In my opinion, one of the most incredible things a person can do is see firsthand the things one only sees on postcards, television or magazines. Things that seem impossible to see in real life.
I remember watching “Lawrence of Arabia” as a child and thinking, ‘why the heck would he be so seemingly enthralled with a ?desert?’
It’s a desert: a dry, hot place waiting to catch you off guard and suck the life out of you.
I’ve seen pictures of deserts, still and lifeless, cupping the light of the moon or rippling under the heat of the sun.
This past weekend, I decided to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I made my way north to Calama for a four-day visit to the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert.
As my group and I waited excitedly at the airport Thursday night for our 5:40 a.m. flight, we all had grand ideas about what it would be like. None of us were expecting what we saw upon landing in Calama.
“Did we just land on Tatooine?” my friend Phil asked, as we stared out at the endless, sandy terrain. For those of you who are not Star Wars aficionados, Tatooine was a desert planet and home to the famous Anakin Skywalker.
We stood there, quite disoriented, before making our way to the bus terminals for the final leg of our journey: a nearly two-hour ride to San Pedro de Atacama.
I settled down comfortably in the first-row seat on top of the double-decker bus, a perfect vantage point to watch the rest of my first sunrise in Atacama before I fell asleep. Before I knew it, I woke up to the sounds of people exiting the bus. We had finally arrived.
“From sunrise to sunset” took on a whole new meaning for me, as we awoke each morning to the sound of a rooster crowing and ended each day watching the sun lower behind the vast desert mountains.
A new adventure awaited us each day as we tried to pack everything we could into the four days we were in the Atacama Desert.
The first day, we visited the Laguna Cejar, giant salt lakes surrounded by white, salty beaches.
Walking toward the giant pools of water, sweating profusely under the strong sun, I couldn’t imagine the Laguna being anything but hot and stagnant. To my great surprise, it was cold as ice.
It took a lot of willpower to get into the pool, and as I made my way in, slowly moving my feet along the soft white floor, I arrived at a sudden drop-off. I stood there for a moment, gathering my wits, before plunging forward into the abyss.
I felt the water under me buoying me up, allowing me to float effortlessly across the surface. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The salt lakes contain five times more salt than the oceans, making it impossible for a person to sink.
Following such an amazing first experience, it was hard to imagine anything else being up to par. The desert proved me wrong as we toured salt caves, explored nature’s architecture, watched powerful geysers shoot steam into the freezing morning air, sandboarded down steep dunes and made countless new friends in the hostel we were staying at.
It was hard to say goodbye to the desert Monday night and the tranquility it offered in the crisp morning air and the brilliant displays of color at sunset in the rolling, sandy dunes. It was hard to leave the countless adventures ?behind.
As I sat on the plane home, watching the twinkling lights of Calama fade into the darkness, I decided I would come back in a heartbeat. I’ve fallen in love with the desert experience.
Before nodding off to sleep on the plane, I smiled, as I now understood and agreed with Major Lawrence’s brief summation of what drew him to the desert:
“It’s clean.”
