We´ve been spending our time at a pretty high elevation lately. After travelling to Chile under a full lunar eclipse, we spent four days trying to rid ourselves of the light nagging headaches that are so common when you jump thousands of feet. Fortunately, the coca leaves kept it all under control. You buy them in packages of maybe $1 or 2, stick seven leaves in your mouth and chew, swallowing the juice and spitting out the leaves. They work so well that I wonder if I´m going to undergo a withdrawal when we leave the coca-legal countries.
Kate described our first few days in San Pedro de Atacama - salty lakes, hot springs and geysers - in her last post. After mastering the 16,000 foot elevation of the geysers, we decided we were ready for a larger physical challenge. We rented mountain bikes and sand boards and headed out for the dunes. I´m sure I´d say differently right after finishing a half ironman, but really, lugging your bike through the sand with a board on your back and then climbing up sandy dunes when you´re at 9,000 feet is probably on par with the effort expended completing a triathlon. All that energy to spend 30 or 40 seconds flying down a dune - and in my case, trying not to eat too much sand as you wipe out in an effort to control your speed. Fun, but I won´t be starting my sand surfing career real soon.
Having decided that we hadn´t punished our bodies enough, we kept the bikes for the rest of the day and rode out to another ¨Valle de la Luna¨. It turns out this a really popular name for parks in South America...you´d think half the continent resembled the surface of the moon! I have to admit, however, that this park was pretty darn amazing, with giant sand dunes, multi colored, striped cliffs and amazing views. I´ve never seen anything like it in my life. We sat there for a good hour at the top of one dune recovering for the ride back and taking in the breathtaking scenery.
Jump ahead one day and we find ourselves on a 3 day tour of Bolivian sights with quite the international group - Ireland, Scotland, Japan, France, Holland, Australia and the U.S. all being represented. I think the iconic image of these past three days must be a circa 1985 four by four with heaps of luggage, a spare tire and spare gas strapped to the roof, bumping its way across this lonely, high desert leaving behind a stream of dust. What a crazy place this is...where the lakes are red, green and white, where the flamingoes share the landscape with a rare cousin of the llama and smoking volcanoes. I don´t think the dust will be off our packs, clothes or hair till we leave Bolivia and I barely remember what a paved road feels like at this point.
Hasta luego, mis amigos!
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2 comments:
Have you seen any vicuñas?
Tons!!! Boliva was full of them (we were in areas with no towns, so good habitat for them), though we also saw several in Chile on the road back from the geysers of Tatio. Apparently they have endangered status in Chile and the population is bouncing back really well. They were hunted to near extinction for their wool, second finest fabric in the world (behind silk) we were told.
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