Atacama Adventure

This past weekend, I got to experience authentic Chilean travel.  What do I mean?  Traveling in Chile can either be extremely easy or extremely difficult, and there isn’t really a happy-medium.  For my weekend, I experienced the ease of buses and metros, but planes were a whole different issue.  If you ever want to hear a funny story, ask me about: the pastor who is also a beekeeper; the worst taxi driver on earth; the missed flight; or the cancelled flight.  Travel was a bit stressful this weekend, but that isn’t the point.  The point is God is a wonderful Creator.

Sunset in the desert.  Beautiful.

Last weekend was another long weekend in Chile thanks to Monday’s holiday (but please don’t ask me what holiday it was, I still don’t know… oops), so me and three other friends traveled to San Pedro de Atacama.  What is San Pedro de Atacama?  It is a tiny town in the middle of the Atacama Desert, in the north of Chile.  The Atacama is the driest desert in the world, and I definitely experienced the dryness of the desert while seeing some amazing things.

After finally getting to San Pedro, we decided to rent bikes to ride to and through Valle de la Luna.  By the end of our five hours on bikes, we had ridden more than 20 miles on dirt roads and hills to see some BEAUTIFUL views.  In the valley we crawled through salt mines, saw huge sand dunes, and climbed to lookout points of the dunes, valley, and surrounding desert and volcanoes.

Emerging from the salt mines (aka: caves).

Biking through Valle de la Luna.  Let's not talk about my decision to wear black-on-black while biking at the hottest part of the day.

Lookout point in Valle de la Luna.  There are no clouds in the sky because there is not enough moisture in the air to create them.  Truly the driest desert in the world.

The following day, we visited the Salar de Atacama, the salt flat in the Atacama.  This salt flat is the third largest in the world (Bolivia has the first, and the second is Salt Lake City), and here we got to swim in Laguna Cejar, a small lake you float in.  The water was still pretty cold, but it was pretty cool to float on the top of the water!

The last excursion we did was to visit the Geisers de Tatio.  The best views of the 70+ geysers is at sunrise, which meant we woke up at 3am to get to the valley.  And at sunrise in the desert at 4200 meters above sea level, I have never been so cold in all of my life.  It was 5°F.  Oh my goodness.  But it was so cool!  The geysers were everywhere, and watching the sun come up through the mountains and shine through the steam of the geysers was simply amazing.  The early morning and bitter cold were definitely worth it for the views.  And to top of our morning at the geysers, we swam in the hot spring.  Yes, the air was still below freezing.  Yes, I am crazy.

Geysers at sunrise.  Five degrees Fahrenheit. Five layers.  Not enough.

Friends swimming in the hot spring.

The weekend was busy and full of adventure, but I loved seeing the beauty, peace and simplicity of the desert.  I have never experienced true silence and peace like I did in the desert, and see such a diverse, beautiful and majestic creation.  Pictures will never do justice to what I got to see and do this weekend, but here are a few more to give you an idea… enjoy!

Ohio State friends with our tour guide, Pedro.

Friends at the top of the ruins of an old indigenous village on the mountain outside of San Pedro.