March 28 Day 41
We opted to have the morning off and do a tour with Javiara in the afternoon. Meg plotted our time out on paper and Javiara got us a spot at Space's night sky tours, which you usually have to book well in advance but because she was their neighbour, she seemed to be able to do stuff others couldn't.
After a leisurely morning organizing, eating and unpacking we headed downtown. While Javiara did some errands, we booking the next few days tours at the organizations she recommended. We also got some cash at the one ATM in town, which had a long line but for the cashier, not the ATM fortunately. We asked one of the tour bookers where the best empanadas were and she steered us to a local place which did not disappoint.
We munched our empanadas as we headed back to Javiara's place to pick up the snacks that she had bought for our trip. We then headed out in her truck over dusty roads into drier and drier land. We had lots to talk about and she played excellent music as we drove so the time went by quickly.
The first place we stopped was at a series of salty lakes where we could look at a few from a distance but couldn't approach or swim in them because of flamingo nesting. Javiara told us that admission used to be $6 but was now $30 and at one point was $60 so the locals would often complain about the managers of the land, who were mainly natives.
The lakes we could swim in were salt-lined but had steep drop-offs and were surprising cool, which felt great on such a hot day. They were super salty and you could easily float on them so we splashed around two of them, careful to keep the water out of our eyes as the salt in it really stung. Since we were on a private tour, there were only a few other people around and we were told to finish before 4 pm, when the tour buses would begin to arrive.
After a proper bout of lounging, we headed back in time to see a few vans start to pull up. We didn't feel any sharp salt underfoot but as the water dried on us we could see and feel the itchy salt and were glad for the cold showers to get the stuff off.
Our next stops was to two round pools in the middle of nowhere which were too small and weedy to tempt us to swim in them but had calm water that made for some nice pictures. Also, there was currently no charge to see them and they were along our way to the next stop.
The final lagoon was larger but we were told that a lot of the path wasn't usable and to not go beyond the pilons. The heavy rains had expanded this lagoon recently so some was blue and the new parts were murky brown. We could see a few flamingos off in the distance but our path didn't go anywhere near them. The walk really felt like a desert one with barren ground on one side and unappealingly coloured water on the other.
We reached the pylon and headed back, taking the lower trail when we got to the fork. This choice turned out to be a good one, as the other side of the lake led us close to a pair of feeding flamingos which we watched for awhile.
Back at the shady shelter, Javiera had sweets, grapes and a local herbal tea which tasted nice. We sipped, munched and talked at the first of the vans started to show up, as apparently this lake was a popular one for sunset, which was about an hour away. We left before it became crowded and headed back to her place.
Our hostelmates came back after a day of sandboarding and horse riding but didn't really use the kitchen and so took off around dinner time. We ate, enjoyed the surroundings and then got our warm clothes on for our night sky tour, which started at 9 pm close to where we were staying.
Javiera drove us there, explained how to walk back in the dark and then stayed to talk to friends once we joined the tour. We followed the people off the bus from town to a dark spot by the small house and had a very animated and interesting description of the southern sky with a group who was mainly from the northern hemisphere. When one of her descriptions was interrupted by loud barking our guide told us that the dog in question was a neighbour's beast and not the SPACE dog. Of course, it was Javiara's dog, Malala (named for her poor behaviour, not the famous woman) but we didn't speak up.
Our guide used a laser pointer to show us starts, galaxies, constellations and planets. Much of the information didn't stick but we were able to recall quite a bit of it the following evening. I saw a half dozen shooting stars which we looked at the sky but Meg missed them all.
The second part of the tour involved hearing descriptions of important parts of the sky and then taking turns looking through 8 or so powerful telescopes. Without the descriptions the views would be little more than random patterns of dots but when you knew what to look for they were more interesting. Our guide and her helper (Javiara's friend, also the wife of the astronomer who set the place up) kept having to readjust the telescopes as tourists bumped them or the sky shifted.
At the end we had hot chocolate and a q and a. Everyone else left on the bus but us so we chatted with the guide a bit more as we walked back to our place. We were let out of a different gate than we came in on but managed to find our way after a few stressful moments as we weren't allowed to use our headlamp until we were off SPACE property as the light would mess up their work.
We got to bed around midnight and set the alarm for 4:30 for our early tour. Groan.
We opted to have the morning off and do a tour with Javiara in the afternoon. Meg plotted our time out on paper and Javiara got us a spot at Space's night sky tours, which you usually have to book well in advance but because she was their neighbour, she seemed to be able to do stuff others couldn't.
After a leisurely morning organizing, eating and unpacking we headed downtown. While Javiara did some errands, we booking the next few days tours at the organizations she recommended. We also got some cash at the one ATM in town, which had a long line but for the cashier, not the ATM fortunately. We asked one of the tour bookers where the best empanadas were and she steered us to a local place which did not disappoint.
We munched our empanadas as we headed back to Javiara's place to pick up the snacks that she had bought for our trip. We then headed out in her truck over dusty roads into drier and drier land. We had lots to talk about and she played excellent music as we drove so the time went by quickly.
The first place we stopped was at a series of salty lakes where we could look at a few from a distance but couldn't approach or swim in them because of flamingo nesting. Javiara told us that admission used to be $6 but was now $30 and at one point was $60 so the locals would often complain about the managers of the land, who were mainly natives.
The lakes we could swim in were salt-lined but had steep drop-offs and were surprising cool, which felt great on such a hot day. They were super salty and you could easily float on them so we splashed around two of them, careful to keep the water out of our eyes as the salt in it really stung. Since we were on a private tour, there were only a few other people around and we were told to finish before 4 pm, when the tour buses would begin to arrive.
After a proper bout of lounging, we headed back in time to see a few vans start to pull up. We didn't feel any sharp salt underfoot but as the water dried on us we could see and feel the itchy salt and were glad for the cold showers to get the stuff off.
Our next stops was to two round pools in the middle of nowhere which were too small and weedy to tempt us to swim in them but had calm water that made for some nice pictures. Also, there was currently no charge to see them and they were along our way to the next stop.
The final lagoon was larger but we were told that a lot of the path wasn't usable and to not go beyond the pilons. The heavy rains had expanded this lagoon recently so some was blue and the new parts were murky brown. We could see a few flamingos off in the distance but our path didn't go anywhere near them. The walk really felt like a desert one with barren ground on one side and unappealingly coloured water on the other.
We reached the pylon and headed back, taking the lower trail when we got to the fork. This choice turned out to be a good one, as the other side of the lake led us close to a pair of feeding flamingos which we watched for awhile.
Back at the shady shelter, Javiera had sweets, grapes and a local herbal tea which tasted nice. We sipped, munched and talked at the first of the vans started to show up, as apparently this lake was a popular one for sunset, which was about an hour away. We left before it became crowded and headed back to her place.
Our hostelmates came back after a day of sandboarding and horse riding but didn't really use the kitchen and so took off around dinner time. We ate, enjoyed the surroundings and then got our warm clothes on for our night sky tour, which started at 9 pm close to where we were staying.
Javiera drove us there, explained how to walk back in the dark and then stayed to talk to friends once we joined the tour. We followed the people off the bus from town to a dark spot by the small house and had a very animated and interesting description of the southern sky with a group who was mainly from the northern hemisphere. When one of her descriptions was interrupted by loud barking our guide told us that the dog in question was a neighbour's beast and not the SPACE dog. Of course, it was Javiara's dog, Malala (named for her poor behaviour, not the famous woman) but we didn't speak up.
Our guide used a laser pointer to show us starts, galaxies, constellations and planets. Much of the information didn't stick but we were able to recall quite a bit of it the following evening. I saw a half dozen shooting stars which we looked at the sky but Meg missed them all.
The second part of the tour involved hearing descriptions of important parts of the sky and then taking turns looking through 8 or so powerful telescopes. Without the descriptions the views would be little more than random patterns of dots but when you knew what to look for they were more interesting. Our guide and her helper (Javiara's friend, also the wife of the astronomer who set the place up) kept having to readjust the telescopes as tourists bumped them or the sky shifted.
At the end we had hot chocolate and a q and a. Everyone else left on the bus but us so we chatted with the guide a bit more as we walked back to our place. We were let out of a different gate than we came in on but managed to find our way after a few stressful moments as we weren't allowed to use our headlamp until we were off SPACE property as the light would mess up their work.
We got to bed around midnight and set the alarm for 4:30 for our early tour. Groan.
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| The salt lake before we floated in it. |
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| The third lake gave us some nice reflections. |
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| Us with the second lake. |
Keep the posts coming. Appreciated
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