San pedro de Atacama

San pedro de Atacama- located in Northern Chile it is the DRIEST place on earth averaging less than 1 mm of rain a year. Some places in this huge desert have no signs of EVER having rain. And while that makes is sound barren and awful, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

You fly into Calama to get there. Calama is nothing but a mining tow; A mining town where literally billions of dollars a DAY are made from the rich copper and other precious metals in the area. Once in Calama, you take a bus to San Pedro. San Pedro started as a most villages in the area have, a small group of people settling in an oasis. Then in the 1500’s, catholic missionaries built a church there. Being so close to many incredible natural features it recently has developed into a tourist get-away. Honestly, the 4 x 4 block “city” has no permanent residents. It is only made of travelers and people catering to them. The village is almost completely adobe buildings built long ago, and dirt roads connecting them. There is a main plaza/ square build around this 500 year old church and it is all so calm and beautiful. But all you will see and hear are foreigners, from all over the world. Different languages spoken everywhere, its kinda neat.

We did a handful of pretty incredible tours. From going to see sun-set over Moon Valley, to seeing geysers at sunrise and swimming in natural hot springs, to going on a “star tour” where we got to hear all about the night sky here in the southern hemisphere while starting up at the BEST place on earth to view the sky. Then on a bunch of the days we just rented mountain bikes (a full day for a whopping $6) and road out through the desert to have our own adventures. We went and saw ruins from a village constructed over 2,000 years ago, we went up the river through the canyon looking for alleged paragliphs. Didn’t find them, but did find some cool caves and lots of rocks to climb on. And it was a beautiful day ride. Another day Andrew and I rented bikes and went out to the salt flats, to the salt lakes were you more float than swim because of all the salt. It was REALLY hard to get there, going against the wind, through the sand, and a lot longer than expected, but the sensation of floating in the water made it so worth it. AND I just happened to run into a couple friends I know from my church in Santiago who happened to be there at the same time. I can tell a country is becoming more like home when I start seeing people I know in very random places. Then on the last day I rented a bike and a sand board and biked through the desert up to the volcanoes where there are some amazing sand duns and taught myself how to sand board. It was an incredible view, and sand boarding was a blast, and I only saw 2 other people in the 5 hour trip. Talk about an incredible feeling, surrounded by volcanoes and sand duns and being completely alone. A good life perspective check.

Not to mention we had the privilege of touring the LARGEST open pit copper mine in the world. The scale of the production was incredible- moving literally thousands of tons of dirt every day, employing thousands of people every day, and making thousands of dollars per minute of operation. The pit alone was over 1 km wide and 1 km deep. Then the factory where they do the refining that is capable of producing tons of precious medals and natural sulfuric acid was its own town practically. It was really cool to be able to talk to someone to ask our millions of questions and actually understand how the process works. But my super environmentally conscious side couldn’t help but giving me a guilt trip the whole time just for being there…

Sadly I had to leave, but my flight to Santiago was right at sunset and I met 3 guys from Portugal and we had a grand time awing at the mountains and the ocean in one view under an incredible sunset. And… now I am Peru about to meet Caroline to hike the inca trail. So as hard as life is, I think I will make it.