The trip to the national park started around noon and took me up into the surrounding mountains. The highest peak was a volcano that was at about 5500m. At first the peak was obscured by the clouds but as we made our was toward it the top revealed its self.
As we drove up the mountain pass the temperature gradually dropped until it was -5 Celsius and brought us to an altitude of about 14500 feet, give or take. The surrounding desert slowly became more and more covered in snow as we ascended the pass.
After we stopped for a restroom break, we decided to turn around which was too bad because I was excited about the park. But it would have been really cold and maybe too difficult to cross the pass later in the day. On the other side of those mountains above is Bolivia and 7 km on the other side of the border was a salta,what they call a salt lake here. It was supposed to be really nice but due to the fact that nobody had brought their necessary border crossing documents, my trip to Bolivia was limited to about 5 minutes, 30 feet inside the border. I got a picture of the immigration station and their sweet bus.
After we came back to the town and grabbed some lunch, which was the first time I ordered my meal in Spanish (it was awesome) and the first time that they forgot my order, we headed out to the Valle de la Luna. It is just outside of San Pedro and as the name suggests it looks like the Moon. We stopped at one of the more popular formations that you could climb up and took some pictures. Climbing up the side of the hill was very challenging due to the elevation and the fact that it was up a hill made mostly of sand.
There was another formations that we stopped by called the Three Marias. It was three columns that were standing alone in a field of small rocks. It too is a popular place to stop and take pictures.
After we got back to the hotel we went to town to eat dinner at Cafe Adobe. There I had a dish called Lomo al Pilpil. It was cubes of beef and potato that were cooked in a sauce called pilpil and served in a clay bowl. You can get it with different meats or mushrooms but that night beef sounded good. The sauce was just the slightest bit spicy and had the best beefy flavor. It was one of the best things that I have eaten so far. It was followed by a mango dessert with strawberry sauce on top. During the meal a band came out and played traditional Northern Chilean music which was heavy on the flute and guitar. One of the guys played this little 12 stringed instrument that was like a bigger version of a ukulele. It was really nice and Alexis' Dad bought one of their CDs.
That takes us to the end of day 7. Stay tuned for the adventure to the salta in the Chilean mountains.
Great blog! Keep the dialog and photos coming! Most excellent! Boy, this internet-thing just might catch on...
ReplyDelete