San Pedro on the Magical Atacama Desert

The Bikeride through to the Valley of the Moon
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After 22 hours stuck in a bus, anywhere you can finally get lateral is a welcome relief! Although the 10 or so hours of daylight did provide for some very interesting scenery as we made our way toward San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is this little town on the edge of the Atacama desert and is another of those surprising little gems, literally in the middle of nowhere. Its not very big, I think only a couple of thousand locals, but because its a tourist mecca, its transient population must be more than double that. Its located on an oasis and is east of Antofagasta, a very large mining city (and a little depressing) we passed through on the bus that morning.

Street scene in San Pedro de Atacama
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Now, how to explain San Pedro without it sounding like I´m exaggerating. Its one of the most strange places I´ve ever been. Its colonial of course, but not the ornate, rich colonial I´m more familiar with, particularly in the large cities, far more functional and I suppose you´d have to say down-market. Generally the streets aren´t paved, but there´s occasional cobblestones and yes, just dirt. Its dusty and grimey, and on the outside the buildings don´t appear to be well-maintained. And like most small towns in South America, its bursting at the seams with mongrel dogs and unfortunately what they excrete.

Landscape in the Valley of the Moon
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This is the bad side of San Pedro de Atacama. However when you actually go into the buildings, its like walking into Aladdin´s bloody cave! We went to a number of restaurants in the town over the two days, and I kid you not, they were absolutely spectacular! The bohemian, hippy, beatnick, backpacker, dread-wearing, traveller-types that run them sure do know their food. How that works I have no idea. The decor inside the buildings is nothing short of amazing, particularly when you contrast this with the tacky, dirty, crumbling outsides. Most of them have open fires in the centre of the restaurant itself (on gravel floors) and are open to the starry skies. This is because there´s only about two days a year when it actually rains. They are decorated with original local artwork, and tastefully furnished. On all occasions, the food was delicious, and very well presented. Both nights I opted for a salad, the first accopmpanied by a pizza, the second with a steak hotpot dish with rice. I was not to be disappointed, in fact, I´d have to say they were some of the best meals we´ve had so far, and that´s a big call! Of course we also indulged in pisco sours, which is the last place we can do this authentically (being Chilean). After San Pedro, its on to Bolivia, which has its own form of jungle juice. Can´t wait for that one!

More landscapes in the Valley of the Moon
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Because of its proximity to the driest desert on the planet (I think there are places it hasn´t rained for like 3,000 years), the adventure-seekers have plenty to do. There´s hiking, horse riding, paragliding, skydiving, bike-riding, trekking and the usual line-up of things not involving water. The first day a few of us went for a bike ride to the Valley of the Moon. If I had realised how hard it would be, I certainly would have just kicked back around the town. It took eight hours and 35 km later, I couln´t sit down properly for like 4 days! But having said that, the experience was absolutely amazing, and worth every sore muscle and sunburned face, legs and hands and badly chapped lips. You can see from the pictures how spectacular the scenery is, and riding through it kind of linked you to the wonder of it all. Even thinking about it now I get choked up at how amazing it was. You can certainly understand why the surreal landscape is of significant spiritual relevance to the local indigenous people. It was simply beautiful, a word I don´t think I would have thought possible to describe a desert, but it truly was, or rather is.

Yet even more landscapes in the Valley of the Moon
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Another thing about the Atacama Desert and its surrounds is altitude. Here we crossed and made our way up to a plateau in the Andes, so you have to expect some fall out from that. San Pedro is about 2,400 metres above sea level and this meant altitude sickness was endured by some people. And yes you can definately feel it, it is not imaginary. Fortunately I suffer only a very mild form of it, but others in the group haven´t been so lucky. Dizzyness, lethargy, shortness of breath, fast heart rate, dry mouth - these are some of the mild symptoms of altitude sickness. The more serious form of it makes you vomit and pass out, and I think some people may have to combat the effects through drugs the entire time we are at altitude.

The Valley of the Moon - Notice the sign ... it warns of landmines placed by Chile, since its very near the border to Bolivia! Weird eh?
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Of course the local remedy for altitude sickness is chewing on cocoa leaves, which provides a very mild haleucenogenic (sp?) effect. You see it around everywhere and a soccer-ball sized bag of the stuff costs about 50 cents. I´ve tried it a couple of times, but all it does is make your mouth numb for about 20 minutes, and gives you green stuff between your teeth. Charming! It tastes and feels like chewing on green tea leaves before they´ve been crushed up. I don´t think its all its cracked up to be anyway. But apparently when we do the Inca Trail in a few weeks time, its mandatory, so we´ll see eh? Altitude on one part of the Inca Trail gets to about 4,200 metres so maybe it might be necessary.

Street scene in San Pedro de Atacama
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Unfortunately we had a bad incident with one of the group while in San Pedro. A few decided to cycle to the Valley of the Moon and take in the sunset. I was way too stuffed to even contemplate returning, even if it was via a shortcut! Anyway, as they were making their way back after dark, it seems at a rate of knots down the hill, one of the guys (Jeremy) barrelled straight into the barrier and suffered quite a few injuries. He had to go to a hospital, transferred by ambulance about 100km away for treatment. Luckily he only had minor head injuries and a broken wrist among quite a few cuts and bruises; it could have been way worse. So he had a few days in hospital and had to catch us up a few days later in Uyuni. His sister Robyn also stayed in San Pedro to take care of things, but they were sure disappointed at missing the desert crossing, so I was quite sad for them really.

Landscape on the way to San Pedro de Atacama
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Anyway after San Pedro its through the real desert to Bolivia and on to the Salt Flats! I´m a bit worried about that to be honest, as I think it might be boring, and at times during the trek, the altitude is going to reach 5,900 metres, ohhh joy!

Hope I haven´t bored you with this, as sometimes I ramble a bit, but in these internet places, you just have to go like the clappers and dump it all out. I don´t edit, so apologies if theres any typos :)

(PS uploading photos is impossible with the internet speeds until I reach La Paz, so hopefully there´ll be some pics to accompany the blog by early next week :)