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| Lunch on a boulder. |
Any minute now I expect tumbleweeds to roll across the
courtyard of our hostel. Dust floats in the air reflecting the noon time sun.
We’re in San Pedro de Atacama, we arrived yesterday after days in the salt
flats and a natural reserve in southern Bolivia. San Pedro is a tourist town
that looks like it belongs in the old west, adobe houses and all, but instead
of gunslingers wandering the streets its tourist touts. When we arrived, our
bags hanging off our backs, we were like lambs to the slaughter, but luckily we
found a reasonably priced hostel on the edge of town and we’re heading to the
capital tonight by bus.
But besides the present let’s talk about these last few
days. The tour began in Uyuni, a 9-hour night bus from La Paz, we arrived early
in the morning; it was freezing. We found a small café for some breakfast and
then found tour agency to book the tour for the next few days.
When the tour started we were kind of worried because we
were told one thing, but then we were given to another tour company. But after we met our tour-mates, mostly
mid-to-late-20-somethings, who work in youth development, education, and
pharmacology, we were happy to be with them. They were from all over, two were from Australia,
two from Ireland, us, and one from Switzerland. We had tons of great conversations
while we sat for hours in the back of our Lexus 4x4.
The first day, we went out to the salt flats. These were
awesome, it looked like snow, but definitely tasted like salt (yes, I did lick
some). We took some funky perspective photos because it so flat that if someone
is closer to the camera they look so much larger then someone who was further
back. Here are some examples:
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| Look I shrunk! |
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| No!! We're getting blown over! |
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| Mini sock monkeys! |
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| Jump on the Salt Plains! |
After the flats we drove a little ways to our first night’s stop.
The next day we didn’t know what to expect, it seemed like the second day’s
activities were an afterthought when they told us about the second day in the
tour office, but after driving a little ways we saw such a different beauty
than what we’ve seen before. Red volcanic rock valleys of all shapes and sizes
dotted the side of the road. Rock formations that looked like condors, pumas,
faces, and so many other things, our imaginations were our only limitations, created
such a rugged landscape. We continued on
and the lands around became so barren, empty. It was so haunting, but amazing
at the same time. Snowcapped volcanoes rose up in distance, some were in Chile,
some were in Bolivia, all were inactive (well except one, but really that only
spits smoke every once and a while). We made it to several lagoons that
reflected the nearby volcanoes and mountains. We ate lunch atop a boulder next
to another body of water that flamingoes frequented, took some photos, and then
drove on. As day turned to afternoon we entered the national park, Eduardo
Avarroa. We saw this amazing lagoon called Laguna Colarada. The water was pink,
pink, (from the algae) and again more volcanoes surrounded it, creating an
amazing panoramic. We walked to our hostel and spent the night relaxing,
talking, and drinking some beers.
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| Look Ma! I am a condor! |
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| The rock landscape |
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| The rock tree! Looks eerily like a tree. |
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| The pink flamingos with pink water! |
The last day of the tour we started early: 4:40 am. We ate a
breakfast of yogurt, cereal, and cold pancake s and then went to see some
awesome geysers spitting heavy steam. The morning was cold, but then we made
our way to a hot springs that sat in the middle of the reserve. It was cold and
we all had to do a quick deck change since the changing rooms were closed. We
all were miserable for about 10 seconds but once we entered the water a
collective gasp of relief and amazingness escaped all of our lips, and we sat
in the hot water watching more tourists do the same struggle against the cold,
but then once they entered, each had the same exact response as we.
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| Geysers! |
We moved on from the hot springs and saw the Laguna Verde,
which wasn’t so green, but still was amazing to see. From there we drove to the end of the reserve
to the Chilean Border. It was so cool to see all the different soils (sand,
dark, white, crazy!) and rock shapes fly by as we drove on. Once at the border
we said goodbye to our tour buddies, except Fabienne, the Swiss girl, who came
to Chile with us and waited in biting cold for our bus to show up.
We arrived in San Pedro, passed through customs without much
delay, and found our hostel. We had an amazing dinner last night with Fabienne,
GIANT EMPANADAS and good Chilean wine. And now we’re at the hostel gaffing with
Fab and waiting for our bus tonight.
So far Chile has been good to us. Let’s see
what the next chapter brings.
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| More flamingos |
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| Such gorgeous scenery |
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| Lagoons! |
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