We had an extra two days to spend in SPDA seeing as the bus we wanted was fully booked. The first was mostly spent with Alex and Jeanette before saying our goodbyes that evening. We had a lovely meal on the main plaza in the town and sat for a few hours chatting. It was nice for a change to have no excursions lined up and the chance to sit back and enjoy SPDA for the lovely little town that it is. The main plaza is a lovely tree filled square with a beautiful white washed adobe church with a mud roof and a bright blue door.
The streets of the town for the most part are not paved and leave a cloud of dust when cars drive over them. The buildings are all small, adobe structures containing over-priced restaurants, souvenir shops and travel agencies. SPDA is the kind of place you hope to experience in Chile, finally out of the big cities we felt we had found something a little more authentic, pity there's 100's of tourists everywhere, ha! But in spite of that it is very much worth the visit. Its a interesting little town surrounded by incredible landscapes. At times it reminded us of places in Mongolia we'd been and Olkhon Island in Russia, a very basic standard of living, unpaved roads and makeshift homes.
On our last day in town we wandered into the museum off the main square. There are claims that in parts of the Atacama basin it has not rained for 100's of years hence its claim as the driest place on earth. I don't find that hard to believe. Jeanette who is Namibian would possibly argue that matter. According to her and Alex there are places in Namibia with a lot less running water throughout the town. Irrigation channels here line the gutters with plentiful water supplies running through them. In terms of precipitation levels however we reckon its drier.
Over 12000 years ago there was twice as much rain in the region, and so more river flow from the surrounding mountains filling large lakes. Between 8000 and 6000 years ago there was an intense drought that dried the lakes to produce the salt flats we see today. Further climate change around 3000 years ago brought about the current climate experienced in SPDA. The town sits in the Atacama basin surrounded by the Andes with elevation ranging from 2300m to 6000m and so even when it's dry at lower altitude snow melt higher up is a continuous source of water for the settlements at lower levels. The mountain ranges here are called Cordillera de la Sal and Cordillera de Domeyko.
The first evidence of human settlement in the Atacameno territory dates back from 9000 to 6000BC. Both the states of Tiwanaku and Inka made pre-Hispanic contact with the Atacamenos influencing the culture of the region. The state of Tiwanaku (500-100AD) predates the Inka period (1450-1810AC) and had its' centre near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. It is considered one of the first states of South America. They imposed a hierarchical state leadership over the chiefs of the ethnic groups in parts of Bolivia, southern Peru, N.W. Argentina and N. Chile. They introduced gold and bronze to these regions.
After their collapse the Inka state dominated from Equador to central Chile. Their conquests ranged from violent to peaceful depending on the resistance met by local tribes. They imposed their religious ideals which emphasised a solar cult and veneration of the Inka emperor, as well as imposing cultural and social customs. They introduced economics and politics and new technologies such as mining. The centre of their empire was located in Cuzco in Peru.
It was 90 years after the arrival of the Inka that the Spanish invaded Atacameno territory. With them they bought Christianization further cultural mixing and introduction of new animals like cows, sheep, goat and horses.
The history of Atacama is just as interesting as the geography. We felt like we only had the tip of iceberg though. Not being able to speak the language fluently can be frustrating when trying to learn about a country, you always feel like you're missing out on more when you don't fully understand what's going on around you. Since we have arrived in Chile the run up to local elections and presidential elections has been very apparent everywhere we have been. Economically Chile is the most stable of the Latin American countries at the moment. The risk of violent crime is very low. It is a very family orientated society. Chileans are renowned for the sense of hospitality and sociable nature. Machismo is not as prevalent here as other Latin American countries, women are very much respected. The president at the moment is the first ever female Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet.
The Chileans too are traditionally late and whilst the buses we´ve been on over the past few weeks have been for the most part punctual we had our first experience of the renowned South American tardiness the morning we were due to leave on our scheduled 9.40am bus. We sat on the side of the road with all the other gringos waiting to get out of town. There was no bus stop so we sat in the sun slowly cooking and getting more and more impatient. Buses came and went but none to Salta.
As if organising the passage out of SPDA into Argentina wasn´t hard enough we now had the added insult of waiting some more! At 11.30 a bus pulled up with Salta posted in its' windscreen. It wasn´t the company we booked with but at that point no one seemed to care. Backpacks were piled in the boot before the bus driver had a chance to protest and we all gathered around eager to get the hell out of there. After much confusion with border papers we finally left just after midday. James and I by some luck had the correct papers and so crossing the border was painless and we were back aboard and ascending the Andes once more.
The road snakes west in a gradual rise from SPDA towards the Andes, and before we knew it we were twisting and turning through great valleys and up and down steep roadways towards Salta. On the Argentinian side the colours of the rock formations were spectacular greens and shades of red.
The journey was probably the most scenic we have done to date. We pulled into Salta just after dark and fell gratefully into Las Rejas Hostel.
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