San Pedro De Atacama,
Chile
Friday, January 21, 2005
Today we descended 3000 meters to this small desert oasis to....rain!!! Obviously not common in this part of the world but fortunately it was only short lived! Decided to hire mountain bikes to bike out to a salt lagoon which we were told was an "easy flat" 25km ride out of town...nothing could have been further from the truth! after I eventually managed to get a bike which worked (if only I hadn't tried so hard!) we set off at around 1pm.... the first hour or so went well- tarmac road and not too hot but when we turned off the highway things started to get difficult! The temperature was on the rise and we were cycling down stony tracks eventually turning to sand tracks which catapulted me off my bike and cut my arm and legs! ( i miraculously managed to avoid crushing our empanadas which I was carrying!)We eventually came across a solitary tree in the desert under which a local family were enjoying a packed lunch.... they pointed us in the right direction and we eventually arrived at the lagoon at around 3.30pm! It was a pretty amazing place...Unfortunately not really safe to swim as a couple of guys who had been in had cut their hands & feet so we decided to give it a miss!
After lunch we set off on our way back to San Pedro and by the time I was back on the main road a strong head wind had set in and I was feeling completely exhausted! time for drastic action- I managed to hitch a ride on a pick up truck and saved myself the agony of the last 10km or so of the highway.... the others were somewhat puzzled as to how I had managed to be the first one back in San Pedro!!
