Chile - San Pedro de Atacama (29th October - 1st November)

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The bus we caught from Santiago took 23 hour to reach a place called Calama, on our way to San Pedro de Atacama. Up until this point, our South American long-haul bus trips had not been very successful regarding the movie entertainment on offer. This trip started pretty well but soon deteriorated as the kilometres, and hours, wore on. The first movie was in English with Spanish subtitles; a really good Christian movie call Courageous about men committing themselves to being men of God who stand up for their beliefs and who lead by example for their family and friends. The Fast and the Furious soon followed, a no-brainer of a movie made even less interesting (or more interesting, I'm not sure) by the fact it was dubbed in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. Vin Diesel somehow had been given a voice even deeper and more manly than his real life authoritative tones! Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, The Fast and the Furious 2 started up... followed by 3, 4 and 5! We decided we'd give our iPad movie selection a try and watched The Pursuit of Happiness instead of staying riverted to fast cars five different ways. At one stage early in the morning we woke to realise they had started the fast cars movie marathon back at number one! We arrived in Calama about midday but then had to wait until 3pm to get the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, which had us arriving there at about 5pm to find the hostel we had booked for the next few days.

San Pedro de Atacama is a small oasis town in the middle of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. It sits at the northern end of the Salar de Atacama, a huge dried salt lake. The main attraction here is the beautiful surrounding environment; there are salt flats, lagoons, desert areas and the Chilean section of the altiplano (the high tableland of central South America), all within a maximum of a few hours drive. We arrived not knowing that it was a popular public holiday a few days after we arrived; we found out pretty quickly when we tried to get an extra nights accommodation and, after a stressful few hours, was only successful when there was a cancellation at the hostel we were staying at. This meant we would have the time to do all the things we wanted to while in San Pedro. We booked four tours with a small company in town for the next three days and then went out to get some dinner and headed to bed for a proper nights sleep.

The following day we had a tour booked in the afternoon, so we had all morning to explore the town. The main town centre, and tourist section, of San Pedro is not a big place, it is full of adobe (mud brick) buildings that have been painted white that are linked by dry dusty streets. Behind the town looms volcanoes, desert and the altiplano; all together it makes for a very pretty landscape full of contrast and variety. On our wander around town we found a couple of artesian markets, selling all sorts of interesting handcrafts (as well as the usual touristy trinkets), but we were most impressed by the famous town church and the local football pitch. The Church of San Pedro de Atacama was built in the mid 1600's and declared a national monument in 1951. It is built from adobe walls and originally used dried cactus (cut into planks) for the roof - amazingly, llama leather was used to bond these cactus "planks" together instead of nails!! The football pitch surprised us so much not because it was made of artificial turf, as grass clearly isn't an option in the desert, but because of the quality of the whole set up (particularly given the gravel pitch we found nearby!). The pitch itself was fenced in and surrounded by flood lights, there were large grandstands on both sides of the pitch, and separate club/change rooms that backed onto the main grandstand. Wish we had more like this at home...

The tour we had booked for that afternoon took us to a number of salt lakes in the Salar de Atacama not far from town. The first stop was at Laguna Cejas, a set of three salt water lakes that are heated by a geyser and contain a salt content of 28% that makes them almost as salty as the Dead Sea (33%). We were able to go swimming in the main lake, and by swimming we basically mean floating on the lake. It was such an amazing feeling to be floating around effortlessly on the surface of the water; we even had to work pretty hard to actually sink our bodies under the surface. We were, however, advised not to put out heads under the water as the salt content was a real problem for eyes, ears etc. The edge of the lake is a volcanic rock plate with a sudden drop off into deep water. The water was a really nice temperature due to the geyser, which made the floating very relaxing. We floated around in the water for a while and when we got out, the hot air quickly dried the water from our body leaving only the salt to crust on our skin. Luckily we had some normal water with us so we washed down with this before exploring the surrounding landscape. As we walked around the lake to take photos, it became clear that the combination of the hard lake edge, salty water and desert dust made for a very slippery surface, as more than one of our group found out when they crashed to the ground. After spending a bit of time here we drove out to a place called the Ojos de Salar (eyes of the salt plain), which are two huge round wells in the salar surface. This was an amazing scene as the surrounding desert is flat and then there are these two holes in the desert about 10-15m wide and we were told they were 22m deep. We didn't end up swimming here, although we could have, because the water was a whole lot colder than the last lake and there is a decent drop to the water's surface. For our last stop we drove to Laguna Tebinquiche, another very salty lake where the edges were very shallow and when we stood out in the water it looked like we were standing on top of the water; a very cool optical illusion. We stayed here to watch the sunset; it is a very beautiful lake as the water colour changes dramatically with the sky colour due to its shallow depth. We had a little picnic of some snacks and pisco sour while we watched the sun set. It made for a very nice evening.

The next day we were up early at 3:30am as we were being picked up at 4am to head out to the Geysers del Tatio, about 100km north of San Pedro. This was going to be our first real high altitude test as these geysers sit at 4321m above sea level (compared to San Pedro at 2500m) and form the highest-elevation geyser field in the world. With over 80 active geysers, this is the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere and the third largest field in the world (with the geyser field of Yellowstone National Park in the United States being the largest with over 500 geysers!). We drove up to the geysers and arrived to -4.4 degrees Celsius; we were layered in wool but it was still a little chilly! There were so many plumes of steam coming out of the ground that it was hard to know which way to look. We had about 40min to walk around the field in the gradually increasing light, following the roughly marked paths, whilst being surrounded by clouds of steam. It was really beautiful in the early morning light. As the sun was beginning to rise we were able to look closely at the ground where there were small bubbling pools of boiling water and numerous cracks in the earth's surface; some were only very small while others formed holes 30cm in diameter. After watching the steam plumes gradually disappear in the warming air, we moved to the nearby car park to have breakfast; the guide had used a plastic bag and the heat of one of the geyser pools to boil our eggs and heat a cartons of chocolate milk! Pretty cool breakfast really. After breakfast we drove up to the natural thermal pools in another part of the geyser field. We quickly got changed and hopped into the water; at first it was not as warm as we'd thought it would be but after moving around a bit we found the source of the hot water, so we sat around this area for a while soaking in the warmth. It was very hard to get out of the water as it was so nice and warm in the pool and still quite chilly outside, despite the air temperature reaching a relatively balmy 3 degrees! We tore ourselves from the warm water and quickly got dressed again. We then walked up a path to a geyser that has been nicknamed "killer" after three tourists decided to get a little too up close and personal with the geyser and fell in. One tourist died from this and the other two suffered significant burns. It is one of the larger geysers in the area and not only shoots up big clouds of steam but also boiling water into the air; a pretty impressive performance safely watched from behind the little wall set around the geyser. From here we headed out of the geyser field and back towards San Pedro.

Just after leaving the thermal pools we saw an Andean fox walking along the road towards the geysers. We stopped the car to take a closer look and the fox duly also stopped and posed for some photos for us. After this we came across a herd of vicuñas that were just hanging out not far from the side of the road. This animal is a smaller cousin of the alpaca that is endangered and very protected in Chile. Our guide pointed out that one of them was fairly heavily pregnant and mentioned that it was a real bonus to see so many of them in one spot. After staying there for a bit to take lots of photos we drove on towards San Pedro. We stopped in a valley with some big cactuses for more photos then on to a little village. The village itself seemed to exist mostly for tourism, which was a shame, but on the bright side we got to try alpaca meat, which was really tasty. Our guide told us that it is one of the leanest types of meat, similar to kangaroo meat. After wandering around here for a bit and munching on our alpaca meat, it was back to San Pedro. We arrived back in the town about midday to relax for a few hours before heading out on our afternoon tour.

The trip we had planned for the afternoon was out to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), a short way out of town. We meet our tour group at 4pm and had the same guide as our last two tours, a lovely Bolivian woman called Grace, which was fine by us as she was really nice and spoke great English. On the bus ride out to the valley we passed a number of people on pushbikes riding out to see the sites. It is only an 8km ride to the start of the valley but, given the heat of the afternoon and the cold once the sun goes down, we decided these people were a tad crazy! We drove through the valley to a point called Las Tres Marias, three rock formations that are said to look like three praying virgin Marys (we could only really see two, and even that was with a fair bit of imagination). As to why the valley is called Valle de la Luna, there are a number of theories ranging from the fairly obvious to the far fetched (I really don't think the US Government filmed the landing on the moon here though!). The most likely is that after it rains in this area all the salt in the soil rises to the top and makes the ground a white colour and at night it glows like the moon. It is also really barren and has amazing rock formations, so it is easy to see how this theory came about. The more far fetched is that around the time of the moon landing some men from the US came to the area with cameras and did some filming, and this led people to think that the moon landing was filmed here.

After taking in the surroundings we drove to a huge sand dune where we walked up to the highest ridge and had amazing views over the valley. The landscape is all rock and sand, with no trees for as far as the eye could see or anything green at all in fact. People are not allowed to walk on the dune anymore which is a good thing as it leaves it in pristine condition (apart from the rocks that people like to throw on it or use to write messages in the dune with). From here we went to the salt caves that have naturally formed in the salt and rock hills. They were used in the time of the Spanish conquistadors by the local people to have secret meetings in and to speak in their local languages, as the Spanish had outlawed speaking in local languages. The caves are incredible; the salt formations are so amazing as it is almost solid salt, all shaped by wind and water. We walked and climbed through the caves and tunnels with a few tight squeezes along the way. We then came out in a dry river bed where we walked to a section of solid salt walls to hear the salt 'sing'; when you stand very still and quiet you hear the walls cracking and tinkling, it was pretty cool to hear what sounds like ice cracking. When it has been a really windy day the sounds can get quite loud, and it had been a fairly windy day so we got to hear quite a bit of movement. From here we drove to the entrance of Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). To get great views of the valley, we walked up a narrow road that had very high walls on either side. These walls formed a huge wind tunnel which ment that, because it was so windy at the time, the wind rushed up this passage and we were all blasted with sand! The valley itself is home to massive sand dunes and beautiful rock formations, but thanks to the incredibly strong wind no one was that keen to spend a lot of time at this lookout so we got a few pics and headed back to the van. Our last stop of the day was to watch the sunset over the Valle del la Luna from a place called Piedra del Coyote (coyote rock lookout). The viewpoint has been given this name not because of any local tradition or fauna, but because of the roadrunner cartoons!! A massive rock ledge hangs out over the valley and looks a bit like the ones that Wile E Coyote uses to try to catch the Roadrunner. We got our photo sitting out on the rock and then watched the valley change colour as the sun set; it was really pretty here with such breath-taking views. After the sun had dropped from the sky, we headed back to San Pedro to have dinner and get an early nights sleep as it had been a very long but enjoyable day.

The next morning we woke early again as we were heading out on our last tour, this time to the altiplano lakes. We were picked up about 7am (30min late) but were sad to see that we did not have Grace as our guide again, instead we had a guy who was playing the role of both driver and guide. We spent the next 30min touring the town looking for people that were supposed to be in our hostel but weren't, only to find them back at our hostel after a major breakdown in communication (they were waiting in the town centre). After losing 45min and eventually collecting everyone listed for the tour, our driver/guide then had the nerve to ask to borrow money so he could get petrol before we left town! Was this guy for real?! He ended up having to drop in on a friend for some cash before we were finally heading out to the altiplano lakes.

Our first stop was at the Reserva Nacional Los Flamingos, a series of wetlands that are home to three types of flamingo - Chilean, Andean and James. As we arrived at Laguna Chaxa, the easiest to reach flamingo breeding site, we saw a number of flamingos flying over head and landing in the lake. We followed the walkways out around the lake and found a number of flamingos feeding in the shallow waters. The flamingos are quite used to people walking by so you can get a lot closer than when you spot them in the wild. We were told that the closest a flamingo will let you get in the wild is about 70m, (which explains why it was so hard for us to get close to them back in El Calafate), while here we could get within 30-40m. The flamingo feeds on tiny brine shrimp and as a result need to feed about 12-16 hours a day. This means we had to be very patient to get a photo of them with their heads out of the water! This was definitely a place where one of us really benefitted from not having a sense of smell, as the stench of the sulpha and other minerals in the wetlands was fairly overpowering to say the least!

From the flamingo wetlands we drove over the Tropic of Capricorn and up into the highlands of the altiplano at 4169m above sea level. The van that we were travelling in was not enjoying the altitude and as a result we crawled at a snails pace up the road towards Lagunas Miscanti and Miñiques. These lakes are a beautiful blue colour and sit at the base of the snow caped Cerro Miscanti and the Miñiques Volcano, with a lava flow from an eruption of Miñiques having separated the two lakes many years ago. We walked along the edge of Laguna Miscanti, the bigger of the two lakes, following a well marked stone walkway to stop people from getting too close to the waters edge. The lake was surrounded by barren plains where we saw vicuñas, Andean gulls and horned coots, all of which a classified as being vulnerable species. The second lake, Laguna Miñiques, can only be viewed at a distance from a high lookout, but again we could see vicuñas down at the waters edge. These two lakes and the surrounding mountains/volcanos are a really pretty area of the altiplano, with amazing views in all directions.

On the way back to San Pedro we stopped in at two small towns. At the bigger of the two we found another impressive artificial turf football pitch; the fact that they having such facilities just amazed both of us - the houses may not be finished but they still have a state of the art pitch!? Back on the road we stopped at another Tropic of Capricorn marker, but this time there was something extra to note. Just off the main road there was a large white cross that indicates not only the Tropic, but also the Inca road that used to traverse the area called Camino del Inca. We arrived back to San Pedro late in the afternoon with enough time to finish packing up our gear, take one last wonder around town and enjoy some dinner empanadas and ice creams for dessert. We were catching an overnight bus at 8:30pm to Arica, a coastal town near the Peruvian boarder. We had to go back to Calama and then wait for an hour and a half before catching another bus through to Arica. It was a little sad to leave San Pedro as it is set in an amazing part of God's creation, but it was time to move on and we had thoroughly enjoyed our time there with so many incredible places to see.

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Photos

San Pedro de Atacama
The Church of San Pedro de Atacama with its white washed adobe (mud brick) walls.

San Pedro de Atacama
Part of an adobe wall on the outskirts of town with Licancabur Volcano in the background. The volcano is part of the border between Chile and Bolivia.

San Pedro de Atacama
The dry dusty gravel pitch just on the edge of town (great use of old car tyres!!)

San Pedro de Atacama
The brand new artificial turf pitch, complete with views towards Licancabur Volcano in the background.

Laguna Cejas
Zac floating in the salty water.

Laguna Cejas
Renee floating not far from the lake´s edge.

Laguna Cejas
Look mum, no hands!

Ojos de Salar
Renee standing next to one of the Ojos.

Laguna Tebinquiche
Sunset over the laguna. It is nice to have someone take a photo of us from time to time.

Laguna Tebinquiche
Light fading fast over the laguna.

Laguna Tebinquiche
Enjoying the dramatic change in colour during the sunset.

Geysers del Tatio
It was a little on the chilly side, but one of the only times we have had to use our down gear though!

Geysers del Tatio
One of the many geysers with bright yellow sulfur spewing out of the steam hole.

Geysers del Tatio
Zac taking a relaxing dip in the warm waters of the thermal springs.