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Published: June 20th 2006
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Very long ride to San Pedro on a steaming bus, didn´t need my sleeping bag this time. Luckily had booked the bus with a stop aswell so we got lunch in a restaurant, much better than the onboard food. Quite quick stamping out of Argentina then 2 hours until we stamped into Chile! They can´t be bothered putting border control at the border, so just put it in the town on San Pedro. We got back on the bus after having every bag checked to be taken 2 blocks to the terminal, doh! The terminal is not what I expected, a large area of sand. Lots of hostel reps about but none for the hostel my mates were in so I asked for directions and they said 2 roads over. I could only see dirt no roads at all. Luckily the bloke who sat next to me was a guide so he helped me get there, I never would have found it. Found Andrew sat around the fire in the outside area of Jurike hostel with 3 new travelling companions. We wandered around town looking for Darren who had misplaced his bag as usual! Town was basically one dirt street so
not what I was expecting at all. Although this is the driest city in the world, even the water supply is cut off at 9pm until 6am and power is scarce. Lots of candles and fire light but excellent place. The hostel had 3 staff the owner Christian, the guide Jesus and the cook/star at everything Rosita. They had arranged a barbq over the fire so excellent night. Great steaks and Rosita´s winning guacamole, Christian threw in lots of red wine too. Only 1500 pesos for the barbq which is great as San Pedro is one of the most expensive towns with dinner costing at least 5000. Some of the restuarants are swankier than in london which looks odd off of the dirt track main road. I agreed to go to the geysers with Rosita at 4am but as i didn´t get to bed until 3am I couldn´t get up, oops.
Lazed about all day recovering but as I had the best tour ever booked it didn´t matter. At 7 went on the atronomy tour, as this section of chile has the clearest skies in the world and many of the major telescopes of the world are here. Got driven
to this french man´s house, excellent house with pitched roof in the entrance hall with open thatching to the sky! Wrapped up very warm as this desert gets - degrees at night. Could see the milky way easity with the naked eye it was amazing. The guy explained everything really clearly it was fascinating. We saw the famous constellations, nebula, other galaxies, planets and learnt loads about how to tell your latitude and how to navigate using the sky. Small section on astrology then onto the telescopes. He had 4 powerful telescopes in his garden so we saw everything up close. Saturn with its rings and jupiter with its stripes and even took photos. Finally back into the house for a short talk on the universe with hot chocolates. Definitely the best tour I have ever been on!
Next day saw Christian while wandering around town, the hostel was empty as I was the only guest after all my mates had gone on the 3 day Bolivia trip. He said to come back at 12 to meet Jesus and plan some tours. Jesus agreed to take me to the valle de la luna that afternoon but there weren´t enough of
us (well just me) for the geysers trip so I booked that with his mate. Being the only guest I was not allowed to spend time alone so Jesus and Christian drove me around town all afternoon (you can walk across town in 15mins), I met all their mates and it was quite fun. No english again so great practise for me. Finally at 3 started the tour and picked up 4 chinese photo obsessed girls in town. First went to the Valle del Muerta (death valley) accidentally named by a belgian guy with bad spanish. He wanted to call it Martes after Mars the planet but no-one understood him and thought he said muerta, opps. Stopped at a huge sand dune and attempted sand boarding... Very high and scary so I screamed a lot and spent a lot of time in the sand. Next up the dinosaur road (named due to the mountain shapes) to a huge gorge. Then on to the valle de la luna. Saw the famous stone structures, the three marys and the T rex and climbed into the salt cave. Finally the largest dune where we climbed (very tough and my shoes kept filling with
sand) to the peak to watch the sun set over the valley. Great red colours on the mountains, stunning. Finally back down where it´s suddenly cold and back to town. Christian and Jesus arranged another barbq and luckily 2 more blokes checked in to eat it too. One I already knew from Santiago. Another great barbq and lots of red wine. Great spanish chat around the fire all night but was persuaded by Jesus and Christian that it was better I didn´t sleep and just stayed up until 4am for my geyser trip. What a nightmare. Did manage to make it this time though.
A 2 hour very rough, cold ride to the geysers left me feeling ill but finally there for the sunrise. Absolutely freezing I could barely move but crazy steaming water bubbling everywhere. Quite a good guide explaining how geysers work and me having to translate again to the non-spanish speakers, I should get discounted trips! Hot chocolate around the van then onto the thermal pool. Actually a large pool with a geyser bubbling into it. We get our bikinis then into the water, not that warm! But in the geyser corner there is more warmth so
we huddle there, but it´s like someone keeps pouring a kettle of water in so sometimes screams as the boiling water hits us. Finally had to get out, nightmare changing in the freezing cold just stood on some rocks! Scenic ride back through mountains, lakes and odd landscape with a few birds and animals on the way. Quick stop for empenadas, none for me as having lunch at the hostel. Back at 1 absolutely shattered. Lasagna nearly ready and a special one for me without cheese, excellent service. Christian makes an odd lasagna though with no red sauce and lots of sweetcorn and spinach... great though. Napped in the afternoon while the boys went sandboarding. When I woke up the electric was out so we all huddled around candles. Jesus and I went to town to postpone my Bolivia trip, he knows everyone and pretended I was ill so they would change my ticket, excellent! Got back to empenadas and the electric came back on. Into town for some drinks, I was the only girl so Jesus decided I was queen for the rest of my stay. The boys chased every girl in town and finally persuaded two to come
back to ours for the fire. Another fun night.
Next day spent lazing around the hostel, Christian took some new guests on a bike ride while Rosita cooked a great chicken and rice dish, once again special sauce without cheese for me! Spent the afternoon around town then back for another barbq. Jesus drove us around town trying to find the party that moves each week but we couldn´t find it so into a bar in town. They kicked us out at 2 so back to the fire.
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