Santiago and Atacama

We have been very busy this past week. After the volcano, we took a 12 hour bus ride the next day to Santiago. We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in Santiago. I don’t have much to say about Santiago becuase we were there for such a short time. On Saturday we strolled through the city center to one of the main attractions, which is a hill that you can climb which overlooks the city. It was really smoggy that day, so the view was average. On Sunday we walked through a few parks and spent time in one of the main plazas.

On Monday we took a 24 hour bus ride all the way to the northern top of the country. Here there is a town called San Pedro de Atacama which lies in the middle of the Atacama Desert. This desert is the driest area of land in the world. They say that in some parts, it has never rained. NASA has a huge telescope down here because of the high elevation and the fact that it is always sunny and cloudless. The desert itself is home to one of the largest copper mines in the world, and during the 1800’s was the leading source of nitrate based fertilizer in the world. Because of these resources, there are small towns and mines dotting the desert. I should mention that absolutely nothing lives out here. It is so dry, not even cactus are able to survive here.

On Tuesday after we arrived, we booked our jeep tour, and then rented mountain bikes and headed into the desert. It was pretty late when we started out, so we saw the sunset in the desert, and rode home under the  bright stars. In this town we met up with our friends Jason and David. The prior week we planned on meeting up with our friends in this town in order to signup on the same jeep tour.

On Wednesday we started out on the three day jeep tour. The tour goes from San Pedro de Atacama, up into the altiplano of Bolivia, through the desert, through the Andes, and across a giant salt flat before arriving at Unuyi, Bolivia. Seven of us piled into the Toyota Land Cruiser. The first day was difficult because right away we gained eight thousand feet in elevation. We started the day out around 8000 feet in elevation, and by the afternoon we were at 16000 feet. Needless to say, our bodies had a difficult time adjusting. Just by sitting in the car we were out of breath, and headaches were also an issue. Besides those symptoms, the scenery was worth it. First we drove my Lago Verde (Green Lake). Then we took at dip in a hot spring. Afterwards we drove to an area with geysers and hot mud puddles. After that we went to Lago Colorado (Colorado Lake) which is bright red and has thousands of flamengos living in its waters. We spent that night in an adobe hut at the edge of the lake, at around 14000 feet in elevation. This is probably the most remote place I have ever been. We discovered the other fun side effect of being at a high elevation: sleeplessness.

On Thursday we woke up early and drove all day long. We stopped at some beautiful places. Here is one area, with large wind eroded rocks. Here is another similar area we stopped at for lunch. And here is another lake that had flamingos. Along the way we saw lots of llamas and other similar animals which I cannot remember the names of. Tuesday we stayed at a salt hotel, which is a hotel made entirely of salt.

On Friday we spent the entire day exploring the salt flat. This area was once covered by an ocean millions of years ago. As the ocean receded, and the water evaporated, a huge layer of salt was left behind. The salt is 6 meters deep, and covers hundreds of square miles. In the middle of this salt flat is an old coral reef. Now the reef is a large hill that looks like an island in the middle of the salt. We walked around this coral island, climbed to the top, and spent the rest of the day driving in the salt. Afterwards, we drove onto Unuyi. What an excursion.

Tomorrow we head to a town in Bolivia called Potosi.