Hi everyone,
We got back on our first long distance bus since China on Monday to head up to San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile on the edge of the Atacama desert.
Fortunately the journey was in complete contrast to the last one in China when we got next to no sleep and Sarah's bag was slashed and stuff nicked.
This time, we were treated to fully reclining seats that turned into beds, while an attendant served us breakfast, lunch and dinner and offered us blankets and pillows. It was almost like flying business class, except that it took 24 hours to go 1,000 miles. Still, National Express have a lot they could learn...
The town itself is very small and picturesque. It's overlooked by the Andes and the Licancabur volcano and all the buildings are made from adobe bricks (i.e sand, mud, clay and water). Being on the edge of the desert, it's warm (mid-20s) and very sunny during the day but the temperature plummets well below zero at night. The night sky is also incredible with super-bright, 180 degree views of the stars.
Vicunas (like llamas but without the woolly jumpers) - in the Atacama desert
More Atacama wildlife. Spot the imposter...
On Wednesday we booked a tour out to Salar de Atacama, which is a giant salt flat in the middle of the desert and is in Los Flamencos National Reserve. Even those of you who barely speak Spanish (like us) will probably be able to work out that that means we saw some flamingos...
That was at 9am and the temperature was still below zero. Just as we were starting to warm up though, it was time to get back in the van and head up to an altitude of 4,600 metres (which is pretty high when you consider Ben Nevis is Britain's highest peak at less than 1,400m). At the same time, the sky began to fill with cloud and by the time we reached the two lakes that were our destination, the temperature had dropped to minus 15 celsius. Add to that a raging wind and we were grateful we got down again without our ears freezing off!
We should also mention that for a region that gets an average of three days of rain per year, it managed to snow for about a minute while we were "enjoying" the outdoor picnic the tour company gave us for lunch!
It won't surprise you to learn that we spent the following day sitting in the sun back in San Pedro, reading and drinking coffee and generally warming up. Though just in case you were thinking we were turning into wimps, we also booked a trip for Friday that involved getting up at 4am!
Before that though, we decided that on Thursday evening we'd walk out of town to watch the sunset from the surrounding hills. Unfortunately though, we got our timing slightly off and the sun was disappearing while we were only half way there. But rather than just give up, we decided to scramble up the nearest small hill by the roadside to get a better view.
Unfortunately we hadn't realised that on the other side of the hill was someone's house, which was guarded by three fearsome looking alsatians....
As soon as they saw us, they started barking like crazy and running towards us. Can you guess what we did? That's right, we legged it! Scrambling back down the rock and under a makeshift fence. By the time we got to the bottom, we were covered in dust and Phil had managed to get a bump and a graze on his head from the fence! Still the sunset was nice.
We got up at 4am the next day for a trip to the El Tatio Geysers. We'd hoped we'd be able to sleep in the van during the two hour ride there, but the road into the desert had other ideas and was so bumpy that we didn't get a wink.
The geysers were pretty spectacular though and are formed by the underground water being heated by volcanic activity till it rushes to the surface. Click here for a video of El tatio bubbling up!
Some geysers (and some bird)
After that, and despite the fact the temperature was just above freezing, we drove to a river and went for a swim! Though we should point out that the river water was also hot and we sat in it quite comfortably for half an hour or so. We then drove back to San Pedro via a forest of giant 300 year old cacti and arrived back in town at 1pm.
The cactus forest
At which point, anyone sensible would have gone to bed. But maybe the tiredness had made us delirious and we decided to book a sandboarding session instead.
As you can probably guess, sandboarding involves heading out to the desert to surf down the dunes on...er...snow boards. We were slightly wary when they told us the dunes were located in the area of the desert known as Death Valley, but we managed to survive in one piece. Just.
Ready, set, WIPEOUT!!
ooh it´s a bit of a long way down....do you think I´ll be alright Mr hunky Instructor Man? ooohwEEEEEEE!
Optional bonus extra...maybe. We also got some video footage of some of our sandboarding efforts, which you might be able to watch by clicking through to youtube.com here... (though we´re not too confident of our ability to get these links embedded properly, so apologies if it´s another blank screen...) http://www.youtube.com/v/ND37mnpfjAU&hl=en"></param><param
Tomorrow (Sunday) it's back on the bus to Santiago. Our original plan had been to head up to Peru and Machu Picchu but we found out that the trail is booked up till September, so we're heading to Argentina instead.
We're due back in Santiago on 15th June, when we fly to Rio de Janeiro. From there, we plan to head north to the beaches of Salvador before returning to Rio at the end of June to meet up with Louise and Vanessa. Then it'll be onto the Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires, from where we fly to New York at the end of July. We're also hoping to squeeze in some skiing in Argentina before we leave. Hopefully we'll be better at it than sandboarding!
Love from Sarah and Phil x x
