Tourists

I hate tourists.

I know this may seem nonsensical, given that I've spent the last three weeks touring around touristy places, buying touristy objects, eating touristy foods, and taking touristy photos, but - man, tourists are SOOO annoying!

Unlike in southern Chile, where I could explore a wide variety of environments just using public transportation, here going pretty much anywhere requires signing up for an expensive tour with other tourists. The lagoon tour I went on this morning went okay, because it was a small group, and we had the freedom to explore on our own. 

This afternoon's, on the other hand, to Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte, had about a thousand people, and a tightly controlled tour. I think just about everyone was 19 years old, on spring break, American, and out of shape.  

We all walked in a long chain, and I spent my entire time strolling past gasping tourists to take photos at the front without them in the picture, then strolling to the back of the line to get photos in the opposite direction, back and forth, back and forth - and the whole time I had to listen to them all complaining about how hard it was. Um, it's level ground? At a pace a heavily sedated sloth in a gunny sack could handle? Hello? What's wrong with you people?

Fortunately, at the end of our tour, the guide sacrificed them all to the ancient sand dragon Moksha, which made for a quieter walk back: