Spanglish Accent: The Atacama Desert. Part one.

April 11th (as I write)

My kids are sleeping. And by kids I mean the little ones and the big one. They have been worn out in less than 36 hours (something I am proud of) and they really did need the rest. They get cranky when they are tired (especially the big one) so while they slept, I thought I would come down here to the computers at the hotel and start posting about our experiences in the far north. I just don´t want to forget anything and I know that by the time I get around to sitting down on Monday, some great experiences will be lost in the shuffle of even greater experiences. And they all deserve their moment.

We left for the airport on Tuesday at the ungodly hour of 6 am (does this sound familiar? Do they not schedule flights to vacation destinations any later than 8 am?). Girls still in pajamas, we headed out for our adventure to the north. Our flight was short this time at about 2 hours and the drive from Calama (where we landed) to San Pedro (where we were staying) was a little over an hour. And both girls slept (or rested) for the entire drive.

There really wasn't that much to see. The only paved road in the area (or at least it felt like that) ran directly through the part of the desert that had no greenery, no sand dunes, nada. But I still tried to amuse myself and stay awake (I was up at 4 am after all) by taking pictures through the window of a moving car. It is not an easy feat but I managed to get one or two that were representative of where we were and what it was like.

There may not have been a lot of scenery, but there was a lot of blue sky and marshmallow clouds!

One of the perks of getting up for an early flight is that you are at your destination fairly early. We were safely ensconsed in our room by noon. And what a room it was...

An extra bed for the MadHatter in the right corner and a crib for the Stinkerbell. She doesn't need a crib, but if we had insisted on a bed we would have had to pay the kids price for her. Which isn't mandatory until four...so, a crib it was.

MadHatter's personal bench (or so she thought)

I don't normally take pictures of bathrooms, but this I couldn't resist. Not only did they give us 4 bottles of each but to top it off, it was all from L'Occitane. Any hotel that uses L'Occitane as their supplier is alright in my book!

And they gave us each a free water bottle to take home with us. It might have something to do with the fact that you can't drink the water from the tap due to the high mineral content, but it was still a nice gesture!

And then I went outside and found this...I loved this outdoor shower on our balcony...

But I really loved the balcony!!!

This place was a visual feast. Someone put great thought into the layout and decor in the hotel. The grounds. The spa. Everywhere I looked there was something new to discover and I was loving every minute of it. I wanted to explore. To take pictures. To soak it all in. But the girls were hungry, as it was approaching one and they had been up since six. And just as we walked into the common room, looking for the lunch space, our waiter found us. He led us outside for lunch. And presented us with this view...

You can't really see it but past the small pools and the fire pits that you can sit around at night and have a drink, are the Andes mountains and the volcano Lincancábur..

He proceeded to bring a 3 course lunch, unending wine and deserts to die for. I was stuffed and already looking forward to dinner. But the girls had pools and hot tubs to jump in and then really, really needed naps. So that is what we did.

We're going to the spa, we're going to the spa...

We relaxed in the beds. They had jets!!!

And Mama relaxed here in the sunshine...

We splashed in the shallow end...

And we swam with Papa. Underwater!

And finally we hung up our suits and took a much needed nap.

With everyone refreshed (except for me. I don´t nap. Never have been able to, probably never will) we checked the board and found that we had signed up to go for a tour of the Salar de Atacama (The Atacama Salt Flats). The girls were excited to see salt coming out of the ground but mostly I think they wanted to see the flamingos. Up close and personal.

Our ride was about an hour but we stopped for a minute at the gorge dug by thousands of years of erosion...

Then took a moment to visit Tocanao, a village that has been in existence since about 500 B.C. Extraordinary! And who knew they had swing sets and slides in 500 B.C.?

We also took some time to dance. As always.

After a quick tour of town, we continued on for about 20 minutes to the Salar de Atacama (the Atacama Salt Flats). We went to the Soncor sector, which is protected by the National Reserve Los Flamencos. The Flamingo population here surpasses 100,000 but we seemed to have scared them all away with our arrival, as they were migrating to the west as we walked up. We did catch a few male flamingos and MadHatter was so excited that she spotted them first!

A small walk to the flats, and a small misstep by B

OOPS!

and we were watching the flamingos and the sun set at the same time. Beauty beyond words. Well, except for B´s misstep...he thought the ground was solid. It was not. In fact, it was pretty liquid. Which was then all over his shoes and smelled like a sewer on a 90 degree day. We will laugh about that in about 6 months...

The Salar is the second largest in the world. It is a 62 mile long lake that has no outlet, and is almost completely covered by saline minerals and dust. The combination turns into a crust that is putty colored (and if you step wrong - you end up in the lake - see above) The salt crystals that cover the entire area are formed by the evaporation of saline water with no place to go. The lake is also home to over 40% of the worlds lithium reserves.

It was a long day (and a long post). The girls loved it and our first day in Atacama could be called a huge success.

I will close with pictures of the Salt Flats at sunset...

The road in. And yes, that is all rock, salt and minerals...There is virtually nothing that can grow in these parts. Except salt crystals - which can reach up to 70 cm high!