San Pedro de Atacama Tours (First Day)
The first day of touring consisted of a morning tour (Rainbow Valley) and an afternoon tour (Cedar Lagoon). It was a great way to ease into my regimen in San Pedro, as I was able to sleep in until 8am, which back in California would be waking up very early for me. My average wakeup time has been about 6am for my tours, with 430am being the earliest.
On the way back to San Pedro from the tour, we came across a herd of llamas, which turned into a llama jam I guess. The big brown one in the back had some attitude, and was just taking his sweet time. I'm guessing he was the alpha male, as each herd of llamas has one, and they usually lead from the rear.
They were cool to see after the first hundred or so yards, but after a mile, I was a bit anxious for them to just get out of the way. The shepherds didn't really seem to care that their llamas were holding up progress.
The afternoon tour was full of salt water lagoons. I got to swim in Cedar Lagoon, and with its 23 percent salinity (compared to 3-4 percent in ocean water), was a pretty cool experience, as you naturally float on your back or even front without having to swim. In fact, I had a difficult time just staying vertical, and would just pop up like a cork onto my back or front if I just stayed still.
Later I went to some smaller lagoons that we could swim in, but I opted not to as I had already showered all of the salt off from the first lagoon and changed into my clothes. I was fine just spectating. All of these lagoons are actually not formed by rainfall in the desert itself, as there is very little there. They are actually a part of the underground water system that originates from the surrounding mountains, and each is formed when the ground above an underground river collapses upon itself.
I then went to Tebinquiche Lagoon, which looked more like an iced over lake with a layer of snow, then it did a very hot, dry, and salty lagoon.
I then went to another salt lagoon for a picnic and to see the sunset.
#vagabonding #vagabondism #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #traveling #Chile #San Pedro de Atacama #Atacama Desert
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| Rainbow Valley |
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| Rainbow Valley |
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| Rainbow Valley |
They were cool to see after the first hundred or so yards, but after a mile, I was a bit anxious for them to just get out of the way. The shepherds didn't really seem to care that their llamas were holding up progress.
The afternoon tour was full of salt water lagoons. I got to swim in Cedar Lagoon, and with its 23 percent salinity (compared to 3-4 percent in ocean water), was a pretty cool experience, as you naturally float on your back or even front without having to swim. In fact, I had a difficult time just staying vertical, and would just pop up like a cork onto my back or front if I just stayed still.
Later I went to some smaller lagoons that we could swim in, but I opted not to as I had already showered all of the salt off from the first lagoon and changed into my clothes. I was fine just spectating. All of these lagoons are actually not formed by rainfall in the desert itself, as there is very little there. They are actually a part of the underground water system that originates from the surrounding mountains, and each is formed when the ground above an underground river collapses upon itself.
#vagabonding #vagabondism #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #traveling #Chile #San Pedro de Atacama #Atacama Desert
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