San Pedro Continued...

Alright, I have half a class free and since Javier doesn´t go to my school, I have a little peace to continue my San Pedro story.

After the Valley of the Moon, me and Olivia met up with Lisa, who had ust arrived and decided to eat a late dinner where our tour guide suggested. Despite the fact that we were exhausted, me an Olivia decided to tough it out since Lisa had just arrived. Dinner was fantastic, but we were very tired throughout and were ready for bed, but decided to stop in for one drink at the place we were the night before.

We sat down around the fire and Olivia swore she heard a Texas accent and decided to explore. Turns out that two older men were talking with the owner of the bar at a table behind us and invited us to have a drink with them. So we started chatting with these people. who it turns out work for Vertex, an American manufacturer of antennas. Apparently, they were in the process of setting up the first antenna in a series of 24 antennas which will comprise the largest telescope in the world. Furthermore, they had just been interviewed by the discovery channel for some show (Probably Modern Marvels) which will air once the project is complete in five years. The conversation was great and the vino started flowing. Before we knew it, the owner was feeding us and giving us free tee-shirts and offering to take us to the Bolivian border and other non-touristy places. Ultimately, our quiet night turned out to be one heck of a party and the owner (or the foreman from Vertex) picked up the entire tab and we went home thoroughly exhausted to another difficult night of sleep.

The next day, we slept in again and made it out of the room around 11 to book tours and to find some horseback riding (This was the trade off I had to make for going sandboarding). Anyways, it turns out Lisa is allergic to horses so we booked a horseback riding tour with the same person we booked our full day excursion the next day. (If you´re ever in San Pedro book your tours with Fernando, who is close to the central plaza but kind of off the beaten path. He will get you places the other typical gringo tours won´t go.)

Ultimately, we decided on a three hour tour through "The Valley of the Dead" and departed. We met at the agreed upon destination and were met by a cute, petite Chilean woman who helped us into our saddles. After we mounted our horse, she tried a smooth entry move onto her horse and fell flat onto her face. That made me a little nervous, but at least the saddle wasn´t as painful for my manhood as I had made clear I was worried about.

After the initial hiccups, all I can say is that the ride was pure magic. The trails we traversed, went through sandy dunes and rocky trails strangely reminiscent of Mars, Star Trek, and the Planet of the Apes. The reds and browns made me wonder "Why do people consider deserts to be barren wastelands when there is so much inherent beauty in them?" Anyways, the ride was beautiful and the vistas amazing as I can hopefully show once I get my computer and can upload pictures to the blog.

So upon return, we decided to call it an early night, because we had scheduled a 16 hour tour that started at 4 in the morning and would even make my Papa´s tours proud.

4 came too early after another restless night of sleep and Olivia, Lisa and I piled into a small, rundown van with 4 Chileans to make the 2 and a half hour ride to geysers which also were the highest point of our trip at somewhere around 12,000 feet. I really thought by the time we arrived that my body was going to shake apart due to a lack shocks in the van and a lack of padding on the seats. But, the first thing we noticed when we got there was how slowly we were moving due to the altitude and the bitter cold conditions (I think our guide said it was -8 degrees celsuis, which none of us were prepared considering we thought we were going to a desert). Anyways, being from Michigan I´ve been cold before, but this might have been the coldest I´ve ever been other than the first couple of rainy days I spent during my NOLS course in Alaska. Even though we weren´t supposed to get very close to the geysers, we put all of our freezing appendages as close as possible to feel any form of heat we could. (Unlike New Zealand, where the paths around the geysers are clearly fenced off, Chile doesn´t seem to worry about tourists being consumed by superheated water). Meanwhile we could slowly see the sun creeping over the hills to save us from the freezing conditions.

After a scrumptious breakfast of cake and mate (A tea which gives you a little pick me up) we moved on to the natural spring baths next door. Being the adventurous and frozen gringos as we were, we looked for our first opportunity to jump in while the other tourists looked at us like we were crazy. I´ve never felt such relief from the cold as we found the opening where the water came from and warmed our freezing bodies). Interestingly, soon we were surrounded by half of the intrepid tourists who decided the springs were probably a good idea.

Anyways, by the time we finished in the hot springs the weather changed from frigid, to pleasant, and soon would be very hot. Soon we departed and stopped in a small pueblo with only about 15 houses but a precioso church and our first exposure to brochettes de llama. We couldn't get enough of these kabobs made with llama meat as well as probably the sweetest, best tasting cheese empanadas I have ever tasted. Following this diversion, we headed back to town to recover for our afternoon tour.

Around 3 o'clock we piled in the van again and headed out to the salt flats to hopefully see some flamingos. But first we headed to a salt lake. I have never been to the Great Salt Lake, but I would imagine the lake we visited was very similar. We literally floated on the lake with little effort as each paddle stung any open wounds we had acquired through our adventures. After about 15 minutes in the lake, we washed off with some fresh water although the salt would turn our bodies bright white and thoroughly dry our skin for the rest of the day. We stopped at one other salt lake and it was on to the salt flats.

Since our tour guide was not your average, Mercedes driving tour guide, he seemed to have a unique point of the salt flats to take us. Only one other van driven by locals was at this point of the salt flats. When we arrived, he said we're leaving in an hour and a half. Go find flamingos. I'm not really sure this was environmentally sensitive or even legal, but I figured "When in Rome"! So we started out on the salt flats to find us some flamingos. After a fairly easy go at the beginning, I saw something flying in the distance and we decided to brave a little less stable part of the flats in search of these great pink birds. As we continued, I fell through the salt into mud up to my ankles. As the sun began to set in one of the most magnificent sunsets I have ever seen, we came close enough to view several flamingos flying across the lake.

As we sat next to the van eating snacks and sipping on a pisco sour, we watched the sun set on this unique and beautiful corner of the world.