The second day of Copiapó

Yesterday I arrived by bus into Copiapó, a dusty, boring desert town built in the same layout as Santiago but without the people or the glitz to make it interesting. There is one dominant color here, brown, which starts from the coffee-colored dirt roads (they're actually paved, but have about an inch of dirt above them), to the brown buildings, to the peaks of giant mountains made of sand. Like many deserts, the days art hot but the nights are very cold.

To the east lies Salar de Maricunga (Salt Lake of Maricunga), a place I very badly wish to see but budget constraints are saying otherwise. I have $100 in US cash and $30,000 in pesos. I really want that $100 to be for emergencies, meaning the pesos are going to have to go towards my last meals and a busride back to Santiago.

To the west is Bahia Inglésa (English Bay), which I visted today. I took to the coastal town, more like a village - its population is probably around 300. The streets are quiet, maybe one othere tourist was there, and the people are leisurely seated on their doorsteps or can be heard inside their homes. The beach is fantastic - pearl white sand, warm, azure waters, fishing boats docked lazily, not another person in sight. Actually, it got kinda lonely, haha. And it was so remote that I had to ask a guy leaving his driveway to drop me off in Caldera to the north cause no taxi or bus would go out there to pick me up.

In Caldera there is a giant, wooden cathedral. Its large pillars, skyward steeple and tan walls were entirely of wood, except for its tin roof. Caldera is certainly more populated than Bahia Inglésa, but much less than Copiapó. At least in Caldera there was a bus service back to Copiapó, which was late by 2 hours. Other than the wooden cathedral, Caldera does not boast very much. My way back home I played Chess with some Frenchmen going to Santiago from Peru. They weren't very good, I beat all of them by the time I reached the terminal of Copiapó. And now here I am, in an internet terminal.

Alright, even though it's 7.45 I am tired. Goodnight.