Astronauts in Chile

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After 28 hours and 3 buses we arrived in the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile. It´s only rained here like twice in 400 years or something. It really is a vast, gourgeous wasteland. A conformity of giant sandy dunes and deep red canyons. No life is here because no life could or would want to live here. It´s only beautiful. The area around it is called the Valley of the Moon because they say there is no geology in Earth so similar to that of the moon as the Atacama desert. NASA used to keep a base here for experiments. Very bleak and amazing, with volcanoes (some active) in the background. We camped in San Pedro, a green oasis that somehow sprouts life into a couple square miles of the desert from an underground spring. So us four astronauts found this big green bush on the moon for two nights and lived it up.
We rode bikes over 40 km in the last 24 period. We visited a cool, boring Inca fortress, played cowboys and indians in a canyon, and explored the moon and a muddy stream. At night we rented sandboards and rode deep into the desert at sunset. There, seperated from any form of life by miles, and in a crater of desert nestled between giant sand dunes, we sandboarded through the night down 100 ft. dunes at a 35 degree angle guided only by the moonlight - the first full moon of the new year. Sandboarding is snowboarding but with sand instead of snow because there is no snow in the desert, only sand. We were all bad, but we all improved. And that´s what counts so we´re all winners. Then we settled in our sleeping bags under the stars and counted constellations and planets (for some reason we counted about 11 planets). It´s hard to pee in the desert cause there´s nowhere to hide. And it´s true, deserts are freezing at night. We woke up at 6 am to catch a jeep to Bolivia.

Here is a link to more info on the Atacama: http://www.musc.edu/cando/geocam/atacama/atacama.html

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Photos

A bike ride to the moon
After 15km windy bike ride outside of San Pedro de Attacamma, Chile we reached the Valley of the Moon

Devils Gorge
One of the coolest hidden spots outside of San Pedro de Attacama

Can you find all four of us?
Devil´s Canyon...we played in the corridors of a real life drip castle

Camping in Valley of the Dead
Nobody for miles, the full moon,bikes, sandboards, the silence, the stillness, the heavens!!!

Sandboarding
Emma

Comments

[Kelley]

Celebrity gossip
You know, if I were ya'll, celebrity gossip would be #1 on what I miss most about the U.S. list! Please let me know if I can do ya'll the favor of filling you in. After all, that is what I am watching on T.V as ya'll spend boring nights sandboarding, walking on water and other pointless activities.

[Epsie]

Valley of the Moon picture
The picture of the Valley of the Moon reminds me of the landscape around Mount Whitney.