Last week, I took another great adventure!
My four days in the Atacama Desert were completely other-wordly.
My friend Rae and I boarded an afternoon plane from Santiago to Calama on Wednesday, arrived in San Pedro late that night (after much complication), and did not stop moving until I unclipped my giant pack and collapsed onto my bed Monday afternoon.
San Pedro is the Disney World of deserts. The town itself is composed of a labyrinth of white-washed clay buildings, 99% of which are either tour agencies, hostels, souvenir shops (that all sell the exact same fabulous variety of alpaca sock), or highly overpriced restaurants selling llama meat. (A small tip for those of you who might make your way down here one day: an empanada should never cost more than $2).
We stayed in hostel on the outskirts of town where the clay looses its white-wash. It was nice seeing the actual residential side of the place... even if it meant getting laughed at by the dueños of the tiny grocery store we visited about ten times to buy ingredients to make our food. At our hostel, we made ample use of the kitchen and free ingredients shelf (who new cinnamon, oregano, salt, powdered garlic, and cooking oil were so versatile?) and actually managed to make ourselves some great meals!
But now, on to the good stuff.
Our first tour started with sand boarding on the Great Dune, which was this exhausting cycle of lugging a board up the dune, strapping my borrowed boots into bindings, wiggling to the edge, and flying down. After some great runs and one really epic wipeout that had me shaking sand out of my ears for days, we moved on to the Salt Caves. Our guide told us about the geology of the place while he led us through increasingly cramped spaces. There was some serious multi-lingual swearing going on around me, but I loved the scampering over and through rock as well as the little salt sample our guide literally scraped off the cave wall for tasting. After, we made our way further into the Moon Valley to stake out our spot to watch one of the most beautiful shows on Earth: the sun setting and painting the valley, volcanoes, and sky as if they were made of watercolor paper. I'll let the pictures do the rest...
The next day, we rented bikes and spent five hours exploring the Cordillera del Sal. It was a tough ride considering the path was almost entirely rocks and sand, the later of which caused us to have to get off and walk for long stretches. We biked through the dried-up river bed running through a gorge, taking frequent water-breaks which almost always turned into me scouring the ground trying to decide between all the cool rocks I wanted to take, and then rode as far as we could up the start of the dune before locking up the bikes and hiking up the top of a rock formation on foot. The ride back down was probably my favorite part of the whole trip: the dry air flying by, bumping over rocks, leaning into turns, and feeling like the whole desert was ours was an experience I know I'll remember for the rest of my life.
The next morning, we were up and outside of the gate of our hostel at the ungodly and frigid hour of 4 AM. Our tour took us 4000 meters above sea level to see the sunrise at the highest geyser field in the world, Tatio. You have to go that early to see the most active period of the geysers as the underground pressure changes with the temperature and the steam billows, mixing with the rays of the rising sun. I was not prepared for just how freezing the dessert at altitude and without sun can get, but I'll chalk up my shivering and new knowledge of the initial stages of frostbite to part of the experience. The simple breakfast of cheese sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, chocolate bars, and instant coffee our guides served us goes down in my rankings of favorite meals of all time.
After the rest of of the day and night spent trying to warm back up and haggle with tour agencies, we again woke up early and ascended to Laguna Miscanti, a highland lake rimmed by volcanoes. I was so cold at that point that I honestly don't remember a lot of what the guide told us, but it was really beautiful. Next, we descended again the the Salar de Atacama, the 5th largest salt flat in the world. There, in the mirror-like water, four types of flamencos eat and breed. How do they spend 80% of their time with their heads in the water looking for sea monkeys to eat? Beats me.
And then, one more early morning, a van ride to the airpot, a plane ride down south, two bus rides to arrive back in Valparaíso, and one last micro ride up my hill, and I arrived safe, exhausted, and incredibly gratified, home.
Sending all my love back to my first home - always my favorite place in the world no matter how much exploring and discovering I get to do.
(Aprovechando is hard to translate, but it means "taking advantage of")
My four days in the Atacama Desert were completely other-wordly.
My friend Rae and I boarded an afternoon plane from Santiago to Calama on Wednesday, arrived in San Pedro late that night (after much complication), and did not stop moving until I unclipped my giant pack and collapsed onto my bed Monday afternoon.
 |
| Cristóbal sees me and my giant pack off |
San Pedro is the Disney World of deserts. The town itself is composed of a labyrinth of white-washed clay buildings, 99% of which are either tour agencies, hostels, souvenir shops (that all sell the exact same fabulous variety of alpaca sock), or highly overpriced restaurants selling llama meat. (A small tip for those of you who might make your way down here one day: an empanada should never cost more than $2).
We stayed in hostel on the outskirts of town where the clay looses its white-wash. It was nice seeing the actual residential side of the place... even if it meant getting laughed at by the dueños of the tiny grocery store we visited about ten times to buy ingredients to make our food. At our hostel, we made ample use of the kitchen and free ingredients shelf (who new cinnamon, oregano, salt, powdered garlic, and cooking oil were so versatile?) and actually managed to make ourselves some great meals!
 |
| My friend Ellen, cooking up a storm! |
Our first tour started with sand boarding on the Great Dune, which was this exhausting cycle of lugging a board up the dune, strapping my borrowed boots into bindings, wiggling to the edge, and flying down. After some great runs and one really epic wipeout that had me shaking sand out of my ears for days, we moved on to the Salt Caves. Our guide told us about the geology of the place while he led us through increasingly cramped spaces. There was some serious multi-lingual swearing going on around me, but I loved the scampering over and through rock as well as the little salt sample our guide literally scraped off the cave wall for tasting. After, we made our way further into the Moon Valley to stake out our spot to watch one of the most beautiful shows on Earth: the sun setting and painting the valley, volcanoes, and sky as if they were made of watercolor paper. I'll let the pictures do the rest...
The next day, we rented bikes and spent five hours exploring the Cordillera del Sal. It was a tough ride considering the path was almost entirely rocks and sand, the later of which caused us to have to get off and walk for long stretches. We biked through the dried-up river bed running through a gorge, taking frequent water-breaks which almost always turned into me scouring the ground trying to decide between all the cool rocks I wanted to take, and then rode as far as we could up the start of the dune before locking up the bikes and hiking up the top of a rock formation on foot. The ride back down was probably my favorite part of the whole trip: the dry air flying by, bumping over rocks, leaning into turns, and feeling like the whole desert was ours was an experience I know I'll remember for the rest of my life.
The next morning, we were up and outside of the gate of our hostel at the ungodly and frigid hour of 4 AM. Our tour took us 4000 meters above sea level to see the sunrise at the highest geyser field in the world, Tatio. You have to go that early to see the most active period of the geysers as the underground pressure changes with the temperature and the steam billows, mixing with the rays of the rising sun. I was not prepared for just how freezing the dessert at altitude and without sun can get, but I'll chalk up my shivering and new knowledge of the initial stages of frostbite to part of the experience. The simple breakfast of cheese sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, chocolate bars, and instant coffee our guides served us goes down in my rankings of favorite meals of all time.
 |
| Looking cold at Tatio |
 |
| Looking colder at the lagunas - no bus blanket to save me this time! |
After the rest of of the day and night spent trying to warm back up and haggle with tour agencies, we again woke up early and ascended to Laguna Miscanti, a highland lake rimmed by volcanoes. I was so cold at that point that I honestly don't remember a lot of what the guide told us, but it was really beautiful. Next, we descended again the the Salar de Atacama, the 5th largest salt flat in the world. There, in the mirror-like water, four types of flamencos eat and breed. How do they spend 80% of their time with their heads in the water looking for sea monkeys to eat? Beats me.
 |
| My wonderful friends looking hysterically happy and cold |
And then, one more early morning, a van ride to the airpot, a plane ride down south, two bus rides to arrive back in Valparaíso, and one last micro ride up my hill, and I arrived safe, exhausted, and incredibly gratified, home.
Sending all my love back to my first home - always my favorite place in the world no matter how much exploring and discovering I get to do.
(Aprovechando is hard to translate, but it means "taking advantage of")
