Some Like It Variably Hot and Freezing

Stardate 5.18.2009. Just returned from expedition to the Atacama Desert. Located in northern Chile, it is the most arid place in the world. There are parts that never see rain. And yes, I did see Star Trek recently, why do you ask?

San Pedro de Atacama
The base of the desert trips is San Pedro, a tiny town in the middle of the desert. To get there I took metro=>bus=>plane to Calama=>bus to San Pedro. The town was all dirt roads and had one main street with a few restaurants, a number of shops, and millions of tour companies. They all offered the same tours but prices varied so you had to shop around. The plaza had this little colonial church that was cute but not cute enough to be on all the souvenirs like it was.

Salar de Atacama
In the middle of the desert is a giant salt flat, caused by an upwelling of water from the mountains that evaporates in the heat and leaves behind the salts and minerals it was carrying. I didn't see much of the salar since I only had a half day (apparently there is a large colony of flamingos), but we did go to one pool, Laguna Cejas. The water in the pool is 80% saline so you float, just like in the Dead Sea. The weird thing was that the water at the top was cold but the deeper parts were boiling hot.

After that we were all salt-encrusted so they took us over to another freshwater pool to wash off. It was a 6-foot jump into freezing water, though, so I opted for the portable shower the guide had on the bus. Then we went to a different lake, where I performed a miracle.

Ta da!

Just kidding. This lake had a very shallow layer of water over a base of salt, so it gave off a good reflection and the illusion of walking on water. Still pretty cool. We stayed there for the sunset and pisco sour. The nice thing about Chilean tours is that they usually include food and/or alcohol.

El Tatio Geysers
The next morning I got up at the lovely hour of 3:30 to witness geology in action. We drove for two hours through the dark and arrived at the geothermal field at 6:30, just in time for the geysers to wake up. Another fun fact about Chilean tours: to be a tour guide you must first be proven certifiably insane. So our guide (i didn't catch his name, but it was probably Juan Pablo. Everyone in this country is named Juan Pablo) led us over to a hole in the ground and starting talking about how geysers work while we all peer in. Then he said, "Oh, hear that bubbling? It's ready! Let's back up." Not 20 seconds later the thing erupts with boiling hot water.

Juan Pablo and I huddle in the warmth of the geyser

We were fairly high up, approx. 4500 m (almost 15,000 ft). It was also extremely cold-- 15 below in Celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but it was freaking cold. Once the sun came up though it got warm pretty quickly. It was also beautiful seeing the sun come over the mountains and light up the billowing columns of steam. Definitely worth braving the early morning cold.

On the way back the guide kept spouting some nonsense about morraines and underground rivers. I didn't really care, but the scenery was wonderful. We saw some cool wildlife (that I am obliged to tell you about :)-- vicuñas, smaller cousin of the llama and guanaco; Andean geese, which mate for life; vischazas, mountain rabbits or, as JP said, "Chilean wallabies"; and a couple foxes. We also stopped in this little village (pop. 6) to get some lunch. They had llama kebobs and llama empanadas. Let me tell you, llamas are delicious! There was also a lady with a baby llama but she charged a mil to take a picture of it so I don't have one.

Llama kebob!

Sandboarding and Valle de la Luna
That afternoon (after a nap, of course) i went on yet another tour, this time to the Valles de la Muerte y Luna. In Valle de la Muerte (which literally translates to Valley of Death but is supposed to be Valley of Mars) I went sandboarding. It was so much fun! It's basically snowboarding on a sand dune. I was embarrassingly bad at it, of course, and I do not exaggerate when I say my underpants were full of sand. If they had given me sand skis I would have been queen of the dune. It was exhausting, not least because there was no lift of any sort. You had to carry your board up the dune.

You can tell I'm posing because I'm upright

Then we popped over to Valle de la Lune (Valley of the Moon) for the sunset. I've wanted to go to this place since my freshman year of college when we watched a movie about it in my Spanish class. The valley is desolate of life because it never gets rain, and it has a bunch of really weird rock formations carved out by the wind. All in all it resembles an extraterrestrial landscape. Unfortunately, we got there right as the sun was setting so I didn't get to see very much of the valley. I would have liked more time there but it was a short trip so I had to be selective. It was still really cool though. Definitely a boom de yada experience.

To boldy go where no man has gone before...

Boom de yada!

And finally, a big shout out to my hermanito Raleigh who graduated from high school last Saturday. So exciting! The lucky kid won a flat screen tv at the postgraduation party too. He's going to the Mississippi U. for Women in the fall, entering their culinary arts and honors programs. Goooo Raleigh! : D