Deep in the Desert

Hola Chicos,

The 25-hour slog North to San Pedro de Atacama was made almost bearable by the stunning scenery. Water and sand took it in turn to captivate us; sometimes the Pacific Ocean boomed mere metres away from our bus, while at other times the haunting Atacama Desert threatened to engulf us. Despite this and our best attempts to entertain ourselves (books, music and our unique sense of humour were all employed), we arrived in San Pedro with our minds – and multiple body parts – extremely numb.

We awoke the following day and soon realized that San Pedro is unlike any other town we had visited. It is in the middle of the desert (namely the Atacama, the driest desert in the world) and this means that water and electricity – not to mention Wifi – are at a premium. The climate is positively bipolar, with the temperature fluctuating wildly from 35 degrees during the day, to sub-zero at nighttime. However, our charming hostel and hostess were well-equipped to deal with the weather and we adapted fairly easily, aided, in Tom’s case, by copious amounts of sun cream.

As usual, we were men on a mission and wasted no time in exploring the swathes of salt and sand surrounding the stark settlement (only 3200 desert dwellers live there). Our guide, Nicolas, whisked us off to the aptly-named Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). Where does this name come from, you might ask? There are 3 possible reasons; a geologist once likened the red-brown barren landscape to the 4th planet from the Sun and dubbed it Valle de Marte (Valley of Mars). Over time, the word ‘Marte’ was corrupted to ‘Muerte’. This morbid element was strengthened by the valley’s bloody history; Spanish conquistadores used to conduct executions of the locals here. Finally, and most obviously, ‘death’ is everywhere. There is no living plant or animal for miles around as the inhospitable environment makes survival impossible. We were pleased that we were in the hands of an experienced guide because the desert was truly…deserted. No-one could hear us scream.

View of the Desert

We were stunned to learn that the desert where we were standing was once a mighty sea. This seemed particularly hard to believe as we were 2440 metres above...sea level and there was not a drop of water to be seen. Indeed, only 1-2mm of rain falls every year and the humidity is at a mere 7%. In theory, this means we should barely break sweat, although Tom and Ben would beg to differ. The only hint that there had been an ocean were the vast salt caves. According to both our guide (and our tongues) the percentage of salt in these caves was a staggering 96% (to you chemistry aficionados out there, that's nearly pure Sodium Chloride). Mmmmm....salty.

Pac-Man Rock

We proceeded to the other-wordly Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) where we were due to see the sun set. The imposing sand dunes seemed to come straight from a Star Wars movie (Tatooine?) and with our shadows lengthening, it was a truly spectacular sight. Ed and another traveller from our hostel thought it would be a good idea to race down a bank of pristine, untouched sand. After plunging to the bottom, they were promptly rounded on by the Desert Guardian who claimed that the sand had been protected from all human contact for the past few centuries. Ed's fellow miscreant took the Moon Valley's name slightly too literally and decided to...moon at the Guardian to show his contempt. This did little to affect the stunning sunset, which, although it struggled to compare with the sunset from Sugarloaf, was still fairly spec-tac-u-lar.

Ed defacing the beautiful landscape

Valle de la Luna at Sunset

The next day, your favourite 3 nomads awoke at the excruciatingly early time of 4a.m. It should be noted that our slumber had been cut short the night before due to the roller-coaster of emotions brought on by the tear-jerking The Perks of Being a Wallflower (a thoroughly macho film, the perfect remedy for watching the sunset - we all heartily recommend it). The reasons for our early awakening were the fearsome Geysers. Unfortunately, the Geysers did not quite live up to expectations. While they did approach 85 °C and the smell was suitably sulphurous, they seemed somewhat lacklustre - as if the spurts of gas could hardly be bothered to emerge from the ground and entertain the tourists. Our moods were further dampened by diving straight in to the Thermal Springs. Alas, the term Thermal is gravely misleading. The Springs were either scolding or freezing (classic Goldilocks Syndrome) and the only redeeming factor was that some ravishing girls from New Zealand leant us their towels to dry ourselves. The Perks of Being an Englishman?

The Geysers

The thermal springs

We were due to leave for Bolivia the next day so we intended to have a Big Night In. However, the Bolivians had decided to combine International Workers' Day (May 1st) with a national holiday/strike on May 2nd. We were stranded in San Pedro for another day, so headed down to the village's one and only pub. No sooner had we walked in the door than we bumped straight into a fellow Gap Year-er we had not seen since Santiago. From Santiago he had headed south to Pucon (see 'V for Volcano' entry) a mere 800km away. We went North to San Pedro - 1200km in the opposite direction. Despite the logistical difficulties, here we were, reunited smack bang in the middle of the Atacama. What a coincidence.

Our 'bonus day' in San Pedro was very calm, as we braced ourselves for the 3-day tour of the Salt Flats. The only incident of note was Ben and Tom's brave yet foolish decision to stray from the tried-and-tested pasta, tomato sauce and frankfurters. We spent a solid 20-minutes grappling with the Mammoth Burger ('Mammoth' reflects its size but was also its brand name) before our hostess took pity on us, and saved the day, effectively cooking the entire meal for us (N.B. we did manage to apply the parmesan ourselves). Ed wisely chose to stay away from the carnage and instead went star-gazing. Ed, over to you:

After being cruelly denied the chance to gaze at one of Earth's clearest skies by a smothering of clouds (in the desert??), Ed managed to get himself to the principal space observatory in San Pedro in order to have the lustrous brilliance of the Milky Way brought to life. Ed and his fellow star gazers were first given a guide to the skies by an astronomically enthusiastic astronomer. He toured us through the luminous landmarks amongst the star-peppered sky: the constellations of the Zodiac, Sirius the brightest star in the sky and the orbiting Tarantula Galaxy, to name just a few. We were taught how to find the South Pole using the Southern Cross and how to spot Saturn amongst the 3000 celestial lights above us. The most astounding section of the tour was yet to come. The observatory had ten powerful telescopes focused on several breath-taking stellar formations. Saturn takes the biscuit for the most interesting- seeing the rings in all their brilliance is truly astounding. The chance to grab a picture of the planet was seized before heading inside for a hot chocolate (much envied by Ben).

Saturn

Our next blog entry is going to be an absolute gem about our 3 day tour through the Bolivian salt flats. Will be up in a couple days, death road permitting.