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Well, we are on our last day in San Pedro de Atacama today. We have spent the last week between Antofagasta on the coast and here in San Pedro, with the Atacama in between, the driest and highest desert in the world. I am yet to write the blog for this, but the photos are now uploaded and give a flavour of the scenery, which is once again, jaw dropping.
A desert where parts have not seen rainfall for the last 50 years, with 7 climatic zones, including a huge salt lake, oases, alpine (the desert itself is already 2500 meters above sea level), surrounded by a parade of volcanoes, old and current all standing over 5000 meters. The sunsets are incredible, drawing an array of colour out of the rock, salt and earth.
Anni and I both suffered altitude sickness as we went from 2300 meters in San Pedro up to the geysers at 4300 meters yesterday. As a result we have changed our plans re Bolivia which would have been min 4300 meters for 5 days in a row, with no time to adjust, and now instead are looking at how we will make our way north to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon (the deepest valley on planet earth...although now disputed!) in Peru by bus, with a couple of coast stops along the way.
The Atacama desert really is an amazing place, from Antofagasta where from my kayak out in the pacific, I could see the desert right to the waters edge itself. Now inland that same desert crossed...how people live here or how armies such as the Conquistadors marched across this land is a feat in itself.
One not so nice feature is that the water supply here in San Pedro is laced with local minerals, which includes small amounts of arsenic, which apparently the locals have adapted too (although life expectancy is probably a related issue!). Although we have struck to bottled water, the amounts used in cooking etc, has resulted in both Anni and I worshiping at the feet of that ancient Goddess of all travel, San Imodium! We are better today I am pleased to report and we leave San Pedro tomorrow.
It was a true privilege to see some of the Atacama on the way through.
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