Hi room 1

Hi room 1

I have had a geat time here.we have had 3 tours so far.The first one was the salt lakes it was so salty that you can float with out trying to.that was the first part, the second part was a big hole 2m high above the water and 25m long. I wanted to have some fun so I jumped in the water, it was 8 degrees, in my mind very cold. Next thing onmthe tour was watching the sun set innthe desert. it was cool seeing the colour changes on the volcanoes. The next tour was a flamingo tour. I got some good photos of them flying. In the middle of the tour something mysterious happened, there was a full circle around the sun. (See picture) There was a small salt pond on the tour and there was some creepy Crawlies in there that the flamingoes eat to make them pink called brain shrimps, but we did not see any! Did you know that flamingoes stand on one leg when they sleep because in the morning the lake can freeze over and they use the other leg to get them out of the ice. The third tour was at night to an observatory just outside San Pedro in the Atacama Desert. We looked through 10 telescopes all pointed towards different stars and planets in our galaxy. The biggest telescope was the size of a three man couch. My favourite planet was Saturn and its rings around it. I have done some research on the Chilean flag these are what it represents -  The star represents a guide to progress and honor, the blue symbolizes the sky and the Pacific Ocean, white is for the snow-covered Andes and the red stands for the blood spilled to achieve independence. 

We took the overnight bus to Arica, it was a good trip but tiring since we arrived at 4 in the morning! We took the pictures of the skeletons at a museum in Arica, they are Chinchorro mummies from around 5000 BC Nice hairstyle for that age eh?!

We also saw figures made of stacked piles of rocks dating back to around 700 years ago.

I'm missing you guys, hope you are having fun. Mrs M - the coffee is terrible but the shoe stores are good!

Curtis

Geoglifos in Arica - Azapa Valley

Chinchorro mummie

Statue of Jesus on top of hill in Arica

Chinchorro mummie - 5000 BC

Holding the Chilean flag that is15 times bigger than me

Valley of the moon in San pedro

Meteorite museum - San Pedro

At salt lakes

Homeless dogs in San Pedro

Seagull at salt lakes

San pedro Main Street

Salt lakes - look at the amazing colours

Santiago

Azapa valley

Self portrait!

Sunset at salt lakes

Very cold water!

Flamingoe

The mysterious sun circle

More San pedro photos

Outside our digs!

Bike ride 2

Valle de La Luna

Scenery for Valle de la Luna

Huge sand dune

Tres caliente!

More scenery from Valle de La Luna

Hamburger for breakfast

Ice cream for afternoon tea

Looking at the stars and planets

Valley of the moon - the white is salt! 

San pedro main drag

It never rains it snows!

Hi everyone

We arrived in San pedro (2400m) at dusk and to cut a long story short ended up staying in a locals house, in our own little room with a bathroom. It's great, clean and safe the two main requirements of travelling!

San Pedro is a quaint little town all made of adobe in the middle of the Atacama desert,surrounded by volcanos, salt plains and lakes.  It's very geared up for the tourist and the choice of food establishments is vast, both in price and quality! We have found a regular breakfast joint and Curtis has taken to having a hamburger the size of a plate! Gets him through the day.

 The streets are mainly dirt hardened by years of no rain - well that was until we arrived! 

The first day we visited some local salt lakes and watched the sunset, a little hampered by cloud, but still beautiful. Andy and Curtis plucked up the courage to go for a float in one lake that was 70% higher salt content than the Pacific. We think that's what the guide said! Needless to say they were in and out within minutes! 

The next day was when the fun started, it was cold and windy and had apparently been snowing on the higher altiplano so no trips were going out into the salt plains, so we in our wisdom decided it was still a good day to hire bikes! We went out to some local ruins - Quitor and they dated back to the 13th century. They were one of the many fortresses in South America that were destroyed and taken over during the Spanish invasion. We then decided to keep going into the Devils Valley which was a tough ride, especially for Curtis with a strong headwind and soft dirt underneath. Unfortunately we didn't get to see as much as Andy got his chain very stuck and despite big efforts to release it he ended up going back with a family from Santiago with 6 kids who all practised their English on him! Meanwhile Curtis and I enjoyed the blast back downhill trying to keep up with them - in Curtis's words - " doing a Sonja!!!"

Next day we woke to pouring rain, leaks in our roof and then as we lay in bed we saw it turn to snow! Apparently the first time in 36 years in San Pedro. It has caused all sorts of problems with no trips leaving town, people not being able to get in or out of town and at least 50 + trucks carrying numerous goods lined up along the main road waiting to get over a pass 5800m into Argentina. Tricky for these guys as most have no money for food or accommodation and have to sleep in their trucks - this isn't likely to change for at least another 5 days. Curtis was excited with the snow and made a snowman to show our landlady! The streets as they are dirt, were foul and turned to rivers and mud, several hostels and shops flooded. They just aren't equipped for extreme weather in these countries, which is star age as they seem to get lots of extreme weather!

Beautiful days now, snow on the surrounding volcanoes and the air is clear for scenery - we biked out to the valley of the moon (round trip 25km) yesterday and guess what , Curtis got a flatty, so we spent the whole trip home pumping his tyre up every 2 km! The valley was stunning with spectacular rock formations that definitely resemble images you have seen of the moon. Curtis enjoyed the cave that was formed by water erosion, it was the right height for him, Andy and I spent most of it crawling on hands and knees and head butting the roof.

The best trip yet was last night when we went into the desert on a astronomical tour to an observatory.They had  10 enormous telescopes set up on various stars and planets for us to see. The first hour was a quick lesson on the history of our galaxy. (Think that is the right term) It was amazing how clear the fish hook, (scorpio), Southern Cross,mSaturn and Venus were. Looking at Saturn through the telescope was probably the highlight for us. Curtis loved it and I think has found a new interest to discover. That along with collecting rocks! He has found a favourite market where a man sells cool pendants made of local stone and has managed to bargain for a jade and some local blue stone pendants! 

Will write again soon and post some more photos separately.

Chao for now!

Making a snowman!

Chilean BBQ at our favourite restaurant

Water hydrant!!

Playing handball at Calama bus station

Laguna Cejar with volcan Licancabur in background

Curtis's snowman with sushi the dog (land lady's)

Streets in San Pedro after the snow and rain

Local at a community concert.

Pukara de Quitor ruins

Jumping into the icy water of Laguna de Piedra

Being silly!

Volcan Licancabur

Relaxing in 8 degrees of salt water!!

Calama bus station - having lunch.