San Pedro de Atacama

From the Salar trip I transfered into northern Chile. San Pedro de Atacama is a desert town in near the Bolivian border which attracts tourists to climb the surroudning volcanoes, visit the unusual landscapes, or watch the stars. Because the town in located at a high elevation, and the air is dry and clear, with few clouds in the sky it is one of the leading areas in the world to star gaze at the southern skies. Nasa is one of the very many observatories from countries all over the world that utilizes this area.
As I didn't really count Easter Island as "Chile", I felt like this was my first real Chilean experience. I was excited to finally find serious heat on my running from winter, vacation. It was arid and hot, making me a happy traveler.
San Pedro is a dusty town with few paved roads, causing for dusty gritty feet. 4 main toursits roads make up the hart of the city, lined with multiple tourist agencies all offering the same tour packages. A central square filled with benches shaded under tall peper trees, palms and landscaped bushes provide the home to happily chirping birds. Two cafes make up one side of the square, with small wooden tables and white umbrellas. An od church with white washed adobe walls, and a mud baked roof is currently being restored. Long vines of a plant once grew down from the roof, leaving red lines which looked painted onto the side of the church.
Bikes are the popular method of transportation for locals and gringos alike. Moste hostels, restaurants and stores offer bike rentals to anyone who is interested. Dogs liesafely in the center of dusty strees as cars, although present are not common.
A bohemian feel lines the strees with many of the men with long hair or dreadlocks. The relaxed ambience of a small town with out rush for anything. Another town like Uyuni that seems to have risen out of the dust of the desert as a gringo hub.
I utilized San Pedro as a "re-do" for Salar. A 4am start one morning brought me to watch geyesers blow steam high in the air as the sun rose behind. A thorough lecture ensured that no one left the marked paths at the strange land as the ground can be very unstable, and a few tourists trying to get a closer look had fallen into the geyesers. Surrounded by volcanos and mountains it was a beautiful place to watch the sun streak the sky with pinks, oranges and yellows as it rose above the clouds. Unlike Old Faithful in Yellowstone which blows steam at timed intervals throghout the day, these geyesers are most active at dawn, hence the early morning start.
After the option to swim in the natuarl hot springs, we headed to a small village for a breakfast of empanadas. These are one of my favorite finds when they are done correctly. It is horrendously unhealthy and fabulously delicious. Cheese, meat, or vegetables is wrapped in a pastry shell that is usually made from flour and lard. Then fried to perfection. If you can get it straight out of the oil it is the best. Those who then stick it in a warmer to sit in a store front are usually terrible. In the small village they had fresh goat cheese (which is different than our goat cheese but still awesome} empanadas made to order. I ate two. I am also salivating now as I think about it.
One night I joined a astrological tour to learn about the stars, planets, constillations, and look through a high powered telescope to see the rings of Saturn. I saw Saturn and its rings, but the tour may have boasted a bit more than what it offered. In the tour guide office he showed me a picture of saturn that you could google off the interent with the gas and rings in color and very large. In reality what I saw of  Saturn was a white dot in the microscope, about the size of the tip of a blunted pencil, with a visible white ring. It was still much more of  Saturn than I have ever seen before, but I laughed when I looked through the telescope. An English translator was supposed to acccompany the tour, but she decided she was too cold and sat inside the car, eating our supplied "snack" of potatoe chips. So although the guide was very passionate and informative on what we were looking at and the different constilations both current and Inca, I missed about 95% of what was happening. The stars however were incredible. Getting outside of the small city with its few street lights made what seemed like a wonderful view of the stars spectacular. It was pitch black where with out a bit of light it was hard to see much in front of you, to looking up and seeing more stars than I beleived was possible. It was wonderful.
My time was short in San Pedro, but a few trips to the beautiful surrounding landscape helped me feel better about my sham of a Salar trip.