New country alert!!
Let’s get started.
We took a six am bus to San Pedro and it made me miss the night busses. I was able to do a bit of writing so that was a plus, but this was a journey. We made two stops in Bolivia, and one more in Chile before making it to our final destination. Or maybe just once in each…I can’t recall. Passport was stamped for both countries. The tally is slowly climbing again. When we finally got to San Pedro it was 18:00, but there were no taxis so we had to walk to the hostel. Our bunkmates snore like there’s one tree left on Earth. Good news, my earplugs work very well. Tired from the travel day, we grabbed dinner and fell asleep early. Well we went to bed early, but I stayed up late reading. Then I read more the next afternoon. Finished my tenth book of the trip. Reading again is so fun!
We booked a Valle de Luna tour for the next afternoon and then just wandered around town that day. All three ATMs were out of commish, which posed a problem. One wasn’t working, one bank was closed, and one ATM a bystander told us it might steal our cards so we steered clear. We were able to get some the next day at the bank, but they limit everyone to 200K pesos. Tricky city. We changed hostels since we decided (I kind of insisted) to stay here for a week. More to come on this later. The new one had a dinner each night for 5000-6000 pesos and a pool! This town gives major Taos, NM vibes and I love it! Highly recommend.
Valle de Luna tour: quite cool. We saw Tres Manos (a rock formation) and hiked up some gnarly sand mountains to see two Miradors of the valley which was super cool. The shape of all the rocks/sand formations are super unique. The valley is twenty one million years old. They are sedimentary mountains with shiny salt pieces that gleam and twinkle when you drive by. Then after rainy season the salt stays until it gets blown away/disintegrates into the air. Next, we drove to a spot for a pisco sour and a lovely snack table with little finger sammies, fruit, meat, cheese, olives, chips and dip, crackers and palma. When we noticed the sun starting to sink, we drove to a sunset / moonrise spot. Very crowded from all the tour groups, but gorgeous nonetheless. I love the moon! Finally, we headed back to the hostel – Casa Voyage Hostel. We are staying in a dome with a 360° mural and a skylight. It was Pizza and Beer night so I ate pizza, drank beer, and chatted with Bert and Sarah from England (near Oxford). Fun night. The next day we slept in, made sandwiches again, and chilled at the hostel. Eventually we did book a tour for Piedras Rojas, but nothing much else happened.
“It’s getting so hard to remember what day it is.” Okay Madeline no need to brag!
Piedras Rojas tour: Our day began when we were picked up at 06:40 from our hostel. There was a group of about twelve of us in total. We stopped at the Trópico de Capricornio road sign which was super neat for me. It’s the line that goes across the center of the Earth latitude where the sun can be seen directly overhead. Winter and summer solstices are also impacted/impact this spot. Something like that, didn’t have service to verify :). We made our way to a small town of 500 people called Socaire where we enjoyed breakfast. I have to say, Chile popped off with their tour food. For breakfast we had fruit, juice, coffee, fresh bread with butter, caramel, dolce de leche, jam, or avocado, and fresh scrambled eggs! After bfast we went to Salar de Aguas Calientes numero tres. Aka Piedras Rojas. To the west is the Domeico Mountain and to the east, the Andes. Chile has something like 2900 volcanoes, but only 97 are active. The red rocks have iron and are volcanic. They can hold water in them. The mountains and water around the area all gave off a tranquil aura. There was a chilly morning wind. After the rocks we drove to the lagoons. On the way, we saw viscachas and vicuñas, but no foxes. One little rodent was seen, but he went into a hole too fast for a photo. Vicuñas are the queen of the mountain. We saw two lagoons with a handful of flamingos, but much less than Uyuni. Once you are above 3200 meters you are alto punto (I think?). The landscape changes and the animals live off a yellow grass that when looked at from a distance it looks like a field of sunflowers. Most animals by the lagoons, Miscanti and Miñiques, are birds: Gaviota Andina, Pollito de Mar tricolor, Tagua cornuda, Blanquillo, Pato juarjual, pato puna, and piuquen guayata. I also saw three vicuñas running along the coast of the lagoon and it was majestic. We then headed back to Socaire for lunch and had pasta or quinoa salads in a large jar, bread and hummus, and fresh juices. It was so fun we got to dress our salads and shake them in the jars. The last thing we did was check out the Atacama salt flat. This was very different from Uyuni’s. It was not just salt, but also contains volcanic and pacific coast sediments. This made it more than just white, and the groundwater evaporation is faster here so the salt is more jagged and not as flat. Looks like the side of the road a few days after it snows actually. We saw lizards and various birds (more flamingos). I watched one fly the farthest distance of this entire trip so far. The lagoon is called Laguna Chaxa. Then we headed back to our hostel. Nice day!
That evening we had dinner at the hostel again. The meal was Completo, which is a classic Chilean dish consisting of hot dogs topped with mayo, tomatoes, mashed avocado, and ketchup. That is the classic version at least. They also had the option of cilantro lime dressing, corn, mushrooms, and beef/soy meats. Pretty tasty. Around 11-ish we walked with the hostel volunteers and random guests to LOLA, a karaoke/reggaeton bar. We hung out there until two in the morning when they all decided to go to a party, but Mer and I dipped out early considering how long of a day we had and we weren’t sure how far away the party was.
The next day was super chill. I finished my eleventh book, Hudson Bay Bound. Learned a lot about the history of that land as well as about that adventure my distant cousin had. We hung out at the pool all day and then had a delicious dinner at Adobe. Both of us got Pil Pil, one mushroom and one shrimp. We are now officially OBSESSED with pil pil. After the meal we popped into a shop to grab gelato and walked home.
The final day in Atacama was a day of reflection. I did a lot of thinking, journaling, spoke with people from home, and daydreaming. Then that night we had our stargazing tour! This was the entire reason we stayed in Atacama for so long. We wanted to do a stargazing tour but it was a full moon so we needed to get far enough away from it so that the sky would be dark enough. This was an amazing experience. We learned so much about the sky and the stars and the culture. There’s something so comforting and terrifying about looking at the sky. The night was incredible and truly inspiring. We only had to drive about ten minutes from the town and all the light pollution was gone. There really wasn’t any to begin with, which was such a refreshing thing. So many places on this trip are that way and I love it. Okay so we parked and walked up to the viewing area and the path was illuminated along the edge. The main area was in the Quechan cross shape with a red border of track lights. There was a reflection pool in the middle and two large telescopes in the corners. We sat in chairs and were given cute blankets with glow in the dark stars and planets. We saw all the constellations possible that night: Scorpio, Libra, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries. Some at the start of the night and some at the end. They told us to look at a certain spot in the sky and for a second I was worried I needed glasses, until the guide explained we were looking at a cloud like figure. There’s a galaxy we can see with the naked eye just east of “South.” It’s either called the Large Magellanic Cloud, or Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal. I couldn’t take notes because it was pitch black so I really don’t know. We also saw the Milky Way so clearly. Stunning. There’s an upside down llama image in it as well. So cute. Aside from seeing the constellations and asterisms, we looked through the telescopes. We saw some of the closest stars. Two are double stars because they are so close together. They are blue and yellow and another one was orange. We also saw a cluster of three million and a cluster of one hundred stars. The show stopper for us was seeing Saturn! It looked like a sticker was placed on the telescope because it was so cute and clear. We could see four of its moons and the rings. So wild. We also saw more shooting stars than I have ever seen in one sitting. I think we saw seven that night. One was so incredible we all gasped and it went by at a pace that felt like time slowed down. So many wishes to go around that night. We learned some similar truths to what they told us on the Inca trail about the Big Three. Y’all remember the Condor, Snake, and Puma. Well the Andean people, as well as natives from this area of the continent, consider the stars/sky the past. Your soul goes there when you pass away. In the sky, Scorpio is interpreted different to them than the Greek/Italian way. It’s a snake morphing into a condor. We, as the puma, are witnessing it. Because there are three phases of life too. Snake is in the ground, Puma is on the earth, and Condor is in the sky.
Again, I wrote this from my memory because I couldn’t take notes so I know this sounds a bit incomplete. Just know it was so lovely to connect with nature in this way. The moon started to rise in the last hour so the views began to fade. It is wild how bright she is. The reflection pool was included because that is the way the Andean people used to look at the sky. What a wonderful night.
The next day we bussed, flew, and flew again, to Temuco.
Hope everyone has a lovely first week of February. ❤
Madeline Daily 