The ride to San Pedro was a bit of an adventure all by itself. So few people speak English that it is often difficult to figure out what is going on. Along the seventeen hour journey, we made several stops, and at each one, I could never be sure where we were. At one point, we all got off, and the bus pulled away a good fifteen minutes, and while I was fairly sure we were not at San Pedro, it was difficult to be certain.
When we pulled in, a guy from one of the local hostels was waiting, recruiting folk to come and stay. It was a nice place, and as soon as I arrived, I was given breakfast and informed that a tour of the area was leaving pretty much right away. I ate my bread and coffee and got ready to head out for the day. San Pedro sits in the middle of the Atacama desert, the driest place on the planet. This is determined by annual rainfall, of which there is less than a millimeter, and some weather stations have never received rain at all. It's much higher, and the sky is nearly cloudless, so each day is bright with a clear, deep blue sky. There are two observatories nearby, as the local environment makes it one of the best places for sky watching. Indeed, the night sky is a wonder, with very little light pollution or atmospheric interference.
On the tour, we visited an oasis and wandered about. On the drive, we passed through a zone of high natural magnetism. At the bottom of a small hill, we stopped the van and put it in neutral. Completely without power, the van began to move slowly backwards, pulled by the magnetic forces there. It's very cool. The highlight of the day was our last stop, to see the salt flats and flamingos. We arrived not long before sunset. There area is a reserve for the flamingos, of which there are several types. It is interesting to see the formations of nothing but salt, and the flamingos wade around in the water pools that litter the landscape. As sunset comes, everything turns pink and orange, and it really is a very gorgeous sight to see. The next day, I took a tour out to Moon Valley and Death Valley (no, not Cali). Essentially, the entire area is just rock and not much else, but there are some rather interesting geological formations. Finally, I grabbed a bike and rode out to a an archaeological site where an old settlement on the hillside was unearthed. The entire fortress has been uncovered, and you can wander around the individual rooms at your leisure.
Because the area is so high up, physical exertion will make you more tired than you really think you ought to be. It's a nice place to stay for a little while and rest, take in the sights. The town is small and populated largely by tourists, making it one of the more expensive places in Chile. Still, I very much enjoyed my stay there, and I met some nice folk at the hostel. There was an older Australian with whom I talked finance for several hours, and a couple of French girls from whom I sadly neglected to get contact information. Due to a mis-communication, I almost didn't catch my bus back to Santiago, but did get a ticket, leaving San Pedro behind. There was a lot there, for certain, but I feel that after a little while, all the rocks start to look the same. A worthy stop, though, to be sure.
Um, it's been awhile. Whoops. So, here it is: La Serena, San Pedro, Santiago again...fin!
Okay, more detail? Sure. From Santiago I took a bus north to the city of La Serena. It's only a seven hour trip, so not bad. A word on the bus system in South America: fantastic. Trains are uncommon, if not nonexistent, so the buses have to be good. In most instances, there are two grades of seating--what in Chile are known as and cama and semi-cama, literally bed and semi-bed. Cama is to bussing what business class is to flying, and for the longer trips, it's absolutely worth it.
There aren't a lot of specific spots for tourism in La Serena. It is the second oldest city in Chile, after Santiago, and houses almost two dozen churches. The nearby city of Coquimbo erected the Millenium Cross in 2000, a giant monument to South American Christianity. It stands on a hill and is over 270 feet tall, made almost entirely of concrete (a very common building material there). Elevators inside the cross take people up to the arms, where they can walk out and get probably the best view of the area. On my first day in La Serena, I rented a bike along with two others from the hostel and pedaled my way (probably about 5 miles or so) out along the beach and up a very steep hill to arrive at the cross. I don't imagine there was much in the way of breaks left on those bikes after the trip back down. It's a spectacular view from the top, and the cities and ocean spread out before you.
Most of the rest of my time was spent wandering about, or sitting in the mall, drinking coffee and people watching and reading. I did see Public Enemies, finally. Most movies are in English, subtitled in Spanish. Except on buses. Frustrating. The city is home to a lot of very old churches, so I wandered and found a few of them. They were churches. There is an archaeological museum in the city. It was small, but had some interesting exhibits, including human remains on two occasions. At one point, I ran across a group of street performers playing swing and jazz. They were pretty good, and I enjoyed watching them for awhile. There was no one dancing, though. On my last full day there, I met a group of students from Concepcion in the hostel. We were all headed out to el Valle del Elqui, which is the primary pisco producing region in Chile. Unfortunately, I was unable to do the two things that I would have most liked to have done: the tour of the pisco factory and the tour of the observatory. It's quite beautiful in that region, and the little town of Vicuña is very quaint. I certainly had an enjoyable day, but to have taken the observatory tour would have meant missing my bus back to La Serena.
The next day, I hopped on the bus to head north for San Pedro de Atacama.
