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Oases Nordic (2 / 2)

To achieve Chiu-Chiu, village Oasis nearest Lasana, you have to take a rocky path along the Rio Loa, a distance of about ten kilometers. While accidents, the course is nice, especially in the morning when the sun is not too deadly.

After 3 hours walking around the trail straightens out of the valley and leads to the village. First we see a beautiful white adobe church preceded by two bell towers and then, instead. Dusty and surrounded by dead trees or dry. That day, everything was almost deserted. There were just two children, who were running in all directions and seemed to play "gliders".
They imitated the sound of the wind, eyes closed, pretended to drift with currents imaginary. They eventually collide and fall. Ocher cloud in which they snorted, cascades of laughter rang out metal. The unkempt hair, sweat and snot soaked sand, they had raised, eyes wide open and we had begun to fathom, like puppies shameless "A'ondé van gringos? (Z 'go where the foreigners?) Cried the boy. "ACA, no más! (Here, no more) I replied. Without asking more, the two kids had taken over our bags and waved us to follow. "Come at Doña Virginia, she'll look after you! "Threw the girl, as if we were rescued from the desert and it was absolutely necessary to take us to the field hospital nearest you.

In fact, Chiu-Chiu, the Doña Virginia played a bit role in "Give up 'for lost travelers. It was both the sole owner of the village café, restaurant and incidentally, was the holder of the keys to the church. In sum, the earthly and spiritual food were concentrated in the hands of a single person. As for "cures" that she had the secret, they consisted of rustic sandwiches, which according to arrivals were sometimes topped with eggs and peppers, and sometimes lawyers and onions and sometimes block of tripe she sewed herself. This last specialty was the "map" this afternoon.

After we have served, Doña Virginia sat in front of us and watched us eat. She asked about our trip and our projects in the region. She obviously loved advise travelers and elsewhere, passengers also seemed to show him much recognition, judging by the numerous letters she received from around the world. In a large exercise book, Doña Virginia treasured memories and impressions that he left his guests passing through. On some pages, she stuck pell-mell, small texts in Hebrew, a postcard with the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum or a thank you note from a journalist from the capital to try once more , to unravel the riddles surrounding the village. Toward the final pages of this sort of book, featured a picture black and white. It was a portrait. That of the German actor Hardy Krüger -one of the protagonists of the legendary " Taxi For Tobruk "- which at the bottom that read:" For Doña Virginia, affectionately signed Hardy Krüger.

"Oh yes, I remember. Someone very well what Mr. Kruger! And not difficult for a sub. Look, there he stayed when he came. I had pushed the tables and chairs and he had laid his sleeping bag there on the floor, "she said, pointing to the concrete slab forming the rough ground coffee.

Doña Virginia would now show us the church without delay. A church in the image of the village cursed. For chandeliers no longer pastor there had wanted to give mass.
Moreover, since the day of drunken peasants were insulted and beaten on the last priest in office, there was no cure at all had to Chiu Chiu. The story goes that after his beating, the priest made his bundle without asking his rest, but before disappearing behind the hill, cast a spell on the village and its inhabitants. Today, the curse seems to be perpetuated, at least in the memory and the heart of the natives, if crops fail this year, if the houses are infested of vinchuca *, if young are deserting the land or sell them cheaply, the reason will be known and will be invoked once more the revenge of the priest-martyr. If Doña Virginia opens yet another time to the church, it is to let go of the few tourists passing the final or devotees of the parish who officiate themselves during rites of Christianity that inspired both the ancestral animist traditions . Moreover, a "special Mass" will be held tonight, says Virginia "But here, foreigners are not allowed," she says. " Although it is the church of Chiu-Chiu (The second oldest of Chile) has a few sights, its ceiling and its imposing gates are made entirely of wood of cacti. A real lace! Inside the building, near the altar, there is also a strange painting of a Christ. Strange, because if one takes the trouble to look at the back of the painting, as we noted Virginia, there is another painting where you can still see the Christ .... but back. A Christ-sided!


As proposed Doña Virginia, we can sleep tonight exactly where Hardy Krüger has stayed there few years. Ie the floor between chairs and small coffee counter. An honor!
Despite the fatigue of the day and although the night was cold, sleep will come easily, however. And it will not because of the spartan housing conditions. In my down sleeping bag, a bottle of Pisco that I had buried to protect it from shock, was broken on the ground and released its heady fragrance and tough. The scent of coffee grounds mixed with the smell of oil permeating our clothes ever since the day the atmosphere will simply nauseating. Later, when the nearby church resound drums and wailing of bigoted service, the atmosphere will rise another notch. The "ceremony" will last until two o'clock in the morning.

(Tombs in the churchyard of Chiu-Chiu)

I even imagined for a moment, in a kind of nightmare, half awake, half asleep, that we should carry out human sacrifices as the noise from the church became annoying.

As if nothing had happened, and as had been expected yesterday, Doña Virginia woke us up early this morning. She brought on a tray, teapot, rolls and jam based on a result that we could not identify. "That's what your strength before you go to walk, the owner smiled from the hostel.

From the establishment of Doña Virginia must indeed walk at least two hours to get to "The Eye of the Sea."
In a vague way straying repeatedly and sometimes mingling with the traces left by herds of sheep, one must first cross a large stretch of rocky Pampa under a sky-blue steel. This morning, there was no shadow of a cloud, except a few fumaroles crachotées by a distant volcano. Probably the San Pedro.
Inlaid in a slight decline in the field, the "Eye Sea" finally appears. This is a saltwater lagoon, perfectly circular, the diameter must not exceed 60 or 70 meters. The water-its location and lack of a clear indication, could easily escape the view of passersby. But without doubt this is due to this kind of irresistible attraction exercised by certain geological phenomena that we we found without too much trouble this water hole in the desert. A curiosity since time immemorial is the origin of the wildest legends. There are of course the usual testimony "credible" of those who, like the shoreline of Loch Ness, spotted on the surface of brackish waters a form resembling that of an antediluvian monster. But there are also poets. Those who believe that the bouquets de Cortada (a type of grass) did his best to push the edge of the lagoon are in fact the reincarnation of the "Three Mary." Three girls having drowned here once and whose hair spoke of, say, the look and silky texture of these plants! Other stories also tell that the Inca, fleeing the conquistadors would have swallowed up by some of their fabulous treasure. Among the most recurrent myths circulating around the lagoon there is finally one evoking a love story between a girl of Chiu-Chiu and the famous Inca Tupac Amaru rebels who took refuge in the region some time before resuming his desperate fight against Spaniards. Desperate to be able to hold his lover, too busy making war, the beautiful Chiu Chiu, spite, went to drown. Since then, told, the lagoon has taken a nice emerald green color. Eye color of the unfortunate mistress of the last great Inca rebel (executed in Cusco / Peru in 1572). More prosaically, Doña Virginia we still had strongly advised to avoid swimming in the waters of the "Eye Sea".
"If you really want to swim, stay close to shore because the water is very" heavy "there. If you go to the center, you'll be sucked in and you will never go back, it's a bottomless pit. No one has ever measured, Assen boss coffee As a final warning. " (based travel diary from December 91)

(Chiu-Chiu, "El Ojo de Mar, the Sea-Eye)

* The vinchuca (Triatoma infestans) present in the clay brick houses is a biting insect hematophagous of America tropical family of bugs ( Reduviidae). Is the vector a trypanosomiasis the Chagas . A deadly disease related to the disease sommmeil) from Wikipedia.