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With time and money almost anything is possible. I don't know anyone who has limitless supplies of both, so then it's all about choices. The last time I came to South America five years ago I ran out of both time and money, and I couldn't visit some of the places that I had been dreaming about. But five years later I'm back and this time my choices will get me there. First up is the Atacama Desert - the driest desert in the world, with scenery that is truly spectacular.
It was a very long journey to get here, with two flights and one bus, however thanks to the magic of the international date line, after leaving Sydney on Saturday morning I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama on Saturday evening just in time for dinner. I met Rod in Santiago at the airport, although 'met' is not entirely the right word. I was expecting that we would meet in Calama airport, so he surprised me by literally jumping out from behind a pillar - it certainly woke me up!
Arriving in San Pedro de Atacama in the late afternoon, the scenery made up for the 20 hours
of travel. It is simply gorgeous. The town itself is tiny with cute little dusty streets, lined with little adobe houses. It's gorgeous and an easy place to hang out in and do pretty much nothing. However the reason to be here is for the amazing landscapes, so we booked ourselves on a couple of day trips.
First up was an afternoon trip to the Valle de la Luna and the Valle de la Muerte. I hadn't thought to ask if the tour was in English or Spanish, and it was only as we got underway that it became apparent the tour was in Spanish. My Spanish is a bit rusty but I could more or less understand and then translate what I thought I had heard and what I thought Rod needed to know. The guide did however speak English and every now and again he came over to chat to us and see how we were getting on. We also chatted in Spanish, great practice for me, although to my horror, in the middle of one of his explanations to the group he asked me for the answer to something, which we had chatted about earlier. Good
thing I had been concentrating and listening and could answer - "perfecto!" he said. Phew. It was like being in a five hour Spanish exam! The scenery was incredible. Apparently the name comes from NASA, as the valley's dry and harsh terrain was much like the moon, and used for testing, such as a prototype for a Mars rover.
The next day we had a 5.00 am start for our trip to the Geysers del Tatio. It was only my second night in Chile and I was still jetlagged, wide awake at 2.30 am and couldn't for the life of me get back to sleep. So when our pick up for the trip didn't turn up I was a little crotchety to say the least. We tried calling the 24 hour number but it took several calls until anyone answered. No one knows exactly what happened, either the driver slept in or missed us off the list, but we definitely weren't heading to the Geysers that day. We finally managed to speak to the lady who had booked our tour and she was extremely apologetic. She offered us the chance to go on another tour that day for free
and to do the Geyser tour the next day. We thought about it, but the other tour was an all day trip, not finishing until after 5.00 pm, and given I had been awake most of the night I thought I might not last the day. So instead I suggested we just do the Geyser tour the next day with a full refund, which she agreed to. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the local ATM had run out of cash and we had run out of money - so now we were cashed up again.
I am so glad that we did eventually get the opportunity to go to the Geysers, the scenery was truly spectacular. It was an early start, but that meant we got there just before the sunrise, when the colours were at their most beautiful. The Geyser field is the highest in the world, and the third biggest. Located at the foot of the Andes, with the pampas around them and with the snow-capped mountains in the background the geysers blowing steam looked simply breath taking. The other thing that was breath taking was the altitude - we were around
4200 metres high, and it was absolutely freezing at -10 degrees. I have never been so cold in my life! It was certainly worth it.
On the way down, we stopped off at a tiny town called Machuca. Apparently people used to live there but now there are only two people. It was kind of cute, but seemed to exist these days solely for tourists. Rod and I bought some chachacoma tea, which is supposed to help for those at altitude and given we are heading even higher in the coming days as we travel into Bolivia we thought we would give it a shot. I quite liked it, tasted a bit like a cross between green tea and chamomile.
We stopped off several times on the way back to San Pedro for photos, and also saw some of the local wildlife - vicunas, which looked to me like an alpaca, and a vizcacha, a strange looking animal that looked like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel, but also jumped about a bit like a wallaby. We arrived back about lunch time, just in time for an afternoon snooze!
Spectacular San Pedro - go visit
if you can!
Now blogging at
www.beautycharmadventureonline.com - check it out!
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Time for two
Nice pic of the Three Marias Rachael...brings a smile when you know what is around you when you take the shot. Excited for you that you are entering Bolivia from the Atacama. Looking forward to your pics...pretty hard not to take good ones! Have a blast.