Attitude illness and mate de coca cure

In Atacama we arrived during the afternoon and went at a beutiful hostal that has horrible owners. Borja says that the woman that takes care of the hostal and sits all day long on the coach here makes you vomit. Incredibly ugly and with no manners what so ever.

 

But anyway, San Pedro is a beautiful atacameño village sorrounded by volcanos and with very high temperatures during the day, due to the fact that the area is a desert. Friday we´ve decided to do nothing and just get used to the high altitude (2.400m).

 

But in Saturday we took a tour to the Moon Valley, a place close to the village that due to the fact that is covered with salt, appears to have moonlike views. Then we walked on a sand dune, my first for me. We were warned before starting the trip that we should not throw ourselves from the sand dune, there is a fine for that of almost 50 euros. But once we got to the end of the sand dune, we had incredible views of the sunset. Of all the volcanos, the dead and the active ones and of the beautiful arid valleys. It is said that the valley has the most dry atmosphere in the world.

During the trip we met Thomas, a swiss traveller that had brought with him a bottle of wine, so that we´ve watched the sunset drinking wine.

He later invited us to his hostal to celebrate his birthday. There we met some other fun people with whom we´ve shared opinions on bad hostals and travelling guides or eachothers future plans. Nice crowd!!

 

We met another person from San Sebastian, this time a friend of Iñigo, Borja´s brother, don´t remember the name right now. The only sign of romanians for me was a small flag in a shop that also included the Afghanistan flag.

 

On Sunday we did a tour that started at 3 o´clock in the morning to the Geysers del Tatio. Horrible, we were still tired from the night before and together with the incredible cold there, could not enjoy to the maximum. Also the high altitude did not help: 4300m!! Some of the people that came with us to the tour took a bath in the hot thermal waters and froze when coming out. We just stood aside with headaches and watched.

By the time we´ve returned home, Borja´s headache got worse so that I had to ask the locals for a cure. I was told the coca tea makes you feel better so he tried it. Now he says he is addicted to it, not sure why, I tried it and it has no effect on me... But we will travel from now on with the bag of coca leafs!! (familia, no es una droga tranquilos!!)

 

And today, we rent some bikes and went to see a tiny church 12 km away through the desert. Borja loved it, me not so much... On the way back we also visited some ruins of a inca village high up on a platform. Crossed a river riding the bike (both of us almost fell in the water) and passed through a mini sand storm. We are now resting from the effort, it´s been ages since I last used a bike.

 

Tomorrow we are heading to Argentina again. Going to Salta, the most expensive voyage until now. Hope to survive the 12 hours trip during the day and the andean high altitude.

 

 

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