Scratching The Itch

While in San Pedro de Atacama, we decided to rent a couple mountain bikes so we could visit ruins situated about 3km/1mile from town. Seemed easy enough, we thought. No one mentioned to us that there were a couple rivers between us and these ruins! We found out the hard way.

Once on the other side, we washed the sticky clay like mud from our feet, and put our shoes back on. I thought ‘ok good, that’s the worst of it’. I was wrong. 

No less than a few hundred feet later, I found myself once again removing my shoes, and awkwardly trying to push my bike through the rocky red river. When we came up the third, I was about to scream…luckily the path curved and took us right to the ruins. A mere mile had taken us an hour and a half. Getting to the top of the ruins were a nice little hike and the view from the top was great. The snow covered volcano on the horizon was amazing.

More pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jyeats/sets/72157626157035924