San Pedro de Atacama: Staging Grounds for Bolivia

After a couple weeks in Santiago, it was time to move on. I wanted to explore more of Chile, so I booked a 24 hour bus ride to San Pedro. I thought from there I could do some day trips to places in the Atacama desert and maybe go to an observatory. The Atacama is home to the driest place on earth and has little cloud cover. I believe it has the most powerful telescopes on earth too. None of this is relevant, though, because I didn't do shit while I was there.

I'm sure San Pedro de Atacama could be a lot of fun. A great place to experience a lot the region has to offer. But they say write about what you know. And what I know is that this place mostly sucked for me. So that's what this post is about.

Things were bad from the start. I botched my hotel reservation by not accounting for the overnight bus ride. So I wound up with one less day there than I had planned but still payed for the three nights. $70 a night for a place that should have cost about half that. And the only reason it should have been that much is that everything is expensive in the SPA. It was worth about $20, I'd say. It was nice to have a private room, but there were private rooms closer to the town center that were cheaper and boasted wifi and satellite tv in the rooms.

Basically my days were filled with bad food and nothing to do while I waited for my trip to Bolivia. A prime example of this is as follows. I found a vegetarian restaurant, which is a big score in South America, because they have such great produce that is inexplicably left off the menu at most restaurants. It will make you feel so much better to get some fresh fruits and vegetables after not having any for a while. One of the specials was a veggie burger with fries and fruit juice. Sounded perfect. When I ordered, the lady asked if I wanted the sandwich. I just said yes and sat down, thinking what the hell else kind of hamburger is there. Apparently the hamberguesa con papas fritas did not include a bun. The bun, which is what makes it a sandwich, replaced the fries. The bun was interesting. It was big, flat, and circular like a frisbee. It was hard like a frisbee. And it tasted like dirt like a frisbee (that's been in the dirt). The only thing close to redemption this place got was the avocado. All avocados in Chile are ridiculously delicious. So this place gets no credit for doing something so good, but so obvious that they would have been morons to not do it. Then I had some disappointing ice cream and got sick for two days. Then I went to Bolivia and everything got better.

Yes, I know this post sucked. But, I had never been to San Pedro de Atacama and felt it deserved a spot in the annals of SuperTrippin' for being my gateway into a country that had once denied me entrance, more or less at gunpoint. Here are some pictures of this mostly dirt colored town.

p.s. - My hotel wouldn't except credit cards and my bill was $200. Ridic. So I had to go to the ATM in the dark at like 10 pm. Not dark as in the sun went down, but dark as in, there are no street lights and I almost fell in a hole walking across no-man's land to get to the ATM. The only ATM I knew of. The one that gave me money the day before. The one that wouldn't give me money the night I needed to pay my hotel bill. I walked back to the hotel to find out where another ATM was and then back to town to finallyget the money and back to the hotel. Also, the morning I left I had two minutes of cold water and then none at all in the shower. Not so uncommon for crappy hostels, but I expect more for $70 a night.

Olives and Spanish Classes

I left Punta Arenas quickly. I think I spent less than 24 hours there. It was either that or stay there for over a week and pay more to get to Santiago. I just spent two weeks in Santiago, Chile. Mainly because I didn't really know what else to do and thought it would be nice to stay in one place for a while. So I signed up for Spanish classes at the same school I went to some years back. My worry about Spanish school is that it is pointless. If I'm not going to practice after, it does me no good. After my first trip to Santiago and two weeks of school, I moved back to Hawaii where no one speaks Spanish. Then back in September of last year I spent a month studying Spanish in Costa Rica and then went to an island in the Caribbean for two months where I rarely spoke Spanish. Now two more weeks of school and one month left in South America. Don't know where after that. I'll probably forget it all again. Oh well. It's never bad too spend a couple of weeks in Santiago. Even if I didn't really do anything. Here are some highlights.

The Mystery Machine - parked right down the street from where I lived.

And a river of chocolate milk that comes from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory located outside the city in the mountains.

And then there is Bellas Artes, the art museum that has changed me in ways I can never explain. You have to go there for yourself. The silent movies they are showing in a couple of rooms left me feeling extremely uncomfortable and weird in a good way. They had some cool paintings too, but I got yelled at for taking pictures of them. Here is a pic of a room full of dog statues, most of which were depicted taking a dump.

All in all Santiago is a nice city. I could definitely live there if I could find a way around the olives and the mayonnaise. That stuff is everywhere. On the other hand they have the best avocados in the world. It's a tough call. Ordering a pepperoni pizza that inexplicably comes with olives on it, combined with my lack of Spanish speaking abilities, results in me saying things like, "Olives make me angry." While true, it probably confused and maybe even frightened the waitress. Another good quote resulting from a lack of a decent Spanish vocabulary was, "My beer tastes like cucumbers. Please give me a beer without cucumbers." In truth, the beer tasted like pickles, but I didn't know the word for pickle. I got as close as I could. I guess even with the proper vocabulary, that would have been odd. The bartender took the beer that I had already drank from and put it in the fridge for the next sucker. I made sure I saw the rest of my drinks being poured.

Antarctica! (cont.)

Day 6

Actually, think back to day 5. Because that's kind of where this is starting. Night 5 / morning 6 was camping time. After dinner on the fifth night, about 40 of us headed over to a small island off the coast, set back into a small cove to camp for the night.

Easily the most extreme place I've camped and easily the least amount of gear I've had with me while camping. Unless you count sleeping overnight on the beach. It's a pretty cool place to camp with glaciers surrounding about three quarters of the island and the rest facing a relatively protected bay. A few people used tents, but most just had bivvy sacks and sleeping bags. I chose the latter and compressed a small area of snow to place my setup. I would have built an igloo, but once I saw Henrik, the Mighty Norwegian, carving out a small city with a snow shovel, I decided to go the other way. I figured my minimalist approach would make for a good contrast.

It never really got dark, though the sun did technically set. I slept well and was even too hot at times. Whoever said Antarctica was an unforgiving place obviously didn't go there with me, as I make the weather perfect as a matter of routine wherever I travel. This fact is documented in this very blog in posts regarding Torres del Paine, the Galapagos, and the Amazonian jungle.

Early in the morning we headed to Neko Harbor for our first continental landing. Here we found one lazy Weddell seal, more penguins, and a 115 m high lookout that we could hike up to. Coming down from the ridge we hiked along, you could see where people had slid down to the bottom and I was very disappointed to be told we couldn't do that. I would have done it anyway, but by doing something I had expressly been forbidden to do by the guide team, I would have most definitely assured my self in deep shit. It would have gone something like:  "Yay! This is awesome! I'm sliding down a 300 foot hill in Antarctica! Those suckers can't tell me what to do. Oh no, how the hell did I get airborne and upside down???!! Damn that hurt when I landed and my shoulder dislocated. Hhmmm, I don't seem to be slowing down. Crap, I wonder how much the fine is for running over that penguin and killing it. And cue the skid off the ice and the plunge into the freezing water and being banned from the rest of the excursions." So I hiked down like everyone else, then cruised around in the zodiac looking at icebergs.

After Neko we went to Port Lockroy. It used to be an old British scientific base. It was abandoned  in 1962 when the British lost interest in Antarctica due to the rising stock of The Beatles. It fell into disrepair, but was renovated in 1996 when Britain regained interest in Antarctica due to the falling stock of Oasis. It is currently maintained as a historical site by four poor souls who rely on passing ships for soap and chocolate. There is a gift shop and the southern most post office in the world. If you're keeping score at home, I've been to the most southern bar in the US, the most southern Irish pub in the world, the most southern city in the world, and the most southern post office in the world.

I don't have any good shots that show the whole place, because I bought a postcard that did. Oh, and there were naked ladies painted on the walls inside. Here's Liz Taylor...

Day 7

Damn, day 6 was long. Day 7 we went to Palmer scientific base. The slightly better funded US base down the road from Lockroy. They have a hot tub, a bucket of krill, and brownies. They did not share the "special" brownies with us. But our guide had a pink mohawk, so I'm pretty sure they were around somewhere.

Then there were more penguins.

Then...

Day 8 / 9

Confusion sets in. Not sure what happened on which day, so they are combined. You'll never know the difference. I had a sore throat, fever, generally feeling of blah. Skipped the polar plunge and don't regret it. Zodiac cruise with whales and icebergs.

Saw some orcas. I discovered the ten-photos-in-one-second function on my camera and took about 300 pics of them in about 10 minutes. They pretty much all looked like one of the following.

Day 10

Lobster party. These are the suits we were supposed to wear if we had to abandon ship. They are designed to keep you warm for an extra half hour or so, so you can contemplate your inevitable demise while developing hypothermia at a more controlled rate.

Some of us thought it would be a good idea to wear them to the bar on the last night. It was hot. That didn't last long.

Day 11

Disembark and put off blogging about the trip for another week. I'm sure I left some stuff out, but it was just more rocks, ice, and penguins. Go there yourself if you want to know what it's all about.

Antarctica!

Day 1

This is the boat I took to Antarctica. Sea Spirit. There were about 112 passengers.  We left January 15 for a "12 day" cruise. Since we started at like 4 pm on the first day and ended at about 8 am on the last day, it's really only a 10 day cruise if you ask me.

Another thing you might ask is:  "What was Antarctica like"?  The standard answer from most people is:  "You really can't explain it. You have to experience it". I will sum it up in three words:  Ice, Rocks, Penguins. If you really must know more, I'll give you some details from my trip.

Day one was short. It consisted of safety drills, dinner and slightly excessive alcohol consumption.

Day 2

Day two was open ocean cruising across the Drake Passage. The Drake is the stretch of water between Ushuaia and what will be our first sight of land, The South Shetland Islands. It is known as one of, if not the most dangerous and unforgiving ocean crossings in the world. Our experience with the weather here was described by the crew as the absolute best we could have hoped for. And still, half the boat was seasick. The worst part for me was trying to shave. It reminded me much of that scene in Airplane II: The Sequel.

Day 3

On day three we saw our first icebergs, land, penguins.

We first saw the South Shetland Islands around 11:30 and made landfall at Half Moon Island via zodiacs around 3 pm. It was pretty amazing. Seeing hundreds of chinstrap penguins and one big elephant seal and one Weddell seal. Just being there. There was something overwhelming about it all. The smell. Penguins are some of the stinkiest animals I've ever met. They just eat and make babies and poop. I could smell them before I even got on the zodiac. They are super-cute, though. They know this, of course, and so, like Hollywood types, love to pose for pictures. (pics will be up after I decide if they should go through Picasa or something else).

Day 4

We went to Hannah Point in the morning. More penguins. Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins. And big groups of elephant seals lying around burping, farting and scratching. It's kind of like a college apartment.

In the afternoon we went to Whaler's Bay at Deception Island. This was one of the coolest places we went. You sail into the crater of an active volcano and can see the steam coming off the water near the shoreline. there is an old whaling station here and a place where you can hike up to see a good view overlooking the whole place.

Day 5

More penguins! Baby penguins. Some looked really cute and were just hatched. Some looked really gross because they were torn apart and eaten by brown skuas. (not pictured)

In the afternoon, we were supposed to make our first continental landing at Almirante Brown Station. The Argentine coast guard told us no because they were working there. Apparently this was the one day in the last four years that they were actually doing something. Then we were followed by this boat for the rest of the trip.

It's Super Bowl Sunday and I don't feel like writing any more today. So come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to Antarctica! Will there be more penguins? Will there be a maritime showdown with the Argentine coast guard? Will I freeze to death while camping on the White Continent? Read the next post to find out.