San Pedro de Atacama

This is San Pedro de Atacama, the town we are staying on the outskirts of:

Note the dogs.  Some dogs in San Pedro have owners, others do not, but all seem to wander the town at their will, soliciting food and affection from the public at large.  They are also, along with the pedestrians who never use the sidewalk here, a menace to traffic.  

Last night, we went out to dinner at one of the many restaurants in town.  For about ten dollars per person we ordered a giant grill (literally, a giant pot with coals underneath) of meat.  Each person got a pork chop, chicken breast, steak, blood sausage and a third of a potato.  

The weather up at the site continues to be wonderful, with temperatures around freezing but with no wind.  You may recall that in a prior photo-update, I referred to our vehicle as our "as-yet trustworthy Mitsubishi".  It turns out the "as-yet" part was warranted, as we struck some sort of object (we weren't able to find it today) on the way down from the mountain yesterday and rendered useless the four-wheel-drive functionality of the truck.  Today, a man from Hertz came and gave us a new truck, now a Nissan, which is sorely lacking in suspension, horse-power and cab space.  

We continue to paint the inside of the telescope with special paint.