Monday, October 15, 2007 More San Pedro

Monday, October 15, 2007 More San Pedro

Will, CJ and I woke up early and went on another tour with Juan to Lagunas Cejar (in case we haven’t seen enough lagunas right?). But Lagunas Cejar are famous for being the only Free Floating bodies of water in all of the Americas (North and South). There is so much salt and other minerals in the water that your body natural floats on top, like in the Dead Sea. Plus the first 4 top feet of the water is ground water that is FREZZEING cold but after the water is burning hot. The heat is produced by a chemical reaction between the water and the salt crystals 30 feet below. And the two layers don’t mix because of the difference in density.
We sloshed our way through a marshy field then across a salt flat to get to the first Laguna. Juan told all of us to get in the water and warn us how to avoid the shard salt crystals along the edge. But when we stepped into the water and realized how cold it was, we started to question whether or not it was worth it. After a few minutes of gaining courage, I slowly lowered my body into the water and floated out. Except that it was so cold that I could barely breath. My whole body froze up and every inch of me was covered in goose bumps. But I toughed it out and put my feet down and felt the crazy hot layer. It was bizarre. The guys wimped out and never got in the water but the other girl on the tour with me joined me for a couple minutes. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t going to get use to the cold water; it was just that cold) and the thrill of the crazy phenomenon faded so I climbed out. I my venture to say it was the coldest I’ve been in my entire life. But luckily the sun was out and I started to dry pretty quickly.

Next we crossed back over the salt/marsh land and then drove to another nearby Laguna called Los gemelos (The Twins). This Laguna had the same different water temperature phenomenon and you floated but this Laguna was the most incredible color I’ve seen in two perfectly circular holes side by side. The pools formed when the salt formations collapsed underneath and form inverted conical holes 90 feet deep.

This Laguna was a little bit warmer (that or my body was still numb) so Will toughed it out and got in this time. CJ jumped in for about 3 seconds and got out as fast as he could. We swam around in the pool as long as our bodies allowed us and when I pulled myself out my muscles were so cold I could barely move. We drove back to the hostel, the entire time shaking and shivering despite the fact that I was completely dry.

I took a shower to warm up and finally clean myself, and then we headed into town to grab lunch. After lunch we got ice cream and walked about 1.3 miles to Las Ruinas de Pukara, “The Ruins of Pukara, which are the remains of an indigenous fort. It was a beautiful walk and climb up the fort and from the top you can see the entire town of San Pedro de Atacama. We hung out at the top enjoying the incredible view and soaking in the immensity surrounding us. Later we climbed down and walked to a huge hotel we’d seen from the top to check it out. The security guard stopped us but explained that it was under construction but it already had guests. There was a cute little plaza and next to it Will found the entrance to a cave. CJ and I went spelunking (cave exploring; its super popular in Missouri) for a while and you could go surprisingly far because there were breaks in the rocks above letting in light.

We then walked back to town and bought some last minute souvenirs in the market, including a pretty hand woven wall hanging for Olga. We had to catch our bus to Calama at 7, so we hurried back to the hostel; got our stuff together and Roberto the hostel owner drove us to the stop. We said a sad goodbye to Roberto and when I told him he was the best hostel owner ever, seriously, he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing!

We piled into a crowded bus heading to Calama, the next biggest town about 1.5 hours west of San Pedro. When we arrived we had to walk a good mile to the Tur Bus bus station with all our stuff (that’s cheap college students for you right, won’t even get a taxi!). Since we had an hour before we got our bus to Santiago, we ate dinner at a delicious, cheap, but really nice Chinese restaurant across the street from the bus station. It made me miss Shanghi Boy!!

At 10 we piled onto the next bus and began the long trek back to Santiago. At the beginning of the trip Will told us a cute story about his first girlfriend in 8th grade and when I mentioned that Trevor and I “dated” in junior high they asked me to tell them the story. I warned them, but they agreed that since we had a 23 hour bus right, a long story wouldn’t be too bad. So I recounted our now 8 year history in about 25 minutes. For two guys, they seemed to enjoy the story and even asked questions! It was quite endearing. After the recounting of the epic love story, I read more of the book for my Doctrina Social test on Wednesday then fell asleep.