Sand Salt Stone and Scenery

One more wonderful overnight bus journey sees us arrive at San Pedro de Atacama at 7.30 am. One of the benefits of arriving so early in the morning is that you awake to see the landscape emerge out of the dawn. I think that I had always thought of deserts of being big sandy things - but this one is more a massive expanse of shale that has been ground down by who knows what forces. This is the only benefit of arriving in a new town so early as it very cold and it seems as if any place for a cup of coffee is shut down until doomsday.

San Pedro isn’t that high up, only about 2500m, but it is between 2 main mountain ranges that rise to over 4000m. It almost never rains here, but it does manage to get some water from the snow melt and underground springs off the mountains. So, from time to time you come across some wonderful small oases or patches of very fertile valleys.



But most of the time it is very desolate.

The main town is a delightful grid of very traditional adobe houses. Some of them are whitewashed, whilst others are the colour of the natural clay that they use from the ground. The outside of the houses tend to be very stark on the outside - almost forbidding - but give on to wonderful courtyards. Once again there is no heating in any of the buildings other than fires that are lit at night.










During the day it is beautifully sunny and quite warm so long as you stay in direct sunlight. Indeed, you even have to be careful not to burn. Both Brett and I are managing to get back a bit of the tans that have become less and less obvious the further South and into the winter we go! But it is absolutely freezing at night and we are VERY grateful for the fact that our B&B has electric blankets on the beds.

We are only here for a couple of days so we press on and arrange to join a couple of tours into the desert and up into the mountains. I really want to go to see the geysers, but as this is a dawn outing Brett declines to accompany me (which is just as well as it turns out).

Our first trip takes us out for the day to visit the salt flats in the valley. In the way back whens, the tectonic plates shifted and pushed up the two mountain ranges with a valley in the middle. The sediment and water that settled in the valley soon evaporated in the unrelenting sunshine and left a salt flat 100km x 80km in the middle of the desert.

Salar de Atacama (Salt lake)

The only things that manage to survive on the flats are 3 species of flamingo (which makes it a flamingo nature reserve), a couple of rodents and a few micro-organisms that they all eat. It was fascinating to walk across the flat and to see the thick layer of salt that is there. There are a few mining companies that take borax, lithium and potassium out of the salt; but in the main it is left for the tourists to appreciate.






Away from the salt flats there is a bit more life to be seen and we pass llamas, vicunas, different birds and there are some Alpaca lurking but we didn’t see them.





We meander higher into the mountain until we reach a couple of lakes that are amongst the highest in Chile. The air is so clear and the colours and perspectives are so breathtaking that my camera doesn't even begin to do it justice.

It's not frozen yet - but it soon will be.



At this height the snow never completely melts. This snow is still left over from last year's snowfall as it hasn't snowed here yet this winter.

Not quite the top of the world - but it sure feels like it.

As we are now over 4500 metres from sea level we notice the lack of oxygen in the air and even a short walk takes an inordinate amount of energy. It is amazing that people live a this altitude - but they do.

Some even manage away from the villages.

Farming at 3000m+.

Room with a view?

In fairness, there aren’t many villages and the populations are quite small, but they are thriving communities in their way, although it is difficult to see how they make a living. There is some land that has been organized for agriculture, but the landscape doesn’t lend itself to mass production. The llamas and alpacas provide wool, milk and meat as well; so in the main life here harks back to earlier times.

The next day I leave Brett snoring gently at 3.50am while I lurk on the street waiting for a minibus to pick me up for a dawn trip to the geysers at Tatio; apparently, they blow best at dawn. Which is a pity because they are 98km away and this means a 2 hour trip in the bus starting at 4.00am. Although it is cold when I get up, this is nothing to how cold it gets as we once more climb over 4000m. The bus trip is a dark, shaky, noisy and uncomfortable experience that Brett would have found unbearable. The only reason that anyone does it is to be able to see the Geysers, and even so I get close to wondering if it is really worth it!

However, arriving at Tatio just as dawn breaks is amazing. Located in the crater of an inactive volcano, there are little jets of steam that get bigger as the sun rises, and you can hear the geysers begin to bubble louder and louder until they start to steam and run over the ground - melting the ice that has frozen overnight. The limescale that has accumulated over so many years as the geysers erupt makes little mini volcanoes everywhere and the limescale patterns in the rising sun are quite beautiful. The guide tells us that they are just about to turn this area into a thermo-power station. I suspect that the gain of power will more than compensate for the loss of this tourist attraction because at the moment locals are very dependent on a very limited and inconsistent supply of electricity. Having something more reliable and local should help their future development no end. (They might even have enough energy to put some heating in their homes at last!)

Just beginning to steam before the dawn.


Soon they are in full blow.


Once the sun is fully up they settle down again.


Beautiful limescale patterns.

Anyone for a nice volcanic mud pack?

Once the sun comes up it is just about warm enough to strip down to swimming costumes and jump into the thermal pool that is fed by the same source as the geysers. It is a very strange sensation swimming about in a pool as little jets of boiling hot water bubble up from the bottom. If you aren’t careful and your feet happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time then it can be quite uncomfortable; although not as dicey as having to get out of the water to get dressed as the temperature only just begins to hit 0 degrees.

At around 9am we head back down the mountain. This time it is daylight so now I can at least see how bad the road is that we are driving down. I use the word ‘road’ very loosely as it is really only a dirt mountain track! Our driver is very good at pointing out various bits of wildlife so I can see some more llamas, birds and the funniest little rabbits that you can imagine - because they eat the cacti that are the only things that grow at this height they are GREEN. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.

Notice the green hue?

Wild llamas.

Ice-walking birds.

One more village at 4000m+ is very traditional. With the houses all made from local stones and straw roofs. I suspect that they are not equipped with many of today's mod cons.





4000m+
Tourists come through this pueblo every day so I wonder if this helps them to be viable? There doesn't seem to be much else keeping to keep them going.

Even at this height the church takes pride of place.

The bus that made it up the hill one last time.

Gathering water from the mountain stream.

We get back to the town at midday and Brett is just about awake enough to enjoy my tale of the morning and to appreciate the fact that he didn’t come along for the ride.

The afternoon sees us join another trip that takes us into the Valley of Death and Moon Valley! I never really did understand why the first bit was called the valley of Death because it was really just a very, very desolate valley that was a bit of a cheat really as it had been man-made by some bloke who needed a road into his mining works. It was amazing to be able to see the layers underneath the rocks that are all around - and there were a couple of great dunes in the middle of it. I am sure that it wouldn’t be the cleverest thing to get stuck there in the middle of a summer day - but Death Valley felt like an overstatement.













Moon Valley is so called as the landscape is supposed to be as desolate as it is on the moon. I haven’t been to the moon (maybe for our next trip) but it could be pretty close to it. There is a lot of quartz here and, if you stand quietly enough as the sun goes down and the temperature changes, you can hear it crack.

I have never been to the such a place before - it is truly breathtaking most of the time.

Despite this we feel that it is time to move on from Chile and decide to make a break for the border tomorrow. We take the shorter bus ride to the closest town, Calama, in the hope of being able to take a day bus to the border. Unfortunately, there aren’t any buses leaving until the evening and so we have an 8 hour wait in one of the sorriest looking towns you have ever seen. It is predominantly a mining town, so there is some money here, but it is very shabby and could almost be Bedminster; only in the desert and 4 times as big which prompts Brett to rename it Calamity. We do manage to find the local shopping mall and thank our stars for globalisation as we sink into some very comfy cinema seats to while away a couple of hours watching Gran Torino (which, by the way, I found very depressing even if Clint did have a great time making it).

We have to take the bus to Arica which is 16km south of the Peruvian border. From there we are squeezed into a collective taxi with 2 other people and driven to Tacna which is 20km the other side of the border. Although it feels a bit strange traveling this way, in fact it works really well because the driver knows exactly what everyone has to do at the border and he patiently takes us all through so that we are soon whizzing our way through our first bit of Peru.

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.