Atacama Desert: a world of it's own. pt 2

Sunday, Halloween, was an early and epic day. At 3:30am we woke up wearing every piece of clothing we brought to head out to see the Geysers del Tatio. It's about a two hour drive up to the northern part of the desert right on the border with the Andes mountains. (Upon arrival my camera gave me the middle finger and didn't work for the rest of the trip, I think there is some residue sand in it from my excursion to the dunes here in Valpo that got moved around and now is messing up the lens. Surgery to come.) We watched the sun rise up over a field of steaming geysers and were told to watch our step since the ground is covered in ice. Boiling water next to frozen water...right.. Apparently this geyser field represents 8% of the world's geysers and the USA has about 50%, not too many geysers in the world. Our tour guide thought it was amazing I had seen Old Faithful (thanks mom and dad). After the sun came up we piled back in the van to check out the thermal bath. All of those layers I had put on earlier came off as I stripped down to my bathing suit and jumped into a pool of water that is kept warm with geothermal energy. There were pockets that were much warmer than others and if you put your hand too far down in the sand you would get burnt. Meanwhile my wet hair was freezing since it was 8:30am and cold enough to snow had there been precipitation. After making the mad dash from the pool to my towel to the van we headed down to the tiny town of Machuca, 4 inhabitants, that basically live off of selling anticucho de llama basically llama meat on a stick. I was definitely put off when I first heard about this, but it was one of the more delicious things I've ever had. As we headed back towards San Pedro we made two more pit stops. One to look at the flock of flamingos hanging out in a random, almost frozen, lagoon next to a herd of Vicuna. (My tour guide told me that the reason flamingos sleep on one foot is so that when the water freezes at night they can use the other foot to break themselves out...not sure what the credibility of that is,but I like the story). The second stop was a walking tour of Purifrica, cold water, and was another one of those 'I can't believe this place' moments. There was this running river of fresh water in the middle of the desert that ran through this gorgeous canyon, smoothed down after years of water running over the rocks. End point was a 400 year old cactus that is 10 meters tall. One of the girls from my tour is going to email me the picture of me standing next to it. After making it back to our campsite at 1 pm we had a quick half an hour nap, lunch and headed out to rent bikes to go see Valle de la Luna.
As most of you know I am not really a fan of bike riding, at all. I really like the idea of it, I think it's a great way to see places, but for the most part I'd rather walk. However, I decided that riding bikes to Valle de la Luna would be fun...and while well worth the end result I was pretty convinced I was going to die on the way there. Also, who decided it was a good idea to mass produce uncomfortable bike seats? I mean, if you're going to be sitting on something for a long period of time why have it be an unpleasant experience? I am not Lance Armstrong so aerodynamics are of minimal importance to me. Point is, my rear end was literally bruised and I physically couldn't sit down for the rest of the evening and the next day...you win bike.
All of that aside. Valle de la Luna is just the most incredible place. Apparently it's called the Moon Valley because it looks like the surface of the moon. I was unaware the moon looked so cool! We got to go into a cave, which you needed a flashlight to do since it was pitch black. Really cool. The walls were lined with what we believe it be Quartz, but could be some other clear substance found underground. Scrambling through a dark cave on Halloween only seemed appropriate. Afterwards we rode, well I walked, our bikes a little further into the park and ended up at the panoramic view point for the sunset over the valley. Just incredible. There was this sand dune to the right of the ridge we were on that was perfectly smooth, it looked almost fake, like someone had painted it there. Cue bike ride back in the dark. and Anna ripping her pants on the bike gear.
So it's Halloween and we decided to live it up Atacama style and attend one of the legendary 'clandestinos'. The bars in San Pedro close promptly at 2 and parties are completely illegal in the town (ie our tour guide tried to have one on Friday and got busted at 2pm in the afternoon by the cops, before the party), so people literally go out into the middle of the desert and have the most epic parties. Our camping neighbor, Nico, and our Canadian-Chilean tour-guide friend, Emilio, invited us to come out to the clandestino that night, so we met Nico at a bar in anticipation of going out. When the bar closed we were herded out into the streets and into a white, unmarked van...which would have really sketched me out, but our tour guide was actually driving the van. Seriously small town. So after cramming what felt like 50 people into this 12 person van, we set off into the night and ended up at a shack in the middle of nowhere that had a DJ, lights show and bonfire. I can easily say this was the coolest party I've ever been to, and by far the best Halloween of my life. The stars at night are incredible in the desert so to see those while standing next to a bonfire listening to great music, was more than I could have ever hoped for. At 5:10 we started our walk home, my watch died just as we left the party, marking that moment permanently. Only casualty was my Argentina coin necklace. Somehow seems appropriate it was sacrificed to the desert.
Next morning we all sleep in, obviously, and then get on our bus at 7:30pm for Calama. Thanks to Max and Dan we did not get stranded in San Pedro for the next week. We didn't learn our lesson in Copiapo and once again did not buy return tickets ahead of time on a 'Dia Feriado' when all of Chile is traveling... We get to Calama and to cap off our trip set up a tent in the airport and build a fort so the four of us can get some sleep before our early flight the next morning. This was in fact completely accepted and almost encouraged by the night staff. So lucky Chileans flying out the next morning were greeted by our strange set up and Max and Marina's feet sticking out from under the fort. Seemed the most appropriate way to end this incredible
journey.

More photos to come once I get them from Dan. Highlights will include Valle de la Luna, me in my Batman cape and our fort in Calama Airport

Fotos: "Cara de Pablo Neruda", part of the cordillera that looks like Pablo Neruda's face, can you find it?; Me and Max; Geysers del Tatio; Geysers del Tatio; Geysers del Tatio; Max, Marina and Dan with their clever sock gloves.