want. In the world right now, what do you think the biggest issue is? Like, where do you see, I don’t know, what is the biggest problem in the world today? That could be as big as you want, or small, specific or not.
Fabiola: Okay. I think everybody, you see, how you say, I think everybody think in their own, and the people don’t think in the rest of the people. Right. Yeah. That is selfish. Yeah, that is the word. The people is very selfish nowadays. And, yeah, for me, that is why I’m so warm here in the hostel. Yeah. It’s because I know you coming for the other side of the world. You don’t understand nothing when you arrive to San Pedro. You don’t understand the money, the language, nothing. So if I can help you to make an itinerary, if I can help you how to manage your time, your money,your everything, I think it’s so helpful when I travel, sometimes everybody try to take my money. Yeah. And they don’t care. Sometimes everybody tries to take my money and they don’t care what is good for me, what is better, if I will feel good or not, nothing. So, and that is why it’s because all these people are trying to take your money and they don’t care you.For me, yeah, I care the people. I care the rest of the people. And it definitely shows. I think everyone here really sees that.Yeah, great. Yeah, because I want the same for, or I want that world for my kids, you know. I want they found people that care them and they make the same for the rest of the people.
Zach: Thank you so much Fabiola. Fabiola? Fabiola. I am so sorry for butchering your name. Thank you so much for your time today.
Fabiola: No problem.
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I linked it up above but I’ll state it again just to be clear. If you ever find yourself in San Pedro de Atacama and need a place to stay, I highly recommend theBackpackers hostel San Pedro. Go enjoy the warm hospitality and social environment, it’s completely worth it.