CHILE

- San Pedro

November, 2000

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The town of San Pedro


San Pedro is a little town situated in the desert. The green part is San Pedro. I'm not sure if the house in the foreground is still in the making, or if it's abandoned due to lack of funds.


One of the streets in the outskirts of San Pedro, maybe about a five minute walk from the center. I think these stone/mud walls are there more to protect the road from the overgrown shrubbery in the ajoining properties. This whole area is full of dead and, less commonly, live volcanoes.

Valle de la Luna


Sand dunes just outside San Pedro at the Valle de la Luna, or Moon Valley.


The sunsets are supposed to be quite nice out here.





Also, this night was going to be a full moon, so a group of us sat around after sunset and waited for it to rise.


...and although it was just the moon rising, it was quite nice as it came up from behind a distant volcano.


This is an enhanced version of the above photo. It was not nearly as bright as this, but the photo looks good, don't you think?

Dune boarding


Riding mountain bikes, with the dune board strapped across our backs, the normally 20 minute journey took us about an hour, as the boards acted like sails in a headwind strong headwind (heading out of town in the opposite direction didn't help either). We arrived hot, sweaty and half exhausted, but we were keen to get up the dune and do a bit of boardin'.


I swear it doesn't look nearly as steep here as it really was. And although it didn't look very high, it took a good 10 minutes of 'one step up, half back' clilmbing up the 30 odd degree slope. The dune was such that every part of the sandy slope was only just holding its own weight, therefore sliding at every step.


There's no such thing as turning on this stuff (well, at least for me). So it was simply wax the board up good (the more, the faster), stand up, point the thing downhill and goooooo. And boy, I didn't realise how much sand can hurt when you hit it at a good speed. Having a 2cm thick wooden board bashing into your knee while tumbling down the slope wasn't too nice either.


This is Austin giving it a go. I must admit, when she crashes, she does it well. At one point I couldn't see her for all the sand she kicked up as she went tumbling head-over-heels down the slope. This particular time she ended up lying face down in the sand, moaning, while I stood at the top applauding and cheering her spectacular crash. Damn I wish I had my camera ready!

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