Day2: Atacama Desert

Off and running after breakfast for  an easy 1^st activity, visiting the local petroglyphs and the “Rainbow Rocks.  Our guide this morning was Manfred (“Man”),  again, like our guide yesterday, very enthusiastic, but his English was amazing.  He learned English primarily from tourists that he guided.  He had been working in Patagonia for a few years at Explora, the lodge in which we will be staying in a few days , so he was able to give us lots of tips. 

Along the drive to the Rainbow Valley we had great views of the Andean mountain Licancabura, the 17,500 ft volcano that dominates the local skyline. This meant “people of the earth” in the now extinct language of the pre-Columbian Atacamenos, Kunsa. 

We were also treated to herds of guanacos and llamas.  These animals (along with vicunas that live at even higher elevations) are closely related to the camel.  The ancestral camel was first found in North America but traveled across the land bridge to Siberia (yes, Sarah Palin was right, you could-at one point-see Russia from Alaska) and evolved (Sarah probably wouldn’t approve of that) into the camel of Southwest Asia and Africa.  It also migrated southward during one of the ice-ages to escape the cold, and became what we now know as the vicunas, guanacos, alpacas, and llamas.

Our first stop was Rainbow Rocks, named for the variety of colors produced by minerals that make of the rock formations. Greens and reds predominated with rocks containing copper and iron. 

                                                                          

From here, we drove to an area that contained petroglyphs (carved into stone), pictogryphs (painted on stone) or a combined picto/pretroglyph. Some of the petroglyphs were created by the Atacameno people and date back approximately 10,000 years.  The site, Yerbas Buenas, was a stopover for many Incan caravans.  Many of the petroglyphs are representations of guanacos or llamas, foxes,

 while others are quite bizarre with animal heads on human bodies.

Shamans (medicine men) often took drugs to attain a state that allowed them to see into the future.  What they really saw were some of these frightening animal/human hybrids that they etched into stone for eternity.  Kind of like artists on acid.  Not much has changed.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a light lunch and walked around the grounds.  There is a “contemplative area” overlooking a small lagoon, a mineral garden, and a spa with 7 pools of varying temperatures, none of which were adequate for a swim workout.  There is also a corral with llamas.  We aren’t sure why there are llamas here, but I have conjectured that along with vegetables and fruit from their garden, the llama might wind up on the dinner menu.  I keep checking the specials, primarily because the llama has seemed to disappear.  Hopefully, it’s just to hot for him and he is in his llama house keeping cool.

For the afternoon hike, we lucked out and got Man again.  We hiked through a canyon with a rushing stream that was lined with huge cacti.  The hike was technically quite difficult, unless of course you were a mountain goat and/or didn’t care about getting wet feet. 

We also started feeling the altitude, getting out of breath when we normally would not. Man kept pushing us to drink (“you must drink at least 3 liters per day!”) to help us acclimate to the elevation, around 9,000ft.  He was also a stickler about sunscreen.  The ozone layer is very thin here and the sun can cause severe skin damage as well as contribute to altitude sickness.

The cordons cacti  (look a lot like the saguaro cacti seen in the U.S. southwest) here grow at a rate of about 1cm per year getting their water from dew accumulating on the surface of the rocks.  This cactus was about 10 meters making it close to 1,000 old. 

Monkey eating a banana

In some areas, one side of the canyon was non-porous basalt rock which accumulated surface moisture allowing the cactus to grow.  In the same area, on the other side of the canyon, the rock was porous sandstone which allowed the moisture to seep in and not give the cactus the needed water.  Thus, no cacti. 

Another type of cactus that is frequently seen here is affectionately known as “mother-in-law’s pillow”. 

It is short (2 ft high) and about 3’ in diameter and would appear to be a nice resting place were it not for the long spike thorns. I’m sure there are some m-i-ls that deserve that (though neither mine nor Jeri’s).

Our major catastrophe of the hike occurred when Jeri preferred to walk across a stream rather than negotiating some rocks. 

Though her Asolo boots are waterproof, the guarantee is voided if the water is higher than the boot.  The last ¼ of the hike was pretty squishy.

As the sun began to set, we climbed back out of the cabin to meet our driver for the ride back to base camp.  I promise I will never complain again about road maintenance at home.  It was sometimes difficult to tell the difference between paved and unpaved, except that the unpaved generally was consistently washboard.  By the time we reached the hotel, we felt like milkshakes.

Tonight we planned dinner followed by star observation and timing would have been perfect, but the docent was sick and they had to cancel.  Just as well, we were both exhausted, too tired to even write my blog (day late- sorry).  At dinner we met a very nice British couple who were going to be hiking with us in the morning to some hot springs.  Looking forward to it.