The Sky's the Limit

The further you get from Santiago, the more rural the towns become. It is only now that I am seeing the type of south American life that I had expected before we arrived here.

La Serena, some 350kms (and 8 hours on the bus!) further north, is a small town that we stay at so that we can get off the main road and see some of the countryside. We had quite a nice tour here which meant that we got to see most of the valley and some of the smaller mountain pueblos.
Cowboys still live on.



The mainstays of Chilean life ... shops...homes...churches.











Although tours can often be local factory visits interspersed with a bit of the local history and culture, this one wasn’t quite so bad and it meant that we were able to see quite a bit of the valley and a couple of the local pueblos. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we certainly learnt more than we would have just driving along by ourselves. We learnt how they make the national drink of Pisco which is a very young brandy made from fermenting and then distilling high sugar content grapes that are grown particularly in this area due to the consistency of their weather (practically always sunny without temperature extremes) and the amount of sunshine that they get (10 hours a day every day). If you want very sweet grapes look for the ones that come from Chile - apparently Germany has a particular penchant for Chilean grapes.

The pisco distiller.

There is a wonderful microclimate here that produces a stunningly fertile valley amid what is essentially just a desert. It is really amazing to be going down the road and coming across acres and acres of vines, fruit trees and lush water grasses amid the arid mountains. It practically never rains here, but early morning mists and some underground springs provide enough water in the valley to grow enough produce for the central country’s needs plus valuable export produce.
The beautiful valley nestles in amongst the mountains





Higher up the mountain all you get is cacti.

As part of the tour we are taken to a restaurant that, we are told, only uses sunlight for its cooking. I foolishly take this to mean that they use solar-powered energy, when in fact it means that they have a series of glass sun-boxes in the sun that they put the food in to cook. This means that what is on the menu is mainly braised stews of chicken or goat. They do 'bake' their own bread but the result of this is really a lump of half-baked dough. Still, you gotta give it to them for trying and they did manage a great baked rice pudding that is perfectly suited to the slow cooking method.

Anyone for goat stew?

Group catering available

Solar powered tea?


The other major attraction in this part of Chile is that it is the location for about 6 major observatories because of the fact that they have an average of 320 clear sky nights per year. We had managed to find one that was open to the public for viewings at night rather than just a day tour of the facilities and so we were very pleased when we were able to book a place at short notice. This was another reason for booking a tour rather than hiring a car - because driving at night is so hazardous that it is always best avoided. The observatory tour didn’t start until 9pm and I really didn’t fancy having to find my way back down through the mountain roads so late at night.

For both of us the visit to the observatory has been one of the highlights of the trip. Although it was, uncharacteristically, a bit cloudy and the moon was half full, it was really amazing being able to see some of the stars and planets up close with the telescopes. Because the moon was so apparent we were able to look at it really well and even managed to get a picture of it through the telescope.

Note how the moon shines backwards here!

We also learned to identify some of the constellations of the southern hemisphere - in particular the one for Brett’s zodiac sign of Sagittarius - that we hadn’t seen before. We had a little peek at Saturn with its rings, and a close up of some star clusters in the Milky Way. I can’t wait until the moon goes dark again so that we can see some of the constellations more clearly for ourselves - but that won’t be for a while yet.

We moved on from La Serena to Copiapo further up the coast, hoping to get into the Atacama Desert to see the salt flats and more of the mountain terrain. The best advocados in the world

However, we hadn’t banked on the fact that it is now so close to the winter that the tourist accommodation is now closed and you can’t camp without serious winter gear - and a lot more experience of roughing it than either of us can lay claim to. Brett would prefer us to just push on to the desert further north, but I have set my heart on trying to see some of the local penguins so I manage to persuade him that it would be a good idea to hire a car for a day or two so that we can drive out to the Pan de Azucar (Sugarloaf) national park.

The round trip of close to 400kms takes us through the most stunning landscape that I have ever seen in my life. Unfortunately, words really cannot describe the vibrancy of the colours or the sheer immensity of the landscape that we travel through. Initially, we drive up through the bottom end of the Atacama desert, which is just kilometer after kilometer of parched rocks, dunes and sparse scrubland. It is for good reason that most people live in or very close to the towns and cities, because there is nothing to be had from the land around. From time to time a small way stop for lorries and cars means that a few families can survive far from anywhere. Every 100km or so a small fishing village will manage to nestle amid the rocks on the coast, and further inland some mining towns manage to dig themselves into the landscape. But for the moment, there is nothing but open road and a lot of dust.

We stay in Chanaral, a small mining village that has seen better days. It has a few small market shops that hark back to days gone by - with great big old weighing scales, biscuits in jars and the eggs in baskets! It is the off season and we are the only tourists here that we can see. This is also because there isn’t anything here of much interest to tourists. The town has a lovely old town hall and it is trying hard to pose as a place of historic interest. The only reason to stay here really is because it is too far to drive to the national park and back in one day - and the only place to stay in the park is in cabanas or in tents which will be freezing at this time of year.
The sights of Chanaral!



The following day we drive into the national park and we are awestruck by the beauty and magnitude of the landscape. The main road takes us past the 1000km (!) marker from Santiago and on through the mountains until we branch off onto a dirt road that threads through more rugged terrain.



The road in ...

This takes us down to the shoreline and a tiny little fishing village.


The village relies on fishing and tourist boats out to a small local island that is home to northernmost Humboldt penguins - and this is why we are here. We arrive at the bay to the sight of a pilot whale swimming about 2m from the shore; slowly up and down the beach.

It was really amazing. Apparently she comes here every year to have her baby.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any other tourists in sight so we have to fork out for the whole boat ourselves. At this time of year there is apparently a 50% discount, but it we still have to swallow hard before we hand over 50,000 pesos for the privilege.
Our trusty sailors.

Brett has bought a new hat!

However, a privilege it really is as the trip allows us to see these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat, alongside different species of cormorants and fantastic sea lions. Plus, we are using the same boat that the BBC used a couple of years ago when they came to make a documentary about the vampire bats that live on the sea lion’s blood!! So that must be worth something.

We take the small dirt coast road back to Chanaral to pick up our bags from the hotel. The coastline is really beautiful in a desolate sort of a way. We can certainly see what brings so many people to Chile.

This is apparently delicious. They dig out the molluscy bit and eat it with lemon.


The road out ...

We don’t have too much time to stop and stare, alas, as we are trying to make it back in time for a night bus to San Pedro de Atacama. Our next stop is the driest desert in the world some 12 hours and another 500km away.