This past weekend, four of the gringos traveled up north to a tiny oasis town in the middle of the driest desert in the world, San Pedro de Atacama. It was a wild and crazy weekend, without sleep, but it was easily one of the coolest places I have ever seen.
To start at the beginning; our bus to the airport left at 5:00 am friday morning so naturally I decided not to go to sleep the night before. We hung out with some of our Chilean friends and then around 2:00 anna, ned, and I ventured out for some food. We found an awesome late night chorrillana place that was the perfect stop. Anna went home to get an hour nap in so I walked around with ned for a while until we headed to the bus. Once on the bus we all passed out and made it to the airport with ease. We were supposed to have a 7:55 flight but it ended up getting delayed until around 10:00. But hey we got free breakfast and hung out for a while. The plane ride was smooth and once in Calama, I realized I was in the smallest airport I'd ever seen. It is slightly the size of Norwood airport...and yes it will be an international airport by next year. A quick taxi to the bus station and we were on our way to San Pedro.
We arrived in San Pedro and because of the plane delay we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to make an afternoon tour so we rushed to our hostel to throw our stuff down. I would be lying if I said that I was not worried about our hostel as we were driving down this dirt road and all the buildings looked like they were gonna fall apart. But as I learned from my first ever trip to the desert, all things are not as they appear and the hostel turned out to be really nice, and comfortable. It was kind of funny though that the wireless network works 24 hours a day, but the water only works for 17 hours each day. After dropping our stuff off we headed back to town and started searching the tour companies for our first tour. We found a rather cheap one that took us to Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte (Valley of the moon and Valley of the dead). We got an awesome tour guide named Leo and a bus that (mom close your eyes) we could ride on the roof for. Dont worry i was only up there for about 5 minutes. We hiked around, saw an abandoned salt mine and saw some of the coolest rock formations I have seen. Very similar to Arizona and Colorado with the red rocks. This part of Chile also has ten percent of the worlds active volcanoes and they scattered the landscape everywhere we went. We then hiked up this hill to watch the sunset, and oh what a sunset it was. With the sun reflecting of the rocks and sand it was absolutely amazing. We returned to town and ventured out to find some dinner. Our stomachs empty we wandered into the first place we found and were lucky enough to find amazing food. For 5 bucks I got half a chicken and a plate of french fries. Delicious and nutritious as mom always says. Tired and ready for the weekend we went home and crashed.
Saturday morning we woke up around 7:30 to get picked up by the bus to go to Lagunas Altiplanicas. We met our tour guide Fabiola, who was the nicest and most knowledgeable tour guide we could have asked for. Definitely a one in the definition of Ned. (The Altiplanic lagoons) Our first stop was the salt flats that surround the entire town of San Pedro. Here we saw flamingos in their natural habitat. It was pretty cool, but the amazing part of this trip was the salt flats. For as far as the eye can see the ground was made up of salt crystals. It looked like coral and felt like crushed snow. Our next stop was to another set of lagoons high up in the Andes. At 14,000 feet we came across these two gorgeous lakes in the middle of the desert. Its amazing to see the most faded brown, tan, and red rocks and then deep blue and green water right next to one another. With the mountains in the background, the scenery was amazing. Our next stop was the little town of Socaire where we ate a delicious lunch and hung out for a bit. Continuing on we made it to Turipa another oasis town that is pretty much abandoned today other than its tourism and picnic spots. Fed by a mountain stream, the water was clean enough that you could drink right from the stream: truly amazing. Because of the size of the river (roughly 3 feet wide) the soil fertility was only about 100 yards wide. It was pretty funny to see this strip of green in the middle of the desert. A quick stop in a little town with a 400 year old church and we were back to San Pedro. That night we made it an early night because we had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning, but that didnt stop us from grabbing a beer and having another great meal. The waiter thought it was hilarious that Anna is allergic to potatoes and proceeded to tell us that no one in South America has ever heard of a potato allergy. Que comico.
I was ready to wake up at 3:30 but instead I woke up around 3:15 to the sound of loud bass and a huge party raging next door. I wandered out into the main area of the hostel to see what was going on, only to find the hostel workers watching out the window. When I tried to open the door she screamed "no the cops are coming" so I just sat inside and watched the giant party break up. Half an hour later our bus came and we were headed up to the mountains to see the geysers. We had to get there before dawn so that we could see them in action, as they only are active when it is super cold. And cold it was. When we got off the bus it was around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Bundled up in all the clothing we had with us, we wandered around this open field of geysers that was so cool. Every five or ten minutes different geysers would explode and steam was always pouring out of hundreds of craters. Once again a first time experience for this guy, and definitely worth the early morning. The tour guides hard boiled eggs in the geysers and we were ready for one of the most unique breakfasts I've ever eaten. A quick dip in the hot springs and we were back on the road headed to the llama farm. We were a little late and couldnt try the llama meat but never the less it was cool to hang out in a town that has only 20 inhabitants and 600 llamas. Finally we went back to San Pedro around noon but it felt like 5:30.
After a quick nap, we headed back into town to figure out our transport home. We thought we were gonna have to pay for a 25 dollar taxi but luckily we were able to barter with the bus company down to only 8 dollars a person. Me and gabe then grabbed a pizza and waited for the tour to leave. The first stop was a salt water pool similar to the dead sea. Floating was so cool and a great way to relax after an early morning. The water was cool to, for at the surface it was really warm but only a couple feet down the water was freezing. Our next stop was called Ojos del Salar (the eyes of the salt flats) They were two tiny lakes in the middle of the salt flats that we were able to cliff jump into. Fortunately Anna was taking pictures and we got some good aerial shots. Our final destination that day was the salt flats again where we watched the sunset with a Pisco sour. Another gorgeous sunset and a relaxing drink was the perfect way to end a weekend...or so we thought.
We made it back to town only to realize that we didnt have enough cash to pay the hostel and they didnt take credit cards. Anna and I went back into town and tried to use the ATMs but of course they were all out of money. All three ATMs were out of cash. Fantastico. At that point I tried to sell my newly purchased hammock to the hostel but they wouldnt take it. After a minor freak out session gabe came to the rescue with a travelers check. Now we just hope it works. Who ever said we could have a trip without a little stress here or there. We finally went to bed content after a great weekend.
The following day was just travel, waking up, bus to the airport, back on the plane, and back to Viña. In just two days I can now say that Ive seen a desert, natural geysers, and been in the highest elevation of my life. What a trip what a place, the Atacama desert. One thing I forgot to add. With no cities for miles and miles, the stars each night were absolutely incredible. One more thing, this is the link to all my pictures so that you can see everything I have described http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067627&id=1239840389&l=77c8f83e3d
El desierto, un dia de lluvia cada año, 30 grados en el dia 0 grados durante la noche, el poder de este planeta es magnifico. Que impresionante San Pedro, nunca puedo olvidar el paisaje y las memorias de su tierra.
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