My bus from Puno, Peru to the Chilean border was scheduled to depart at 8:45pm, but it was after 9pm and the bus hadn`t even arrived at the station. I eyed a couple of fellow backpackers, also waiting for the same bus and eventually we began talking. These people were Philip and Tinka, a German couple who I would end up spending the next week or so traveling with. We crossed the border at Arica with a crazy Chilean taxi driver named Christian, and then took another bus to Iquique, a port town with big houses made out of wood and a style of architecture that was half New Orleans and half the Wild West.
After living a simple rustic life in Ecuador, then experiencing a two week long tourist binge through Peru which felt a little bit like South American Disney World, I found myself in Chile, the 37th most developed country in the world and one of the least environmentally sustainable... a land where fruit flies somehow do not exist and cars stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. We went for a dip in the ocean straight off. There, I saw lots of jelly fish which worried me a little bit, and lots of stray dogs bathing in the cool waters. Tinka lived in Chile for 6 months and said that the stray dogs in Chile enjoy a certain level of respect that they are not given in other parts of South America, and thus are left to roam the streets in packs. I had some delicious honey dew juice at the local market and realized that the desert is really really hot.
San Pedro de Atacama was where we were all headed next so we decided to make the trip together. In order to visit the natural parks and things we wanted to see there we would have to take a bus and then book organized tours, as there was no public transportation from San Pedro to the sights. That night, Tinka, Philip and I began talking about the possibility of renting a car as we were all headed to the same town and all had similar thoughts on organized tours and being herded around to sights with a big group and being told when to stop and where take pictures and when to breath. We figured that it would be approximately the same price, or maybe less expensive, to rent a car and sleep in it, thus avoiding the tour fees and expensive accomodation in San Pedro.
So after pricing out many different rental car agencies we finally got a car and began our drive through the desert. Lots of desert. Through the desert that claims the title of the `driest place on Earth` I have seen almost nothing else but desert since leaving Ecuador, but it was a different experience driving through it in a car than it is seeing it pass by through the bus window. I felt smaller, and the desert felt so much bigger. It was really nice to be in the car too because we could travel on our own terms, make stops, take pictures, use the bathroom, etc. at our own pace.
Our first destination was Santa Laura, a nitrate mine very active in the 20`s and 30`s. It had been deserted many years ago and was now just shells of old buildings, machinery, and artifacts that had been preserved well in the dry desert air. A few km down the road was Humberstone, a ghost town that had boomed during the time of the nitrate mines but had been abandoned since the 60`s. It was once quite the bustling place with a theater that hosted world acclaimed acts, now it hosts the few tourists who brave the heat and dust.
Following Humberstone we piled back into the car for more desert. It was hot and the car had neither speakers or more importantly air conditioning vents in the back seat where I was sitting and opening the window provided no relief. The road continued monotonously on for miles straight ahead and the sand continued on all sides. Off in the distance small tornadoes would lift the sand from the surface and pull it up into a spiral. Gusts of wind would grab the car periodically and shake us a bit as we moved across its path, but mostly it was just straight driving. So straight that I was even able to read a little bit without getting sick.
We were headed to Valle de la Luna (Vally of the Moon), a place we didn`t know very much about except that it was best viewed at sunset, also the busiest time. In the end we didn´t make it in time and arrived after dark. We didn`t see any signs as we passed what we guessed to be the enterance to the park but found a spot just off the road to park for the night. The air was crisp and windy and when we stepped out of the car and when we looked up we found ourselves under an impossibly starry sky.
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