There’s something in the air…
We got into San Pedro de Atacama around lunchtime. The French couple I was with was insistent on arguing with the tour agency about a lunch they were promised for that day. I just stood outside, basking in the warm sun…oh it was so good to be warm again. We were still at altitude (2000-some meters, 6000-some feet), but it was sunny and warm. Just a few hours before I had been freezing…now I was gladly stripping off all my clothes. After a long, fruitless argument, we left to find a hotel. We were all freaking out about the prices, in shock coming from cheap Bolivia. The best we could find was $12, which was about 3 times more than what I had consistently paid in Bolivia. I grabbed a lunch (at a whopping $10, compared to $2-3 in Bolivia, sometimes less than $1) and headed on a tour to see the sunset in the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley).
Our first stop on the tour was a lookout point in a small mountain range, called the Salt Range. The ground here looks like it’s covered with a slight dusting of snow, but it’s all salt. This is the Atacama desert – the driest place in the world. That’s why I came here…just to see what it’s like. In one town, Calama, it has never rained (I read that on a bathroom wall in a hotel once and was intrigued ever since). Our guide told us that the desert contains 40% of the world’s lithium supply. Because it’s so dry, and due to the constant evaporation, the stuff is just floating in the air, and everyone’s breathing it in. Coincidence that everyone here is so pleasant? No.
From there we continued on to Death Valley, originally supposed to be named Mars Valley, but the guy who named it was a Belgian priest whose Spanish wasn’t very good. The words Mars and Death are very similar in Spanish, and he was misunderstood. We took a walk through the valley, where I talked with our guide, Antonio. Nice, interesting guy. Our driver, on the other hand, was a bit weird. I feel as if he was just learning how to drive – not the best quality in a driver. He would race fast, but then stop for a good 10-15 seconds (or more) at stop signs in the middle of the desert, with long, empty roads visible in every direction. Me and the other tourists just looked at each other in confusion (though slightly amused at what the hell he could possibly be waiting for).
We finally got to Moon Valley, where I paid a heavily pierced man at the Indiginous Peoples office my entrance fee. We stopped to look at some rock formations (big whoop), and finally got to our sunset viewing spot. Of the three options of places to view the sunset, I chose the highest, furthest one, and set out walking along a sand dune to get there. The views were amazing…it’s not called Moon Valley for nothing. As the sun went down, it painted the Andes Mountains behind us in beautiful shades of red. I had seen the sunrise that morning on the other side of those mountains…it was cool to see both sunrise and sunset in the same day.
After the tour, I showered for the first time in 2 days and treated myself to a good dinner. The food in Bolivia is cheap, but it’s not very good. I spent as much on dinner that night as I normally would pay for a whole day (including hotel, food, everything) in Bolivia. But, I actually did enjoy my meal (eating out for 7 months straight gets very, very old, and I actually enjoy very few meals…except breakfast. I still like breakfast.)
As I sat, writing at the restaurant, one of the band members came up to talk to me – Miguel, 40-something. He invited me to stay at his house for cheaper (I had heard of residents in San Pedro doing this). He lived in the country and told me about how beautiful it all was out there. Without me actually saying yes, we made plans to meet the next morning at 9am to bike out there.
The next morning, I woke at about 9am and rushed to go meet Miguel to tell him I wouldn’t be going…I had decided to leave that night to go to Arica, a “beach resort” town…how exciting to lay on the beach. Miguel extended the offer for “next time” and showed me a good cheap spot to get breakfast. As I sat down for breakfast a man a few tables over started talking to me. He was hilarious – a bus driver who wears costumes while he drives his bus. Zorro, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, a mummy, and Santa Claus. It’s that Lithium, I tell you.
I walked around some more and a little old lady started talking to me, welcoming me to her town. I then ran into Antonio, the guide from the night before, who offered his place to stay, for “next time”. As I returned back to the hotel (to do laundry…taking advantage of the quick drying time), the owner’s son was washing his bus, and offered “next time” to take me out to another little town in the desert called Tocanao. High quantities of lithium…
Tags: Chile, Tag Index
Tania
May 9th, 2006 at 9:14 am
We’ll have to get withium regarding the lithium! What is it anyway?
We love you. Be safe.