Petroglyphs and Valle del Arcoiris

immortalgeisha.com

Ok, before I start on this story, you need to get a good visual in your head. First of all, nights get cold in San Pedro.  Really cold.  Also, climate control is not a common feature in Chile (especially not in budget hostels).  So we were really bundled up at night.  For me, that included long underwear, an undershirt, my flannel pajamas, my winter coat, and my hat and gloves.  It was about the same for Scott, except he had an additional item:  an authentic monogrammed Japanese kimono that he had gotten during his stay in that country.  While I don't have a picture of the real thing, you can check out this photo I got from an online catalog.  Scott's is pretty similar (just imagine a large "R" on the left breast."

My story starts in the wee hours of the morning.  Remember how we wanted to go to bed early to get rested up for our tour the next day?  Well, our room happened to be right next to the courtyard of the hostel.  Up until now, it hadn't really been much of a problem (there were a couple times we had to go out to ask people to quiet down, but that pretty much settled things).  This night, however, a new group of kids from Santiago had just arrived.  They started drinking on the patio around 10 and were being a bit loud, but we didn't do anything because that isn't really too late for this culture.  By midnight, though, they still hadn't quieted down, and in fact only seemed to be getting louder.  We waited another half an hour or so, hoping they'd tire themselves out soon.  That didn't happen, so I went out to ask them to please be quiet.  It was a small group--three girls and two guys.  I asked (in Spanish) as politely as I could, although I can't say that I was at my best--I was cold and tired and also had a sore throat (probably from inhaling so much sand!).  The girls gave me a weird look, but one of the guys agreed to quiet down.  I thanked them and went back to the room.  They were quiet for about three minutes, after which they started talking and laughing even more loudly than before.

This time, Scott offered to go out.  Even though he doesn't know much Spanish, we hoped that maybe they could intimidate them more than I could.  Turned out, they spoke English!  He asked them why they hadn't quieted down when I asked, and one of the girls said that I was mean and demanded that they be quiet instead of nicely asking.  She said that she felt that I had no respect for other people.  Of course, you all know how mean and disrespectful I am.  Oh, well; at least the girls seemed more receptive to Scott's request.  In fact, all of them somehow managed to get into some philosophical discussions about the state of the world.  Scott found this a bit odd, given the time, but soon realized why.  While they had begun drinking around 10, they had only recently gotten high.  Their compromised state, along with the interesting night-ware Scott had, led them to believe that he was a monk.

Of course, who better to discuss philosophy with than a monk!  Apparently, the girls though he was a pretty attractive monk, as well.  They couldn't get enough of his outfit, and even made him turn around so they could see all of it.  They must have been quite impressed, because they then invited him to come and smoke and stargaze with them.  He politely declined, explaining our plans for the tour the next day.  Disappointed but with a great respect for their wise new friend, they told Scott not worry about the noise, as they were off to a party soon anyways.  Sure enough, they were on their way within 15 minutes.  Plus, Scott had some new friends--the one girl was very excited to greet him the next time she saw him (although understandably disappointed about his lack of kimono).

Thanks to my valiant monk, we managed to eventually fall asleep and get enough rest for our next day's adventures.  It was the only tour we did the whole trip (we hadn't realized that attractions were so far away from the town, and hadn't budgeted enough to go on all the "hot" tours).  We decided to opt for the Valle de Arcoiris tour.  This one was actually probably one of the least popular (the most popular are the Geysers of Tatio, Laguna de Cejar, and sandboarding), but we found it the most intriguing.  When we had gone the day before to the tour agency to sign up, they had asked if we wanted it to be in English or Spanish, and we chose English.  Interestingly, when the van arrived to pick us up at the hostel, their "English" sure sounded a lot like Spanish.  Turns out when they asked about our language preference, they were asking how we wanted the packages explained to us at the agency.  They had never inquired about our preference for the actual tour.  More practice for my translation skills, I guess!

The tour group was small; in fact, there was only one other couple signed up.  Then there was the driver, the tour guide, and two of their friends.  The guide also happened to be the son of the owner of the tour agency.  He did speak some English, but it ended up just being easier for me to explain to Scott afterwards.  The other couple pretty much kept to themselves, but the guide and his friends were really nice!  One of the guys was there visiting for the weekend from his job as a engineer for a mining company up north.  He was so excited about all the geology and geography of the area!  He actually studied English at Duoc!  Unfortunately, he hadn't gotten much practice since, so he could only do basic words and phrases.  I was kind of disappointed, because he really wanted to discuss geography, and I don't really know that much about it.  He would have loved to talk to Scott about it!  I tried a bit to interpret for them, but things were too technical for me to follow very well.  He was still really interesting to talk to.  It's so fun to meet people who are passionate about what they do, and about life in general!

On the way to see the petroglyphs, we had to take a short pit stop because of a group of llamas in the road.  We took it as a photo opp, although Scott wasn't too excited about getting too close to the llamas.  Said something about them being like giant sheep.  Once the path cleared up, we were back on our way to Yerbas Buenas, where the largest collection of petroglyphs in the area can be found.  But first, it was time for breakfast!  We stopped at the entrance to the park, and unpacked at the picnic tables nearby.  The breakfast was included in the tour, and was actually much better than we expected!  It included fresh bread and sliced meat and cheese for sandwiches.  We also got some fresh fruit and juice, and of course, coffee and tea.  We took the opportunity to talk to and get to know about our travel companions.  There were even some entertaining attempts at English from them (and Spanish from us)!

After breakfast and a quick bathroom break, we started off on the path to see the petroglyphs.  They range in age from the beginning of inhabitation of the valley to almost present day.  Unfortunately, I don't remember much of the information given during the tour, and I can't seem to find any information about the area on the internet.  I do know that the area was believed to be a meeting-place for shamans from all over South America, even as far away as Brazil!  This is because of the presence of some strange petroglyphs, such as a palm tree (not usually seen in the desert), and even of a monkey--the closest of which would be found in Brazil.  There are two theories as to how such unusual petroglyphs came to be found in the middle of the most arid desert in the world.

The first theory, like I said before, is that the area was a meeting place for all the shamans in South America.  Some tribal traditions state that every two or three years, the shamans had to make a pilgrimmage to a sacred place to share their visions and ritual techniques with each other.  Of course, regular citizens never knew exactly where this sacred place was, and the shamans weren't about to disclose, so San Pedro is as good a guess as any.  Perhaps some shamans gave from Brazil and shared stories of the fantastic huge palm trees and strange monkeys that inhabited their lands, demonstrating them by drawing on the rock walls.

Another theory is that only local shamans used the area, but were able to "travel" to Brazil with their minds.  It is common practice among the shamans here to ingest hallucinagenic plants and go into a trance-like state during which it is believed that can see anything they wish.  Actually, according to our guide, this theory was recently put to the test when a scientist attempted to disprove a local shaman's claims that he could travel in his mind to places that he had never been to in real life.  The scientist sat in his bedroom in Europe and spoke to the shaman via telephone in South America.  The scientist had a photo album with him, but upon request by the shaman, he chose one to place on the pillow of the bed.  Of the dozens of photos in the album (none of which the shaman had ever seen either), he correctly guessed that the photo on the bed was of the scientist's cousin.  That was enough proof for the scientist, who no longer questioned the claim that native shamans in Chile could have "traveled" in their minds to Brazil, bringing back images of the exotic species there to etch on their own walls.  I guess it's up to you to decide which, if either, of the stories you believe.  Either way, the monkey is pretty cute!

After checking out a few more petroglyphs, we piled back into the van and headed towards the main attraction: Valle del Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley).  It's name comes from the magnificent variety of colors that can be seen in the rocks covering the hills in the area.  The unique blend comes from the fact that the valley is actually the inside of a volcano.  Many thousands of years ago (millions, even), the valley was actually a large, active volcano.  The earth being as young as it was, it was still quite prone to violent tantrums and one day decided that a large-scale earthquake was in order.  The earthquake was so destructive, in fact, that it knocked the volcano completely on its side, splitting it wide open and spilling its contents across the valley.  There are some rocks that look like "traditional" volcanic rock, but most of them are completely unique due to the strange nature of their release.  So, not only did I get to experience a wonderful, picturesque valley, I can now also say that I have been inside of a volcano.  How often can you do that?

Also in the valley are some of the tallest cacti in the desert.  Apparently, the tallest one measured was 40 feet tall!  We didn't manage to find that one, but we were pretty impressed with the ones we did find.  Most of the tallest ones were out of climbing distance, so we had to settle with taking a photo next to one of the "baby" ones.  He was only about 15 feet tall.  There were also all sorts of interesting, strange plants and flowers.  While the other group members were taking photos of themselves jumping around, I was attempting to get the perfect photo of this small, spiky cactus-flower.  It was very strange and very intriguing.  The photo doesn't show very well just how small it was, either--about the size of my thumb nail!  Too bad books are so expensive here--I could have taken one and pressed it as a souvenir!  Next time!

Once everyone had their fill of rainbow rocks and crazy photos, we got back into the van for our ride back into town.  Everyone was very excited to talk about what they had seen, and at first we listened to some good Chilean music and chatted.  However, the road got long and the seats got comfortable, and pretty soon everyone (except the driver, I hope) was fast asleep.  The ride back took about an hour and a half--the perfect amount of time for a nice, refreshing nap!  When we arrived back in town, we said our goodbyes and everyone was dropped off at their respective places of lodging.  We had been a bit wary of taking any tour at all, but this one turned out to be a great experience!  And we even made a couple friends along the way.