San Pedro de Atacama

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Monday night. We´re at the hotel Diego del Amagro in Calama. Justin is crawling around under the computer desk, allegedly trying to figure out how to plug in the camera to download the pics. I´m hoping he´s successful.

Had a good and interesting 24 hours. The flight from Santiago was quick, easy and enjoyable. About 2 1/2 hrs. We had the name of a couple hotels, and picked the wrong one - Park Hotel by the airport. Not a bad place, but costs 4 THOUSAND pesos (about 8 bucks) to get by taxi into town - about 3 minutes away. We´d have to do that about 5 times whilst here. Doesn´t sound like much, but we drove half hour in Santiago for less. Also - the laundry service is crazy. This will sound odd, penny pinching maybe - but there´s really no easy self-serve laundry nearby, and the hotel charges $12 for pants, $6 for unmentionables, and $4 for socks. Yes, the VERY SOCKS we took the subway downtown to buy for only $2. (a little seinfeld/kramer humor). Hmmmm. buy socks for $2, have them washed for $4.....

So that night we took a taxi into town, checked the Tur Bus (pronounced tour boose)* schedules (our guy at the desk had no idea). We also checked a couple others. We went with Tur, mainly because the Frontier bus was a dingy spot in an alley, with a dingy dog walking at will upon the counter, across the VERY PAPERS the dude was trying to read to us. Apparently the dog ruled the place. And there were other, worse things, about it. Tur Bus was more expensive, at 1,300 pesos compared to 800, but that´s the diff of about 90 cents americano - Meaning the bus 1 1/2 hours to San Pedro would take us for a cool $2.60 - and had a nice seat that reclined.

*About the tour boose. Interesting thing, this language. I´m picking it up again very fast - within a few days I´ll be 90 percent Chileno - but when I hear a new word, I always ask what it means, and it always ends in the same funny way. For example, today Francisco, the tour guide (see below) said that he liked it out here because it didn´t have as much (then said a word sounding something like "estlrellsas"). Hmmmm. what is that word, I asked. He said "no estlresses" means mas "tranquilo", sin problemas (more tranquil, without problems). Oh. I said, in english the word is "stress" as in less stress. He said, yes, that is what I said, "estress". American word, with Latino accent, and it threw me. Same way I say ¨where is Tur Bus" and get the blank "what-are-you-talking-about" stare, but if I say it like "boose", then ahhhhh, entiendo. Sprite no is sprite. Is esprite. Say it wrong and you´ll get a "stupid gringo can´t even say his own words right" look. Lots and lots of words like that. pretty cool.


OKAY - as you can see, this is a long post. I´m typing as fast as I can, but Justin keeps correcting my grammer (huh? what? oh, thanks, justin) I mean, grammar.

Speaking of Justin, a weird thing happened in our room. (new hotel, from tonight). I ain´t no country hillbilly (ok, maybe I am), but there are a couple of features here at the hotel that I haven´t seen before. For one, when you walk down the hall, the lights go on. Off when you leave the hall. Also, took us 5 minutes to get the room lights on. You have to put your key card in a slot by the door, and on come the lights. When you leave the room, take it out & off they go. Wow, neato!

The other thing is scary. When Justin takes his 45 minutes steam shower, the entire room is a thick pea-soup fog, EXCEPT FOR A PERFECT RECTANGLE SECTION OF THE MIRROR! Perfectly non-fogged. He thinks it´s some type of non-fogging mirror, but I of course know it´s the ghost of some poor soul haunting him in the room. "Then where is the ´get out or die´ words written in blood on the mirror", he asks. Hey, who knows how hauntings work on the bottom of the world, I says. He claims he doesn´t buy it, but I see the flicker of fear in those eyes when he walks past that door. The seed is planted, I now await his nocturnal screams sometime around midnight. (heh).

Alright, Justin´s asking me if there is a caboose anywhere on this train of thought, so I guess I´ll end. Cool - and I mean WAY cool day down in San Pedro de Atacama, and in the desert of the same name. I´ll let Justin relate it, in his own special way. Last I´ll say is the trip is going well, Justin and I are getting along just fabulously - he´s picking up spanish like a .... umm.... like someone who picks up spanish fast. okay, bye.


My turn now.

Hah. Yeah, right... no way there could could be a ghost there. Your stories don´t fool me. Except... I think I saw a ghost when I went outside on the roof to see if there were any ladrones or packs of dogs roaming about (which there were... dogs, that is)... so maybe I am haunted - although it could be that the tap water´s just playing tricks on my mind.

Since Dad covered most of what we did yesterday, I´ll talk about today. We had a lot of fun; it was a long day, and we did a lot. We woke up this morning and took a bus ("boose", see above) to San Pedro de Atacama (in the desert of the same name). The schedules in the different places we wanted to see didn´t seem to be working out too well, so we decided to wing it. It was a pretty nice ride... I slept a little, since we didn´t get much sleep last night... and probably won´t have much more tonight. When we got to San Pedro de Atacama (in the desert of... okay, I´ll stop with that, especially since it´s not original (not from us, anyway... someone else on this site used it a couple times, so Dad´s plagiarizing, I guess)), we went to see if there was a bus leaving immediatemente. One was just about to leave, but it wouldn´t be returning for four hours, and we thought that was too much time to spend in Toconau, where it was headed. We asked what other options there were in a nearby travel agency, and Dad "worked his magic" (ghosts, magic... what next?). The travel agent had a guy come in who was a freelance tour guide, and he offered to take us wherever we wanted to go, whenever. This sounded perfect, so we took him up on the offer (at a pretty decent price too).

We first decided to see San Pedro, so we went to the museum of Incan and Atacameñan archeological finds. Dad posed next to his famous girlfriend mummy (he took a picture next to her when he was on his mission; 20 years ago, so he might look a little different), and we looked around a little. There was an off-limits area that looked really familiar to me, although I´ve never been to Atacama before... or have I? Dad says it´s the same ghost... and maybe he´s right, although I don´t really know how this ghost could be so talented.

After the museum, we went to a Catholic church (one of many we´ve been to in Chile; this one was actually a mission from the 1700s), and then had some chicken and rice at a nearby pub. I had some cebolla dulce ("sweet onions") with the rice... everything was really good. Next we met up with Francisco and his companion. We thought she was his wife or his sister. Come to find out, it was his mom, who looked not much older than his 36 years. She had never visited many of the sites we were going to go to, and we had an extra seat, so we gladly accepted her company. It was really neat because I spent a lot of time talking to her in Spanish while we were driving, and although I´m not sure whether or not she understood me, it was really good practice. She also gave me a Chilean goodbye - a kiss. It´s a custom I´m finally starting to get used to... I might even try to bring it back to my local high school, see how it works there. It´s a greeting and a farewell between friends... so you never know, eh?

First we went to a little village called Toconau. It had a church, a bell-tower, and a stable-thing with some alpacas and llamas... and sheep. And roosters. And, of course, dogs, which are everywhere around here. We fed the llamas... and looked to see three pounds of sticky slobber globbed on our hands. Dad, Monk-like, immediately asked for something to wipe his hands with. I had nothing, and so when he turned around to find a paper towel, I used the back of his shirt... I´m no fan of slobber either. Before we left, we took some pictures, and I bought a few things for my sisters.

Next we drove about a half-hour out into the lagoons in the salt desert. This was really cool; I didn´t really expect anything like it. The salt desert is huge, about 50 miles across, bordered by a still-active volcanic mountain range on two sides and the salt mountains on the others. When it rains, minerals are carried by the water down the mountains´slopes (coincidentally rendering the ground unfertile) and into pools in the valley. The whole valley was crusted with salt mounds - everywhere, for miles and miles. Even more interesting was that, a mere 6 feet underground, the entire valley held a subterranean lagoon, at some parts coming up to the surface. In these aboveground lagoons, flamingos thrive, feeding on the microscopic animals in the water (the only living things in the valley). I never thought flamingos would be interesting... but did you know? There are five types of flamingos in the world, and three of the five can be found at those lagoons. We had a long hike through the salt flats, looking at all this stuff. Pretty neat.

Our third visit was to the Valle de los Muertes (Valley of the Dead). Come to think of it... that´s probably where I picked up my personal specter. It´s reminiscient of southern Utah, near Arches, but had enormous sand dunes and winding canyons. Some people sand-boarded down the dunes, which looked fun but sounded a little dangerous, especially when Francisco mentioned that he had flipped head over heels once while sandboarding. We hiked halfway up the dune and there stopped, mostly because we didn´t have much time left to spend in the Valley of the Dead. Dad filmed me careening down the dune, which turned out to be a minor mistake, even though it was fun, because my pants were thereafter and thenceforth filled with sand.

After emptying our shoes and socks (and in my case, my pockets, ears, and hair) of sand, we drove to a nearby valley, the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). Dad told me about this, but it was a lot cooler than I expected. It, like the salt valley, had long stretches of dirt covered in salt and crystal formations, making it look almost exactly like the surface of the moon. It was really cool to walk around, especially when we hiked up another dune (this one with a packed-solid trail) to a cliff where we saw the sunset and took a picture of the mostly full moon. The moon was rising just above the volcanoes in the distance... hopefully our pictures do the Valley justice.

We came back to the hotel and mostly just hung out and ate some pretty tasty dinner. I had a plateful of fish... I like fish a lot, although I will admit that some of it can be a little rubbery at times (e.g., mussels, scallops,and clams). We´ve spent a while on the computer´s free internet access, trying to arrange parts of the rest of our trip. All my rummaging around underneath the computer was to no avail: We don´t have the right kind of cord to download pictures to this blog from our videocamera... with luck, we might find one when we get to Antofagasta.

That´s all from me for now... hopefully I´ll surive the 3 a.m. witching hour to tell more. (Curtis, if you read this: I hope you can sympathize. Just don´t think of the ghost-face from that computer maze thing, and you´ll be okay... yikes.)

Adios a todos,
Justin

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Photos

Mummy Girlfriend
Dad´s mummy girlfriend, looking the same as she did twenty years ago. Ah, ¡que bonita!

Cebolla Dulce
Me eating that chicken, rice, and sweet onions in San Pedro.

Catholic Mission
Me at the Catholic mission church thing in San Pedro.

Llamas
Me and Dad feeding a llama in Toconau.

Flamencos
Me and some flamingoes in the salt valley of Toconau.

Salt Valley
Our helpful tour guides, Francisco and his mom.

Valley of the Moon
Las Tres Marias in the Valley of the Moon.

Valle de la Luna
A shot of the entire Valley of the Moon. Really awesome.

Another Shot of the Valley
Me and the Valley.

Comments

[Kathy]

Jag
You are a very interesting read. It almost makes me feel like I am there. Wishful thinking on my part. Mark, Debba , Sandy Office, said that her son was born in Chile' He is adopted. don't know what part though. Sounds like you are really enjoying yourselves. The food sounds good too. Mom

[Jim]

Sounds Fun
Glad you are having a good time. I am keeping the business going, on two hours sleep. It is worth it to see you guys are having a good bonding venture. What about doing some door knocking while down there. Show Justin how it is. See who can be the first one to get in. Is there much geneology going on down there? Did you Hear where Otto's are going? They are going to Cambodia, Humanitarian Mission, same place as Ricki. Love to You Both Dad/Grandpa