August 5 and 6: On the Road

It takes 20 hours to get from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama. Which sounds horrible, but actually was quite pleasant. Because of the way we timed the journey, we were on the bus during much of the night. Semi cama seats were a must, but were incredibly comfortable because they went back really far, were roomy and plush. Far better than the dozens of rides I've taken on the good ole Fungwah buses in the last 2 years.

I know I seem to rant about this in every post, but being outside of Santiago is absolutely fascinating for anyone like me with an interest in rural- urban relationships. About an hour from luxury highrises, high speed metro rises and hip nightlife are people tending fields by hand, plowing with horses and living in incredibly modest homes at best. I've really been wondering lately if the reason labor is done the way it's done in the countryside because of the high levels of labor available relative to land available. All this despite the depopulation that has occurred with massive levels of internal migration to the cities where now 80 percent of the population lives. Regardless of what economics would say about Chilean farm labor, there are most definitely two different visions of Chile. This is not to say that countries are unities by any means but in Chile, urban and rural differences never cease to surprise me with their salience.

Another thing that never ceases to fascinate me about Chile is its variation. Not only does Chile vary tremendously from North to South, but even in one area, vegetation and terrain seem almost comically diverse. Palm trees, cacti, flowers, evergreens and decidious trees cohabitate rocky hill sides, rolling hills and beach side regions.

A few hours in, we came up to beautiful views of the ocean. It was more of a brilliant blue than I`ve ever seen, almost uncapturable with photography. Surrounded by rolling dunes, ocean views and colorful houses, the overall effect was incredibly serene and calming.

Other fun/interesting aspects on the ride included:
+ A presumably bootlegged version of "The Prince of Persia" with Russian subtitles
+ A gigantic windfarm down to the ocean!
+ Mists that came down and covered the hillsides
+ Rocky hillsides with cacti featuring a lot of grafitti about the urgency of preparing for Jesus' second coming.
+ Cacti fences to mark property lines and keep in livestock. Genius.
+ The suddenness of Coquimbo, La Serena, Vallenar and Antofagasta= it seemed as if they arose from absolutely nothing.

And finally, in the morning, we arrived in the desert immediately after we left Antofagasta. It was as sudden and unexpected as the city itself was. There was almost nothing, few cars and even less vegetation. Once we grew nearer to San Pedro however, the Andes came into view, strange and distorted when surrounded by sand and rock.