We are back from another successful stint in the desert, even with the few complications that seem to be necessary for every leg of this trip. A few miles outside of town (thankfully) we blew a tire... and I mean blew... look at the pictures... it tore off of the rim and rolled away from us. Luckily we were somewhere where it was relatively easy to stop. We got the tools out from behind the seat, jacked the truck up, and started to remove the bolts. Whoever tightened them must compete in strong man competitions... you know the ones where they throw trees to show how manly they are? Anyway, we couldn't get them all off. We almost broke the handle of the shovel trying to use it to extend out for leverage, but one more push and the handle would have broken. I dug out the cell phone and called Hertz in Iquique, telling them in terrible Spanish and some English what our predicament was. When they asked where we were, we found ourselves facing another problem... we had no idea. "On the road that heads north out of Alto Hospicio... into the middle of nowhere... there is some trash by us" was not nearly specific enough for the person trying to bring us a tire. Eventually I flagged down a car and asked them what road we were on. They were kind enough to write it down. It was no wonder we couldn't explain where we were; the concise road label the people in the car gave us was something equivalent to "The road that heads north of X, next to Y, up to Z." Thankfully, the people at Hertz seemed to know where that was and said someone would bring a tire in the next twenty minutes. Eventually we figured out that we could get the bolts off by standing on the wrench and jumping up and down (I don't imagine this is the intended procedure) and switched the demolished tire out with the spare. It has now been almost an hour since the twenty minutes when the tire was supposed to arrive, so we made another call to the people at Hertz. They assured us that the man with the tire was ten minutes away... as they did every time we called for the next two-and-a-half hours. I would have preferred that they said "It will take three hours;" at least then I would have known what to expect. I really only started to worry when it reached ten minutes to closing time for Hertz, so I called back and asked for the cell phone number of the man with the tire, so that we could help him find us, if need be. The man finally arrived, highly apologetic, with two tires about half an hour after Hertz closed. Within minutes we had the new spare up under the truck, thanked the man profusely, and were out on our way.
Though we didn't accomplish much on the day of the blow-out, the next few days were filled with nothing but work and some stunning sunsets. I wish that I could describe how beautiful it was from the knob where we camped. The first night the fog came in just before sunset and sat covering the land below us like a giant sea. I have included some pictures, but nothing will come close to capturing it. An ocean of clouds came in and settled below us, making an impromtu shoreline of the terrain, the ridges and peaks becoming nothing more than lonely islands out in the distance. Chris and I stood there in awe as long as the light lasted. I am thankful that we stood and watched the fog that first night, because the other nights didn't even come close as far as level of beauty. Such a weird place.... such a weird, weird, beautiful, weird place. I had gotten used to the absolute silence out here, but was struck by it again when Chris pointed out that we could hear the sound of the birds coasting through the air overhead. He wasn't referring to when they flapped - that produced a noise sharp enough to make you look up - but the sound of them simply cutting through the air with their wings produced a sound like a soft tearing... like the bird was ripping through some invisible sheet. Amazing.
We are now done with three of our five stints out in the field, and I am getting pretty excited about coming back home. The next one is five days, so don't expect anything new until Monday the 29th. Take care in the meantime... ok... now the pictures
The way in and out of the parking garage underneath our hotel in Iquique... this picture does not capture at all how steep, narrow, and tightly turning it is... nor does it capture how dark or insanely tight the spaces within the garage are. I hate this garage... simply hate it. But I like the hotel...
So much is captured in this photo... the utterly demolished tire, the shovel we tried to use to get the bolts off, the shards of tire that tried so desperately to remain on the rim, and me staring off in the direction of where the man with the new tire should be coming from... should...
The enormous sand dune that looms over the city of Iquique. This photo was taken from the cliff road leaving from Iquique to Alto Hospicio.
Because we should have at least one picture of science on here... that is me hacking away at an ash at Punta de Lobos (this photo is from the location described in the last entry).
This is an attempt at a before and after with the fog on that beautiful night... ok... the knob sticking up in front of you in this photo
is to the far right of this photo (taken a couple of hours later)
and is near the left side of this photo
I know that it is hard to capture onscreen, but the fog just devoured all of the terrain, and you couldn't see anything but the peaks.
Similarly this daytime photo corresponds to the next three sunset photos
I like that you can almost see a little "wave" of fog in the foreground of this one
Sigh... pretty
And finally this photo corresponds to the one below it.
It is a crazy place out here... nothing like it.... nothing like it at all.
Until next time,
Amanda
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