The Chilean Desert Oasis: Just us and James Bond

Okay.. so we really didn't actually spend the weekend with James Bond.. but we did spend the weekend where the last James Bond film (Quantum of Solace) was filmed; in the middle of the Atacama dessert!

Now that we are more or less settled in, we decided to do a bit of exploring around Chile.   And this goal led us to our weekend adventure in San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile.  San Pedro is nestled up against the Bolivian and Argentinian border and is a Chilean version of Death Valley.  From the salt flats, to the sand dunes and water and wind formed rocks, it is a mirror image of California's National Park and gorgeous in every way. It is a small community that originated ~11,000 years ago as a desert oasis.  The Acatameno community was a Pre-Columbian community.



We decided to make the most of the weekend and we booked ourselves full with tours. As San Pedro is in the middle of the dessert, and is not easy to get around if you don't own or rent a 4x4. The city's entire tour industry is focused around organized tour groups.  We are not usually the type to partake in such organized travel, but we had no choice, and actually really enjoyed the international crowd.  We call San Pedro the little Paris, as it was FULL of French.  There were hands down more French than Americans, Europeans and Chileans combined; no joke.  This is a photo of us along with our Brazilian friends we met in our tours; the friendliest and happiest of people.

Our first tour was to the Salar (Salt Flat) just outside of San Pedro.  While this looks like snow, it is salt.  Victor took a swim in the water, as it was like sea water and you floated.  I instead decided to wade in the actual salt flat.  It was incredible, as soon as you removed your feet from the water small salt crystals developed and soon my skin was contained in a salt shell.  They don't actually mine this salt flat, as it is a National Park, but they do a have a large mine near by for lithium.  It is odd to see the physical space where they mine, as it puts a whole different spin on recycling... so make sure to try and recycle your lithium batteries to help save the Chilean desert.

The next day we decided it would be fun to wake up at 3:30 am and venture out onto the geyser field.  You have to wake up so early, as you can't see the steam and fumes from the geysers in mid-day as it gets so hot.  Due to the high altitude, the temperature was 15F (-9C)  in the morning, and mid 90s in the middle of the day.  Talk about wearing layers, we looked like the kid off of Christmas Story with so many layers on at the beginning of the day.  The geysers were impressive, as there are so many in the same place.  But the funniest thing that I have to share is that the Chilean translation for "geyser" is "geezer".... so we listened to a half day tour where every time the guide would say geezer I would chuckle, as I was thinking of a bunch of old men :)

Following the geezer (geyser) field, Victor and I wandered up the hillside to catch the early morning sun bathing of the Viscacha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscacha), an adorable rabbit-like creature native to northern Chile and Argentina.  As they were still slow moving from the morning cold, we were able to get really close. The long tails impressed me, and the size.  The photos may be deceiving but these creatures are a good10 lbs.

From there we headed through the desert to a cactus forest (which is really just a hillside covered in cactus).  While they don't show their age, the cactus are incredible old.  These plants only grow 5cm in a good year (meaning some precipitation) and only 5mm in bad year.  Knowing that, these cacti are decades old, and quite impressive.

After leaving the cactus forest, we were on our way back to San Pedro and came across a herd of Vicuna, the wild version of an alpaca.  They are very gentle looking animals, who are from the camelid family, and they thrive in the high desert.  They are best known for their incredibly fine and sought after wool.


Now, as we started at 4 am we actually did all of this and returned to San Pedro by 1pm, in time for a quick lunch and just enough time to jump into our next tour.  It felt like the world's longest day but we were having such a great time the lack of sleep didn't hit us yet.  The second tour of the day was a venture in the Valle de La Luna, which was to consist of a walk through part of the desert for ~2 hours.  It was a beautiful walk, but the high winds (which the locals said the full moon was the cause of) made the trip a bit interesting the the blowing sand was strong and stung.  But it was worth it, and the view was amazing. We actually got out in front of the group and had some amazing vistas.

At the end of the hike, we walked up to the top of one of the highest ridges and watched the sun set and the moon rise. It was a magical end to the day.  

Sunday was a much lazier day and we decided to sleep in, as the day before had been quite full.  But we did decide that it was worth the venture to go visit the desert flamingos.  I am not sure if any of you reacted to that sentence, but I certainly didn't believe that there were really flamingoes living out in the middle of the desert when I was first told.  So we ventured out to have a look, and by golly, there are flamingoes.  There are actually three different species, and they are not just a few, there are a lot of them!  It was a beautiful contract to see the stark, large birds set against the open, vast backdrop of the desert.  

Random facts we learned over the weekend:

1. The driest place in the world is in Chile.  There is a section in northern Chile where they have never recorded any precipitation; ever. Remember the recent James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, that supposedly took place in Bolivia.  Well, it was actually filmed in northern Chile in the exact area where we spend the weekend.  
2. The highest geyser field in the world is in Chile; 4,200 meters above sea level.  This is the same geyser field that we visited.  
3. One of the best preserved mummies in the world is from Chile and from San Pedro.  Miss Chile, as she is named (cute, isn't she, that's her real hair) is from ~500 years ago, but looks quite good for her age.  Because it is so dry the body didn't decompose so it is frozen in time; it wasn't a prepared mummy like the Egyptians.  We thought it was pretty cool/creepy.  
4. People can go sand surfing.. we actually saw it for ourselves in the middle of the desert. Basically you use the same snow board and head down the huge sand dunes just as if it where snow, except in shorts and a t-shirt.  It looks like fun, but we aren't sure we would like to have to deal with all the sand everywhere when you are done for the day.  But if anyone is looking for a new adventures sport, I would recommend giving it a try.  

We hope that everyone is doing well and has exciting plans for Thanksgiving.  Sorry we haven't written more, but I was traveling for 2 weeks and then returned to come down with a cold, which Victor then promptly caught as well.  But we have both recovered and are back on track.  

We send our best and hope that everyone enjoys the Thanksgiving holiday (turkey or no turkey) surrounded by those they love.  We have Ex-Pat Thanksgiving plans here to go out to a local American restaurant to enjoy a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and all.  Supposedly they shipped in cranberry sauce from the US just for the dinner; we shall see!

-Dessa and Victor




P.S.  All photos (minus Miss Chile) are courtesy of Victor Dumas Photography :)