San Pedro de Atacama (Post Uyuni)
Having gone two straight weeks of non-stop touring, I was looking quite forward to a respite in my intense regimen, which would continue for at least two more weeks.
However, when I got back to my hostel (La Florida) my relaxation time had hit a bit of a snag. I opened my wallet, and my debit card was gone. For a second I thought that it was stolen when I was in Bolivia, but I soon came to the realization that I most likely left it in the ATM machine in San Pedro prior to leaving for Uyuni. My debit card is the only ubiquitous way to get money and make hostel reservations in Chile. I have an AMEX card, but you can only get money from certain ATMs in major cities (San Pedro and Calama are not either of these), and as a more expensive cash advance. My hostel reservation application (Hostel World) is also tied to my debit card. No hostel reservation sites that I know of take AMEX. It seemed like the whole infrastructure that supported my travels had collapsed before my eyes. The issues resulting from a lost item, such as a debit card, are compounded so much more in a foreign country.
So, I painfully spent the next couple hours doing damage control--deactivating my debit card on-line, getting another one reissued (which I cannot obviously pick up from here anyway), researching if there were any hostel reservation sites that accepted AMEX (none did), researching alternative ways of getting cash from ATMs, etc. Eventually, I found out that most hostels will accept payment through my hostel reservation application via PayPal, so I was able to make my hostel reservation in Arica through that. I also made a hotel reservation (I figured I deserved a little pampering at this point) for Calama before my flight to Arica. And I found some ATM locations in Arica that would accept AMEX, which I will use to replenish my dwindling cash once I get there. If that does not work, there is always the tried and true Western Union method, which I will research further to see if I can send money to myself. Western Union has locations everywhere, even in the most remote regions of the world. At least I am learning something here from this huge mistake. It is good to know for the future.
So, my financial infrastructure sustained a big hit, but I managed to patch it up as much possible. And I learned something in the process other than not to lose your debit card in a foreign country. I learned something about myself at the tender age of 52 as well. Being a problem solver, and an OCD one at that, when a problem does arise, the rest of my world shuts down until full resolution of that problem.
Once the fire was out, I spent the rest of the day relaxing (i.e.., blogging and professional work). I also reserved a spot to go on an astronomical/astrology tour that evening. Being very dry and high in altitude, the Atacama Desert is actually a well-known location for astronomers. There is also an international observatory located in the Atacama Desert in which several countries have made large investments. And it did not disappoint that evening, as I was able to see the Milky Way with very little air or light pollution. I would compare it the sky that I experienced at Zion National Park in Utah, with the exception that, instead of the Northern Star, the point of reference is the Southern Cross. Also, certain stars popped out more here, although I recall the Milky Way in Utah being a little bit more milky.
The next morning I had breakfast at a hole-in-the-wall place.
I ordered the eggs and steak. The eggs were good, but the steak was just plain inedible. It had such much gristle that you would have had to chew it 100 times to break it down. I ended up cutting it up (and even that was difficult) and feeding it to the two luckiest dogs in San Pedro. I was amazed at how well they shared. There was no fighting over the food--or perhaps this was a testament to how bad the steak actually was.
Later on that afternoon, I did some sand boarding, which as the name suggestions, is similar to snow boarding, except that you board on the sand. So, we were helicoptered up to the 19,000 foot peak of Licancabur Volcano, and we all carved down the mountain . . .
. . . okay, that part is not true, but that would have been totally cool. Actually, we were taken to some sand dunes about 100 meters high.
This was one of the most tiring things that I have done, because there was no ski lift. So, you have walk all the way up the sand dune, which has very fine sand--not like the sand that you would find in Irvine, but that you would find in Corona Del Mar. I quickly learned to follow in the foot steps of those trudging up the dune in front of me, as the foot prints provided a firmer base for walking.
Sand boarding is a bit different from snow boarding in that there is much more friction. So you have to wax the bottom of the board at the beginning of each run. It is difficult to carve unless you are going very fast, as any carving that you try to do just bogs your board down into the sand. You have to train your mind to go straight down, which is difficult to do, since this dune is as steep as any triple black diamond slope that you would normally need to carve down a lot. Only after a few runs was I able to straighten out my board and not worry about picking up too much speed.
This is the instructor showing us how it is done.
I was not as good as he was at the end, but I think I came close enough. I did actually learn something that I could apply to snowboarding, in that I was not keeping my shoulders aligned with my hips. Once I focused on that, I did much better, and was able to do what the instructor did--although I did not manage the jump very well, and ended like the "agony of defeat" guy on the World Wide of Sports. Google that if you don't know what it is. I came out a little better than the guy, with the neck muscles on the right side of my body a bit strained, I suspect from hitting the right side of my head on the ground. The human body truly is amazing in how it protects itself from the stupid things that the brain causes it to do.
#vagabonding #vagabondism #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #traveling #Chile #San Pedro de Atacama #Atacama Desert
However, when I got back to my hostel (La Florida) my relaxation time had hit a bit of a snag. I opened my wallet, and my debit card was gone. For a second I thought that it was stolen when I was in Bolivia, but I soon came to the realization that I most likely left it in the ATM machine in San Pedro prior to leaving for Uyuni. My debit card is the only ubiquitous way to get money and make hostel reservations in Chile. I have an AMEX card, but you can only get money from certain ATMs in major cities (San Pedro and Calama are not either of these), and as a more expensive cash advance. My hostel reservation application (Hostel World) is also tied to my debit card. No hostel reservation sites that I know of take AMEX. It seemed like the whole infrastructure that supported my travels had collapsed before my eyes. The issues resulting from a lost item, such as a debit card, are compounded so much more in a foreign country.
So, I painfully spent the next couple hours doing damage control--deactivating my debit card on-line, getting another one reissued (which I cannot obviously pick up from here anyway), researching if there were any hostel reservation sites that accepted AMEX (none did), researching alternative ways of getting cash from ATMs, etc. Eventually, I found out that most hostels will accept payment through my hostel reservation application via PayPal, so I was able to make my hostel reservation in Arica through that. I also made a hotel reservation (I figured I deserved a little pampering at this point) for Calama before my flight to Arica. And I found some ATM locations in Arica that would accept AMEX, which I will use to replenish my dwindling cash once I get there. If that does not work, there is always the tried and true Western Union method, which I will research further to see if I can send money to myself. Western Union has locations everywhere, even in the most remote regions of the world. At least I am learning something here from this huge mistake. It is good to know for the future.
So, my financial infrastructure sustained a big hit, but I managed to patch it up as much possible. And I learned something in the process other than not to lose your debit card in a foreign country. I learned something about myself at the tender age of 52 as well. Being a problem solver, and an OCD one at that, when a problem does arise, the rest of my world shuts down until full resolution of that problem.
Once the fire was out, I spent the rest of the day relaxing (i.e.., blogging and professional work). I also reserved a spot to go on an astronomical/astrology tour that evening. Being very dry and high in altitude, the Atacama Desert is actually a well-known location for astronomers. There is also an international observatory located in the Atacama Desert in which several countries have made large investments. And it did not disappoint that evening, as I was able to see the Milky Way with very little air or light pollution. I would compare it the sky that I experienced at Zion National Park in Utah, with the exception that, instead of the Northern Star, the point of reference is the Southern Cross. Also, certain stars popped out more here, although I recall the Milky Way in Utah being a little bit more milky.
 |
| It was a bit cold at night, so we all had to dawn blankets that we carried around between different stages of the tour |
The next morning I had breakfast at a hole-in-the-wall place.
I ordered the eggs and steak. The eggs were good, but the steak was just plain inedible. It had such much gristle that you would have had to chew it 100 times to break it down. I ended up cutting it up (and even that was difficult) and feeding it to the two luckiest dogs in San Pedro. I was amazed at how well they shared. There was no fighting over the food--or perhaps this was a testament to how bad the steak actually was.
Later on that afternoon, I did some sand boarding, which as the name suggestions, is similar to snow boarding, except that you board on the sand. So, we were helicoptered up to the 19,000 foot peak of Licancabur Volcano, and we all carved down the mountain . . .
 |
| Licancabur Volcano |
. . . okay, that part is not true, but that would have been totally cool. Actually, we were taken to some sand dunes about 100 meters high.
This was one of the most tiring things that I have done, because there was no ski lift. So, you have walk all the way up the sand dune, which has very fine sand--not like the sand that you would find in Irvine, but that you would find in Corona Del Mar. I quickly learned to follow in the foot steps of those trudging up the dune in front of me, as the foot prints provided a firmer base for walking.
Sand boarding is a bit different from snow boarding in that there is much more friction. So you have to wax the bottom of the board at the beginning of each run. It is difficult to carve unless you are going very fast, as any carving that you try to do just bogs your board down into the sand. You have to train your mind to go straight down, which is difficult to do, since this dune is as steep as any triple black diamond slope that you would normally need to carve down a lot. Only after a few runs was I able to straighten out my board and not worry about picking up too much speed.
This is the instructor showing us how it is done.
I was not as good as he was at the end, but I think I came close enough. I did actually learn something that I could apply to snowboarding, in that I was not keeping my shoulders aligned with my hips. Once I focused on that, I did much better, and was able to do what the instructor did--although I did not manage the jump very well, and ended like the "agony of defeat" guy on the World Wide of Sports. Google that if you don't know what it is. I came out a little better than the guy, with the neck muscles on the right side of my body a bit strained, I suspect from hitting the right side of my head on the ground. The human body truly is amazing in how it protects itself from the stupid things that the brain causes it to do.
#vagabonding #vagabondism #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #traveling #Chile #San Pedro de Atacama #Atacama Desert
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