Top notch organisation, for once!
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2008
1
20
79
Trip End
Ongoing
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
On our arrival in San Pedro, an amazing thing happened - we managed to organise our entire stay in a hugely productive couple of hours. This resulted in the following:
Morning 1 - Sandboarding
Lots of fun, some hoppers (notably Endo's faceplant), sand everywhere and a pair of socks ruined. Remarkably easy to pick up, particularly with the good boards. In short, it was totally rad, dude!
Evening 1 (its too hot to do anything much during the afternoon apart from wash the sand off yourself, though it gets bloody cold as soon as the sun disappears, being a desert and all) - Valle de la Luna
Much wicked scenery, and a buttload of cool photos, though the poorly state of the internet connections in my present location mean that it'll be a while before I can upload some. And we ran down a couple of massive sand dunes, which was entertaining. Ruined another pair of socks though, as I thought we were finished wit sand for the day.
Morning 2 - stayed in bed as a combination of money (or, more precisely, a dwindling amount thereof), the 4am start and the knowledge that we'd see similar stuff on our salar tour put paid to our visit to the nearby geysers, though I get the feeling we may have missed out on the more spectacular ones. Ah well, can't win 'em all!
Evening 2 - Went to the Atacameņan version of the Dead Sea, a very very salty lake (the lads instantly regretted dunking their heads below the surface) where relaxing flotation was enjoyed by all. Its a bizarre experience standing bolt upright and having your shoulders sticking out of the water. This was followed by a very necessary dip in a freshwater lake to wash off the salt that was caked all over us, and then a photoshoot on a salt flat. Nice evening, but a lot of bumping around in the bus had to be endured.
After that, I savoured my last meal in civilization (a delicious steak if you must know) before our crossing into that land of savages and upset stomachs, Bolivia, and enjoyed a thunderstorm that presented me with the single loudest thunderclap I've ever heard. I think the lightening must have struck an electrical something or other cos there was a huge yellow flash which concurred with the outage of the power. Ronnay's frightened jig was an amusing aside.
So. Thats Chile done. Nice country, lovely people - a bit more down to earth than the Argentines, though not wuite as attractive. Next up is three days in a Land Cruiser and then Real South America, yay!
