Blogs from San Pedro de Atacama, Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America - page 5

As I mentioned yesterday, I flew north to the Atacama desert. Along the way I took some photos out the window, including this one of a portion of the snow-capped Andes mountains. I left off writing this blog as I was heading out the door for the star tour, so I will tell you a little about that. We climbed on a bus that drove a short way out into the desert where there were nine telescopes set up for viewing. The genial host, an expatriate Canadian, used his laser pointer to indicate the pertinent sights in the night sky. And then he pointed the telescopes toward interesting objects like stars, star clusters, and, my favorite, Jupiter and four of its moons. We could see Orion, but we also saw the Southern Cross and that is ... read more

Geo: -22.9058, -68.1951That morning as I have left Iquique, I did not know how extreme that leg will turn...A nice early morning ride up onto the Ruta 5,, from Iquique on sea-level up to 2,600 metres within a very short distance...being part of the Pan-American Higway system that comes from Alaska all the way down to the deep south of Chile.First I did make the turn towards Arica, the border town to Peru...My initial plan was to go to Peru and cross over the mountains towards Cusco and into the Amazon region onto Ruta interoceánica Brasil-Perú but for some reason not entirely clear to me, I decided after 50 km driving, to simply turn round and cross into the high altitude border crossing between Chile and Argentina...not sure if I missed anything, I can only say ... read more

Après une après midi d'attente dans la disgracieuse ville d'Uyuni, nous embarquons dans notre dernier bus Bolivien, heureusement. Piste toute la nuit, vibrations et bruit insupportables, nous ne fermons pas l’œil de la nuit, encore une fois. Arrivés à Villazon, dans l'extrême sud Bolivien, nous apprenons sur place qu'il n'y a pas de bus direction San Pedro de Atacama, notre prochaine destination. En revanche, un bus peut nous amener à Salta en Argentine, d'où il est à priori possible de ralier San Pedro. Arrivés au terminal pour prendre notre bus, on nous apprend qu'il faut en fait traverser la frontière car celui-ci part côté Argentin. Grosse course contre la montre, avec en bonus une fouille de nos sacs à la frontière, heureusement peu approfondie. Notre premier trajet Argentin est de bonne augure : c'est le retour ... read more

The next day, Sergio offered to take us exploring the Antiplanos Lagunas (high altitude lagoons/lakes) located south of San Pedro. Elodie (my roommate) and I jumped at the chance, but Sergi & Miri decided to give it a miss. So, generous as he is, Sergio offered the spare seats to Ashley and Claudia, two American girls staying at his hostel. So, with a full car, we headed out for another day of adventure. First stop was Toconao, a tiny colonial village 38km south of San Pedro, noted for it's buildings made of volcanic rock (in particular the 1750 built church) and alpaca woolcrafts. Nobody much about at this hour, we spent a pleasant half hour or so wandering the side streets and getting a feel for the local way of life. Stocked up on some homemade ... read more

San Pedro de Atacama- a small village of about 5000 local inhabitants was my next destination. Located in what is considered the driest desert on earth, it's a long, 17hr night bus ride from La Serena. Actually the ride was pretty comfortable (I paid more for the salon cama seat), although I can never sleep on buses or planes. Even got tucked into "bed" by the conductor, who not only allocated blankets to everyone but dutifully fussed with them to make sure everyone was snug as a bug!! The long distance buses here in Chile are terrific! The best part of the trip, was the last hour or so. Early morning in the desert- love it. At the first sight of the Valle de Luna, I knew I was going to have a great time exploring ... read more