I made the drive from Tocopilla to Iquique in half the time the gas station attendant said it would take me, and I wasn´t even speeding that excessively. I don´t know…how many miles per hour is 247 kilometers per hour. I can never do the conversions in my head. I think it´s only like 62.

Despite how fast I was driving, until the sun set I could clearly make out the spectacular coastal landscape north of Tocopilla. Imagine the mountains of death valley plunging into the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, it´s that dramatic (see pictures below). A small part of me now wishes I´d decided to spend my afternoon yesterday reading on a beach instead of on that hill in the desert. No matter. It´s all water under the bridge now, and it would´ve been more labor intensive — nay, downright impossible — to build my geoglyph out of piles of sand.

As you can tell from the many fine images that now adorn my posts from the heart of the Atacama, I´m back at the Terrado Suites and very much looking forward to not having things drip from the ceiling onto my head and not having to beat the stale cigarette stench from my clothes every morning. Small luxuries.

I´m hitting the sack but will write more in the morning.

B

Looking Back on the Coastal Road North of Tocopilla

Looking Up at the Coastal Desert Mountains

Still Looking Up at the Coastal Desert Mountains