The bus went down the Andes from about 4000m to 2400m in almost a straight line. It is funny how after this volcanic mountain range not very steep, but otherwise flat decline can follow.
When arriving in a town, regardless how small it may seem, not having a map is usually a problem. These are the moments where I long for the days when I still had my iPod. I wandered around for almost one hour in San Pedro de Atacama before I found my hostel. It’s not that I didn’t ask people for advice, just that those people sent me to opposite directions all the time. Sigh.
There are only two ATMs in town. One doesn’t accept VISA cards and despite of indicating otherwise, would also not take my Maestro card (after waiting almost an hour for the maintenance that started just seconds before I arrived at the machines). And the other one, well, it was broken. The third one still in the maps was washed away by the heavy rain fall in February.
So I had to exchange some of my emergency money into pesos, which was rather unfortunate. But I wasn’t alone. Most other guys on our bus had similar problems and apparently this situation happens every week-end. Oh my…
The hostel I stayed in was very nice, although about 7 minutes away from the town centre. It had the most friendliest hosts I ever had encountered so far. The only problems were that the nights were freezingly cold (4 deg C even at 2400m) with no heater in my room and there was either no warm water or no cold water (in some showers at least). My room mates were a sweet Dutch couple called Kristina and Hjalte who immediatly offered me to come by when I’m in Copenhagen.
Chile and San Pedro in particular is much more expensive than for example Bolivia. I was able to get a bus ticket to Salta (50 EUR!) in Argentina on Monday after at first it seemed that I could only leave on Tuesday and only paying cash.
There are many tours to take from here, but most of them very similar to the ones I already did in the Salars, just a lot more expensive. So I only booked a tour for the Valley of the Moon and for star gazing the same day. There are probably not many better places for that than in a desert with almost no humidity at a high altitude with more than 300 days of clear sky.
Due to a storm the tours were almost canceled, but I was lucky that both took place. The trip to Valley of the Moon took me to weird formations of rock and salt, including a dinosaur head and three Maries (sic?). We did not go up to that huge coffee brown dune, but drove to Death Valley instead. The name is actually a wrong from translating “valle marte” (Mars valley). I haven’t been to Mars yet, but I imagine it could look similar. Maybe that’s also the reason the NASA tried their Mars Rover here first.
After a really beautiful sunset on a view point over the valley the tour ended back in town. I later met Kristina and Hjalte in the hostel again who were in a hurry to get to their star gazing tour — mine was postponed to 21:30. An hour later they returned because it ultimately was canceled. I felt a bit sad for them, but they would have another chance the next day.
I waited outside the hostel for the pickup, unsure if my tour would be taking place. But the mini van arrived and off we went to the observatory. I also met Rasmus again, making it more pleasing.
The guide at the observatory had a very fancy green laser pointer to show us the stars and constellations in the sky. It was fancy because normally, you don’t see the laser beam itself without dust reflecting it and miraculously, the beam ended after about 20m by itself. I guess it works via modulating the phase of actually two separate beams, causing interferences along the way. Somebody got some expert knowledge? I’d really like to know how this works.
The visibility of the stars and the milky way was amazing. I was able to take a few good shots with my camera, although I really would have needed a tripod. The guide showed us the Andean version of the constellations, including llamas and hunters and whatnot. We could have a look through a small telescope to see some stars closer.
Then we went inside for a short presentation and background about the universe and everything. Wasn’t bad. Finally, we went into the observatory with a huge automated telescope to get an even better look at planet, stars and galaxies. I was very happy that the guide put a dying star into focus, that I also knew under the Mayan name Xibalba. In their belief, it was the underworld where all their souls would go.
We had a look at Mars, but it just remained a bright dot. However, Saturn was better distinguishable due to its remarkable rings. I was even able to get it on camera, however, it took a lot of attempts.
These were my one and a half days in San Pedro, my very first glimpse of Chile before I will return to it after Mendoza. I’m now on the way to Salta in Argentina. Of the supposingly 11 hours ride, we already spent around 3 hours on the two borders. But the time we were actually moving was a nice one. The beautiful scenery of the Andes just captures my attention every time.
