Quebrada del Diablo in Chile

View inside the Quebrada del Diablo near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Quebrada del Diablo can be translated to the Devil's Ravine, which sounds about right since I went into it but almost didn't come out.

I decided to rent a mountain bike early one morning and head to the small canyon to take some pictures. I was riding into a pretty strong headwind as I left town but didn't think much of it. Once I got to the canyon it was just as beautiful as I could have hoped. Nice red colored rocks, a beautiful blue sky, and best of all it seemed like I was the only person there. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. San Pedro is very touristy and there were lots of shops renting mountain bikes and Quebrado del Diablo is one of the main places to go for a bike ride.

I had to be careful with my camera while taking pictures because every once in a while a huge gust of wind would come through the canyon and whip up a lot of sand and I had to shield my camera with my body, but I didn't really think much of it. I decided to pick up my pace and push further into the canyon as I was sure that other tourists couldn't be far behind me.

Eventually the gusts of wind started to become more frequent and much stronger, and to make matters worse the canyon split into multiple directions and I couldn't find any signs pointing which way to go. This led to me picking a route, going in a ways, and then backtracking to try a different route several times. As I was trying to find the correct route the wind became constant with huge gusts carrying so much sand that if I looked down I couldn't even see my feet.

I finally realized that the forecast must have called for sandstorms and I was the only person that didn't get the memo. I was lost in a sandstorm in the Atacama Desert with nothing but a Snickers bar and a half liter bottle of water that was almost empty. The mountain bike became deadweight that I had to carry because the wind was too strong for me to ride it. My legs were shaking and I felt exhausted and I thought about hiding behind a boulder out of the wind to rest a little but I felt that pushing on would be the best idea.

After a couple of hours of being lost I eventually saw some rocks on the ground in the form of an arrow. It pointed me toward a hill up to a ridge. I was happy to finally have an actual direction to go in, but the wind up on the ridge was much more fierce. The strongest gusts would actually lift the bike off the ground and try to carry it away and I had to lean my back into the wind and hold onto the handlebars as hard as I could to keep it from flying away.

After 20 or 30 minutes walking along the ridge I could finally see my salvation. I could see the Chapel of San Isidro that I knew was at the end of the trail.

This picture might look peaceful, but believe me, the wind was absolutely howling. This chapel was something I wanted to take a picture of and I wasn't going to let an absurd amount of wind stop me. I hid the mountain bike behind the church so it wouldn't literally fly away. I got into position with my camera and as I clicked the shutter a huge gust almost lifted me off of my feet and sent me sprawling forward. Fortunately the wall of the chapel was there to stop my forward progress. And even more fortunately, my camera seemed to be unscathed.

I gathered my mountain bike and as I tried to leave the area around the chapel I was blocked by a fence and a gate so I had to throw the bike over the gate and climb over. Once I finally got over the gate and down to the main road my ordeal was over. For the first time all day the wind was at my back and it was so strong I was able to cruise all the way back to town without having to pedal even once. It was glorious.

I got to San Pedro, dropped off my bike, and as I was looking for a shop to buy some desperately needed water I noticed everyone was staring at me. I wasn't sure why until I passed by a window and noticed that I basically looked like a coal miner, except if coal was red.

I had a tour booked for the afternoon but thankfully it was canceled due to the sandstorm and I was able to just crash in my hotel room for the rest of the day.

I guess the moral of the story is to look at the forecast! I wish I had more pictures but for most of the day I didn't want to expose my camera to the elements.