It was a bit of a whirlwind the last few days, very fatigued. I arrived San Pedro Monday afternoon, found a cheap hostel at the edge of town, and ventured out to a nearby Inca ruin with a bunch of people I met on the bus. The little I know about Inca society really facinates me. They absorbed many little villages and towns in the Peru/Bolivia/Northern Chile area using a really democratic system. Looking forward to find out more about it in Peru. On the way back to town we hitched a ride with a local guy with a truck (yay my first hitchhike!).
The next morning, this was Tuesday, Fred and Manuel (2 people from the hostel, Fred I met on the bus) and myself hired out some horses and did a 2 hour ride around the desert. In the afternoon, we went on a Valle de la Luna (Vale of the Moon) tour where we saw some amazing rock formations and saw the sunset over a valley that apparently looks like the moon.
The area around San Pedro is desert. Almost nothing survives there (except some scorpions I think). The dirt is reddish brown, and eeriely like Mars. There are a number of volcanos around, and only small amount of vegetation grows where the underground water flows close to the surface.
The horse ride was COOL. We went behind hills, through hills, and over them. Unfortunately that´s when I lost my little Casio camera (my other one is safe, thank God!). I retraced my steps to when I last used it but it was not to be found. I say a little prayer to my little Casio, I´ve had it for about 6 years now, and it has served me well. Luckily I only lost a few photos, the rest had been backed up.
So, next morning, a bunch of us (Fred, Etien, Veronica) left for the tour of the lagoons and salt flats of Uyuni. More in the next entry ...
