Saying hasta luego to the desert
Yesterday I was feeling too tired to ride a bike around the desert by myself; I just wasn't feeling that hardcore. Instead, I booked a half day group tour out to the Valley of the Moon (different than the Valley of the Moon I saw near La Paz, Bolivia), for about ten dollars.
I realized that ever since I spent two weeks per summer visiting my grandmother at the grand canyon as a child, I have been a big fan of erosion. Thus, I really enjoyed the intense canyons and rock formations of the Valle de la Luna. There were also giant sand dunes, upon which people were sandboarding (like snowboarding, but on sand), which was cool to watch but looked absolutely horrible to do, personally. I got to be in the Valley for sunset too, which was lovely. The rocks kind of glowed, and it reminded me of the color Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in Australia glowed at sunrise, though not as red.
After sunset I came back to my hostel and hung out with some other people staying there. So far all of the Chileans I have met have been incredibly friendly and helpful. If they see I am alone, they invite me to dinner or drinks with them, which is really nice. Four different groups invited me to go out last night, but I was feeling a bit tired and ended up just going to bed by midnight. That decision was based a lot on the fact that I have a 24-hour bus ride in front of me, beginning this afternoon, and I can't sleep that well on overnight buses.
I am looking forward to the ride though; the landscape in the Atacama desert is so beautiful, I love just staring out the window. I got a window seat for this ride, and my mp3 player is fully charged. I am almost done with one of my books, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's autobiography Living to Tell the Tale, but I love it so much I don't think I'll trade it for another at a book exchange. It's been really interesting to read about his early development as a writer, kind of inspiring to me.
So I am prepared for my long bus ride; more than anything I think I am just ready to be back in a big city. I have really enjoyed the desert and the small towns, but I am kind of an urban person, and am craving cities again. There are a lot of other interesting, cheap daytrips from here in San Pedro that I could stay here and take, but they're all to geysers, desert lagoons, and salt flats, which I saw plenty of in Bolivia. Plus I am really almost out of money, so I am starting to think about heading back to Buenos Aires to catch a flight to New York, and Santiago is right in that direction.