Desert Disneyland in the Andes

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San Pedro de Atacama, in the desert of the same name . A small town with a reputation for being a touristy place where they quickly separate tourists and travellers from their cash. This was to be our last stop before heading home and the main reasons for going were that it was on the way back towards Lima for the dreaded flight to London, it was a region of Chile we had not seen before, it supposedly had lots of interesting sites/sights to see, and most of all (for me at least) it is the start gazing capital of the world.

Up here in the clear thin air of the Atacama, observatories are dotted about all over the place, and Patrick Moore regularly comes here for his holidays. (well that might not actually be true). All of which for a self confessed space geek like myself is reason indeed.

So off we set from Tilcara, bemoaning the departure from our lovely room at Posada de Luz. We take the Geminis bus across the Altiplano via the Paso de Jama at 4700m and the border into Chile. This bus is, quite unusually for a 12 hour journey, a day bus - but you understand why when you get on - it was 100% tourists - all gawping out of the windows and flashing cameras around as we trundled up and over the mountains. One minute you are admiring the colourful rocks of the Quebrada Humehuaca whilst making innumerable turns up the mountain pass and then you are looking out over a salt lake (salar). The scenery then levels out to altiplano dotted with llama and vicuña and later is peppered with wind sculptured rocks and mineral coloured lakes.

As if the scenery was not enough the bus was quiet, clean and the driver was careful, most unlike any other public bus we had been on (and we´ve been on lots - to find out how many take our quiz, coming soon!). So Claire was happy too. It even stopped at a restaurant where we were served a 3 course lunch included in the fare at a table we shared with 2 mad old dears from Ecuador and one from Paraguay

I was glad to be seeing the mountains and altiplano again, craning my neck to see as much as possible, knowing that things are coming to a conclusion and the Andes will be the mainstay of our memories for a while to come.

San Pedro de Atacama (SpdA) in the desert of the same name; so you’d expect it to be quite dry right? and the guide books go on about it with talk of the lowest rainfall in the world and only light drizzle four times a year. So what happens? 20 miles out of town and it begins to pour down. Underterred, we arrive to conduct immigration and customs to see the customs guys having a game of ping pong in the luggage examination room (aka hut with two trestle tables).

We giggle and think they’ll have to stop that now we’re here. But no, they carry on playing regardless and finally give it up to go and have a cuppa and chat somewhere else. A coach load of people stand around like lemons waiting to get through this final hurdle. Its not as if the customs are overworked, there are only two coaches that come through here twice a week! But infinite love and patience in the face of adversity wins through and we exit the hut, looking up at the rain and wondering why we are here…

Claire had to drag her wheely bag through the mud streets to the hostel, muttering dark spells and incantations against me all the way, but we reach the place intact, having passed scores of adobe shops, tourist agencies, hostels and restaurants along the way.

SpdA in the desert of the same name; is nicknamed ‘adobelandia’, and with good reason. It has about six streets. All of them are single storey adobe houses within which lie the locals waiting to extract money from tourists via providing either food, beds, trinkets or tours. Is it like Disney in the desert, no one lives in the centre, there is a periphery of low cost (can it get lower than mud huts I hear you ask?) housing where the locals who used to work farms now retreat to each night with their spoils of tourism. There are very few normal shops in the centre, not even a pharmacy which believe me for this continent is astounding.

We had two and a half days in which to do three specific things, having gleaned what we could from the book. We went with Cosmo Andino as a tour operator because of blogger recommendations, an found them to be very helpful, multilingual to say the least, and not at all ‘snobby’ as one guidebook says - except for the matter of their book-exchange -all potential books must be ok’ed by the company owner as suitable for inclusion and woe betide you if he doesn’t fancy your book…

First day we got up and did nothing. Really. It so happened that the 3 tours clashed really badly and some days the tours were not in English (well our Spanish astromony terminology is not up to scratch yet) so we ended up relaxing around the place all day intending to go star gazing in the evening and then rest before an early start to the geysers. Of course evening came and the clouds came in, although it didn’t rain again, and the star gazing was cancelled. Nothing for it, we went to bed, to be woken at 3am by Walter , the hostel handyman, saying we had a tour starting at 4am. Thank you Walter, I know this, that’s why I am desperately trying to stay asleep until 3.55am and then rush around to be ready. Grrrr.

The Geysers del Tatio are a two hour bus ride up a reasonable road and all tours go in time for dawn. Sure enough we try to sleep on the way and arrive as its getting light but still predawn. Apparently the geysers are better at this time of day. We have a theory. They bring you here because the geysers look more impressive due to the temperature difference producing more steam at that time of day (ie nothing to do with the size of the resulting water spout - which is what a geyser is supposed to be) and in the middle of the day they look a bit poxy and no one would pay to come and see them.

So twenty buses drag people out of their beds at 3.55am to get up here in time for dawn. Claire took one look and retreated to the van to go back to sleep, disgusted (no I wasnt, I had altitude sickness and have seen better geysers in Iceland! C). I decided to wander off up the surrounding hills for a contemplative moment at the top watching the sun come up into the valley and over the Andean volcanoes around it.

As I was stood there I noticed the vizchancas (local big rabbits with vicious snarling teeth that will chew your leg off as soon as look at you, err not) sitting around warming themselves in the morning sun. They looked as though they had had the rabbit equivalent of a bit night out and let me walk much closer to them than I expected for a photo.

Next the tour goes to the another bit of the geyser area for a swim in a thermal pool. By now its all of 8am and we are both yawning as this tour is taking too long to go nowhere. Next there is small village where we also sit about for a while chatting with some Canadian girls. All said the geysers are ok for a visit but these tours really drag it out, and we don’t get back until 12pm. Claire and I could have done this to our satisfaction and have been tucked up in our beds again by 9.30am, consumate monument baggers such as we are.

Having said that the scenery is marvelous on the way back, and we see flamingoes, llamas, vicuñas and great mountain views. So on our return we crash at the hostel for the afternoon for some rest before we need to go out to the previously cancelled star gazing.

SpdA, in a desert of the same name. However, this doesn’t mean there is no water - because as you now know, it rains. So there we are in bed and trying to sleep when a cry of "WALTER" goes out accompanied by the sound of rushing water. Minutes later the canal next to the hostel has burst and the hostel grounds, and we suspect several cabins and even the owners house are inundated. We watch from the higher ground of our cabin with interest as an army of brooms is employed to clear up the mess.

That night we get to the start gazing as promised, a beautiful clear night with mega loads of star and no moon to stop us seeing them. We organized this through www.spaceobs.com, run by a bloke called Alain -the astronomer. He ran down a couple of drunks the other week and got a broken leg for his trouble, and along with pneumonia was clearly looking poorly when we arrived at his house out in the dark sticks that night.

But like a good soldier he carried on. Giving an explanation of the sky at night from his garden that suited all levels of interest (including both those who watch too much star trek and those who don’t even know which planets revolve around which (I think Simon is having a dig at me here! C)), we could see to the horizon in every direction and I have never seen so many stars.

The explanation is is followed by using his numerous telescopes to look at certain things of interest like Saturn and other space objects (see pictures taken with my own camera - cough). He explained the constellations, and how to tell were you are and at which latitude and the distances of stars we can see. The highlight for me was that we really could see other galaxies, even Claire was impressed. A great night topped off with hot chocolate and a discussion between Claire and Alain on whether the USA ever actually landed on the moon...

Very tired after a 3am start and 1am finish that day, we weren’t sure whether we were going to manage anything else before getting on the night bus out of SpdA, but in fact we managed to get to the Valley of the moon as well, the other main destination of Disney de Atacama.

Happiness at a more civilized start of 2pm was quickly tempered when we were shoved out of the bus to walk in the baking hot sun of the Atacama desert down a place known encouragingly as Death Valley - oh great. But we got to walk/run/slide down these enormous sand dunes to the bottom of the valley, which Claire enjoyed immensely bless her but I didn’t think much of - not liking sand too much. Maybe I had an uhappy incident with sand as a youngster, I don’t remember - (any ideas Mum?). We both ended up caked in a sand and suncream mixture and were wondering how we were going to get clean before getting on the overnight bus, not really wanting to sit with underwear full of sand all night.

Next stop was the valley of the moon itself, so named because….it looks like the moon and NASA test their robots here. An interesting walk down the valley which is a huge salt crystal was thankfully out of the sun. This place is apparently best to go at sunset because of the colours that the rocks turn. I don’t have a theory about this one, but sure enough another twenty buses disgorged their happy travelers (where had they all come from?) who proceed to climb the hill and set up tripods and fancy cameras to catch the action. Sunset came, the rocks turned red, I took a couple of photos and we went back to the bus - are we getting blasé do you think? Don’t know, but I can say I sat there watching the sunset over this valley and the reddening sun on the enormous snow capped 6000m volcanoes of the Andean range and realized how much I will miss scenery like this in London.

Anyway, by the time we got back we had time for a quick bite and more importantly a grateful wash down in the restaurant toilets before getting on our night bus to start the journey home to London.

SpdA, in the desert of the same name. An unlikely place that has its pros and cons, the surroundings are fabulous but there is a price to be paid between the locals and the tourist industry. You could put a fence around the place and get mickey mouse to walk around for pictures and no one would be any the wiser.

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Photos

San Pedro plaza
"Adobelandia" - look closely and you can see where the rain has "melted" the mud roof

Geysers del Tatio at dawn
look for those towering spurts of water - dont see them, neither did we!

Flood in the desert
our hostel´s new swimming pool

Comments

[Pat Pemberton]

It's Over
Ahhh, what a shame, your last TravelBlog. I shall miss them, somehow your writings of travelling to and from work on the underground wont be the same as following your adventures on your great year in South America. Safe journey home.

[julieboolie]

wow I recognise this from when I was there, I remember that little high street and those stars were magnificant, I'll always be in awe of them. Probably the best place to star gaze on planet earth. also remember getting up v. early around 5am to go to the geysers....amazing

[Rob Jones]

So can we expect a lecture tour of the UK when you return? Really keen to hear some of the stories and catch up first hand, I've really enjoyed following your progress with the Blogs