Valley de la Luna

Traveling is a job. Sure, it´s fun, but it´s also complicated, requiring constant evaluation of trade-offs, risks, and likely outcomes. And though most of the time I feel like I make good decisions, every once in a while I find myself wondering what the hell I was thinking.

For example, the other night Mark and I found ourselves in the Atacama desert, in the dark with only my headlamp, batteries fading, on mountain bikes, 15km outside of San Pedro de Atacama. How did this happen?

True to our DIY-selves, we rented bikes and decided to visit Valley de la Luna ourselves, instead of taking one of the package tours. The idea is to get there just before sunset when the landscape supposedly resembles that of the moon. And though I knew that getting there at sunset meant potentially pedaling back in the dark, the guidebook said it was possible as did the guys at the bikeshop...

On top of the normal practicalities, there was some confusion over the time of sunset. We asked what time ´sunset´ would be. Apparently to some people this means what time it becomes pitch black. We should have asked, what´s the best time to see the Valley de la Luna? So we showed up late. Apparently we missed the optimal moment. A spanish woman walking back from the overlook told us so, angrily. What´s it to her? Still, we got some good pictures...

When we finished it was getting dark. Really dark. Luckily, we had brought our headlamps. Or at least so we thought! Mark had done a last minute bag switch and accidently left his at home. And it turned out mine was running out of battery!

Luckily, for real this time, we had pedaled against the wind the entire way there, and it pushed us back like sailboats. Yeah, we rode the brakes and had to worry about rocks and potholes in the dirt road - it was so dark, we could barely make out the edges of the road. On the flipside, it was so dark, we were treated to the most beautiful night sky I´ve ever seen. I´m talking full-blown Milky Way, so bright you felt like you could touch it. Unfortunately the camera couldn´t do it any justice later that night.

So that was our small adventure, the culmination of a less than stellar decision and some bad luck. But it actually turned into a memorable ride home and yet another accomplishment on this crazy trip of mine.