Vero's Adventures in Chile and Argentina

First, just a little note that I am uploading these blogs out of order so you may want to scroll down and see where you last left off, or look at the dates (I am entering the dates when the experiences took place, not when I got around to transcribing them!)

Saludos desde the Atacama Desert! After being deluged with rain in Patagonia during the riverrafting trip, I was excited to be spending four days in the driest desert in the world. Given that one part of this desert hasn´t seen rain in over 300 years, I figured my sunshine odds were pretty good. And pacha mama has come through so far.

The town of San Pedro de Atacama (the gringo base for all travel here) is a funny one. The road from Calama, where the nearest airport is, seems like it couldn´t possibly lead to any kind of human life. But after an hour, small adobe structures and whitewashed churches began to appear. The town is full of character and charm, although many of the locals look like Chilean versions of the grungy teenagers that hang out on Haight Street in SF--the number of stray dogs (as in all of Chile) only adds to this unfavorable connection. Bur you don´t come to the Atacama Desert to spend your time in San Pedro buying tshirts.

I began my first full day in the desert with a visit to the tourist office in the hopes that the book of visitor feedback would help me wade through the 100 travel agencies here. Some of the comments were hilarious (guide was drunk the whole time, hadn´t planned on spending night in the desert, etc.) I decided to take a trip with Cactus Tours because Martin (lovely Brit on my Torres del Paine trek) recommended them and all the feedback seemed to agree. what´s nice about them is that they don´t just show up at a place and join the 14 seater nondescript minivan brigade that shows up at all the popular spots. Instead they head out early so that people can walk for a few hours first.

The hike was utterly spectacular. We walked through canyons of clay and salt with every texture imaginable--a true geological paradise. There were areas of rocky erosion that looked like miniature Gaudi pinnacles from La Sagrada Familia. And after tour hours of oohing and aahing, we reached our natural mecca for the day: Valle de La Luna, as otherworldly a landscape as I have ever seen. It looks like different ecosystems have been put together in Photoshop by someone who didn´t know how to make the edges blend. Dark sand dunes end abruptly and clay hills take over. My favorite part was a landscape that looked like an expanse of pinched dough but silvery blue in color as the sun set.

That´s my short recap of uno dia fantastico. More landscapes to explore tomorrow!