travels

A Place In The Desert Sun Where Snow Kisses Sand

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Mike
Licancabur, view of the volcano from San Pedro...

Licancabur Volcano viewed from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The volcano is located in Bolivia and Chile. Click image for more information

And so I am now in San Pedro de Atacama, the tiny village in the middle of the desert that draws thousands of tourists seeking natural fun and adventure.

The Atacama Desert in Chile‘s northern region is a landscape like no other. As I made the one-hour bus ride from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama I wondered why is it that this vast land is not deemed one of the world’s natural wonders. Have you ever seen or heard of a place on Earth where in the middle of the desert there is actually snow? Boggles the mind.

The Andes Mountain range runs fairly uninterrupted through the Atacama Desert, and where there are tall mountain peaks there’s usually snow. The landscape is a study in contrasts. My eyes focused on the snow-blanketed mountains but my mind kept saying, wait a minute, you are in an arid zone, a vast wasteland straight out of Mad Max’s Thunderdome. And yet, there’s the snow, lots of it, cascading down to the desert sand. Man, I’m definitely heading up one of those mountains to shift from hot sand to cool snow in one day’s climb. Hot to cold and back to hot. Well, more like warm. It is winter in the desert and while the days are comfortably warm, the nights are chilly.

As for San Pedro de Atacama, it isn’t at all what I expected: homes and other buildings are built from adobe – a mixture of clay, sand, straw and water – and roads left unpaved – in other words, rocky dirt words that I’m sure turn to mud – if it ever rains. The Atacama is the driest place on Earth.

The village, with homes that date back to the 1500s, seems to have been built to cater to tourists. It has rows upon rows of hostels and hotels and businesses that offer guided tours to see the mountains, the desert, the geysers, lakes, lagoons and salt flats. Tour guides abound. There are also the usual shops – countless of them – selling local arts and crafts. In short order, San Pedro de Atacama is crawling with tourists who outnumber actual residents, just below 2,000 people. The tourists are here for obvious reasons. The town is the launch pad for all the natural beauty – the flora and fauna – that the surrojunding area offers. But beyond that, San Pedro de Atacama is a fantastic little town that has remained largely unchanged for centuries. It’s well worth a visit.

Now if they could only do something about the wind kicking up all that sand. Bring sunglasses to keep some of that sand out of your eyes. And expect to be dusted in that fine desert sand.

Categories: posts, travels | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Mike

At Zoociedad in Cuenca with Mariutsi, Veronica, Lindsay and Paul. Cuenca was fun and interesting, but time to move on

Another hopefully not too crazy bus trip through the Andes Mountains. It’s been raining nonstop for the last two days and that can only mean one thing: rocks falling and landslides. This time I am taking a minivan, known locally as  a colectivo. It carries about 12 passengers and if you’re lucky it will be half that many so you can spread out. But more often than not it’s full and stuffed and stuffy. But it’s quicker than many of the buses that stop all along the way in every small town. At $12 it’s rather steep for Ecuador. I’m used to paying $2 to $6 for intercity transportation here. But I’m getting a late start and for that I must pay the price.
My destination is Vilcabamba, Ecuador, which has a large concentration of people more than 100 years old. Some say it’s the clean air. Some say it’s the lifestyle. I intend to find out.
I will actually try to relax in Vilcabamba – to regenerate. I am staying at the Izhcayluma Hosteria, which bills itself as a resort for backpackers. In other words, luxury at an affordable price. Here they will pamper backpackers. I plan to stay three days and probably won’t resist the beautiful trails and may well leave to the pool to go for a hike in the mountains. And of course I still have Peru ahead, much walking and hiking in my future.
Check back here. I am packing my overstuffed backpack now. I’ll tell you all about Vilcabamba and my journey there in the next post. Unless the land comes a sliding down 🙂

Categories: posts, travels | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Since February 11, 2011 – My Journey So Far

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Mike

View South America in a larger map

I need to pick up the pace 🙂

Since I started this trip in February, this is the ground I’ve so far covered. It may not seem like much to you, but if you stretch out that line that shows the path – from Colombia, where I started – It would place me somewhere in Chile. I took a sort of roundabout trek through Colombia, heading north from Bogota, then south again from Cartagena. It was always my plan to spend up to two months in Colombia because the country is so incredibly fantastic.

I spent weeks in some places I really liked. In fact, it felt like I was a resident of those places and that’s been the general idea all along: to spend a good deal of time in places where I found some connection to the people and the place. And it’s been terrific.

I have said from the start this is not a sprint. It’s more of a stroll around the world. But I am conscious that I have to keep moving forward in some timely fashion. After all, it makes sense to reach certain places at certain times and for certain events (carnaval in Barranquilla, Colombia, for instance).

On Sunday, I leave Cuenca for Peru. Peru is one of those countries I’ve always wanted to visit mainly to achieve that age-old  rite of passage: Machu Picchu!

So Cuzco here I come. Lima and your purported best food in the world, I will be there soon to sample. Peru! Wow. I can hardly wait to see this magical place – the land of the Incas.

But first another border crossing – Ecuador to Peru – and this one by all accounts is an obstacle course of con-artists, thieves, corrupt border officials, tricky taxis, and all sorts of characters waiting to ripoff travelers passing through. I’ve heard and read the horror stories. I just have to pray it all goes well. I’m dumping clothing, toiletries and other items to lessen the weight of my backpack. I have to be able to move as quickly as possible through this region fellow travelers refer to as “the kill zone”.

The tricks the crooks use at this border are similar to the ones I witnessed at  the Colombia-Ecuador border crossing – money exchangers with fixed calculators; people offering to help you fill out customs forms to get their hands on your passport; counterfeit dollars; robbers pretending to be taxis; on and on.

I managed to make my way through that minefield on the Colombia-Ecuador frontier unscathed, unlike some other travelers who crossed at the same time I did. They fell for the rigged calculator tricks and lost a lot of money during money exchanges. Information, my friends, is power, and knowing what to expect and what to do before you get to the border is crucial to avoiding becoming a victim. Also, do not be afraid to be rude. Say “NO” forcefully and ignore people calling out to you, unless they are a police officer or customs official and can prove it with an official ID. Don’t allow people to grab you in a “friendly” manner. Tell them to let go and back off. In short, trust no one. If you keep your guard up through the border you will survive to enjoy the rest of your trip.

So let the journey to my next border crossing begin. A bus awaits.

Categories: asides, travels | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.