The North Tour 3

The third day of our tour we got on the bus at 8.00 just after the breakfast. It was a very lazy day cause we spent it all in the bus. In the morning I slept little bit and then I spoke a lot to the others. We were very happy to have so much time to speak again. We were passing through the desert without any cities or villages. The only thing around us was sand and a lot of dry rocks and dunes. The highway was the only feature of life in the country.
After two o’clock pm we were passing a very rare statue – La mano del desierto made by a Chilean artist whose name I have forgotten. Anyway he has one more statue like this in Uruguay in Punto del Este and now there is an exhibition in the Universidad Católica in Santiago if you would like to know more… According to what our guide said is a reminiscence of people who came to Atacama during the so called “Fiebra de Salitrena” to make a fortune in the niter industry but ended with hard jobs in “oficinas de salitre” working under hard conditions of desert and developed capitalism (for example the workers in the oficinas didn’t get their salary in real money, but in fiches that didn’t have any value and just could be used in the oficina to buy expensive food). When the Germans engineers in the thirties developed the niter artificial, many of these oficinas closed down (the last one in the sixties) and many people moved back to Santiago creating “Poblaciones callampas” (Mushroom neighborhoods) which are also known by theirs Portugal name falavelas.
We took some pics with the hand, got tanned little bit by the shiny sun of Atacama Desert and again got on the bus. After one hour ride we stopped in the first village we were going through since the morning. A gas station, cobber mine, restaurant and a few houses. The restaurant was little bit dirty, but like I always imagine places like this one… And what more, there war a cold coke… What more could we wish? After the lunch we were watching the road a moment (there are not many more things to do in a desert…) and realized, that only lorries and buses pass by. Seems that nobody travels through the desert on his own. Maybe a good idea for a great adventure…. Maybe to realize Motorcycle Diaries one day…
In the afternoon we did presentation of our countries – singing a song. I very like the New Zealand on – Kiwi kid… a nice kind of nationalism, I really liked it. I, like the only Czech in the groups sang with the help of Lachlan “Jede, jede mašinka” and was happy to get it over. Than we played some games in the groups like “collect eight pairs of jeans and tie them”. Fortunately there were enough of Europeans to do these crazy games, because the Americans (from all the parts) are little bit… let’s say conservative… I would have never supposed before that the mentality most similar to the Czech one is among the 13 nations aboard is the French one (I miss you Fachi!!!!). More about the cultural diversity maybe later....
By the evening (with temperature falling down quickly) we came to another village (formed around a police station) and found there a big tipper (but a REALLY BIG ONE). They are used a lot in the cobber mines in Atacama Desert (cobber is the export article number one). We took some pics in the middle of the huge wheel and continued to San Pedro de Atacama. During the ride we were watching a movie called “El Ilusionista” about an illusionist on the Austrian-Hungary court in the end od 19th century. It was partly taken in Vienna, Prague and also Konopiště so I was little bit moved by seeing Kozí ulice (including the house of La Casa blů…). In the night we came to San Pedro de Atacama, had some dinner, visited a pub in the town and than were talking till the late night with Elisa (FIN), Lachlan (NZ) and Malte (GER).