Welcome to the desert, part three

Beauty in the Atacama.

Valle de la Luna

This valley was named after the moon in 1969, when images from the Apollo 11 mission looked so much like the terrain in this part of the desert. From salt caves to sand dunes, there is a lot going on in this small geographic area. 

It had snowed a few days before we arrived, leaving just enough moisture in the air for a bacteria to grow (although I gather the bacteria can´t live for more than 10 days). 

Bacteria on the ground

Landscape of the Moon

Stratification

Sand dunes

Salt Caves

Salt Caves

The valley being other'wordly and all,
I tried to catch a ride through the galaxy. No go.

Valle de Muerte

Death Valley was originally named for Mars. Gustavo Le Paige, a Belgian Jesuit priest, called it Valle de Marte, but (like me) his accent was so bad that the locals heard "muerte". 

It will always be Mars Valley to me

El Tatio Geyser Field

The geyser field is among the highest in elevation in the world. It is so cold that ice forms on the ground, right next to the boiling water. 

Geysers at sunrise

Ice and boiling water, together at last

Beautiful colors
at the geyser field

Salar de Atacama 

The salt flats formed over a million years ago, leaving behind an excellent source for lithium extraction. The high elevation, limited amount of rainfall, and high evaporation favors the continuous accumulation of salt. 

Salt flats

Looks like dirty snow
I felt like I got spring this year, after all

Laguna Chaxa

At the eastern edge of the salt flats lies this little lagoon. The lagoons form from water that trickles down from the mountain. It meets with a "salt wedge" of material that allows the water to rise. The lagoons have lower salinity, allowing for wildlife and vegetation to survive. 

More flamingoes

Laguna Miñiques

This lagoon has a lot going on around it. Volcanoes, desert, snow, and wildlife. 

Perfectly shaped volcano, if you ask me
The Inca thought so too. They did their
sacrificing to this, the Licancabur Volcano

Lava Rocks

The lava rock formations come from magma that bubbled up from below the surface. 

Lava rocks

Welcome to the desert, part two

Although you´d expect the driest desert on earth to be fairly inhospitable (at least, insects and snakes believe this, and did not show themselves to me during the week in the desert. I´m cool with that) there is some really interesting diversity in the wildlife and plantlife front. 

Three species of flamingoes live in the Salar de Atacama (the salt flats): the Jame's, the Andean, and the Chilean. The Chilean flamingo does an adorable moon walk while it's eating its microorganisms (no shrimp, of course) from the salty waters. 

Los Flamencos National Reserve

Vicuña herd, cousin to the camel

Andean fox, primary predator

We also saw llamas, birds, and an adorable little viscacha (part of the chincilla family) which moves about like a wallaby. 

We were also on the lookout for llatera (not to be confused with llaterá), a funky plant that grows only in the desert. I never did see the bright green blob I was was looking for, but I did see lots of bushes and grassy patches, admired the local use cardón (cactus wood) of and ate ice cream made from the fruit of a chañar tree. 

Forest in the desert.
Those roots dig deep.

Cactus wood has been used
to make items for everday use,
and also in construction of
houses and churches

Cachiyuyo
Tastes like salty clover

Rica Rica
used for headaches
and stomach nausea

I think I did see llatera after all.
It definitely wasn´t the bright green desert blob
I was looking for.

Welcome to the desert, part one

The timing of our trip to the desert was deliberate. We started our time in Chile by exploring parts of Southern Patagonia and Chiloé, and we wanted to compare the southern part of the country with the north. We also wanted to compare our pre-immersion Spanish to post-immersion Spanish abilities. I am pleased with how much more I understand, but feel like two more months would have been just enough to break through the next wall.  And yet, the timing of the desert trip was off. I am really sick of not being with my husband, and it's an odd thing to be surrounded by some of the most interesting and beautiful and I have seen, and only want to be at home. 

The Atacama Desert, the driest on earth

For the first time in months, my towel actually dried (not the case in the ocean-side town I've been staying in this winter), and I finally had use for the lechuga cream (yup, lettuce lotion) I bought back in March. 

At these altitudes (between 7,875ft and 14,200ft above sea level) and at this time of year, it is both summer and winter. Hot in the sun, and cold in the shade. There were times that I thought my water bottle spilled in my purse because my hip was cold. Each time it turned out that my hip was simply shaded by the purse. The temps dropped to below freezing at night, so I bundled up in at least three layers of clothes, including my hat, mittens, and scarfs, and at least 3 wool blankets to sleep. I never did sleep very well. 

Speaking of high elevation, I have been living at sea level for the last three and a half months, so going to mountain elevation was a bit of a shock to the system. I don´t think I had altitude sickness, but I was constantly aware of the elevation, so I picked up some of mate de coco tea. Coco leaves, popular in the Andes for centuries, act as a blood thinner and can help a body  adjust to higher elevations. 

Desert Life

Humans have lived and survived in this desert for over 12,000 years. I made it one week.

Tourist town. Not tourist town.

San Pedro de Atacama is set up for tourists, and serves as a relaxing and charming jumping off point for exploring the nearby parts of the desert. Although the surrounding villages don't have the "deliberate desert" look of San Pedro, they are set up for tourists as well, with artesenal crafts and llama meat. 

Llama meat

No matter the size of the village, there is a church, a . Agriculture is possible in the desert because of the rivers and drainage from the mountains. The Inca had settled the northern part of Chile as well, and left behind terrace farming (and sacrificing children and animals to volcanoes). 

   

Village of Solcaire

Quinoa and beans

Desert Death
An archaeologist´s dream, a genealogist´s nightmare. Everything is preserved so beautifully because of the lack of moisture, but it is not going to be easy to find your long lost relatives in the desert. 

The San Pedro de Atacama Cemetery is quite possibly the most unique I have seen, with mounds of dirt and a simple cross (sometimes with full names and dates) to mark the graves.

Mausoleums made of mud

La Serena: Communist traitors or Atacamaña mummies?

We had a few hours to spend in the coastal city of La Serena on our way from the valley to the desert. What a surprisingly charming town, what with its colonial era architecture and ocean air and all.

And Christmas decorations. In June.
It is winter, so...

I still see a guy with a huge head,
skinny neck, abnormally long arms
and stumpy legs.

This is the same statue

La Serena has 29 stone churches in the neoclassic and baroque styles, so we did a quick tour of the churches (we arrived about 15 minutes before all the churches were closing for the afternoon, so by quick I mean quick). 

Iglesia Catedral

Iglesia Catedral

What does the flayed skin
mean in this picture?

Iglesia San Francisco

Iglesia Santo Domingo

Iglesia Santo Domingo

Iglesia Santo Domingo,
and the most open-air confessional
I have ever seen.

With the remaining time we could choose between history at  Museo Histórico Casa Gabriel González Videla or mummies at Museo Arqueológico. 

We chose history, and toured the house of President Don Gabriel Gonzalez Videla. As president (1946-1952), he claimed Chilean Antarctica, gave women the right to vote, and extended social security to more Chileans. 

Casa de Gabriel Gonzalez Videla

The man himself

Just the day before, I had read in Mi Vida Junto a Pablo that he used the support of the Communist party to get elected to the presidency, and then quickly outlawed the party (this was toward the beginning of the Cold War) sending Pablo Neruda (among others) out of Congress and into exile. 

They didn't mention that at the house.

The many, many faces of Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela scowling

Gabriela frowning

Gabriela looking displeased

Gabriela looking displeased again

Gabriela ¨gazing blankly up at the sky
from a watery pit"

Born Lucilia de María Godoy Alcayaga in 1889 in Vicuña, Chile, Gabriela Mistral would become the first Latin American to accept the Nobel Prize for literature. She was an educator who worked to reform the Chilean and Mexican education systems in the early 20th Century, a journalist, a feminist, and (like other Latin American artists) held various diplomatic posts throughout the world.

Gabriela´s birthhouse

Water filtration station
from the 1880s

Gabriela´s primary school

Gabriela´s primary school

Gabriela´s gravesite in Montegrande,
a village in the Valle de Elqui

I did not get the chance to learn about her as much I would have liked to, and reading her poetry and about her life is on my ever-growing to-do list.  One quote of hers stuck out to me, though.She wrote, in Recados para America, that El aprendizaje de un idioma fue siempre una aventura fascinante el mejor de todos los viajes. (Learning a language was always a fascinating adventure, the best of all travel).

I think she might get me.