March 30 Day 43
After the busyness of yesterday we took the morning off, getting tedious things done and hanging out. We had cooked way too much food so had a big lunch to put a dent into it. Javiera had to be in town just after noon but we didn't want to get there until an hour before our 3:45 tour, as we knew there wasn't much to do downtown.
Their taxi system was basically someone who Javiera knew stopping by and driving us to town for a set price. The central square was all abuzz with the food festival with people cooking on the main stage and a dozen restaurants in stall beside it. Other artisans and microbreweries were also there and most of the locals and tourists seemed to be in the square. Meg got some subtle ice cream flavoured with a local herb and i had a tasty passion fruit cone. The cones tasted old but the ice cream was excellent. As we left, some clowns were doing some lame moving to music activities. Later on we saw them doing more interesting activities with bubbles but by then we had to move on.
We gathered by the travel agency with our guide until we had everyone for our moon valley sunset tour. There were about 15 of us and our guide was hugh energy and flipped effortlessly between English and Spanish. We took a short ride to the entrance, everyone paid theri fees and in we went.
The valley really looked like something from another planet, as the salt crystals were everywhere and huge sand dunes mixed with craggy, colourful peaks. We did a slow, 2 hour hike that often involved going along narrow, rocky and extremely windy trails along the tops of ridges. We weren't that far from many dropoffs and our guide said that if any tourist didn't return he just had to cross them off the trip list. It forced you to concentrate but the views were excellent and the valley was like the Grand Canyon on psychedelic drugs.
We next stopped at a rock formation called the three Marys, named by a priest as the formation can be seen to have three figures in prayer. On the way to the sunset spot we saw crowds of people walking along a relatively unscenic stretch of road. Our guide told us that they were with other tours and had to do something to fill the time up before sunset.
We had a washroom stop and then headed up to a ridge with hundreds of other people to view the sunset. This was the #1 tour for this area and we saw lines of vans coming to join us along the road. Thee was a cloud over the horizon which blocked the sun for awhile but it came through just before sinking behind the mountains. The light on the valley didn't add much colour, but on the far mountains there was a nice strip of red and the sunset itself reflected well off of the low clouds. It wasn't the life changing experience it was advertised to be, but it was pleasant.
We got dropped off downtown and the festival was in full swing. There was a good singer performing as I got a beer and Meg and I both had some tasty food from the restaurant that Javiera worked with. We shared a table with a Malaysian woman who was doing technology stuff for mining companies and had many tales of having her bag stolen.
The singer turned into dancers whose main point seemed to be showing what was under their skirts. This was followed by a chef who was doing more talking than cooking so we said goodbye to our Malaysian friend and walked around looking at the stalls until Javiera was free to drive us back. This happened just before 10 and so back we went for our last night in the Atacama.
After the busyness of yesterday we took the morning off, getting tedious things done and hanging out. We had cooked way too much food so had a big lunch to put a dent into it. Javiera had to be in town just after noon but we didn't want to get there until an hour before our 3:45 tour, as we knew there wasn't much to do downtown.
Their taxi system was basically someone who Javiera knew stopping by and driving us to town for a set price. The central square was all abuzz with the food festival with people cooking on the main stage and a dozen restaurants in stall beside it. Other artisans and microbreweries were also there and most of the locals and tourists seemed to be in the square. Meg got some subtle ice cream flavoured with a local herb and i had a tasty passion fruit cone. The cones tasted old but the ice cream was excellent. As we left, some clowns were doing some lame moving to music activities. Later on we saw them doing more interesting activities with bubbles but by then we had to move on.
We gathered by the travel agency with our guide until we had everyone for our moon valley sunset tour. There were about 15 of us and our guide was hugh energy and flipped effortlessly between English and Spanish. We took a short ride to the entrance, everyone paid theri fees and in we went.
The valley really looked like something from another planet, as the salt crystals were everywhere and huge sand dunes mixed with craggy, colourful peaks. We did a slow, 2 hour hike that often involved going along narrow, rocky and extremely windy trails along the tops of ridges. We weren't that far from many dropoffs and our guide said that if any tourist didn't return he just had to cross them off the trip list. It forced you to concentrate but the views were excellent and the valley was like the Grand Canyon on psychedelic drugs.
We next stopped at a rock formation called the three Marys, named by a priest as the formation can be seen to have three figures in prayer. On the way to the sunset spot we saw crowds of people walking along a relatively unscenic stretch of road. Our guide told us that they were with other tours and had to do something to fill the time up before sunset.
We had a washroom stop and then headed up to a ridge with hundreds of other people to view the sunset. This was the #1 tour for this area and we saw lines of vans coming to join us along the road. Thee was a cloud over the horizon which blocked the sun for awhile but it came through just before sinking behind the mountains. The light on the valley didn't add much colour, but on the far mountains there was a nice strip of red and the sunset itself reflected well off of the low clouds. It wasn't the life changing experience it was advertised to be, but it was pleasant.
We got dropped off downtown and the festival was in full swing. There was a good singer performing as I got a beer and Meg and I both had some tasty food from the restaurant that Javiera worked with. We shared a table with a Malaysian woman who was doing technology stuff for mining companies and had many tales of having her bag stolen.
The singer turned into dancers whose main point seemed to be showing what was under their skirts. This was followed by a chef who was doing more talking than cooking so we said goodbye to our Malaysian friend and walked around looking at the stalls until Javiera was free to drive us back. This happened just before 10 and so back we went for our last night in the Atacama.
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| The view from a ridge in the valley. |
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| The narrow path we walked, high winds added to the challenge. |
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| The valley at sunset. |
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