"Do I need my raincoat?"

I know that nature can do some pretty crazy things. I've seen what happens after crazy Nor'easters; tornadoes both scare and amaze me; hurricanes never cease to amaze me; images of the 2004 tsunami are easily remembered. But I've never truly appreciated the sheer force of nature until my trip this weekend to San Pedro de Atacama, to visit the Atacama Desert.

Firstly, it was the epitome of a whirlwind weekend. We barely had time to breathe, let alone sleep (definitely still struggling with those aftereffects).
Sidenote: I just averaged my sleep for the last seven nights. We're hovering around 3.5 hours per night. AHH!!

I think that the easiest way for me to record all this is to just break the days down... we'll see how this goes (Warning: This post is going to be a BEAST). Also, if you click on the hyperlinks, you'll be sent to Wikipedia articles that explain what I saw a little bit more :)


Friday

Friday started when, but about midnight, the group of 12 arrived at my house to chill out and wait for our shuttle to the airport. We made (deliciously amazing) brownies, and just watched some Latin American Idol to pass the time. 2:00 am: Van scheduled to show up. Van shows up at 2:20, a la Chilena. We head to the airport to catch our 5:45 flight. Land in Calama at 7:50. Take a taxi to the bus station. 10:15 bus to San Pedro. Arrive in San Pedro at about noon. Go to the hostel; check in; pay. Get to the center to eat real quick and start tours at 2:30 pm.

The first thing that I really noticed when we got to San Pedro was how DUSTY it was. It honestly blew my mind. And water pressure there? Incredibly low. I mean, it's to be expected... it's the driest desert in the world. But still. And we weren't allowed to drink the tap water, so I ended up spending an unexpected 5 mil pesos on bottled water. BOO!! We were drinking about 4 or 5 liters of water a day, and were still thirsty and dehydrated.

Okay. So Tour One: We went to La Cordillera de Sal, which is a mirador (lookout) over one of the canyons in the desert. I've never seen the Grand Canyon or anything. And it just amazed me that something so vast can just be formed, for lack of a better word. All of the rock formations were mind boggling. Then, we went to Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). This is the driest spot in the world. They've been recording rainfall and weather there for over 150 years, and never once has there been rain. And it's true... nothing grows in this area, but there's also these HUGE sand dunes that were fun to run around on. The sand was so incredibly fine there from all the wind and natural erosion.

After, we went walking around a bit through some of the canyon-esque areas in Death Valley. We were there right around sunset, as the shadow start to fall on the rock walls. Our tour guide, at one point, made us stop and be absolutely silent. We heard these cracking and snapping noises; when the sun hits the rocks, it heats up all the gypsum and other crystals that they're made of. Once the sun sets, it starts to cool down, and the rocks actually make these noises as they snap back into place.

Last stop: Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). We went there to watch the sunset from the top of a cordillera (mountain range). It was BEAUTIFUL, with the Andes turning pink in the background.

Below is my slideshow from day one!! Again, the photos have captions




Saturday

After that insane day, we woke up at about 6 for a tour the following morning.

First stop: Salar de Atacama. It is the third largest salt flat in the world, and the only major one that is formed by underground water sources instead of rain. This bottom-up evaporation creates the awkward and irregular structures that you'll see in pictures. Also, licking the salt rocks is a very good/very bad idea all at the same time. As stupid as it sounds, the salt is just saltier there. But I'm glad I did it! And! 40% of the world's lithium reserves come from this salt flat; odds are that the batteries in my camera had lithium from the Salar de Atacama. Talk about going full circle...

Also at the salar was the Reservacion Nacional de los Flamencos (FLAMINGO RESERVATION!). Sad story: it was too hard to really get all that close to them. Oh well!

I also learned that Chile has 150 active volcanoes, which is 10% of the world's population of active volcanoes. The most active one is Volcan Lascar, which had major eruptions every year from 2000 to 2007.

Next stop: Socaire, a small village outside of the Salar. Indigenous influences are still readily visible, especially in their use of terraces to irrigate their land. Pretty ingenious!

Then, we went to Las Lagunas Altiplanicas, Lagoon Miscanti and another. These are some of the highest lagoons in the world, formed by underwater sources and water than runs down the Andes. I think this was perhaps one of the most beautiful things that I saw in Atacama. The volcanoes mixed with the regular Andean mountains in the background.... again, it was just amazing to see the forces of nature at work.

Last stop was Quebrada de Jere (ravine/gully), a random oasis in the middle of the desert. They still use these old-school systems of redirecting water to take advantage of this stream running through the desert. And they're good at it, too. They end up growing lots of fruits there.

PICTURES!



SUNDAY

Another early morning, this time to hike in the Andes a bit. We took a bus along the road that connects Chile and Argentina, and stopped about 50 km away from the country lines. We were at an altitude of 4600 meters (about 3 miles), which is higher than the highest point in Europe! We chewed coca leaves to fend off altitude sickness (... and because it's fun to say that you've chewed coca leaves..). Also, it was entirely FREEZING during this hike because of the insane winds. I was wearing leggings and shorts that day, and I still have this little strip of skin around my ankles that's entirely red raw. My hands were cracked and bleeding due to the crazy temperature extremes in the desert.

I think the trek was my favorite day. I was able to climb lots of rocks, and that fun stuff. It was also cool because our guide was SO laid back. He didn't really care what we did or where we went, as long as we met up with him in the end. It ended up being hours and hours of exploring and wandering. There were a few times where I'd look around and not be able to see anyone, or anything. Absolutely no signs of life at all. I've never felt truly alone like that before; and it might have been the most peaceful feeling I've experienced. I also felt so small during this trek, surrounded by these huge rock formations carved from wind. I feltBlogger: ¿Como se dice.....? - Create Post both powerful and impotent at the same time, which is a bizarre sensation.

At the end of the hike was another lagoon... and a PACK OF WILD LLAMAS!!! Below are photos (obviously).








MONDAY

Monday, we woke up at 3 am to be on a bus by 4 am to go to El Tatio geysers, the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere. Even though the geyser "show" will continue all day, you have to get there super early to see the eruptions before the temperature goes above 0 degrees C. Once it does, you're unable to see the steam that comes out of the geothermic field. So we arrived about 6 am, with a temperature of -9. How fantastic....

No, but it was. I didn't chew coca leaves that day, and ended up feeling a bit sick (altitude of 4200 meters), but it was so worth it. The constant streams of steam into the air were breathtaking.

Then, we went to a thermal spring a few towns away to go SWIMMING in a hot spring!!! Absolutely amazing. It was about 40 degrees C, and was a nice way to warm up.

The last thing we did was go to a "farm" of cacti. There aren't many cacti left in the Atacama desert, but this is one of the areas with the highest concentration. There was also a waterfall (I'm really starting to not believe that it's the "driest desert in the world." I saw salt flats and brine pools and lagoons and geysers... hmmm....).




We got back to the center at about 2 pm. Ate lunch. Checked out of the hostel. Got on a 5:50 bus. Taxi to the airpot. Waited in the airport for security to open because it's such a small airport, it only opens at certain times (?!?!). 10:50 flight. Arrived in Santiago at 1. Van to Vina del Mar (Arrived at 3 am). A full 24 hour day.

Moral of the story: It was an absolutely amazing trip. Everything was so pure and untouched, and was almost too beautiful to be real. I've never felt so inundated by yet close to nature. And never have I been more appreciate of what is natural. I learned that I really love being outdoors, and would prefer to be outside doing something than sitting around.

And this trip just made me want to travel even more.... I can't wait for Santiago in a few weekends!