Scratching The Itch

I must say, Chile has not been a favorite on this trip, nor my last trip to South America, mainly due to cost. Cost-wise it’s on par with the US, but with way less quality. Therefore, we haven’t been eating out or doing a whole lot. But, in San Pedro de Atacama, there’s no way to sit still. Natural beauty surrounds you and going on a tour is unavoidable.

Despite the clouds, our tour of Valle de la Luna (The Atacama Desert) was incredible. This whole region is rich in salt and the combination of high air pressure plus low humidity makes perfect salt crystals. Our first stop in the tour was through a long expansive canyon made entirely of salt.

And yes, I broke off a piece, wiped off the dirt, and licked it. I just had to. 

Delicious salt crystals. 

It was raining as we headed down the small sand dune into the canyon. The rain somehow added to the stark landscape, making it feel almost ominous. The rain subsided and we climbed to the top of a giant sand dune for a view of the whole valley. Jagged rocks stuck out from the smooth forms of sand dunes.

As I was walking up the dune, some of my fellow tourists were pointing and laughing. Sure it’s not me they are laughing at, I thought. But it was. Turns out, there are inordinate amounts of iron in the sand, and the overabundance of static electricity was causing my hair to stick straight up. I looked like I had stuck my finger in a light-socket! Pierre, our tour guide, told me it was the worst he’s ever seen it.

Our next stop was to climb a tall rock wall to get a view of the natural rock formation called ‘the amphitheater’.

From up on the high rock, the strong blowing wind was much more noticeable. Besides making me look silly, the excess of static electricity in the air created a weird, whirling, buzzing sound when we lifted our arms above our heads. I’ve never heard anything quite like it. In fact, you could hear the noise if you held your hands exactly 4 or so inches from your face, no more no less. Jenny says that’s where your aura stops. I don’t know, but it was pretty weird either way.

Jenny’s Spanish has really been coming along, and I am quite proud of her. She’s in that phase where she can speak in full sentences, but makes funny mistakes when words sound similar. For instance, there was this nice group of Chileans on our tour and they were asking Jenny all kinds of questions about our trip and what she thought of Chile thus far. I wasn’t piping in, at this point, because I wanted her to practice. I did feel compelled, however, to give her a look when she said “well…I think Chile is really…dirty”. What she meant to say was ‘seco’ (dry) but instead she said ‘sucio’ (dirty). There was a moment of awkward silence, and then I shot Jenny a look.  Stupefied by the gringa that just unknowingly insulted their country, they goodheartedly roared with laughter and agreed with her, that yes, in fact, Chile is a little bit dirty.

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