The Trip: San Pedro de Atacama

• 01 April 2010 at 02:36
• Traveling

Joys and sorrows in San Pedro de Atacama...

After leaving my friends in Bolivia, I went to this town who's got all defects: small, in the middle of the desert and close to the borders, thus expensive and also full of gringos like me. I put my tent there alone (a first, I was so proud!) and I walked around town. That was quick. There is, still, a lot to see, geysers, lunar valleys, and stuff. But the tours are very expensive and once you've done the Salar de Uyuni, it's not that interesting anymore. I dud the Gustavo Lo Paige Museum, which detailed the history of the atacameña culture, and showed the tools they used to snort hallucinogenic substances imported from Argentina. They had gorgeous snuff straws, I even bought one at the artesanal market!

The town has the particularity to be under one of the cleanest skies in the world and there is a stargazing tour. I did it, and it was marvellous. For two hours, we could use small, but powerful, telescopes to watch Mars, Saturne, nebulae... On one of the telescopes, you could even use your camera, which enabled me to take that picture of the Moon:

And when the tour ended, we were given the best hot chocolate I drank in months.

The day after, I decided to try my luck at hitchhiking. Unfortunately, I arrived too late (after 10, not many people want to go all the way to Argentina) but I met a very nice argentine guy, Coky, with whom I spent hours chatting outside the customs. At 8pm, when their office closed, we put our tent in the shittiest camping in town and went to a very nice restaurant, even though we were dirty and dusty.

The morning after, we tried again very early and we found people to take us. Unfortunately, the one who was to take Coky changed his mind and my guy left without me (motherfucking piece of shit bastard!). Coky could find someone else to get him there, but for me, it was too late, although I had already done my papers. I tried on the road, in vain. Being on a desert and trying to go through a border doesn't help. In the end, I had to cancel my exit tamp and buy a very expensive ticket for a bus leaving 3 days later (there are very few buses here, it is said to be so, maybe in order to trap tourists).

For 3 days, I was so fucking bored. Litterally: I got diarrhea. Also, I lost my feather (of my trenza) and I had to spend revolting amounts of money to eat or go on the net. Worse, I didn't want to interact with the people I met and I started to think I was completely antisocial. Thus I went for a walk outside the village and the beauty of the Atacama Desert did me good.

Then I enetered that small shop that sold the most neautiful (and also most expensive) panchos I have ever seen. I talked with the salesman who was very nice and we chatted like this for more than a hour about local culture, Europe, and stuff. It made me feel better: I am not antisocial, I'm just selective regarding the people I speak with, which I think is sane :)

When the day of departure arrived, I didn't sleep all night. I didn't have an alarm clock and I was terrified at the idea of missing the bus. I wrapped my tent very fast and I was first at the bus station. I nearly got an orgasm when we crossed the customs. Haaaaaa!!!

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