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Day 31: San Pedro de Atacama
After an eventful and exhausting few days, I was feeling a little under the weather and so, decided to take it easy. I wandered up Calle Caracoles and got some breakfast. Sadly, not agreeing with me, I had to go back to bed. This was my morning in San Pedro. All part of the travelling experience!
While I rested I could hear the wind picking up outside. The tin roof rattled and furniture in the courtyard was knocked about. This would threaten a number of things. Firstly, our impending Moon Valley and star gazing tours due to happen later that day and more importantly, our upcoming border crossing the following day. We would have to just wait and see...
I headed out in the afternoon with the Nat and Holly in the afternoon to wander around the market though before meeting at three to get picked up for our Moon Valley tour. A short bus ride out of San Pedro to the Moon Valley visitors centre, where we picked up our tour guide Richard (a big fan of the word "catchai?" - using it at the end of every other sentence, "you know?").
The Moon Valley is a vast desert covered in a layer of salt crystals - not completely throughout like the salt flats, but enough to make the landscape sparkle as if covered in frost, looking like a lunar landscape, thus the name "Moon Valley". It was beautiful and interesting, but having come from the unbelievable scenery of the Salt Flats, it failed to excite in the same way. Having said that, worth the visit. We drove through this protected wilderness stopping at various vantage points to take photos before going for a sort of hike through a part of the park. This "hike" involved scaling through rock crevices and cave like fissures, sometimes in complete darkness. This was a lot of fun and well worth it, but none of us were prepared!Apparently, we were supposed to bring torches (first we'd heard about that was as we approached complete darkness!) and we really should have been advised as to attire - I wore loose harem pants which just about survived all the climbing, crawling and jumping over jagged rocks!
After, Richard asked if we'd like to view the sunset from a sand dune, which he said was less common and therefore more unique, from the standard viewing platform which is normally full of tourists. Not really knowing what we were missing, we took d*** advise (why I'm using this abbrv will become clear) and went to the sand dune. It quickly became apparent why he suggested here. It was closer and less hassle. And ultimately, not really a great place to watch the sunset, as the sun disappeared behind opposing dunes long before the sun was set. It was pretty, don't get me wrong, but we all had a sneaking suspicion that this was less than the optimum place to watch the sunset!
How and ever, we climbed back down the sand dune, emptied our shoes of litres of sand, and made our way back to the hotel.
The wind now having died down a lot, we were hopeful that the stargazing would take place. With it scheduled for 8pm, just an hour after we got back from the Moon Valley; Kat, Nat, Holly and I went looking for somewhere to grab a quick dinner. At the Andean restaurante the girls got enormous portions of stir fried vegetables and rice while I tried to get something plain. A giant bowl of potatoes was served to me, which I valiantly devoured (in my defence, I literally hadn't eaten all day. Not since breakfast at least, which has made me sick). About 8 spuds later (not put off after all the potatoes on Luquina Chico Island) we headed back to the hostel for a mini birthday party for Shan. Vale, such a sweetheart of a guide, had organised a chocolate cake and a huge bottle of wine for her. The stargazing now pushed back to 10pm because of the wind earlier, I took the later time as an opportunity for a nap before wrapping up in layers and heading to the bus with the gang.
The bus took us out of San Pedro and about 20 minutes later, the driver turned off the headlights as he drove through a set of gates and up a laneway. Off the bus we were greeted by a cheery Canadian astronomer called Les. He gathered us around in a circle, took orders for teas, coffees and hot chocolates for the end of the trip and handed out lovely, cosy blankets. Then he started explaining how astronomy used to be perceived, back when they thought the earth was flat. With a crazily powerful laser he pointed out various stars and planets in the sky and all the constellations of the zodiac. It was fascinating, and he was hilarious. Such a mind and personality to boot - it was an amazing evening star gazing. Here in Chile are some of the worlds biggest and best observatories. Out here in the desert, with such little air pollution the stars appear brighter and clearer, with perfect viewing conditions (i.e. Cloudless skies) on a reliable, regular basis. We stood and watched and learned about the marvellous sphere of black above us with all its the twinkling lights, for over an hour before being guided towards a large collection of powerful telescopes, all set up to see different objects in the sky. We saw baby stars and dying stars, red stars and star clusters, and most intensely, we saw Jupiter and Saturn - so clear and so bright it was breathtaking and something I will never forget. If there's one thing I would definitely like to do again, after all the things we've done on this trip, it would be to spend more time looking and learning about the night sky and all it's amazing stars.
Once everyone had an opportunity to look through the various telescopes, we headed into a small cosy neighbouring hut, centred around a circular space with a hole in the ceiling - a natural observatory, where we were served our hot drinks and asked questions while waiting for the bus... now 1am, wrapped in a blanket, in a dim red light, under the stars with a hot mug of cocoa in hand, it was near impossible to stay awake... The bus finally came and in a sleepy haze we got on, and then off and then straight into bed.
Accommodation: Hotel Puritama
Weather: windy but warm during the day; cold but dry in the evening.
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