Sandboarding in Valle de los Muertes

I am sorry I neglected my blog for so long, but the past week has been so busy for me.

Last Thursday I just barely made it on time to catch my bus at 10:15 p.m. to Calama, a small town near my destination, San Pedro de Atacama. After 22 hours on a bus, my friends and I finally, made it, but suffered a set back. The connecting bus to San Pedro was delayed untill 1 a.m., so at 2 a.m. we had to bang on the hostal door and shamefully wake everyone up, but there was nothing else we could do.

After few hours of sleep, we woke up Friday and wandered around the rustic adobe city of San Pedro. I don't even think they have taxis or buses there its so small. My friends, Nateè, Manuel, and I decided to buy a package deal of tours. Normally I am NOT a fan of tours, but in order to get to the extraordinary natural wonders that attract so many people, its necessary to take a guided tour.

I saw so many amazing things that if i described in as much detail as I would like, anyone would surely fall asleep reading, so I`ll do my best to summarize.

The landscape reminded me somewhat of Idaho around Mountain Home with the sparse vegitation, lots of dust and sand, mountains in the background, except for here the mountains are volcanoes and its not just sandy here, it is the dryest desert in the world. All along the roads one can easily spot the numerous Incan ruins, but the tour guides drive past them without notice because they are so abundant.

First stop was Lagunas Cejas, a salty lagoon out in the middle of the desert renowned for swimming. When I jumped in I was shocked by the cold but never the less immersed myself and to my fascination completely floated. A hot undertow tickled my toes, but the cold at the surface was nearly unbearable. The tour went around to a couple more lagoons that pop out of the desert like mirages and back to the city.

Every day of this trip I had the pleasure to meet so many amazing people. Along with many people from my tour group, the tour guide and my two friends, I went to a small bar light by campfires and candles. The drinks were expensive, but I was not in the mood to drink anyway because the next morning I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the geisers at their most active time of the day, 5 a.m.

In a valley surrounded by active volcanoes, the geisers bubbled and spewed scalding water. I did not have my camera, but being right there next to the geisers was enough. Better yet, to soak in a hot spring that flowed right out of a spewing geiser with all of my new friends.

I also had the chance to visit the flamingo reserve where three of the five species of flamingo in the world live, lagunas altiplanicas (a beautiful lake in the mountain tops), a seventeenth century church, a small town where people have lived and still do since the time of the Incas and watched the full moon rise over the rugged canyon of valle de la luna, then went out for a quiet drink with some new friends from the tour. The power went out a couple times, but conveinently, one of them had several candles in his backpack.

Another really cool sight was a canyon where people had lived for over 2,000 years. There were ancient houses built of stone, caves carved into the cliffs as houses, and a river in the bottom like a tropical oasis with all kinds of fruit trees and vegitation. People even still live there today, but those houses were well hidden by strategically placed trees and gates.

My favorite day of the trip was the last day. I woke up early and went horse back riding around the old part of the city (very old, like prehispanic old) with Manuel and Nateè, later mountain biking to the sand dunes in valle de los muerte (valley of the dead) and sand boarding with two new friends, Mark from Australia and Eli from Israel, then together with several people I met in the hostal, had a huge dinner. The kitchen was hardly equiped for such a dinner, so we ended up constantly washing dishes, eating off of pot lids and drinking wine out of coffee mugs and soup laddles. The food was also quit strange because each person tried to cook something from their own culture with the limited access to ingredients. Nevertheless, it was delicious and an occasion I will always remember.

My original plan was to go north after San Pedro to see Iquique and Arica, but all of the bus tickets were sold out because of the fiestas patrias (Chile's independence day celebrations which is a whole other story i will have to tell about in a different blog). However instead I managed to get a bus ticket to Antofogasta and the very last seat out of Antofogasta to Viña del Mar. Antofogasta is a very pretty city, well kept, with a great beach and huge mall, but other than that not much else to do unless your interested in going to the overly abundant strip clubs. An afternoon was enough for me, so I was glad when my bus took off for Viña at midnight.

Overall, it was the best trip ever. I met so many amazing people that I will surely keep contact with, took great photos, and came home with a lot of sand in my shoes. I know, I could write a book with this and the short blog does not do justice to the pages I wrote in my journal. My story is not even over though, I still need to tell all about the fiestas patrias, but that will be for another blog.

Chao!