November 20, 2002 - Learning physics... in a hands-on manner
 
Well, I made an interesting discovery, while making my way up north, to the desert of San Pedro de Atacama. I mean, I have known it in theory, and often in practice, that the sum of the parts of often much greater that the whole. So far, it has always been a positive experience. However, when it applies to the total weight of all I took with me from Canada, the sum of all those small and light things suddenly became MUCH heavier that the direct whole... to the extent that I really envy the people who carry one huge backpack on their backs, another one on their chest, a small bag in each hand, and a little bag in their teeth... lucky them...
 

Another reminder came two days ago. I finally took my bike out of the suitcase, where it was being bored, longingly waiting to stretch its wheels on some Chilean road. My first ride was not too far, about 12 km in total, to the Valley of the Moon. Needless to say, the bike made quite the attraction here. A short ride on a flat road, which very quickly turned into gravel. Then, towards the end of it, there was a little hill to climb. It wasn´t even a mountain by my Vancouver standards, yet I couldn´t finish it and had to walk - holding my bike from falling, and my heart from jumping out of my chest. Then, an a-ha moment, when I realized that it is only my second day in a desert at the elevation of about 2300 meters. Physics or not, suddenly it all made sense.
 

The last two days have been about exploring the Atacama desert, which is surprisingly alive. Plants, water, animals, like the llama and its distant relative, vicuna. Llamas produce wool, and vicunas produce hair, which is the second softest in the world, after the silk worms. That is why there were overhunted in Chile and are now considered endangered species.
 

I have seen some impressive geisers - El Tatio - at about 5000 meters elevation. The geiser has its personality, and "shows off" only for a brief hour or so early in the morning. Which means we had to get up at 04:00 AM and drive for a couple of hours on an extremely unfriendly gravel road, to witness its beauty early in the morning, with the Chilean sunrise. Then some of us dipped into nice warm pools, to finally and completely wake up.
 

As I am sitting here in an Internet Cafe, which doubles as a mountain-bike rental place, I am thinking about the sturdy Chilean computers, which work quite well in the windy desert conditions - under about 2 mm of sand and dust. The keyboard crunches under my fingers which are expertly flying over the keys, typing at the speed of light, now that I am somewhat used to Spanish keyboards.
 

Tomorrow is my big challenge day, where I am off for my first long, fully-loaded bike ride, from San Pedro de Atacama to the town of Calama, where LanChile will fly me south. The distance is about 103 km, of desert, elevation to about 3000 m, and absolutely nothing else. So, in addition to all my gear (see above), I will also be carrying a lot of water. Why am I doing it? I don´t really know. I have been giving myself some excuses, changing my mind from cycling to taking the bus, to cycling again. Almost drove myself crazy... until I decided to cycle, and that´s it. Send me lots of energy,  slightly cloudy sky, and a major tailwind.
 

Overall, I am still not fully settled and integrated into my travel and adventure, and am holding on to some fears and doubts. What if this, and what if that. And I am realizing that what it means is that I am still going according to the original plan, of expanding my comfort zone... ;-)
 
 [ back to main travel page]