San Pedro de Atacama

It is a small village in the middle of the Atacama desert. The bus left me and the rest of the tourist in the middle of a dusty road (there's no bus station here). At first it looked like a very hostile environment to live in: dry, hot and dusty, not many trees or other vegetation. All houses are made of adobe bricks. It is the seat of the Atacama culture and most of the people who live here are Atacamenans. Others are the people who wanted to run from it all and established galleries, cafes and travel agencies. The village lives mainly off tourism: there are volcanoes here, gasers, salt flats and the desert - Valley of the Moon. It's possible to do mountain biking and sandboarding. It is a very peaceful place. I went to the gaysers the first day of my stay and to the Moon Vally the second day. To see the gaysers in full beauty we left the hostal Florida at 4 am. There's a kitten in the hostal who looks like the King so I named him Elvis (but it turned out it is a she so she is Elvisa). Elvisa still misses her mom, she is so young, and was crying in the night so I took her with me to my bed, zipped us up in my sleeping bag and we slept until 3:45 am. She was sleeping so soundly that I left her in the room and hoped she would meow to be let out if she wanted to pee. We got to the volcano (above 4,000 meters) at dawn and could see the clouds of steam coming from the ground. There were also pools of boiling water. It was minus 12 degrees Celsius but it was so amazing that we walked and walked among the gasers until our noses were ready to drop off. After that we went to a natural termal outside pool but I only dipped my feet since the virus is not gone entirely. We came back at noon and I was opening the door to my room thinking whether I will find it shredded to pieces and Elvisa swinging violently on the lamp due to separation anxiety... But when I came in she just woke up with an expression on her face saying "Where am I?" She yawned, streached out her legs, did a cat pose, a cobra pose, and other yoga poses and was ready for breakfast. We had yogurt. The Valley of the Moon is desert, rock formations and dunes. Very nice. We stayed on top of one of the hills to see the sunset and the changing colors on the dunes and rocks. I met nice people at the hostal and also took part of the Saturday fiesta of one indigenous family. These people and their peaceful way of life is unbelievable... Today I went to the little market on the outskirts of the village with lots of new and used things on sale and tiny kitchens where women cook delicious local food. I like the markets because markets represent Life. Everything happens there. People sell things but at the same time they eat their dinner, breastfeed their babies, sing, dance, dogs wait patiently for remainings and sit at tables of the tiny shacks-restaurants. There are clouds of dust swirling around, covering everything including the food. Yesterday evening there was a violent desert storm. Frightened dogs were hiding in stores and cafes and people were hiding inside homes, hostals and cafes. I was enchented with the atmosphere of the village fogged with sand and walked the deserted streets.The sand got everywhere: inside my clothes and into my eyes and ears.

I am going to Iquique in the evening. There are not many places with internet in St. Pedro and the connection is very slow. I will respond to individual e-mails when I get to a bigger place.