Week without water...

There is really no way I could possibly have the stamina to post the complete summary of my travels right now, but with a glass of wine in hand and a bit of relaxing music playing, I'm going to do my best to begin. Sit back and relax. Maybe you should grab a glass of water as well, because after this first part, you might get a bit thirsty...




To give you a better idea of my bus journey to my first destination, here's another blurb I jotted late one evening:

"I just saqw the first billboard of my journey. Soon to follow was a giant refinary or plant of some kind --uinterrupting the seemingly untouched hills and dunes. I just passed another large plant which appeared to be processing cent. With the plant, came the first greenery I've seen for hours. The scenery has been filled with nothing but dunes. Dunes that appear a brownish grey, covered in ridges like the dry, wrinkly skin of an elephant or rhinocerous."



So this is San Pedro de Atacama, a small town in the middle of the Atacama desert in the north of chile. And to answer the question that I'm sure you're asking yourself, yes, that's how it looks everywhere in San Pedro. Walls made of mud and straw, ceilings of palm leaves and corrugated tin, and wooden signs adorning shops and restaurants. Thankfully the hostal we stayed in was fully equipped with bathrooms and rather nice rooms, but the running water was a different story. There was running water, but only sometimes. And if you happened to want a hot a shower...well keep dreaming. Hot water was no where to be found save for the tea kettle placed on the stove every morning for tea.

Running water shortages aside, the town was rather quaint. Things cost more than one might expect, but the town was most filled with tourists, so in retrospect, it should have been expected. The majority of the people in the town were in fact foreigners. It was actually expected that one not speak spanish.

As quaint as the town was, there wasn't much to do. There was an array of artesianal shops selling similar objects and crafts such as llama sculptures and ponchos, but aside from these and the wide range of restaurants and hostals, there wasn't much in the area --mind you it took only about 10 minutes to walk from one end of the main part of town to the other. So being tourists, we booked tours. Now one might argue that guided tours are cheating, but as far as this desert is concerned, they're practically the only way to see the sights --and yes, there are sights. The nearest anything was at least a half an hour's drive away, and with the lack of street signs --and roads for that matter-- navigating the area yourself was out of the question.



The desert is, as I'm sure you imiganed, an insanely dry place. GASP!!! I know... But to give you an idea of how dry it is, this is a photo of a government project started in an attempt to provide an area of shelter and food for the animals of the desert. They attempted to plant a large area of trees where they found an underground water supply from the mountains. While the project was somewhat successful in the sense that some trees are still standing, the large majority died. The only trees that did remain were the ones directly above the narrow strip of water running undergroud. Now there is literally only a small strip of trees still growing in a small stripe from the mountains out into the middle of no where in the desert.


Well...I appear to have far less energy than I thought and am now about to finish off for the night... There will be more to come soon...