Saturday, September 13, 2003
The Driest Place on Earth
I'm writing from a small colonial town on the Chilean/Bolivian border called San Pedro De Amatacama, having spent the past two days crossing the Amatacama dessert, which has a claim to being the driest place on earth!
I haven’t found it as dry as most, because I managed to flood my tent with a 2ltr hydration pack, by rolling on to it in my sleep. I subsequently woke up at 4 in the morning, when the water around me was beginning to freeze, temperatures in the dessert at night were around -5. So i ran around the driest place on earth, wringing out my clothes, and trying to dry my sleeping bag in 40 mph winds, before it froze in to a solid block.
The scenery here is breathtaking, with a multitude of different skylines, rock formations, roads leading off in to the horizon, last night we climbed a 400ft sand dune, to take pictures of the sun setting over the valley of the moon - it was a pretty difficult climb because the sand was so deep, and the gradient was so steep, and because we are about 2000 meters above sea level, but I guess it was good training for the dreaded hike to Machu Pichu.
Spent the evening drinking in some of the many bars in San Pedro (September the 11th is a fiesta here) with an open fire in the middle, and a hole in the thatched roof, looking out to a full moon, and a full compliment of stars.
Life is good......
Eric
¶ 1:40 pm
I haven’t found it as dry as most, because I managed to flood my tent with a 2ltr hydration pack, by rolling on to it in my sleep. I subsequently woke up at 4 in the morning, when the water around me was beginning to freeze, temperatures in the dessert at night were around -5. So i ran around the driest place on earth, wringing out my clothes, and trying to dry my sleeping bag in 40 mph winds, before it froze in to a solid block.
The scenery here is breathtaking, with a multitude of different skylines, rock formations, roads leading off in to the horizon, last night we climbed a 400ft sand dune, to take pictures of the sun setting over the valley of the moon - it was a pretty difficult climb because the sand was so deep, and the gradient was so steep, and because we are about 2000 meters above sea level, but I guess it was good training for the dreaded hike to Machu Pichu.
Spent the evening drinking in some of the many bars in San Pedro (September the 11th is a fiesta here) with an open fire in the middle, and a hole in the thatched roof, looking out to a full moon, and a full compliment of stars.
Life is good......
Eric
¶ 1:40 pm
