04/09/2012 - 07/09/2012 - Vale's, Geysers and Salt Lakes

Looking down on the Valle de Muerte - Tony in his uber-stylish shorts!

Our mud home for the desert time

Wile E Cyote's rock - where's
the Road Runner?

So we were now well and truly in the desert, with our hostel room being a mud house – a relief as it meant it stayed relatively cool in the day but retained some heat at night. Had already decided we’d have a few days here, we managed to negotiate a good price on booking 3 tours with the same company. Unless you’re comfortable sorting a rental car and driving on highly dodgy roads or cycling in intense heat (hats off to IronRik – you’re more adventurous than us – http://www.ironrik.com/2010/04/today-was-exhausting.html) then San Pedro de Atacama is well and truly a tour town, with the main streets housing back to back tour companies!

Valle de Luna

The Andes, turning red

Hard-boiled eggs = warm hands!

Easier getting in than out

First taste of the desert was Vale de Luna, after the Vale de Muerte – awesome sights and great to get a brilliant vantage point for the sunset. The next morning was the killer – wasn’t great to be told to wait outside the hostel for the bus between 4:00am to 4:30am when the temperatures were below freezing (especially when the bus only turned up at 4:45am!). Three hours later, we were watching the sun rise at the Geysers del Tatio at 4,200m and -6⁰C which was an experience, even if we lost the feeling in a few limbs! Who knew holding hot hard boiled eggs could bring so much pleasure! We weren’t convinced that stripping off and jumping into a thermal pool was the solution, but eventually convinced each other that we couldn’t not, especially when there was a Kiwi already in there! Warmed up once in there, but wasn’t pleasant getting out!

Even the llamas were sticking close
to the geysers for warmth!

Tony had a new hat - he shall
now be known as T-Bird!

Another warming technique -
stand right next to the geyser

Some people approached the Laguna Tebenquiche
slightly differently to us - crazy Germans!

Getting in some practice for salt flat perspective pics...

Chilling out in a freezing, salty lake

Who's that handsome looking
guy in the reflection?

Last up the following afternoon was a trip to Laguna Cejar, a sink hole lake in the Salar de Atacama. It has a 40% concentration of salt, producing an effect of floating like the Dead Sea. It was again a case of conquering our fears of cold and getting wet - freezing water, but funny to float. The finale of this tour was watching the sunset with the Andes going red, this time accompanied by a couple of Pisco Sours and as many crisps as Tony felt he could get away with! The action packed few days didn’t stop there either – one of the main reasons for heading to the Atacama desert was for the star watching potential of the place, and whilst the show wasn’t quite on the level of Greg Quickes in Broome (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greg-Quickes-Astro-Tours/167670281850?v=wall), getting a view of the butterfly cluster (http://www.spacepictures.org/displayimage-123.html) and hearing more crazy stats about the universe.

More red Andes, plus pisco sour

Some more reflection time

Jumpy jumpy, lovely lovely

Time for a final reflection

Key Learnings:

Say, that's a big telescope!
Unfortunately, Annaliza didn't own
the blanket...

1. Being at increased altitude has numerous effects, some stranger than others… (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1220/do-you-toot-more-at-high-altitude)

2. You get a diverse bunch on astronomy tours – a fellow Brit asking why we (humans) were interested in Extra-Terrestrial life and exploring Mars was cringe-worthy to say the least!