This is an oasis town, full of all types of backpacker wanderer types from all over, in the middle of the Atacama desert, the world´s driest. We got into town last night in a taxi with two cool Mexican guys after our bus caught fire en route to Calama from the coast... camped outside the city limits in a ditch. The sun was hot from the minute it came up, and we packed up our things, found some coffee and churrasco, and rented bikes. Spent the day in the desert, in a national park kind of place called Valle de la Luna, which was remarkably free of other sightseers in the middle of the day. Did a big loop on these old clunky Trek mountain bikes, which feel like they have flat tires all the time to me, and returned to town at 7, more tired than we´ve been in weeks. The places we rode through were bizarre and beautiful: jagged spires and canyons made of salt (believe me, we licked it to make sure), caves, sand dunes, rock formations said to resemble the virgin mary in various states of prostration. Pisco sours and 2 liters each of water have mostly eased our exhaustion, but we´re really looking forward to camping in our ditch again tonight.
Other highlight: 79 km ride from a beach town called Hornitos to the modest city of Tocopilla in the back of a pickup... incredibly desolate mountains of loose rock and sand slipping down into the ocean, a stretch of empty road interrupted only by little mining towns and invitingly deserted beaches.
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