Chile Central Part 2

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Still having our base camp in Guanaqueros we made a second week-end trip to the Isla Damas National Park. The islands are famous for their wildlife, most of all for the Humboldt penguins, but also the view itself is quite stunning, which we experienced at a real nice kayak trip and a boat trip to the islands.

Returning to Guanaqueros we got some surfing done, waves were not that good but still fun. After two weeks in the La Serena region we finally went north, on the way we wanted to visit Tres Cruces National Park. Actually we did, somehow. The park is at 3800m and to get there you have to go over a pass with 4200m above sea level. Turns out that having breakfast at the beach and driving to 4200m within 10 hours is not a very smart idea! When we arrived things were ok, couldn't get enough oxygen, but felt still ok. Excited about the wonderful lake with the mountains in the back, we walked around, took some pictures and prepared for the night. During the night we both got symptoms of mountain sickness, quite bad actually and so we drove the way down to 2500m in the middle of the night. The second attempt to sleep worked out better. The next day we finally headed north...

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