Calama

I am waiting for the bus to Iquique in Calama - a city two hours away from St. Pedro de Atacama and four hours from Iquique. It's much bigger than St. Pedro. I already miss that village. During the three days spent there I feel that I made friends with half of the people and started feeling part of the family. One of the agencies needed a person for guiding the cabalgadas - horseback riding in the mountains - and I would accept that position for a few months if the climate was not so dry. I have experience and I feel the horses are happy here, walking most of the day untied to anything and enjoying themselves doing that and walking in the mountains with people as well. I think they see it as their job. But the dryness makes my skin itch and peel. I talked to Atacamenans about it and it seems the texture of their skin is so much better adjusted to coping with the dry climate. Mine is just not fit to it. I really regret. The longer I travel the more I feel I would like to live in a very tiny town. I wonder if I will progress into that direction... if in the end I will be happy to settle in a place as small as St. Pedro or if I will need a city with theaters etc. I am waiting for what I really want to cristalize. I asked people in St. Pedro if they really like the fact that they know everybody who lives there and they said yes, very much. It's because there's no gossip, people are not jelous of each other's businesses, they don't have to "advance" into anything, they don't need more than what they already have. The people who own the little restaurant shacks on the outskirts and the people who own "touristy" restaurants in the center of the village live in the same type of adobe houses. It must sound idyllic and I think it really is. Some of the newcomers told me they came to live there for a short time and they just stayed and made it their home. Some came for vacation and just stayed... Yesterday there was a rather strong earthquake in Iquique and it caused the death of 8 people but the busses are running to Iquique so I am going there because there's really no other way to go to Peru from here. I will write from Iquique.