Atacama Desert; a world of it's own. pt 1

October 27th Max, Marina, Dan and I got on a bus to Santiago to start our journey up north to San Pedro de Atacama. After getting a few hours sleep in the airport we got on our 5:55am flight to Calama from where we took a bus to San Pedro. A few days before, and even en route, we were all less excited than would be expected due to the amount of homework we all had and the lack of sleep. However, I can easily say this trip ended up being one of the most amazing and unique experiences of my life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
We spent our first day in San Pedro looking for a tour company to do our tours with. To see all that Atacama has to offer you have to take tours, which can be expensive, but definitely worth it. Some people rented cars, but the information that the tour guides are armed with make paying for the tour well worth the money. We ended up picking 'Andes Expeditions', which if any of you make it up there I highly recommend, also ask for Felipe or Micheal. It was a smaller tour company, only 11 people or so on a tour, and had much more of a hippie vibe than the other companies we looked at. My host dad had told me that San Pedro was full of gringos, but on all three tours we were with only Chileans, and one German.
Before I get into the tours I have to reflect on our campsite for a quick minute. Being broke college students spending five days in one of the smallest and most touristy towns we had to get creative with our money. Consequently, we ended up in the 'mas barato' 'cheapest' campsite in all of San Pedro, only 2 luca per night ($4) while most were around 3 or 4 luca. In the end it wasn't too bad, but the first two days had some hiccups. For example, every time there was a breeze the first day and a half a strong smell of feces accosted your nasal passage. Turns out there was an open sewage tank on the other side of the fence full of, well you can imagine. Other highlights involve David, the son of the owner, who believed that chupacabras exist and are the result of a US experiment during WWII used as an attempt to take over the world, starting with Chile...and a dog named 'Que te importa' 'What does it matter' that sometimes sleeps in the shower. It was a little embarrassing to tell locals where we were staying because this place is famous for being 'lo mas barrato' Our tour guide laughed when we told him, they call it 'Cayamping' from 'cayampa' which more or less means 'really shitty'.
Friday was our first tour to Lagunas Altiplanicas for which we woke up at 6:30am, I saw so many sunrises on this trip. Our first stop was Laguna Chaxas, the national Flamingo reserve. Here there are three kinds of flamingos; James, Andean and Chilean. The aptly named Chilean flamingo is the only one that travels outside of Atacama and the Andes to Bolivia and Peru...go Chile. It was such a strange experience to see flamingos flying around the middle of the salt flats while I was bundled up, wearing a hat and mittens. I am so used to seeing them only in the bright blue, and warm, Carribean. This was only the beginning of strange juxtapositions. As we drove further south and went higher into the mountains, my companions and I suffered a little altitude sickness. Luckily, we had bought some coca leaves...yes the same plant used to make cocaine. However, the dried leaves dissolved in your own saliva do wonders for the altitude.
The next stop was the Lagunas Altiplanicas, which is made up of two lagoons: Miscanti and Minique (with an n-yay). Two breathtakingly beautiful lagoons nestled at the base of a volcano and inhabited with herds of Vicunas (with an n-yay), llama like creatures with skinny legs. (We also got to see a guanaco on the way up, distinguished only by the black face. ) The volcano we saw is sacred to the Andean cultures (Atacameno and Aymara) and is representative of the female part of life. We females are a big deal apparently.
Lunch on the way down in Socaire consisted of a two course Peruvian delight, of course the food must be mentioned.
The town of Toconao was our last stop. Another oasis nestled in the salt flats. It has this beautiful river running through it that we walked along and it ended in this enormous canyon full of trees and flowers and everything you don't expect to see in the desert.
Saturday we had a bit of a lie in and postponed our bike trip to Valle de la Luna for Sunday (yes, I in fact rode a bike). That afternoon we loaded into the van once again with our trusty guide Felipe to bathe in Laguna Cejar, a lagoon salty enough to float in. What a strange experience to be able to float without moving. I kept treading water and then remembering that was completely unnecessary. Since the high salt concentration can irritate your skin the guides bring along bottles of water to essentially hose you down with or you can hold out and jump into Ojos de Salar, which are two round holes in the middle of the desert full of fresh water. There is some speculation as to whether the holes were man made and naturally filled in or are a natural phenomenon. Needless to say we gringos proved our worth by jumping in these pools. Not as cold as expected. Next stop was Laguna Tebinquinche, another salt water oasis smack dab in the middle of the never ending salt flats. Here we watched the sunset, drank pisco sours and got to know our tour mates a little better. Oh, and Dan and Max licked chunks of salt. Turns out that salt is in fact extremely salty, who knew?
side note to the sunsets in Atcama: breathtaking. The sun turns the surrounding mountains purple as it disappears over the horizon. The golden orange fades into a rose and then this purple color I've never seen anywhere else in my life. Of course taking all of the heat with it.


Even now as I sit here reflecting back on this trip, and feeling my first real pangs of homesickness, I can't believe how fortunate I am to be having these experiences and it blows my mind that I have about three more months of adventures to come. Next part to come soon, I figured no human being should have to read this much in one sitting. And realistically, the pictures do this trip way more justice than I can write.

Fotos: Our campsite; Flamingos!; more flamingos!; "Sillon de la suegra" literally means "Mother in laws chair", something to think about; Laguna Miscanti; Max and Dan floating in Laguna Cejar; Dan jumping in Ojos de Salar; Laguna Tebinquinche