Draw Conclusions on the Wall: Racing the Planet Meets The Faux Dead Sea. Mar. 11

Another bright, sunny day greets us this morning in Terrantai Lodge. After a hearty desayuno, we start hearing a lot of drumming and cheering. Que the h____?

We start walking and following the sounds and it leads us to LLamas, a man wildly jumping hombre, and finally to the Inglesia. There are throngs of participants who have already finished the Atacama 2012 - a 250 km footrace over the Atacama desert in 7 days! And, each participant must carry everything they need on their back except for water and a tent.

It is muy excitante, with the drummer going crazy as each participant or team of participants approaches the finish line at the Inglesia. Some are walking, some are running. All are relived and overjoyed at having completed this exhausting and mind boggling event.

We learn that people from 45 countries competed - the most participants were from Great Britain, followed by Australia and then Los Estados Unidos (finally). The race began with 157 people and by the end, 140 intrepid folks finished. The oldest was from Luxembourg and he was 68. Quien Sabe? Who knew anything about this? Nadie sabia. Not us. Turns out this amazing event is sponsored by RacingThePlanet and there are 4 such 250km events in 4 different deserts throughout the year. Others are the Gobi desert of China, the Sahara and Antarctica.

Many of the entrants stayed at Terrantai. Never saw a group so tired, relieved and happy and who desperately wanted a shower!

I have some pictures, but the real excitement is captured in the video - promise to work on that soon when I get home.

In the afternoon, we went to Ojos de Salar - sort of a poor hombres version of the Dead Sea. Very small but you do float in the salt water. However, unlike the Dead Sea which now has resorts with indoor and outdoor salt water pools as well as the actual sea and with fresh water showers, the Ojos has no facilities, not even a place to change into bathing suit. Not so impressive. But, we did meet another young Chilena, who was working in the nearby Copper Mine company for a few days and came to San Pedro for the weekend. All these young Chilenas seem to glom onto us. Very flattering and they have all been so friendly and gracious. Her name was Daniela and she wanted us to take her picture in the water. Then, we became quick friends.

The Atacama Crossing Race