Getting Lost in the Desert

Over the past six days we have travelled from Santiago to San Pedro De Atacama through sandy deserts, boulder fields, mountains and rural towns. We were in a group of 13 people (all from various parts of the world but with English as the common language), moving from point to point by mini bus and blasting out the trance music of our Chilean guide, Ariel. We saw cave paintings that are around 8000 years old, swam in natural oases and saw the sun set behind the sharp, pointy peaks of the moon valley salt caves.

Since being mostly in cities, this was our oppotunity to see some exotic South American wildlife. On our first day we saw a Pelican catching fish in the town of Pichidangui ('small raft' in Mapuche language). It was our first stop along the way and featured a church perched on the cliff that didn´t have any walls, instead leaving it open to the fresh sea air, and had ivy and creepers growing up around the alter and pews. Totally a place of peace, man.

On the second day Ariel spotted a desert fox lying in the shade of a cactus. We slowed down to look at it and watched it run away when it got startled, slinking between the rocks and sporting a similar camouflage to Echo. The same day we took a boat ride out to a rocky formation called Isla Damas, to spot some sea birds and creatures. We saw: Red Beaked Cormorents, Penguins (sweet statues), Peruvian Boobies, Sea Lions, ´Jotes´ or Vultures, more Pelicans flying in a formation, Black Oyster Catchers, One-eyed Cormorents and Olivacious Cormorents. Our guide explained how Cormorents go blind after two years of diving to catch fish, because the impact is so great when they hit the sea. We also looked out for a resident Sea Elephant and Bottle-nosed Dolphins but we didn´t see any, sadly.

A few days later we arrived at the salt flats. Before crossing them, we stopped at a look-out point on top of the coastal mountain range, Cordillera de la Costa, and before us lay the expanse of the valley and beyond that the Andes snow-capped peaks. It was such a breath-taking view, definitely added to the yoga 'happy place' list. Ariel said there aren't many villages or nomads in this area, so I wasn't expecting there to be much wildlife. However, we descended the mountain and turned into the National Flamingo Conservation Park and watched the pink birds hanging out in salty pools of water. There were also a few lizards and little birds, but the organisms living in the water were probably the most diverse ecosystem. A particular pool we saw was 300m deep- not sure what kind of animal can survive that much pressure as well as living in a liquid that contains more bromine, lithium and salt than actual water (probably).


I still haven't seen a Llama or an Alpaca!


We were with a really fun bunch of people, and in the evenings we drank beer and chatted about our experiences and where we´ll be going next in South America. They left us this morning to return to Santiago, and will see some more sights in Chile.
Sophia and I are still in the desert, deciding how to get to Bolivia.

Love xxxxxxxxxxx