They woke up before dawn. Alejandro Salinas couldn't remember how long he had slept, but the cold wind made it unbearable. That was one of the strange things about this desolate and empty place. The day was boiling hot but as soon as the sun's unbearable rays disappeared, they were replaced by the opposite: the unbearable cold of the night. To fight the cold winds coming from the north, Alejandro and his fellow comrades had chosen to bunch up and sleep in a tight group so as to lend each other their body heat and make it possible to get a few hours sleep. He had been exhausted after the first day of marching and knowing that they had plenty more ahead of us, it was perhaps wise to use the time that had been given to you to catch some sleep.
Before he knew it, Alejandro was marching again. It seemed to him like the entire damn war was about marching and nothing else but marching through the damn desert to wherever they were going. Alejandro might have had an inkling of what to expect when his unit went out on marching exercises in the surroundings of Antofagasta when they first arrived there after a journey by ship from the south, but that felt like an entirely different time. Like an entirely different war. They used to entertain themselves by searching for the fossils of extinct molluscs that were in abundance in the loose desert sand during those exercises. "Fossils! Can you imagine?" Alejandro thought to himself. Such childish and curious search of entertainment was of no use for them now that they marched through the Atacama desert without knowing whether a camp or a battle was waiting for them at the end. People tried to keep themselves sane as they talked and joked and tried to encouraged each other to keep on marching although your feet was covered in blisters. However, even those valiant attempts at trying to endure vanished as the hours pressed on. Men were becoming silent and the lines were disorganized. The pure exhaustion getting to every part of their brain.
Do you know what the worst thing about walking through the driest desert in the world is? Beyond the fact that it's a featureless desert with nothing to look at and as far away from the beautiful green countryside that Alejandro was familiar with, the thirst that he encountered during the march was something that he felt he couldn't live with. The heat was bad enough as it is. The way the men marched kicked up dust and they were soon creating large dust clouds which only made the throats of the soldiers drier than they already were. Alejandro's forehead felt like it was burning up. As a soldier, you had a canteen and either you rationed your water throughout the march, were lucky enough to be supplied during the march or you went crazy with thirst. Even if you had water in your canteen in the middle of the march, it would be warm water because of the damn sun! Tell me, how was a human being supposed to live with this? The men were afraid that these extreme conditions would drive them to madness. Alejandro had even heard from a friend that two men had killed themselves over thirst. Was it true? Alejandro liked to think not, but it seemed like this desert turned men into savages.
As Alejandro scanned his surroundings, this empty and open place, he started to noticing something peculiar. There were jackets and other parts of uniforms scattered on the marching route. The unit ahead of his must have begun removing whatever they felt were unnecessary to wear and that was probably weighing them down. After all, they all had to wear two layers as part of their uniform which was not meant to be worn in a desert. That also includes that they had to carry equipment, their rifle as well as ammunition. Had the Chilean army truly been prepared to wage war in a place like this? Alejandro didn't blame the men for throwing their coats and jackets away, but he couldn't imagine how they'd feel when night came around once more and they'd probably wish for the coat back.
Occasionally the men stopped to eat and rest. Men would drop like they were dead onto the hot ground, not bothering to get up until they felt rested. Many soldiers collapsed out of exhaustion throughout the march and sometimes they never got back up. Alejandro and other men tried to help them and if that didn't work, an officer was bound to show up and give them a piece of their mind which sometimes was enough to get them back on their feet. During breaks like these, Alejandro wished for shade but there was none to be found. This entire desert was without vegetation and the exposed skin that wasn't covered by his uniform got the worst of it. Soon enough, men were told to resume marching and they all did. They had no choice but to stand up and keep walking.
Yet for men like Alejandro, it wasn't all just pain and suffering. There were brief moments of beauty in the desert that appeared so distant and alien to the Chilean soldiers. As the scorching hot day was slowly vanishing to be replaced by the cold night, the sunset left a deep impression on Alejandro. In the otherwise colourless desert, the exotic and powerful colours of the sunset made him for once admire the natural beauty around him. As the sun disappeared in the horizon and the clear night sky with all its beautiful stars became visible, Alejandro thought that it was due time to come to a stop. Time for some sleep. That wouldn't be the case as they were forced to continue marching without sleep during the cold night. Despite that he kept himself walking throughout the entire night, Alejandro still felt like he was freezing to death. The slow pace of the men can only be explained by pure exhaustion but no one rose to say a word. The silence of the night was only interrupted by the sounds of sheathed bayonets colliding with canteens as soldiers marched in the darkness.