Hola amigos y familia! Ok, it took me a while to get to this because I've been busy, but I've been very eager to share! Two weeks ago George and I headed up to the
Atacama Desert, which is the driest desert in the world. Ok, to be fair, it's the driest non-polar desert in the world (yes, that's right, the
Dry Valleys in Antarctica are actually the driest desert in the world, but I digress). Yes, I actually talked George into visiting a desert! And it was awesome.
Our goal for the trip was to do some adventuring and some relaxing. We flew in to Calama on Sunday and then took the hour and a half transfer to
San Pedro de Atacama, a town of 4000-5000 people that is supported mostly by tourism. Many visitors arrive in San Pedro and then just walk down the main street to book their tours. We were worried that if we didn't have the tours planned ahead of time, we would be too stressed out to do everything we wanted. We booked through
Keteka and Jack and Kyle were super helpful. Keteka was also who we booked the Patagonia slow-trek with. I think they have some great tours listed! Honestly, we probably would have done just fine waiting until we arrived, but I was also glad that we didn't have very much planning to do!
We stayed at
Altitude Lodge and it was a pretty decent experience, though overpriced. We ended up not having hot water one day, and the water was either scalding or freezing... impossible to get it in between. By the end of the week we realized that if we left the sink on hot full-blast, the shower was slightly cooler, but we felt guilty about wasting water in the desert! Also, when I emailed for the reservation, they specifically talked up their swimming pool... but failed to mention that it would be closed for the season. Super annoying since it was plenty hot in the afternoon! That being said, they did have internet in the lounge area, which was nice, and the puppy and kitty below made me a happy camper! The kitty's name is Simona, and she looked an awful lot like Nutma! We didn't learn the puppy's name, but he was a real sweetheart as well. They played together (awww!) when he was around, and when he wasn't, Simona was busy killing lizards. At one point we were sitting in the lounge and I noticed several tail-less lizards. I thought, "huh, there's a species of tail-less lizards here... cool!", but on closer examination, we discovered that they used to have tails... Glad Simona won't starve!
Ok, on to adventures! On our first full day we did two tours, Valle del Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley) in the morning and Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) in the evening. Rainbow valley was a good start because even though it was cool, I thought it was the least impressive tour of the week. I enjoyed the llamas that walked right up to say hello though and the drive was beautiful! After we walked a bit in the valley we went to Yerbas Buenas (Hierbas Buenas) where we saw petroglyphs that date back approximately 10,000 years. Neato stuff!
 |
| Valle del Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley) |
 |
| Llama says "Hiiiii"! |
 |
| A petroglyph at Yerbas Buenas. |
The
Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) tour included Valley de la Luna, Salt Mountain Range (Three Marias and salt mines), the nearby Salt Caves, and Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). I have to say, the landscapes were quite otherworldly! I doubt these photos will do it justice, but it was definitely an amazing experience. We stayed in the area until sunset and then enjoyed a snack prepared by the tour company before heading back to the lodge.
 |
| The Three Marias from the side. And no that's not snow, it's salt! |
 |
| Salt in the foreground, snow in the background! |
 |
| At the salt caves |
 |
| Death Valley |
On Tuesday, we did 2 hours of horseback riding! It was George's first time ever riding, and we both enjoyed it. We got to head out into the desert a bit, and it was very relaxing to let the horses do the work. I don't have a good photo of my horse, but he was funny! He apparently always likes to lead, and I had a hard time keeping him from making side trips for snacks. At one point he decided it was time for a snack and stopped, but then when I managed to drag him away, he realized that several of the other horses had passed us. So he decided to catch back up to the front. Quickly. Mind you we happened to be in the river at this point, so I got splashed a bit (as did everyone we passed). It was fun though!
 |
| George's horse, Storm. Beautiful! |
 |
| Photo from my horse in the river! |
 |
| Luna ran along with us and was very happy to curl up in the hay when we returned! |
After the horseback riding on Tuesday morning we spent the day relaxing. During the first few days of our trip, we were still adjusting to the altitude. San Pedro is at 7,200 ft, whereas Santiago is only at about 1700 ft. We both had slight headaches on Monday and we were definitely more tired than usual. I was very glad we didn't pack in too many tours because we needed extra hours to sleep and nap!
On Wednesday we did the Laguna Cejar tour (Cejar Lagoon), which included Laguna Cejar, the Ojos del Salar (Eyes of the Salt Pan), and then watched the sunset at Lago Tebinquinche. Laguna Cejar has a salt concentration that is 6 times higher than the ocean (according to our guide), and we got to float in it! It was a bit cold, but totally worth it. So when I say float, I mean that this lake is pretty much impossible to drown in. In the part where it's deeper George and I tried to get into water-treading positions and it was like having floaties on your ankles. George said he felt like a cork bobbing in the water. Quite fun. The entrance fee was a bit steep compared to the other places, but they recently built showers, changing rooms, and bathrooms, and I still think the 15.000 pesos pp were worth it. As you can see below, you are coated with salt when you get out!
 |
| Just lovely! |
 |
| Much salt |
 |
| A photo of the nearby grassy areas. |
 |
| A photo of the salt flats. |
After showering and changing back into real clothes, we went to the Ojos del Salar. They were two round perfect-mirror pools. Quite neat. And then we headed to the lago for sunset. As you can see below, we were treated to quite an amazing sunset! I wish I would have stayed nearer to the lake to catch the sunset reflection, but we were back near the van having our evening snack. All of the tours treated us to some sort of a snack, which was nice because they were quite long and we were usually pretty hungry by the end! This was probably my favorite tour because of the beautiful sunset!
 |
| Ojos del Salar |
 |
| I would like to camp right here. |
 |
| I don't even think this photo captures the awesomeness. |
And because I just don't feel I can top that, I am going to save the rest of the trip for another post! Chao, chicos!
2 comments:
Splendid photos. Keep it up. I did not know such a colorful landscape existed in the Atacama. How is the food there?
Lou
Thank Louis! Your advice and the youtubing that I did helped! I still have plenty to learn and practice though :-) Atacama was really unique and interesting. As for food, most of what we ate was forgettable, but the last night we were there we ate what was basically the asado special at a place. It was grilled chicken, steak, chorizo, and roasted potatos and rice... it might have been the best meal that we ate at Chile even though it was simple. I promise to write a bit more about some local ingrediants like algorrobo and rica rica in the next post!
Post a Comment