Valle de La Luna Beats Up Anne

Just outside of San Pedro de Atacama is a small park called Valle de la Luna (~valley of the moon).  When you see it, it is pretty clear how they came up with that name.  It looks like what you might imagine the moon's surface to look like.  Or, Mars.  In fact, they tested the Mars rover here, supposedly because it has the conditions that closest approximate what NASA thought Mars would be like.

The approach to the park is almost as amazing as the park itself.  At more than one point, Mark was not sure if he had already entered the park.  Luckily, they charged 3000 pesos at the gate so he could keep track of when he entered (that's like 6 bucks, U.S.).

The Valle of the Luna is pretty lifeless, as not much is able to live in this environment.  Even a lot of the typical desert plants and critters have a hard time due to the high elevation, high salt content and general deadish-ness of the area.

The park is contained within a larger preserve, but the Valle de la Luna section is only a few miles long.  There are places to pull off and tour certain attractions (amphitheater, dunes, particular formations, etc).  One of the first that we saw was a winding path through some caverns.  The pamphlet they gave at the entrance clearly stated that you would need a flashlight when entering the cavern.  Mark and Anne don't read no sticking pamphlets.  Long story short - Anne got halfway through the cavern and turned around because she didn't have a flashlight.

The big attraction of Valle de la Luna is supposed to be watching the sun set over the rock formations.  You might notice that none of our photos in this post have a sunset.  While we arrived in plenty of time to get into position for the sunset, so did all of the other tourists.  So our group tried to find a less crowded spot, as well as kill a little time prior to the magic hour.

So we checked out the formations.  As you can see, parts of the area are covered in salt.  There are abandoned salt mines in the area as well.  But you can only LOOK at rock formations so many times.  So we decided we were going to climb up one of the formations.  There was a path marked and we could see other people had made it to the summit, so it seemed like a reasonable idea.  It was probably too sketchy for HBomb (also too hot and dry).  So it was going to be one at a time.  Anne went first....

 The path up the rock/dune/deathtrap combo was clearly marked at the bottom, and then for an additional 50 feet or so.  Then it was not marked.  Anne is crafty, though.  She saw a guided tour being led up an unmarked path, so she followed at a distance.  Surely, she could just follow their footsteps.  That worked for awhile.  Near the top, the tour group went around  corner.  Anne followed, but when she turned the corner, the tour group was gone and there were no tracks.  She took advantage of the opportunity to check out the view and the rocks and what not, but eventually realized, there was no more path.  No clear way down.  Just sand and rocks with no path and drop offs in every direction.

Nice view, but where do we go now?

 Ummm, guys?






Eventually, Anne saw the group she had been following on a path below her.  But how did they get there?  Their footprints in the sand had already been wiped away by high winds (there were some weird "grooves" in the sand, but certainly not footsteps).  The guide leading the other group had noticed Anne's stranded status, but.... hey, she didn't pay for the guided tour, so she was kind of on her own.  Was this the end for Anne?

Of course not.  Eventually another group made it to the top.  Anne kept a close watch on them and saw the unthinkable.  The group traversed the dunes not by marked path, but because the guide had memorized where the safe places to walk were.  And then to get down?  Sit on your butt and slide down the dunes (the grooves were from the butts of tourists past).

So after this ordeal, Anne finally made it back to the safety of the CRV.  "I did not enjoy any part of that," was her reaction.  Mark decided that he was not going to make this climb and the trio headed back to civilization.  Checking out that sunset at Valle de La Luna will have to wait until the next visit.

Petroglyphs and Little Towns in the Desert

HBomb gets his style on.

While in San Pedro de Atacama, our group got word that there were petroglyphs from a pre-Colombian society just outside of town.  The exact directions were "past Yerbas Buenas and in the Rainbow Valley."  Naturally, none of those things were on our map or our GPS, but eventually we got where we needed to go.

Kind of a monkey-looking thing on the rock.

The petroglyphs were on a rock formation in a large valley, but it was very hot and dry.  Hopefully, the valley was more fertile back in the days when the people who made these drawings were around.  Mark was quite sure that it was too dry to draw on these rocks in modern times.

Getting hands on with history

 The Chilean authorities did have the petroglyphs marked as an historical site, but they didn't set it up the same way that we would in the U.S.  For example, we walked right up to the drawings.  Some previous visitors had even made their own additions (mostly signatures and graffiti supporting some soccer team or other).

We climbed to the top of the first rock formation and saw several different drawings.  Some of the most obvious drawings were clearly marked, but we spotted a few others that the authorities had deemed too insignificant or too hard to see to be worthy of marking them for the tourists.

A two-headed bovine creature (the drawing, not HBomb and Mark)

Llamas on parade.

More llama drama.

The day we went to see the petroglyphs was a hot one and eventually, HBomb decided that we needed to move on.  So we did.

We took a drive along a reasonably well maintained gravel and paved road.

I expected the Rio Grande to be more grand.  Also, more rio.

The road followed the path of the Rio Grande.  Seriously, they call it the Rio Grande.  That is a photo of it above.  That trickle of water.  I guess it's all in the marketing, huh?

But on the other hand, the Rio Grande had carved a lot of this topography over a multitude of years, so maybe it used to be bigger?  I don't know.  Maybe they just didn't have any other suggestions for the name.  Trickle Grande doesn't have the same ring to it....but I digress.

The river provided enough water to support a small town at the bottom of the canyon.   It felt a bit like traveling back in time, as the people still live in humble houses that they appear to have built without many modern materials.  Upon entering the town, we saw a sign that gave instructions on how to drive in the town.  Upon entering we realized why - the streets were barely wide enough for one car, certainly not for two going in opposite directions at the same time. After touring the town, we turned around and headed back to the hotel.

Through the Desert

After beach time, it was back to the car to continue the drive north into the Atacama desert.  Due to its elevation and location between two mountain ranges, Atacama is one of the driest places on earth. The good people of NASA go there to test instruments that they will later use on missions to the moon and/or Mars.

Anne and Mark did not test any instruments on their drive through the desert, which was very dry, but not terribly hot.  Not many people live along this stretch, so it was mostly uninterrupted driving.  And then, in the middle of nowhere, a hand.

Upon inspection, it was clear that this was not a natural rock formation.  It was a bit strange to see this sculpture for a couple of reasons.  First, it was the middle of nowhere.  There was nothing but sand and rocks for miles in every direction.  There was not even an abandoned mine or mining town nearby.  Second, the sculpture looked familiar.  Kind of like the one in Punta del Este.

At least the similarity between this one and the other one can be explained - they were both done by the same guy.  Apparently, he's an artist specializing in enormous hands coming out of the sand.  Why he decided to put this one in the middle of no where- still a mystery.

But it did break up the monotony.  There was a long drive between the beach and San Pedro, so it was good to have at least one landmark to verify that we were making progress.

Beach Bums in Chile

After making it through Mendoza wine country and the Bohemian paradise of Valparaiso, it was time for some beach therapy.  Our crew made two stops, one at La Serena and one at Bahia Inglesa.  Both spots are small beach towns on Chile's Pacific Coast.

Not a bad view.

La Serena is the larger town and it is also the town that is undergoing more development.  In fact, HBomb, Anne and Mark rented an apartment in a new development on the beach in La Serena.  Apparently, a lot of people bought vacation homes there and then rent them out, making for stiff competition in the rental market and a very reasonable price for an apartment on the beach.

"El Faro," as seen from the playground on the beach.

The town of La Serena is apparently ironically named.  The city is beautiful and a nice place to relax and hit the beach now, but it's history is anything but "serene."  It is considered to be Chile's second oldest city, being founded at or around 1544, but since then has been completely destroyed by native peoples, city war occupiers, pirates led by Sir Francis Drake, and a big time earthquake in the 18th century.  Each time the city was rebuilt.

The big landmark in La Serena was actually just outside the apartment our trio rented.  Called "el faro" - the lighthouse - this structure is actually relatively new (built in the 1950s), but is on the register of historic places in Chile nonetheless.

Slide or get off the pot, kid!

Of course, none of this history mattered to the HBomb.  He was a big fan of La Serena, but mostly because of the pretty sweet playground equipment they had set up on the beach, which came equipped with other kids to play with.

Sandcastles in the sand.....

The beaches at Bahia Inglesa were equally clean and well maintained, but HBomb was less impressed due to the lack of playground equipment.

 And although the beach was beautiful, the water was frigid, so other than dipping their toes in it, our crew stayed out of the water for the most part.

sand in the hair.  why not?

Sea shells by the sea shore.

The beaches in both locations were fantastic.  They were clean and not crowded.  The towns were modern but not overdeveloped.  However, this might be the end of that.  Both towns had several projections under construction during our visit.  In 10-15 years, these little gems on the Pacific will be crawling with tourists spending time at their summer place.  However, today, they are still small, out of the way beaches.

During their stay at Bahia Inglesa, the trio stayed at a Bungalow that was literally on the beach.  Anne, Mark and Henry could hear the waves as the tide came in and went out.

The lone downside to staying in a Bungalow in small town Chile was the mosquitoes.  Yuck.

To deal with the challenges that the mosquitoes presented, our trio sought out - and found - the largest bottle of locally-grown wine they could find.  The sizes were, apparently, 750 ml, 1 L, too large and ridiculously large.  We eventually decided that the large bottle fit in the ridiculously large category.  It did, in fact, make the bug bites hurt a little less.

a bottle of the Gentleman for reference.

HBomb Hits Valparaiso

After spending a couple of beautiful days in Mendoza, HBomb, Mark and Anne decided to leave the country (to clarify, they were not "fleeing" the country, despite any rumors to the contrary).

From Mendoza they drove west through the Andes to Chile.  The scenery in this part of the world was beautiful, as the mountains rose up showing a rainbow of colors.

Eventually they made it to the border crossing at Los Libertdores.  The border between Argentina and Chile is in the Andes, so the border crossings are at altitude.  This one was about 10,000 feet up.  Apparently, this altitude made it difficult for the customs and immigration people to organize the border crossing.  The Chileans were particularly concerned about whether we were carrying fresh foods or raw meats (?) into Chile.  Mark showed the customs agent the pile of fruit cups that they had packed for HBomb and had in the car, and then told him somewhat more honestly than necessary perhaps, that we were Americans, we don't eat fresh fruit.  The customs guy stamped the form and we were on our way.

On the Chilean side, the roads were well maintained and recently paved.  However, the descent from the border crossing was ... abrupt.  There were 27 curves on the switchback path to the base of the mountain.  But it was manageable and eventually we made it to Valparaiso.

 Valparaiso, the second largest city in Chile, is a pretty city on the Pacific Coast.  It used to be a huge deal prior in the shipping industry prior to the building of the Panama Canal, but it still remains important in international shipping.  The city has been re-built a few times due to earthquakes and has a quaint old west-meets modernity vibe.

The whole city is picturesque, and it is probably getting moreso due to its popularity with artists and Bohemian types.  There are mosaics and street murals everywhere, as well as the architecture and differently colored houses and buildings in every direction.  A really pretty city. Our hotel, which had maybe the smallest room we have ever stayed in, redeemed itself with two things - 1. a roof top restaurant with a great view of the city and 2. the rooms had Netflix, so Anne was able to watch a newly released Gilmore Girls episode.  Seriously, is that Miss Patty?  She lost like ...a lot of weight.

We explored some of the popular neighborhoods for tourists and Mark was interviewed by a news reporter.  They were asking about whether tourists felt safe in Valparaiso.  Mark said that he did, but that the question was making him somewhat nervous.  The reporter asked what Mark did to stay safe.  Mark replied that his strategy was to look like he looks (~beefy), dress like he dresses (let's be charitable and say "casual") and then stand next to other tourists in nice suits with expensive watches.   The camera man thought it was pretty funny.  I don't know if the reporter thought she could use that footage.

Sometimes HBomb is a little shy.  For example, when we went out to lunch in Valparaiso, he expresses his displeasure.  However, the rest of the time, he was in love with the city.  We have a bunch of pictures of him running away because he was up and down the streets of Valparaiso whether we were with him or not.

But the highlight in Henry's mind, without any doubt, was the playground across the street from our hotel.  It had a slide, some monkey bars, and some other stuff.  HBomb must have gone down that slide 200 times in two days there.  I guess you find what you like and stick with it.