The World´s Driest Desert!

I just got back from San Pedro de Atacama- the world´s driest desert that is full of lakes, salt flats, flamingos, volcanos, etc. I went with two girls I met in classes, one from the French island of Guatalupe and the other from England. Usually I´m not a big fan of tours but in the Atacama it´s the only way to see everything, so our days were full of tours. San Pedro is a touristy little town that is surrounded by salt flats and volcanos, truely the most beautiful desert I´ve ever seen.

The first day we swam in Laguna Cejar, which is compared to the Dead Sea, it´s 35% salt. It was absolutely freezing but worth the goosebumps- really bizaar not being able to sink. We visited Dos Ojos, which are two other little lakes in the middle of the vast salt flats and finished out the day drinking pisco sours and watching the sun set over Deben Quinche (another lake!). The reflection of the colorful sunset on the lake with the volcanos and abosolutely nothing else in sight was ah-mazing!! That night we found a little restaurant that had no name and was basically an old woman cooking traditional Chilean food. It was by far the best meal I´ve eaten since I got here- appetizer, meal, drink and dessert for about $6 US.

The next day we took a minibus to Laguna Chaxa, which is a protected region for Flamingos. We stopped in a little town called Tocano, which is known for it´s buildings made out of volcano dust called ¨Laparita¨ (which sounds cool but it looks exactly like cement!). We ate in that town then headed off to the Antiplano Lakes- one of the most beautiful sights I´ve ever seen. On the way to the lakes our driver turned off the van and we experienced the pull of the magnetic fields, rolling backwards up a hill, weird!

On Sunday we got up at 3am and took a bus to the Tatio Geysers- the world´s highest geothermic field. We had to go really early because that´s when most of hte activity is, plus we saw an amazing sunrise.The geysers look like a waterpipe that broke and huge columns of water shoot up from the ground at random times, you have to be careful because the water is above boiling point. We got to go in the thermal baths there, parts of the thermal baths were freezing when other parts were boiling. It was fun but not as cozy as I imagined and I completely stunk of sulfer when I got out. We stopped in the town of Machuca for empanadas and llama kabobs, the town had six inhabitants, yes, six. The same day we went to Valle de la Luna- a really cool part of the desert that is full of dunes and valleys that resemble the surface of the moon.

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