So let's go back to my very first post when I talked about packing for a two month trip, with wildly variable weather conditions.......everything from baking in +30 temps to sitting on an iceberg watching penguins, and everything else in between. It has come to our attention that all this crap weighs a lot, and unless strategically packed, will exceed the 23kg limit per bag when checking in for our domestic flights around Chile. Lesson learned, and 40,000 pesos later, we are on our way to the Atacama Desert via Calama airport followed by a 90 minute drive to San Pedro de Atacama, staying at the Tierra de Atacama, where we will consume many pisco sour's de Atacama, and I bought the T-shirt that says I survived de Atacama...........
Absolutely beautiful.........our drive from Calama introduced us to the incredible nothingness that is this oldest, highest, and driest, desert in the world, and over the next few days we hoped to learn much about how and why people lived here. San Pedro exists because it is an oasis, and does have a dependable water supply from the Andes. Hands down, the hotel is great........down a dirty dusty road from San Pedro and hidden behind mud brick walls, we couldn't have been made more welcome on our arrival, and were immediately engaged by the tour director to get the next three days activities scheduled, choosing from an extensive list with varying degrees of difficulty, most relating to altitude and elevation gain........now at almost 8,000ft sitting wheezing in the hotel lobby. He gave us our first of at least 100 warnings.........drink lots of water, and don't forget the sunscreen.......there was a table opposite the front desk with two huge pump bottles of SPF 50, an automated fresh water dispenser, and your arrival gift is a stainless steel water bottle. There was also a warning to avoid alcohol........we'll see how that one goes..........
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| View from our room with Licancabur volcano in the distance |
That is an observatory in the foreground.......tours are available, but unfortunately not during the full moon phase. More later on star gazing and exploration in this part of the country.
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| Entry to the hotel goes through a former bull ring |
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| Da pool |
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| Beautiful garden between our room and the hotel.....have never seen a pomegranate tree before |
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| The cactus were sprouts one day and blooms the next |
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Our first outing was to the Valley of the "Moon"
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Everyone gathers in the lobby at their scheduled time and hooks up with a guide for the morning.......ours was Manfred....."Manny".......great guy who has been guiding in Chile for a number of years now......spoke good English which he claims he learned from playing video games!......wondered why he kept on saying "game over dude"........we toured this vast area south of town that gained its name because it looks like the surface of the Moon......no argument here. All the white surface you see is a salt crust created when subterranean water percolates to the surface, and in fact this area was mined for its salt until everyone realized it could be obtained from the oceans much easier/cheaper, so the salt mining business died.
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| Famous amphitheatre hill |
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| Manny and the girls.....he is enjoying our company as we like to hike.........hot as hell out here.
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We were going to send this to you, joking that we had snow also, but I believe this day we were +33 and you were -33 with wind chill.
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| Every time you see a picture of us at elevation, remember I am crapping my pants......this trail got really skinny with a sheer drop into the valley at a couple of locations.........getting over my fear of exposed edges in a hurry |
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| former dwelling of a salt miner and an abandoned piece of his equipment below |
There is usually a few hours between morning and afternoon excursions........this afternoon we are scheduled to go to the Salt Flats well south of town......hopefully see some flamingo's. The salt flats are created by subterranean water coming down from the Andes which percolates up to the surface, and in certain locations openings allow water to permeate the surface, providing habitat for the brine shrimp which the flamingo's love to eat. Not very scientific I know, but if you want to know more......GOOGLE it.
On the way to the flats we did stop in the small town Toconao which does have a water supply from the Andes, much like San Pedro, and it was interesting to see how it distributes the water through town in a series of controlled culverts. Also along the way we saw the entrance to ALMA. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a multi national partnership which funds the operation of 60 radio telescopes on a plateau above Atacama at 16,000ft elevation. The new director this year is Canadian, and will oversee the work of scientists/astronomers from Chile, USA, Europe, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, and Canada. Pretty cool.
There is a prescribed stop in Toconao at an artisan shop where apparently sweaters/blankets are woven onsite using llama and alpaca wool......they even have a resident llama onsite.......I thought this was a crock as the loom on display didn't look like it had been used in months........we complained about this total waste of time when we returned to the hotel.
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| A wide angle view of the salt flats doesn't even begin to do it credit.......it encompasses approx 3,000 sq km |
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| Found some flaamingo's |
The last part of the tour involves watching the sun set over the salt flats.......nothing like Wymbolwood on Georgian Bay, but not a bad show.........long ride home, but in time for a late dinner, and yes, scotch on the rocks please!
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