We used it only until 9 or so and got up.
The first impression of the hostel during the day was great. One floor Clay buildings with a colourful door and window to the courtyard that was covered with straw mats to protect us from the intense afternoon sun (that we had not experienced yet).
We decided to get some breakfast from the nice little buffet that was included and relax in the courtyard with a bowl of cereals, Yoghurt and a big cup of coffee (or two).
There was no tour on the plans today. It was suppose to be a bit of a relaxing day, catching up on things, exploring the town and of course get acclimatised.
Acclimatised to what, you are asking? Well I only became aware of that as well when I opened my water bottle that I had last opened in Patagonia.
It zissshed... had higher pressure than the surroundings. And only then I remembered that we were, although we were in a valley, surrounded by Mountains, at 2500m above sea level.
So it was a good thing we didn't do any major trips to day. What we had to do, of course was doing our laundry. Most of our cloths were still muddy from the trek in Torres del Paine. We brought our plastic bags full of cloths on our little exploration trip into town and soon found a place that would wash them for us and we should be able to pick them up later that evening.
San Pedro de Atacama is a brilliant backpackers place. It is quite a touristy in terms of souvenir shops and bars and restaurants, but it certainly has a more relaxed and civilized atmosphere than Siem Reap or some of the South east Asian Backpacker hot spots.
Back at the Hostel we met Martin from the Netherlands, a very nice chap who was travelling on his own through South America. We agreed drinking and eating together is better than doing it alone, so we decided to meet up for dinner later that evening.
For now I needed to find some new sunglasses as my MacGyver creation was not suitable for any longer duration than it had already survived. I did find a nice pair for 3 $ in a dusty market and was very happy with the red tint and oldschool looks.
We set down at a cafe in the central square, had some tacos of some sort and a cold beer and just enjoyed the afternoon.
Soon it was time to go back to the hostel though as we couldn't resist to book a tour even for today. It was just an afternoon tour and the bus should take us to the Valle Luna (Valley of the Moon).
The bus was full but the tour was good. A good tour guide explained some background knowledge of the geology of the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth (aside from some spots in Antarctica). Some Scientists think that specific places here have been dry for more than 20 million years...
Anyway, the Lunar Valley has been used to test NASAs Mars Rover Curiosity has been tested in the area because it is the closest place to the surface of mars that can be found on our planet. Cool ehy?! Actually most of the Valley is grey, which helped it getting the name Moon Valley, but I was wearing my red tinted new sunglasses and it all looked like Mars to me.
Next stop was the Salt Canyon with some caves and a bit of a hike through the dry gorge.
We were only 45 minutes into our 4 hour trip and my 1 l water bottle was already drained. Luckily we stopped at the entrance to the park where we could get more water.
Unfortunately there were some annoying German gap year kids on our bus but we were able to escape them later when it was time to enjoy the sunset over the Vale de la Muertos from top of a rock shelf.
The sunset was great, tinting the entire valley into colours from yellow, orange to red and finally to grey.
Back in town we picked up our laundry and found a little cheap restaurant for some food, followed by some local brews in the Salle de la Cerveza where Kai, Martin and I reviewed the day and discussed all sorts of things ranging from music, over trips, to beer and home.
Before midnight we were all pretty wrecked and ready for bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment