(In my head, I read the title in the tone of Professor Quirrell’s “Troll! In the dungeon!” because, like him, I thought you ought to know.)
The stars were everything we hoped they’d be. The concentrated band of the Milky Way made other areas of the sky look bare in comparison. Here’s one of Alex’s photos:
I should give you a bit more of a background of our travel companions. Alex is an exceptional photographer, as you’ll see if you visit his Instagram page. He sells his photos through a stock photograph company in Brazil. He and Yulia have been travelling together for a month or so. Yulia’s been travelling for two years or so, and will continue to do so until she runs out of money.
Yesterday, our second full day in the desert, was bloody magical. We started by heading to the well-hyped Valle de la Luna with moderate expectations, and we were absolutely blown away. This valley, so named because apparently it resembles the surface of the moon, is full of these incredible rock patterns and smooth sand dunes. The walk through takes you up on the ridge between two incredible scenes on either side, which I’ve attempted to capture as a panorama:
Having largely ticked off the sights to the south, we headed back through San Pedro (with a stop at its French bakery for an exceptional baguette) and then north.
We meandered (in the car) in the direction of the El Tatio Geysers with lots of stops – at a creek for a swim, at gorges, canyons, lakes with flamingos, to say hello to llamas and alpacas. The drive took us up from approx 2,400 m above sea level to around 4,000 m. The summits of the incredible mountains we could see at a distance from the town were now much closer, as if within reach (they weren’t). The air was thinner and it was noticeably colder – even in full exposure to desert sun you’d want a jumper.
To set up camp for the night, we took a side road within a few minutes drive of the geysers that took us to an abandoned set of buildings. There were old kitchens, workers’ rooms and in the distance some industrial equipment – all obviously disused. We picked the beautiful wooden house to set up camp, covering the empty windows with cardboard to keep the winds out. Through the complex ran a beautiful clear stream. We’ve since found out that the site was probably used by a geothermal energy company, and probably fell into disuse in the late 2000s. As the sun set, the temperature dropped dramatically and we rugged up in every warm piece of clothing we had. We all didn’t have particularly warm sleeping bags, so we harboured secret doubts about whether we’d make it through the night.
We survived … just. I think the night counts amongst each of our most touch-and-go cold nights, and I think we were all relieved when our alarms started going off at 5 am. It was still dark and bitterly cold, but at least we could get up and moving.
We moved out from the former Campamento and headed for the nearby El Tatio Geysers. We wandered through the geyser fields, lighting up the steam with our head torches but not having a clear sense of the full picture before dawn. As the sky started to brighten, we got to appreciate the tens of steaming geysers covering the field. Some were surrounded by rings of coloured rocks – salmon orange, mustard yellow and ‘snot’ green (Dan’s descriptor).
Dan, Yulia and Alex also braved a swim in a geyser-heated outdoor pool. (I was turned off because apparently the temperature was patchy and I didn’t want to endure the cold patches to find the hot ones.)
Otherwise, our day has been reasonably uneventful. We are all exhausted. Alex is checked into a San Pedro hostel, Yulia is now couch surfing in Calama, and Dan and I have a room in a different San Pedro hostel. Making stir fry for dinner was made all the more exciting because we have access to a wok here! Small but genuine joys. I expect tomorrow will involve nothing much more than reading, eating, visiting the French bakery and otherwise minimising time spent outside under the fierce gaze of this desert sun. It is brutal – but it breaks the cold before dawn so I am grateful.
VRPS
[San Pedro de Atacama]
The Two Swords 