01-04-2007 – Day 10 – San Pedro de Atacama
I woke up at 6.50 and went for a cold shower again. Then me and René B went for a walk through the village. It was nice and quiet so we could get an impression of the village.
The night before we agreed with some other people to go for a brekky at 8. We found a cool place where I ordered a bacon and cheese egg toast. The 2 girls running the shop were not really customer friendly. One tried to get our order while talking to her boyfriend on the phone. Then the other took over and it seemed as if they were working there for the first time. After a while some other people joined and we had a nice brekky. When walking back we found a laundry place where some of us brought our laundry. They wash, dry and iron it for 1200 pesos per kilo.
At 10 we gathered to go to quitors Fortress. The bus couldn’t go further because of a small river it couldn’t cross.
So we had to walk a bit. After arriving we climbed up which was pretty heavy because of the temperature and altitude (2200m). The amazing view immediately faded the discomfort of our sweaty and heavy breathing bodies.
Back in the bus we drove to Tamarugo’s Forest. This forest was planted and the trees carry a fruit that is eaten by llama’s. The trees also carry a very sharp kind of needle which actually went through the bottom of shoes. This happened with 5 people. The guide didn’t tell us which was a bit shitty. I helped some people with my first aid kit. We then walked back to the bus where the guide wanted to play a kind of very childish game. I didn’t feel playing this stupid game so walked around a bit and made some more pictures.
After some minutes of driving we stopped at a small, not really interesting, village called Toconao. I used my super swiss army pocket knife to pull out crazy long needles from the tamarugo forest. I considered myself pretty lucky because none reached my foot. Ies had the idea to bake pancakes for he whole group at the hostel so he and Ilona went to buy out a complete stock of milk, flower and eggs and some other ingredients from a local store. We then drove to chaxas lagoon. This lagoon is known for its flamingo population. It is a big salt plat area. We first got an introduction about these birds and their habitat. Then we went for a walk where I shot a lot of pictures hoping I have some good ones. The distance to the flamingo’s was still pretty far in order to not disturb them so here my 70-300mm was very usefull.
Back in the hostel we baked pancakes for 30 people which was a success and then to bed!!