WOW!!! San Pedro is a tourist town of epic proportions. There are so many wild adventures exploring this crazy, magical Atacama desert. The Atacama desert is the driest desert in the world. (They do like their superlatives down here in South America). Some of their weather stations cannot even report any measurement of rain or moisture for an entire year at a time.
The town itself is a bustling little pueblo bursting at the seams with tourists and not just gringos which is wonderful - but full of South Americans as well. The town is higher in feet in elevation (7,900 feet) than its population (around 5,000 people). Outside of town, there are so many adventures and places to see. We spent 3 days and 2 nights here and packed in going to Valle de Luna, El Tatio geyser field and Laguna Cejas. It was incredible!!
I will start with the pictures at the top which were taken at Valle de Luna. It has a moon like landscape (thus Luna) with ruins of salt mines and different phases of sediment and salt. You can see in one of the pictures (hopefully above), the salt almost looks quartz and crystal like. We were able to watch the sunset from there as the evening activity. Be - ewe - tea - full!
We then went to Laguna Cejas which I unfortunately did not have my camera for. We went swimming in Laguna Cejas which is a fresh salt water lake. It was hilarious. The only way to keep from floating was to keep moving your legs underwater. The minute you stopped, your body would just pop up to surface in any direction possible. I think it would be a great place to teach someone how to float or at least get comfortable floating on your back, stomach and sides. After I got out of the water, it was not more than 5 minutes and I was completely dry and had a coat of salt armor. My skin was tight and taut and white. We luckily next went to 2 fresh water lakes where we could jump in ( and we literally had to because there were sidewalls of about 2 - 3 feet, and rinse most of the salt water off. Lastly we drove to this salt flat - a huge lake area that is comprised of salt and a stream/river running through it. I guess in the winter it is covered with about 2 - 3 inches of water.But now in their summer here, it is hardpacked salt crunching under one's feet.
The last trip was to the El Tatio geyser field which has about 80 active geysers. It is the world's highest geyser field (yet another superlative) and the geysers are active at dawn. It is 2 hours from San Pedro so we had to leave at 4 am, drive out there, try and stay warm until the sun came up. I laugh at the differences in culture in how free people are to do and explore what they want. In the US, there are fences, pathways and lots and lots and lots of signs everywhere prohibiting you from giong anywhere near a cool spectacle like the geysers in Yellowstone. Now I understand prohibiting masses of people can help protect the natural wonders for others to see. i also think it saves a heck of a lot of litigation as well. Here only the boundaries of the parking lot were marked and we were allowed to get as close as we wanted. Granted we were warned that people have gotten too close and gotten burned or the earth had given way beneath their feet and people have died etc. But nonetheless, we were allowed to explore freely. After the geyser field we went to a hot pool which was geyser fed. It was incredible. It was a pretty big natural "pool" but the geyser was at one end of it. So at one point, our group estimated there were about 60 - 70 people in the pool but only at the end near the geyser. My group arrived earlier than most, so we had prime spots in the pool - near where the stream of hot, boiling water would float down from the geyser. Now this had some disadvantages because there were some points where the water was scalding so we had to be careful not to get burned! We figured out that if we just kept the water churning when it was incredibly hot, using our hands as churners, that it was awesome!!!!!!! The water temperature was really quite variable. There were even a few times where the water flowing down was cold.
After our whirlwind adventure, we took a 24 hour bus ride to Santiago. We left the desert about halfway through the journey and returned to greenery and lovely trees. I am a tree loving tree hugger through and through. I just breathe so much more deeply and am so much more at peace when I am near trees (and of course snowy mountains but they add a whole level of excitement and energy for me as well). From Santiago, I took a quick 2 hour bus to Valparaiso. AAAHHHHH this is more like home! It feels so good here! I did a little bit of exploring this late afternoon and will have another day tomorrow. Valparaiso is on the ocean so there is the fresh ocean water air mixed with lots of green trees and a terraced city up into the surrounding hills
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