Welcome to San Pedro de Atacama!
a small city in the middle of the desert which is located 2500m above sea level where the houses r made of clate. In the center of this maze is an oasis like garden where u have free WIFI. The place is full of backpackers looking for a hostel to stay. Restaurants sell all kind of food but classical fast food are empanadas filled with cheese and/or meat. If you head to a bar u should drink pisco mixed as pisco sour or piscola. Pisco has a taste between whiskey and tequila. If u do not like alcohol, u can drink a lot of coca tea…oh yeah real coca leaves. The locals claim that it helps against the altitude sickness. The local people look so different to the Argentinian or to the Brazilian people. They have a way stronger Indian touch.
Beside the city San Pedro, the Atacama desert offers u a lot to see and to experience. From moon like landscapes in the Valle de la Luna and salt lakes comparable to the death sea in Israel to mountains that surround this wonderful desert with huge geysers spitting extremely hot water.
At our first camping side we encountered some alpacas, relatives of lamas and camels. U can make great wool out of their fur which is very expensive in Europe but very cheap here in Chile.
On the first day we drove with our new Polish friends to the Valle de la Muerte (death valley), where u can do sand boarding for around 30 Euro. This valley consists of sand and clate as well as salt crystals. We decided to just go up the sand dunes and do crazy pics and we had lots of fun!
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| MIKE walking on hands... (photo by Daria) |
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| jumping to the sky... |
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| Markus...(photo by Daria) |
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| just having fun... |
After this sandy playground we headed to the valle de la luna which, as the name already says, looks like the surface of the moon. It was a strange feeling to go around this area because u were not sure if u r still on earth. Have a look on that:
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| Daria, Wojciech, Markus, me and MIKE |
The next day we wanted to see the salt lakes and the real desert. In some lagoons u can swim but we were so lucky that it was raining recently (it rains there once every three years!) so we were not able to drive with the car on this specific road because it was all flooded.
Nevertheless, we wanted to see Laguna Chaxa where flamingos eat their lunch. On the way MIKE suddenly jumped out of the car and ran after a tornado because he always wanted to be inside one - and he made it (in flip flops). Wojciech had to laugh so much that he barely could stand on his feet but in that situation he was still able to take this pic of MIKE:
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| MIKE running after a tornado |
Before we entered the Laguna Chaxa National Park we had a short break with coffee and “salt volley ball”.
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| Let's play salt volley ball... |
And here r the impressions of the salt lake...the flamingos enjoy their lunch and around them is just salt, salt and more salt.
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| Laguna Chaxa |
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| flamingo...sweet ha? |
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| Daria and Wojceich |
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| The salt desert and behind the mountains...beautiful nature! |
On the way back to San Pedro we took some illusion pics in the desert, have a look:
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| Markus seems thirsty |
Meeting giantess Daria;)
On the third day our Polish friends left towards Peru and we decided to do a bike tour through the Atacama desert to Laguna Cejar where the road was closed for cars. In total around 80 km to cycle forth and back (roughly estimated). I thought I could handle the heat, the sun and the dry air but my body did not and 100m before we reached the lagoon I collapsed and fell off the bike - but my hero was close and rescued me...again. We thought we won’t be able to go all the way back and hitchhiking was not an option because all cars that parked at the lagoon were full. So we took the challenge to bike the tour back and I have to say for me (and for MIKE) it was too exhaustive. We were already out of water, it started to get dark (and cold) and my body was too weak to reach “home” but thank to the universe suddenly two nice Chileans came around who saved us by taking us back to San Pedro by car. Nevertheless, the salt lake is really a lot of fun. U swim on the surface like wood which can be explained by the high salt concentration in the water that causes a way higher buoyancy than in pure water.
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| Mike reading a book... |
After this real Atacama challenge we did a tour up to el Tatio (around 4500m) where u can see geysers spitting out hot water and hot steams just during sunrise. That means getting up at around 3am. After such a stressy day and 5 hours sleep I was really not in the mood to see this fu..ing geysers. However as soon as we saw the first one my mood changed from bad tempered to excited and my respect to nature increased 100%. It is impressive that this hot water which has a smelly scent of sulfur was heated up several 1000 meters deep by magma and comes to the surfaces just in such a short time window…only in the morning before the sun rises.
Owing to this and the whole environment, this place seemed sooo alien like for me. Grass grows in small bushes, the favorite dish of Vizcachas (and Vicunias), animals that somehow look like rabbits crossbread with squirrels.
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| Vizcacha |
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| What a landscape; is it on earth? |
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| Baby Vicunia |
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| This bush was not fluffy, it was spiky like a cactus...ouch |
After those nice impressions our tour guide invited us for breakfast. Cheese-bread with freshly cooked eggs (of course in a hot water of a geyser), cake, cookies and coffee or coca tea with hot milk warmed up in a geysir.
This area also offers natural hot tubs. It is not such a swimming area like we r used to it; u do not have rooms to change. Putting all the clothes down and jumping in that muddy splashy water somehow woke us up. After that we visited also a little town where the guide told us that those people r really living there but for us it was just a tourist trap. However, they sold great empanadas with goat cheese.
Heading down to San Pedro again we were both very tired due to the unusual altitude and decided to leave San Pedro. Markus preferred to stay longer in this lovely city and at this point our ways separated. Me and MIKE r still on the road, chilling at different places, having dinner between truckers at gas stations and enjoyed again the lovely beach of Playa Blanca. We got stuck two times with our van in the sand but also this problem did not stop us to be on the road again.
With those upcoming last pics I want to say bye bye to the North of Chile and one day we will see the South, too.
See you soon in Kiwi kingdom!
Jiny & Mike
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